3 Nov 1943
  • B. Coy, US 100th Infantry Battalion, securing the left flank of 34th Division, conducted the first recorded bayonet charge by American forces in Italy. The attack was a complete success with all the German positions being overrun. The 100th Battalion was unique in being made up from men from two Hawaii Infantry Regiments already in uniform at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, including many Nisei who had been serving in the Hawaii National Guard. ww2dbase [AC]
  • Overnight, 400 US bombers, including the 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh, escorted by 600 fighters, bombed Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Later in the same night, the RAF bombed Düsseldorf, Germany. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | RAF Thurleigh | TH]
  • Soviet troops launched a massive breakout attack from their bridgehead north of Kiev, Ukraine. ww2dbase [Battle of Kiev | TH]
  • USS Scorpion arrived off Maug Islands of the Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Scorpion | CPC]
  • British Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris wrote a treatise addressed to Winston Churchill in which he outlined British RAF Bomber Command's past achievements and its future objectives; Berlin, Germany would become the priority target with Leipzig, Chemnitz, Dresden, Bremen and other cities listed as secondary targets. He remarked disparagingly of recent American lack of co-ordination, their disastrous diversions such as the Ploiesti raid in Romania, and the siting of the recently formed US 15th Air Force in Southern Italy, far from the centres of German war production. ww2dbase [Arthur Harris | AC]
  • Naka was slightly damaged by near misses by B-24 Liberator bombers 111 kilometers north of Kavieng, New Ireland at 1129 hours; 7 were killed, 20 were wounded. ww2dbase [Naka | CPC]
  • During the German Aktion Erntefest, Jewish prisoners were beginning to be massacred at Trawniki, Poniatowa, and Majdanek Concentration Camps; when the aktion was completed on the following day, 42,000 would be dead. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]
Australian New Guinea British Western Pacific Territories
  • US Task Force 38 refueled in the Indispensable Reefs anchorage south of Rennell Island, Solomon Islands from the 21,000-ton tanker Kankakee. ww2dbase [CPC]
China
  • The Japanese Autumn Mop-up Operation in Hebei, Shandong, and Henan Provinces in China was completed; many Chinese Communist guerrillas were killed. ww2dbase [CPC]
Greece
  • Günther Altenburg stepped down as the Reich Plenipotentiary for Greece. ww2dbase [Günther Altenburg | CPC]
Italy Japan
  • Tomokazu Kasai was assigned to a training fighter squadron in Japan. ww2dbase [Tomokazu Kasai | CPC]
Latvia Malaya
  • Kamoi departed Pendang, Malaya at 1400 hours, escorted by submarine chaser CH-8. ww2dbase [Kamoi | Pendang, Kedah | CPC]
Netherlands
  • Robert Johnson shot down a German Bf 109G fighter over Ameland, the Netherlands. ww2dbase [Robert Johnson | Ameland | CPC]
Philippines Poland United Kingdom
  • USS Ranger was floated out of Drydock #1 at Rosyth, Scotland and anchored in the Forth River. ww2dbase [Ranger | Rosyth, Scotland | DS]
United States
  • USS S-31 completed training services at San Diego, California, United States. ww2dbase [S-31 | San Diego, California | CPC]
  • USS Honolulu was floated out of drydock and shifted to the repair piers at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California. ww2dbase [Honolulu | Vallejo, California | DS]
Photo(s) dated 3 Nov 1943
WAVES Specialist (Teacher) Katherine Dillon monitoring a radio range chart, while serving as a Link trainer instructor at Naval Air Station, St. Louis, Missouri, United States, 3 Nov 1943

3 Nov 1943 Interactive Map

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, 16 Mar 1945


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