Timeline of World War II (1942) - November 1942

November 1942

1: Operation Supercharge, the Allied breakout at El Alamein, begins.
: The Americans begin the Matanikau Offensive against the Japanese

3: Second Battle of El Alamein ends - German forces under Erwin Rommel are forced to retreat during the night.
: American victory over the Japanese in the Koli Point action

6: Carlson's Patrol begins

8: Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of Vichy-controlled Morocco and Algeria, begins; French resistance coup in Algiers, consisting of about 400 fighters neutralise the Vichyist XIXth Army Corps and the Vichyist generals (Juin, Darlan, etc.), contributing significantly to the immediate success of the operation.
: The United States Combat Command "B" of the 1st Armored Division lands east and west of Oran as part of Operation Torch.

10: In violation of a 1940 armistice, Germany invades Vichy France; they are responding to the fact that French Admiral François Darlan has signed an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.
: Oran, Algeria falls to US troops; 17 French ships are sunk at Oran, causing a rift between the French and the Allies. There are more Allied landings near the Tunisian border.
: Montgomery begins a major British offensive beginning at Sollum on the Libya/Egypt border. The British reach Bardia on the 11th, Tobruk on the 12th, and Benghazi on the 18th.
: Lieutenant General Montgomery is knighted and made a full General.
: Churchill speaks: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

11: Convoys reach Malta from Alexandria; an official announcement proclaims that the island is "relieved of its siege".

12: Battle of Guadalcanal - A climactic naval battle near Guadalcanal starts between Japanese and American naval forces. Notably, the USS Juneau is sunk with much of its crew, including the five Sullivan brothers.
: The Red Army makes an attempt to relieve Stalingrad at Kotelnikov.

13: British Eighth Army recaptures Tobruk.
: Battle of Guadalcanal: aviators from the USS Enterprise sink the Japanese battleship Hiei.

14: The USS Washington sinks the Japanese battleship Kirishima.

15: The naval battle of Guadalcanal ends. Although the United States Navy suffers heavy losses, it still retains control of the sea around Guadalcanal.
: The British move westward in Tunisia .
: British Eighth Army recaptures Derna.

17: Japanese send reinforcements into New Guinea; Americans are stymied at Buna.

18: Heavy British RAF raid on Berlin with few losses.

19: At Stalingrad the Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch Operation Uranus aimed at encircling the Germans in the city and thus turning the tide of battle in the USSR's favor.

20: The Allies take Benghazi, Libya; the Afrika Corps continues the retreat westward.

21: The Red Army attempt at encirclement of Stalingrad continues with obvious success.
: American army moves to shove Japanese off the extreme western end of Guadalcanal.

22: Battle of Stalingrad: The situation for the German attackers of Stalingrad seems desperate during the Soviet counter-attack; General Friedrich Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German 6th Army is surrounded.
: Red Army troops complete the encirclement of the Germans at Kalach, west of Stalingrad.

23: "Der Kessel"-- the Cauldron, a description of the heavy fighting at Stalingrad; Hitler orders General Paulus not to retreat, at any cost.

25: The encirclement of Stalingrad continues to stabilise. Hitler reiterates his demand of Paulus not to surrender.
: Operation Harling: a team of British SOE agents, together with over 200 Greek guerrillas from both ELAS and EDES groups, blow up the Gorgopotamos railway bridge, in one of the war's biggest sabotage acts.

26: Hostilities erupt between the American and Australian soldiers in Brisbane. Fighting breaks out which results in multiple fatalities, it is dubbed the Battle of Brisbane

27: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships (most notably the Dunkerque and Strasbourg) and submarines to keep them out of German hands; the French have declined another option – to join the Allied fleets in North African waters.

29: The Allied offensive in Tunisia meets with only minimum success.

30: The naval Battle of Tassafaronga (off Guadalcanal); this is a night action in which Japanese naval forces sink one American cruiser and damage three others.