The Pacific Campaign: American forces land at Cape Torokina, Bougainville Island, British Solomon Islands

The Pacific Campaign: The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay

Damaged by gunfire from American warships Columbia, Cleveland, Denver & Montpelier, at the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay. Ship was heavily hit & set on fire, she was abandoned by her crew & sank, 184 dead 06.10S 154.20E 02/11/1943

Allied Bomber Offensive: Large day-time American air raid, 50+ aircraft attack on Zadar, Italy. City badly damaged

The Eastern Front: The Second Battle of Kyiv begins

The Western Front: Adolf Hitler issued Führer Directive Number 51, anticipating an invasion of Nazi-occupied France by the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, in what Hitler described as "an Anglo-Saxon landing". Troops and reinforcements were transferred to Western Europe

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 540+ aircraft attack on Wilmelmshaven, Germany.

More than 18,000 Jewish prisoners were shot to death in a single day at the Majdanek concentration camp in Poland, in the Aktion Erntefest. The Erntefest was the traditional German "Harvest Festival", and dance music was played over loudspeakers "to drown out the sounds of the killing and the dying".

The Italian Campaign: British aircraft accidentally bomb the Vatican, windows broken at the St Peter's Basilica.

The Pacific Campaign: The American War Department concluded a top-secret analysis of American strategy in the war in the Pacific, and concluded that it would be impractical to attack Japan from mainland China. Instead, it was recommended that troops and equipment be shifted to the ongoing effort to capture islands within striking distance of the Japanese Home Islands.

The Italian Campaign: British forces captured Isernia and San Salvo Ridge as the Germans withdrew to the Sangro.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 590+ aircraft attack on Dusseldorf, Germany. The attack fell on the central & south of the city

After the executions of over 1,000 Jewish prisoners in the Szebnie concentration camp in Poland, an uprising broke out among the remaining group. It was quickly suppressed by the German SS guards; the camp was closed the next day and the 3,000 prisoners were shipped to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Greater East Asia Conference concluded in Tokyo as Japan and its allied states Manchuko & Thailand with Japanese puppet states of China, Burma & Philippines. The two-day conference issued a formal declaration of principles for the Japanese-occupied Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

The Eastern Front: Soviet forces liberate Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital

The Eastern Front: Soviet forces capture Fastiv near Kiev.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Minor night-time British air raid, 24 aircraft attack on Leverkusen, Germany. RAF Mosquito aircraft attacked chemical works in the city. The raid caused a large explosion on the target

Football International: Hungary 2-7 Sweden, Üllői úti Stadion, Budapest

Radio Moscow broadcast news from the newly liberated capital of Ukraine and reported that only one Jew had been left alive in Kyiv. Before the German invasion, the city's Jewish population had been 140,000

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was created by an agreement signed by representatives of 44 Allied nations, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

American Senate Resolution 203 was introduced, calling for the first time for a federal plan "to save the surviving Jewish people of Europe from extinction at the hands of Nazi Germany." Resolution 203 was a bipartisan measure penned by Senators Guy Gillette of Iowa, Elbert D. Thomas of Utah, and Edwin C. Johnson of Colorado, all supporters of the "Bergson Group". On the same day, U.S. House of Representatives Resolutions 350 and 352 were introduced, calling for a new agency to resettle the surviving Jewish refugees in neutral nations.

The four Lübeck martyrs were executed after being convicted of treason in show trials by Nazi Germany's "People's Court". Three Roman Catholic priests (Johannes Prassek, Eduard Müller and Hermann Lange) and an Evangelical Lutheran pastor, Karl Friedrich Stellbrink, were taken to the guillotine at Holstenglacis Prison in Hamburg. The four beheadings were performed at intervals three minutes apart and the bodies were cremated a few days later.

The Pacific Campaign: The Battle for Piva Trail, Bougainville Island

The Eastern Front: Soviet paratroopers landed near Cherkasy.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 590+ aircraft attack on Modane, France. Attack on the main railway line to Italy. Mainline missed, but the railway system was seriously damaged

The Eastern Front: Soviet forces capture the northern Ukrainian city of Radomyshl.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 590+ aircraft attack on Cannes, France. Attack on the main railway line to Italy. Marshalling yards were missed.

USS Washington, Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless VB-16 on anti-sub patrol, on way to the Gilbert Islands

The Italian Campaign: The Battle of Leros began as German troops invaded the Greek Aegean island of Leros. The landing force arrived at dawn with massive air support.

The Eastern Front: The Battle of the Treasury Islands ended in an Allied strategic victory.

The Pacific Campaign: The Battle of the Coconut Grove began between American and Japanese forces on Bougainville Island.

The Eastern Front: Soviet forces reached Zhytomyr, threatening the northern flank of German Army Group South.

Allied Bomber Offensive:Operation Crossbow: Douglas Kendall, who oversaw aerial photography and analysis for the Royal Air Force, ordered a follow-up examination of the Peenemünde Army Research Center in Germany, after hearing rumours of a "pilotless aircraft" that was being developed by the Nazi Luftwaffe. The examination discovered Germany's secret missile program.

The Pacific Campaign: The Battle of the Coconut Grove ended in Allied victory on Bougainville Island.

European Heavyweight Boxing Title Karel Sys (Belgium) beat Olle Tandberg (Sweden) Pts 15, Palais des Sports, Brussels.

The Italian Campaign: The Battle of Leros ended when Allied troops on the island surrendered.

The Pacific Campaign: The Battle of Sattelberg began during the Huon Peninsula campaign in New Guinea.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 590+ aircraft attack on Ludwigshafen, Germany. The main IG factory was hit

The Eastern Front: German forces push the Soviets back out of Zhytomyr.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 400+ aircraft attack on Berlin, Germany. Results poor cloud cover

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 390+ aircraft attack on Mannheim, Germany. Results poor cloud cover

The Ebensee concentration camp opened, receiving its first 1,000 prisoners. These inmates were put to work excavating tunnels in the Salzkammergut Mountains near Ebensee in the Ostmark, German-annexed Austria, to establish a missile development facility. Originally, the labourers were Aryan, with Jewish prisoners being shipped in seven months later. At the peak of its operations, the camp had 18,000 slave workers engaged in the mining operations, and 11,000 of the inmates of the Ebensee would die from starvation and disease.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 270+ aircraft attack on Leverkusen, Germany. Results poor cloud cover

Inmates of the Janowska concentration camp near Lwów (at this time in German-occupied Poland), staged an uprising that ultimately failed. Leon Weliczker and several other prisoners had run errands for the camp guards and were accustomed to bringing firewood into the guard houses. On the evening of the 19th, two groups of prisoners attacked guards in two different locations, stole their machine guns, and started a breakout. The 6,000 remaining Jewish residents of Janowska camp were killed over the next four days and on November 23, Lwów (now Lviv in Ukraine) was declared Judenrein ("clean of Jews").

World Lightweight Boxing Title Beau Jack (USA) beat Bob Montgomery (USA) Pts 15, Madison Square Garden, New York City.

The Pacific Campaign: In the Battle of Tarawa and the Battle of Makin, the United States Marines made an amphibious landing on the Japanese-controlled Tarawa Atoll and the Makin Atoll to open the assault on the Gilbert Islands

British Fascist Leader Sir Oswald Mosley and his wife Diana Mitford were released from prison after three years of incarceration as a threat to national security. Home Secretary Herbert Morrison explained that the controversial release was on medical grounds – Mosley was ill with phlebitis – as well as his no longer being considered a threat. Mosley and his wife were to stay under house arrest, initially living with Diana's sister Pamela.

On his Sunday radio show on the Blue Network, commentator Drew Pearson broke the story that General Dwight D. Eisenhower had reprimanded Lt. Gen. George S. Patton for hitting a soldier under his command.

At the Cairo Conference, codenamed "Sextant", U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Nationalist Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek met at Cairo in Egypt to discuss ways to defeat Japan in the Pacific War.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 760+ aircraft attack on Berlin, Germany. Target successfully marked & vast parts of the city damaged

The Pacific Campaign: The Battle of Tarawa ended at 1:00 pm, a little less than 77 hours after it began, when American General Julian C. Smith declared that all organized resistance by the Japanese had ceased.

The Pacific Campaign: The Battle of Makin also ended in American victory.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 380+ aircraft attack on Berlin, Germany. The target was successfully marked & hit. Germany's national opera house, the Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg, was destroyed in an air raid. During the night, the Berlin Zoo and most of its 4,000 animals were destroyed. Other casualties during the week of British bombings were the German National Theatre, the National Gallery, the Invalidenstrasse Museum, the Hotel Bristol, the Charite Hospital, the City Hospital, the Schulstrasse Maternity Hospital, the Lichterfelde-East Rail Station, and the embassies of Vichy France, Sweden, Turkey, Iran and Slovakia.

World Bantamweight Boxing Title Manuel Ortiz (USA) beat Benny Goldberg (USA) Pts 15, Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles.

The Pacific Campaign: American and Japanese ships fought the Battle of Cape St. George between Buka Island and New Ireland

The Pacific Campaign: The Battle of Sattelberg ended in Allied victory.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Following three nights of raids, RAF Bomber Command Chief Sir Arthur Harris declared that Berlin would be bombed "until the heart of Nazi Germany ceases to beat."

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 260+ aircraft attack on Frankfurt, Germany. The target suffered minor damage

The Eastern Front: Soviet troops liberated Gomel, Belarus

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 440+ aircraft attack on Berlin, Germany. The target suffered minor damage

Allied Bomber Offensive: Major night-time British air raid, 170+ aircraft attack on Stuttgart, Germany. Poor results

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey, along its northern coast with the Black Sea. The official toll was 2,824 people killed, and 25,000 buildings collapsed.

At the Cairo Conference, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and President Chiang agreed to the release of the Cairo Declaration, declaring in part that "all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and The Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China" and that the U.S., the U.K. and China "covet no gain for themselves and have no thought of territorial expansion", setting instead the goal that "Japan will also be expelled from all other territories which she has taken by violence and greed" and "that in due course Korea shall become free and independent".

The Pacific Campaign: The Battle of Wareo began between Australian and Japanese troops in New Guinea.

At the Tehran Conference, American President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in Iran to discuss war strategy. The major change agreed upon concerned Poland. The 77,612 square of eastern Poland that had been annexed by the Soviet Union would remain parts of the Ukrainian, Byelorussian and Lithuanian Soviet socialist republics and Poland would be compensated by receiving the eastern portion of Germany, based on Churchill's proposal to Stalin that "Poland should move westward, 'like soldiers taking two steps left close'."

At the Tehran Conference, American President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill & Soviet leader Joseph Stalin established an agreement concerning Operation Overlord, the planned Anglo-American invasion of Western Europe that was scheduled for May 1944.

Minister of the Interior for the Nazi-controlled Italian Social Republic, Guido Buffarini Guidi, issued the order to arrest all Jews within ISR boundaries and to deport them to concentration camps.