November 2: A USAF squadron, including B-24 Liberators, intercepts many Luftwaffe patrols off the coast of Oran, Algeria.

November 3: Second Battle of El Alamein: German forces under Erwin Rommel are forced to retreat during the night.

November 8: Operation Torch: United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa. - French Resistance Coup in Algiers: 400 French civil resistants neutralize the Vichyist XIXth Army Corps and the Vichyist generals (Juin, Darlan, etc.), so allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers, and ultimately the whole of French North Africa.

November 9: U.S serviceman Edward Leonski is hanged at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison for the "Brown-Out" murders of 3 women in May.

November 10: In violation of a 1940 armistice, Germany invades Vichy France, following French Admiral François Darlan's agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.

November 12: Battle of Guadalcanal: A naval battle near Guadalcanal starts between Japanese and American forces.

November 13: Battle of Guadalcanal: Aviators from the USS Enterprise sink the Japanese battleship Hiei. - British forces capture Tobruk.

November 15: The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal ends: Although the United States Navy suffers heavy losses, it retains control of Guadalcanal. - A BOAC scheduled passenger flight, a DC-3 with registration G-AGBB, (formerly KLM PH-ALI, Ibis), en route between Lisbon and Bristol, is attacked over the Bay of Biscay by German fighters. Although damaged, it escapes and lands in England. Other attacks follow on the same aircraft and scheduled route: April 19 and June 1, 1943 (fatal). - British forces capture Derna.

November 19: Battle of Stalingrad: Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counter-attacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor.

November 20: British forces capture Benghazi.

November 21: The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (however, the "highway" is not usable by general vehicles until 1943).

November 22: Battle of Stalingrad: The situation for the German attackers of Stalingrad seems desperate during the Soviet counter-attack Operation Uranus, and General Friedrich Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German Sixth Army is surrounded.

November 23: A German U-boat sinks the SS Ben Lomond off the coast of Brazil. One crewman, Chinese second steward Poon Lim, is separated from the others and spends 130 days adrift until he is rescued on April 3, 1943. - Legislation approved the Coast Guard Women's Reserve to help fill jobs and free men to serve during the war effort. They were known as the SPARs - Semper Paratus, Always Ready!

November 25-26: A British Special Operations Executive team, together with Greek Resistance fighters, blows up the Gorgopotamos viaduct in the first major sabotage act in occupied continental Europe.

November 26: The movie Casablanca premiçres at the Hollywood Theater in New York City.

November 27: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands.

November 28: Cocoanut Grove fire: A fire in the Cocoanut Grove night club in Boston, Massachusetts, kills 491. - The large-scale German "pacification" of the Zamojszczyzna region of Poland begins.

November 29: The Blue Star Line cargo liner MV Dunedin Star runs aground on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia. Crew and passengers survive following a 26-day overland trek to Windhoek. (source: Wikipedia)