World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 27 Nov 1944

• USS Franklin arrived at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, United States for repairs. ww2dbase [Franklin | Puget Sound Navy Yard | CPC]
• A mistake by an armourer at an underground bomb dump at Hanbury, near Burton-on-Trent, England, United Kingdom triggered a massive explosion as 4,000 tons of bombs went off at once. The blast instantly gouged a 12 acre hole in the ground and the tremors were picked up by seismolograph in Geneva, Switzerland and Casablanca, French Morocco. Forty people were killed in the blast, by falling debris or by suffocation trapped underground. The blast caused a nearby reservoir to collapse and six million gallons of rubble-filled water poured down into the bomb dump, killing 27 men working in the offices on the surface. The blast represented only 10 percent of the explosives in the dump. If the lot had gone off, it would have cause a bigger explosion than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Today there is still a crater a quarter-mile wide and 100 feet deep at the site which is sealed off because of the unexploded bombs still lying beneath the surface. ww2dbase [AC]
• The German prison ship, Rigel, carrying 2,248 Soviet prisoners of war, was sunk in error by British carrier-borne aircraft off the coast of Norway. Only 415 survived. ww2dbase [AC]
• Intelligence officer Captain Fritz Ringwald of USAAF 415th Night Fighter Squadron reported that the Beaufighter flown by Don Meiers and Ed Schleuter was chased by unidentified "foo fighters", which was a term coined by Meiers. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Richard O'Connor stepped down as the commanding officer of VIII Corps and was made the commanding officer of Eastern Command in India. ww2dbase [Richard O'Connor | CPC]

• A V-2 rocket impacted on Teniers Square, Antwerp, Belgium, as an Allied military convoy was passing through. The explosion killed 157 persons, including 29 Allied soldiers. ww2dbase [Vergeltungswaffe 2 | V-Weapons Campaign | Antwerp | AC]

• Destroyer USS Shaw departed Palau bound for Leyte Gulf, ww2dbase [Shaw | Kossol Roads, Palau | DS]

• Soviet forces pierced the German-Hungarian defense and captured Mohács, Hungary. ww2dbase [Budapest Strategic Offensive Operation | Mohács | TH]

• Unryu departed Kure, Japan. ww2dbase [Unryu | Kure, Hiroshima | CPC]

• USS Preston guarded carriers while the carriers launched strikes against Luzon, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Preston (Fletcher-class) | CPC]

• US Navy Task Group 77.2 consisting of battleships USS Maryland, USS West Virginia, USS Colorado, and USS New Mexico, cruisers USS Denver, USS St. Louis, USS Columbia, USS Minneapolis, and USS Montpelier, destroyers USS Nicholas, USS Waller, USS Eaton, USS Cony, USS Mustin, USS Conway, USS Pringle, USS Lang, USS Sigourney, USS Saufley, USS Aulick, USS Renshaw, USS Taylor, USS Edwards, and USS Mugford, tanker USS Caribou, and other patrol craft were patrolling in Leyte Gulf, Philippines when the group came under a concentrated Japanese special air attack from 20 to 30 aircraft. All but two of the Japanese planes dived on the formation in the sustained attack. Submarine chaser SC-744 was sunk and battleship Colorado and cruisers St. Louis and Montpelier were damaged. ww2dbase [Columbia | Nicholas | Minneapolis | Montpelier | Mugford | St. Louis | Philippines Campaign, Phase 1, the Leyte Campaign | Tokko "Kamikaze" Special Attack Doctrine | West Virginia | Maryland | Denver | Pringle | Waller | Saufley | Renshaw | New Mexico | Colorado | Leyte Gulf | AC]

• Marcel Albert was made a Hero of the Soviet Union and was also awarded the Order of Lenin. ww2dbase [Marcel Albert | CPC]

• Franklin Roosevelt departed Washington DC, United States for Warm Springs, Georgia, United States by train. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | Washington | CPC]
• USS Shamrock Bay arrived at San Diego, California, United States. ww2dbase [Shamrock Bay | San Diego, California | CPC]

27 Nov 1944 Interactive Map