World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 7 Nov 1942

• In the morning, British 7th Armoured Division clashed with the German 21st Panzer Division about 24 kilometers southwest of Sidi Haneish, Egypt. British tanks won the engagement, destroying many tanks and guns, but failed to prevent the Germans from withdrawing to Mersa Matruh. ww2dbase [Second Battle of El Alamein | CPC]
• Vichy French General Antoine Béthouart attempted a failed coup d'etat in North Africa, which alarmed defenses. ww2dbase [Operation Torch | CPC]
• USS Gar ended her fourth war patrol. ww2dbase [Gar | CPC]
• The US Marine Corps chief Major General Thomas Holcomb approved the establishment of a women's reserve. ww2dbase [CPC]
• US Marine Corps Brigadier General Louis Woods relieved US Marine Corps Brigadier General Roy Geiger as the commander of air operations at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Guadalcanal Campaign | CPC]
• German destroyer Z27 sank Soviet ship Donbass; 49 were kiled, 16 survived and captured by the Germans. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | CPC]

• German Type IXC U-Boat U-505 torpedoed and sunk the British freighter Ocean Justice off the coast of Trinidad. All 56 men aboard survived. ww2dbase [U-505 | DS]
• Alpino Bagnolini sighted a freighter in the Atlantic Ocean at 0235 hours and another at 1144 hours. She identified both of the targets as Spanish and thus did not pursue. ww2dbase [Alpino Bagnolini | CPC]

• Tenryu departed Shortland Island, Solomon Islands with supplies for troops fighting on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Tenryu | Shortland Island | CPC]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | Truk | CPC]

• Adolf Hitler departed the Wolfsschanze headquarters at Rastenburg, Ostpreußen, Germany (now Ketrzyn, Poland) for München, traveling aboard his private train Amerika. ww2dbase [Adolf Hitler | Rastenburg, Ostpreußen | CPC]

• Marcello-class Italian submarine Emo departed Cagliari, Sardegna, Italy in response to the Allied landing in North Africa. ww2dbase [Cagliari, Sardegna | HM]

• Tanikaze arrived at Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan for repairs. ww2dbase [Tanikaze | Kure, Hiroshima | CPC]
• Kumano arrived at Kure Naval Arsenal for an overhaul. ww2dbase [Kure Naval Arsenal | Kumano | Kure, Hiroshima | DS]

• 969 American prisoners of war from Luzon, Philippine Islands arrived at the Davao Penal Colony, Mindanao, Philippines. ww2dbase [The Davao Escape | Davao Penal Colony | Ed Dyess | Panabo, Davao | CPC]

• A transport of 465 Jews arrived at Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland from the Westerbork Concentration Camp in the Netherlands. During the selection all of them were said to be unable to work, thus were all sent for one of the two provisional gas chambers. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Oswiecim | CPC]

7 Nov 1942 Interactive Map