World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » Today in WW2 History

• Henri De Man was born in Antwerp, Belgium. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Bernard Montgomery was born in Kennington, London, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Naval Station, Honolulu, the new US Navy facility in the Hawaiian Islands, was officially opened. ww2dbase [Main Article | DS]

17 Nov 1899 Interactive Map

• Franklin Roosevelt and Anna Eleanor Roosevelt attended the Madison Square Garden Horse Show together in New York, New York, United States; later that night, Eleanor Roosevelt appeared for the first time in Franklin Roosevelt's diary. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Battleship HMS Royal Oak was launched. ww2dbase [AC]

17 Nov 1917 Interactive Map

17 Nov 1930 Interactive Map

• Japanese troops attacked Qiqihar, Nenjiang Province, China. Chinese troops, out-gunned, attempted to hold defensive lines against Japanese artillery bombardment and cavalry charges. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Franz von Papen resigned as the Chancellor of Germany. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• The first non-political prisoners were sent to concentration camps in Germany. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• The first manufacturing drawing of the fuselage of the later-christened Hurricane fighter was completed. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Submarine ShCh-205 was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Jiang Dingwen was named the director of the military commission of Xi'an, China. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• U-36 set sail for Basis Nord, a secret base on the Kola Peninsula in northern Russia provided by the Soviet Union. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Supreme Allied War Council approved a plan for British and French war production. ww2dbase [TH]
• Plans were made for British and French troops to move into Belgium to counter a possible German invasion, but reconnaissance parties were denied entry into Belgium to avoid provoking Germany. ww2dbase [TH]

• Japanese troops landed at Fangcheng and Beihai in Guangxi Province, China. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Massive Czech student uprising resulted in executions of 9 student leaders, the closing of Czech colleges and universities, and the movement of over 1,000 students to concentration camps. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]

• Adolf Galland claimed his 53rd, 54th, and 55th victories. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• British Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding was removed as the head of RAF Fighter Command after losing a political struggle with Sholto Douglas and other Big Wing proponents. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German submarine U-137 attacked Allied convoy HG-46 40 miles north of Ireland, sinking British ship Saint Germain at 2014 hours (entire crew of 18 survived) and Swedish ship Veronica at 2040 hours (17 killed, 3 survived). ww2dbase [CPC]
• Greek 3rd Army Corps engaged in heavy fighting with Italian 9th Army near Korcë, Albania. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld scored his first victory; his victim was a British Wellington bomber. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Pierre Barjot was assigned to Marseille, France to oversee merchant shipping. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Overnight, RAF bombers raided Hamburg, Germany for the second consecutive night. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• British aircraft carrier HMS Argus launched 12 Hurricane and 2 Skua aircraft to reinforce Malta, but 6 Hurricane aircraft were ditched at sea and 1 Skua aircraft crash landed on Sicily, Italy after becoming lost. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

17 Nov 1940 Interactive Map

• US Congress amended the Neutrality Act of 1939, thus allowing American merchant ships to be armed and allowing them to enter war zones. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The United States delivered escort carrier Archer to the United Kingdom, the first of 38 escort carriers that would be delivered during the war under Lend-Lease. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The Reichskommissariat Ostland was established under Alfred Rosenberg to administer territories taken from the Soviet Union. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]
• German troops near Moscow, Russia fought Central Asian troops for the first time (Soviet 44th Cavalry Division) at Musino, Russia, 70 miles west of the capital. German artillery blunted the cavalry charges, with the Germans claiming 2,000 killed. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]
• Japanese Navy Admiral Yamamoto revealed the Pearl Harbor attack plan to the naval leadership. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German submarine U-331 landed eight commandos on the Egyptian coast to mine the railway line near Daba, 60 miles west of Alexandria. They would soon be captured before they completed their mission. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Soviets dispatched several small teams to test the thickness of the ice on Lake Ladoga near Leningrad, Russia. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Allied convoy QP-2 arrived at Kirkwall, Scotland, United Kingdom and convoy PQ-4 departed Hvalfjörður, Iceland. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Following twelve months of illness, depression and strain at the Luftwaffe's increasing losses on the Eastern Front, Generaloberst Ernst Udet, the German Director General of Air Armament, commited suicide by shooting himself. Udet, Germany's second highest fighter ace of the First World War (behind the Red Baron) with 62 kills, had already lost favour with Hitler after the air force's performance in the Battle of Britain. The official version was that he had died whilst testing a "new weapon" and Jagdgeschwader 3 was named in his honour. Udet was accorded a state funeral at which he was eulogised by Hermann Göring, who described him as his "best friend". ww2dbase [AC]

• Kaga arrived at Saeki Bay off Oita, Japan and embarked 100 aerial torpedoes. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• British Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Keyes led the daring Operation Flipper commando raid to either kill or capture Rommel at his Afrika Korps Headquarters at Sidi-Rafa. He was mortally wounded and the other commandos were forced to withdraw. Only two men made it back, the rest being either killed or captured. Keyes would be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross even though the raid was doomed from the start - Rommel was not even at Sidi-Rafa. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC]

• German Luftwaffe III./KG 55 received orders to relocate from Kirovograd, Ukraine to Saint-André-de-l'Eure, France for rest and refitting after spending only seven weeks at Kirovograd. ww2dbase [CPC]

• The ration of canned meat, canned fish, and canned beans began in the United Kingdom; this was announced 15 days earlier by the British Minister of Food. ww2dbase [AC]

• Japanese special envoy Kurusu Saburo arrived in Washington DC and met with US Secretary of State Cordell Hull. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• American troops captured Gafsa, Tunisia and British 36th Brigade engaged German forces at Djebel Abiod, Tunisia. German General Walter Nehring arrived in Tunis, Tunisia to lead a counterattack against the Allies. The Italians formally absorbed the French Protectorate of Tunisia into the borders of Italian North Africa. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• British Admiral Sir Max Horton was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of Western Approaches Command. ww2dbase [AC]
• Archibald Wavell gave up the amphibious component to the planned assault on Arakan Peninsula, Burma (largely due to the lack of landing craft, the majority of which were assigned to Operation Torch in North Africa and to the Pacific Theater), and told Noel Irwin to focus on ground assault through Mayu Hills only. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• The Americans launched ten bombers to attack Rabaul, New Britain, but due to stormy weather only five of them arrived over the Japanese base, and only one was successful in dropping its payload, hitting nothing. One of the ten airfield failed to return after the mission, having disappeared en route. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Allied troops advanced in Australian Papua towards Buna and Gona. Meanwhile, the 3rd Battalion of Japanese 229th Infantry Regiment and 300 reinforcements landed near Gona. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC, AC]

• Repair ship Akashi began repairing destroyer Ikazuchi at Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• The Stoneage convoy departed Alexandria, Egypt for Malta. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC]

• Chuichi Nagumo was granted audience with Emperor Showa. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Allied convoy QP-15 departed Kola Inlet near Murmansk, Russia. It was consisted of 28 freighters and was escorted by one anti-aircraft vessel, five minesweepers, four corvettes, and two destroyers. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• British Admiral Max Horton was appointed Commander-in-Chief Western Approaches Command with his Headquarters at Northways, North London, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [AC]

• French Ambassador to the United States Gaston Henri-Haye arrived at Hotel Hershey, his place of internment, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

17 Nov 1942 Interactive Map

• Shokaku's commanding officer Captain Hiroshi Matsubara was relieved; the successor was unknown. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]
• Bataan (Independence-class) was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Gunnel started her third war patrol. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Koichi Shiozawa passed away from an acute pancreas ailment. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Australian 9th Division launched an offensive to take Sattelberg, New Guinea. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Soviet troops captured Korosten, Ukraine. ww2dbase [TH]
• US Marine Corps squadron VMF-214 began training missions in the South Pacific. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Japanese submarine I-176 fired three torpedoes at an un-identified enemy submarine south of Truk in the Caroline Islands, claiming two hits. The target might be USS Corvina. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Foch's wreck was captured by the Germans at Toulon, France. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | CPC]

• The British government announced that Sir Oswald Mosley, well-known British fascist, was to be released from imprisonment due to health reasons, to public protest. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH, CPC]

17 Nov 1943 Interactive Map

• USS Becuna damaged four Japanese ships: tanker San Luis Maru, tanker Tokuwa Maru, a transport, and cargo ship. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Japanese physicist Yoshio Nishina reported to his army liaison officer Major General Nobuji that the atomic bomb research project under him had not made much progress in the past nine months. This was partly because his cyclotron could not operate at full power due to the poor quality vacuum tubes. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Vice Admiral Kinpei Teraoka was named the commanding officer of the Japanese Navy 3rd Air Fleet. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Julius Adler was removed from the active roster due to illness. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS Ticonderoga arrived at Ulithi, Caroline Islands together with other ships of Task Group 38.3. ww2dbase [Main Article | DS]

• Destroyer Yuzuki arrived at Kure, Japan. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Seisho Maru was damaged by a torpedo from USS Sunfish in the East China Sea. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Gunnel attacked a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, sinking passenger-cargo ship Shunten Maru and damaging several ships; 16 torpedoes were expended during this attack, 7 of which scored hits. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Sunfish attacked a Japanese convoy in the Yellow Sea, sinking Edogawa Maru and Seisho Maru, hitting them with 6 of 16 torpedoes fired; her wolfpack mates USS Peto and USS Spadefish claimed several other ships. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Allied convoy RA-61A arrived at Loch Ewe, Scotland, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

17 Nov 1944 Interactive Map

• USS Yorktown (Essex-class) underway from Guam, Mariana Islands with a load of US servicemen as passengers. ww2dbase [Main Article | DS]
• USS Boarfish departed Apra Harbor, Guam. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Stepan Petrichenko (who had participated in the 1921 Kronstadt mutiny but had since became loyal to the Soviet Union once again, acting as a Soviet spy in Finland) was found guilty of counter-revolutionary activities and of being a spy for Finland. The NKVD sentenced him to 10 years in labor camps. ww2dbase [CPC]

17 Nov 1945 Interactive Map

• The nationalised British Steel Industry was established in the United Kingdom. ww2dbase [AC]

• USS Saint Paul provided gunfire support for United Nations troops near Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province, Korea; she was struck by a shell from a coastal battery and suffered six wounded. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Helmuth Weidling died in Vladimir Prison in Vladimir, Russia while in Soviet captivity. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

17 Nov 1955 Interactive Map

• George Giffard passed away at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Thomas Kinkaid passed away. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• The American newspaper New York Times featured the story of Joseph Rochefort's posthumous Distinguished Service Medal award on its front page on this date. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]