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• Georg von Bismarck was promoted to the rank of Generalleutnant posthumously. ww2dbase [Georg von Bismarck | CPC]
• American destroyers sank German submarine U-173 off Casablanca, French Morocco. ww2dbase [Operation Torch | CPC]
• The first US Marine night fighter squadron, VMF(N)-531, was commissioned at Cherry Point, North Carolina, United States under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Schwable. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Oberfeldwebel Karl Lipp of the German Kampfgeschwader 55 wing was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Frederick Aikman shared the credit for downing two Italian Savoia aircraft in North Africa. ww2dbase [Frederick Aikman | CPC]
• USS Nicholas departed Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides to rendezvous with destroyers USS Gwin and USS Benham who were retiring to Espiritu Santo with battle damage following the Second Battle of Savo Island. When Nicholas met with Gwin, Gwin relayed that Benham sank during the retirement. ww2dbase [Nicholas | Guadalcanal Campaign | DS]

• Two or three US B-24 bombers were destroyed while a further two were damaged during an accident during a takeoff at the Iron Range airfield in Queensland, Australia. ww2dbase [Queensland | CPC]

• The US 128th Infantry Regiment began an attack on Japanese positions south of Buna, Australian Papua. The 1st Battalion (Colonel McCoy) attacked along the coast from Embogo and crossed the Samboga River, while the 3rd Battalion (Colonel Miller) attacked inland from Simemi. Their objectives were the air strips at the centre of the Japanese eastern defences. On the first day opposition was minor but their sole supply line, consisting of six barges ferrying supplies from the airstrip at Ponondetta further to the east, was destroyed when Japanese Zero fighters strafed the barges, destroying their loads of ammunition, medicine and critically, the artillery and mortars. With the loss of the barges further movement was delayed until 19 Nov 1942 as troops and stores had to come by foot. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 2 | Buna | AC]

• Repair ship Akashi completed the repair work for destroyer Kuroshio at Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Akashi | Truk | CPC]

• Construction for Naval Air Station Kahului began on Maui, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Kahului Naval Air Station | Kahului, Maui | DS]

• The Italian Air Force merged its "Loreto" combat engineers battalion and the 1st Air Force Paratroop Unit to form the 1st Air Force Assault Regiment "Amedeo d'Aosta" at Marsala, Sicily, Italy. ww2dbase [Marsala, Sicilia | CPC]

• Captain Akira Sone was named the commanding officer of Nachi. ww2dbase [Nachi | CPC]

• USS Haddock fired 2 torpedoes at convoy in the Yellow Sea, sinking oiler Nichinan Maru with 1 torpedo hit and gunfire. ww2dbase [Haddock | Yellow Sea | CPC]

• Joseph Rochefort was transferred to the US Navy Office of the Chief of Naval Operations based in Washington DC, United States. Later in the day, he wrote a personal letter to his former subordinates in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, noting that his relief was the result of politics, and asking them to be loyal to his successor William Goggins, who was not part of the bureaucratic in-fighting. ww2dbase [Joseph Rochefort | Washington | CPC]
• LST-412 was launched at the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. ww2dbase [LST-412 | Baltimore, Maryland | CPC]
• Robert Oppenheimer, Leslie Groves, and others toured a prospective site for nuclear research in New Mexico, United States. The site would not be selected due to Oppenheimer's opinion that the surrounding high cliffs would cause claustrophobic and thus lower morale, while engineers were concerned with the possibility of flooding. ww2dbase [Robert Oppenheimer | Leslie Groves | Operation Trinity and Manhattan Project | New Mexico | CPC]

16 Nov 1942 Interactive Map