World War II calendar
What happened on November 3 during World War II? This date brings together 6 events from 1943 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.
Harris told Churchill that Bomber Command could wreck Berlin at a cost of 400 to 500 aircraft and argued that the campaign could break German resistance. The proposal prioritised sustained attack on the capital while the American force was still rebuilding its ability to penetrate deeply by day.
Continue in The Combined Bomber Offensive →
SS and police units murdered approximately 42,000 Jewish forced labourers at Majdanek, Trawniki and Poniatowa on 3–4 November 1943 in a coordinated operation known as Aktion Erntefest, or Operation Harvest Festival. The massacre followed the prisoner uprisings at Treblinka and Sobibór and eliminated major concentrations of Jewish forced labourers remaining in the Lublin district. It was the largest single German shooting operation against Jews during the Holocaust.
Continue in The Holocaust: Timeline and Evidence →
The attack from Lyutezh began on 3 November with a concentrated artillery preparation against German positions north of Kyiv. Soviet infantry widened the penetration and Rybalko's tank army was committed as routes through the bridgehead became available. The German command now faced the attack it had been prepared to meet farther south. Soviet forces drove toward the roads west of Kyiv, threatening the communications needed to hold the city and forcing local withdrawals before a complete encirclement developed.
Continue in The Dnieper Crossings →
Commandos advancing along Walcheren's western dunes reduced the coastal batteries in sequence while the Flushing force moved toward them from the south-east. The flooded interior limited lateral movement and made each battery position a separate local objective. Zoutelande and nearby positions were taken as the two amphibious forces closed the gap between their beachheads, breaking the coherent defence of the island's western rim.
Continue in The Battle of the Scheldt →Operation Switchback ended on 3 November after the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division cleared the remaining German positions in the Breskens Pocket and reached the coastal area toward Knokke and Zeebrugge. The operation removed German artillery and observation from the south bank of the West Scheldt and released Canadian formations after four weeks of fighting across canal lines and flooded polder.
Continue in The Battle of the Scheldt →
The 3rd Battalion, 112th Infantry entered Schmidt against limited resistance. Its arrival was the deepest American penetration yet achieved in the southern forest. No tanks or tank destroyers had crossed the Kall to support it. German reserves were already moving toward the exposed battalion.
Continue in Aachen and the Hürtgen Forest →.jpg){kind=link}
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