The following events occurred in November 1944:
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- Action of 1 November 1944: A naval battle was fought in the Kvarner Gulf off Croatia between a Royal Navy destroyer flotilla and a Kriegsmarine force of two corvettes and a destroyer. The result was a British victory as all three German ships were sunk.
- 1 November 1944 reconnaissance sortie over Japan: An American F-13 Superfortress conducted the first flight by Allied aircraft over Japan since the Doolittle Raid of April 1942.
- During the Battle of the Scheldt, British and Canadian forces began Operation Infatuate with the goal of opening the port of Antwerp to shipping.
- Canadian Defence Minister James Ralston resigned his post after Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King rejected Ralston's plea for imposition of the draft for overseas service. The schism within King's cabinet brought about the Conscription Crisis of 1944 which threatened to topple King's government.[1]
- The American destroyer Abner Read was sunk in Leyte Gulf by a Japanese kamikaze attack.
- The British frigate Whitaker was torpedoed and damaged off Malin Head, Ireland by German submarine U-483 and rendered a constructive total loss.
- The play Harvey by Mary Chase premiered on Broadway at the 48th Street Theatre.
- Born: Rafic Hariri, business tycoon and Prime Minister of Lebanon, in Sidon, Lebanon (d. 2005); Bobby Heenan, professional wrestler, manager and commentator, in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2017); Oscar Temaru, President of French Polynesia, in Faaa, Tahiti
- The Japanese began the Fu-Go (fire balloon) campaign against the continental United States.[5]
- Turkey ended blackout restrictions.[3]
- Japanese destroyer Akikaze was torpedoed and sunk west of Cape Bolinao, Philippines by the American submarine Pintado when she intercepted torpedoes intended for the aircraft carrier Jun'yō.
- British troops in Italy captured Ravenna, cutting the railway line to Bologna.[7]
- The Japanese cruiser Nachi was sunk in Manila Bay by U.S. aircraft.
- Born: Kim Hye Cha[who?], Korea
- Died: Alexis Carrel, 71, French surgeon, biologist and Nobel laureate
- The German garrison at Middelburg surrendered to the Allies.[5]
- The Italian government announced the formation of a private army about six divisions strong, to enter into the war on the Allied side.[8]
- The provisional government of France struck down all of the country's anti-Semitic laws. Implementation of this measure was difficult when it came to returning Jews to their former occupations and giving them back their homes and confiscated property.[8]
- In Liverpool, the largest penicillin factory in the world began production.[8]
- Born: Wild Man Fischer, songwriter, in Los Angeles, California (d. 2011)
- Died: Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne, 64, Anglo-Irish politician and businessman (assassinated in Cairo by the Jewish terrorist group Lehi)
- Nazi occupation forces in the Netherlands began a two-day roundup of 50,000 men in Rotterdam to be sent to Germany for forced labour.[12]
- Allied forces launched Operation Clipper, an offensive to reduce the Geilenkirchen salient.
- The Allies recognized the government of Albanian partisan leader Enver Hoxha.[13]
- The American ammunition ship Mount Hood exploded and sank at Seeadler Harbor, Manus, Admiralty Islands with the loss of all 350 crew.
- German submarine U-537 was torpedoed and sunk in the Java Sea by the American submarine Flounder.
- Born: Askar Akayev, 1st President of Kyrgyzstan, in Kyzyl-Bayrak, Kirghiz SSR, Soviet Union; Silvestre Reyes, politician, in Canutillo, Texas; Tim Rice, lyricist, in Shardeloes
- Died: Wang Jingwei, 61, head of Chinese collaborationists with Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War (part of WWII)
- Over 10,000 Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Tatars, and some White Russians rally in Ghulja and declare independence as the Second East Turkistan Republic.
- RAF Bomber Command carried out Operation Catechism and, after trying unsuccessfully for months, finally sank the German battleship Tirpitz near Tromsø.
- 80,000 leftists demonstrated in Rome in celebration of the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution and denounced the monarchy.[3]
- Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor hit #1 on the New York Times Fiction Best Sellers list.
- Born: Booker T. Jones, musician, record producer and frontman of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, in Memphis, Tennessee; Al Michaels, sportscaster, in Brooklyn, New York
- Died: George F. Houston, 48, American film actor (heart attack)
- The British Second Army captured Wessem.[19]
- Japanese aircraft carrier Shin'yō was torpedoed and sunk in the Yellow Sea by the American submarine Spadefish.
- While part of convoy Hi-81, the Japanese landing craft depot ship Mayasan Maru was sunk in the East China Sea by the American submarine Picuda. Some 3,856 lives were lost in one of the highest maritime casualty counts of the war.
- Born: Gene Clark, singer, songwriter and founding member of The Byrds, in Tipton, Missouri (d. 1991); Danny DeVito, actor and filmmaker, in Neptune Township, New Jersey; Rem Koolhaas, architect and urban planner, in Rotterdam, Netherlands; Lorne Michaels, television and film producer, in Toronto, Canada; Tom Seaver, baseball player, in Fresno, California (d. 2020)
- Adolf Hitler left his Eastern Front headquarters, the Wolfsschanze ("Wolf's Lair"), for the last time as the Red Army approached the borders of Germany.
- The Kosovo Operation ended in Partisan victory.
- The London districts of Piccadilly, the Strand and Fleet Street turned their lights on after five years of blackout.[13]
- English author P. G. Wodehouse, who had made broadcasts over enemy radio in France during the Nazi occupation, was arrested in Paris.[13]
- The American oil tanker Mississinewa was sunk off Ulithi, Micronesia by a Japanese Kaiten manned torpedo.
- Born: Louie Dampier, Hall of Fame basketball player, in Indianapolis, Indiana; Earl Monroe, Hall of Fame basketball player in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Operation Clipper ended in Allied victory.
- Canadian Parliament assembled in a special meeting to debate the conscription crisis. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King said that it had not become necessary to require drafted troops to serve overseas and that to do so "would occasion the most serious controversy that could arise in Canada. I can think of no course fraught with greater danger to our war effort, to say nothing of the unity and strength of Canada today and for generations to come, than a general election at this late stage of the war on the conscription issue. Until it is apparent conscription for overseas forces is necessary, the government would not be justified in taking the risk of widespread national dissention."[1]
- The British submarine Stratagem was depth charged and sunk in the Strait of Malacca by the Japanese submarine chaser CH 35.
- The film Henry V, adapted from the William Shakespeare play of the same name premiered in the United Kingdom. The film starred Laurence Olivier, who also directed.
- The musical film Meet Me in St. Louis starring Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien premiered in St. Louis, Missouri.
- Died: Joseph Caillaux, 81, French politician; Arthur Eddington, 61, English astronomer, physicist and mathematician
- The Battle of Guilin–Liuzhou during the Second Sino-Japanese War ended in Japanese victory.
- The Baltic Offensive and the Moonsund Landing Operation ended in Soviet victory.
- The government of Ferenc Szálasi in Hungary fled Budapest to escape encirclement by the Soviets and re-established itself in Sopron.[23]
- The Terrace Mutiny began when Canadian soldiers based in Terrace, British Columbia began disobeying orders and seizing weapons after hearing rumors that conscripts might be deployed overseas. The mutiny was largely censored by authorities and it did not come to be well known by the general public.
- About 1,000 Canadian soldiers from the military camp in Vernon, British Columbia paraded through the city shouting, "Down with conscription."[24]
- Born: Candy Darling, transgender actress and Warhol Superstar, née James Lawrence Slattery in Forest Hills, Queens, New York (d. 1974); Ibrahim Gambari, scholar and diplomat, in Ilorin, Nigeria
- A German V-2 rocket struck the intersection of High Holborn and Chancery Lane in the Holborn section of London, killing 6 and wounding 292. Then, in the worst V-2 attack of the war, another one landed across the street from the Woolworths department store in New Cross, South London and killed 168.[5][25]
- German submarine U-482 was sunk west of Shetland by the Royal Navy frigate Ascension.
- The Canadian corvette Shawinigan was torpedoed and sunk in the Cabot Strait by German submarine U-1228.
- Japanese cruiser Yasoshima (formerly the Chinese cruiser Ping Hai) was bombed and sunk in Drusol Bay, Luzon by American aircraft.
- Japanese cruiser Kumano was sunk at Santa Cruz, Philippines by American aircraft.
- Japanese destroyer Shimotsuki was torpedoed and sunk northeast of Singapore by the American submarine Cavalla.
- Born: Ben Stein, writer, lawyer, actor and commentator, in Washington, D.C.; Michael Kijana Wamalwa, 8th Vice President of Kenya, in Sosio, Kenya (d. 2003)
- Died: Kenesaw Mountain Landis, 78, American judge and the first Commissioner of Baseball
- The Allies began to operate the port of Antwerp.[5]
- The 57th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front captured the Hungarian town of Mohács.[27]
- German submarine U-80 was lost with all hands in a diving accident off Pillau.
"1944". World War II Database. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
Mercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. p. 612. ISBN 978-0-582-03919-3.
Blalock, Alfred (May 19, 1945). "The Surgical Treatment of Malformations of the Heart In Which There Is Pulmonary Stenosis or Pulmonary Atresia". JAMA. 128: 189-202.