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November 26th, 1942

UNITED KINGDOM: Sloop HMS Woodstock launched.

Destroyer HMS Carron laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY: U-650 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.S.R.: Stalingrad: The Russians have thrown a ring of fire and steel around the German Sixth Army trapped in Stalingrad, the city it had come to capture three months ago. It failed, and now this once proud army faces destruction by the avenging Russians.

Three days ago Lieutenant-Colonel Filippov, the commander of the 14th Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Russian XXVI Tank Corps, led his detachment, with light fulls on in the pre-dawn darkness, to the German-held bridge over the Don at Kalach. He was counting on the Germans assuming that his were captured tanks being taken to a nearby German anti-tank warfare training school for practice. The bridge was primed to be blown up, but Filippov’s ruse worked. The Germans waved him on and he captured the bridge, holding it with his small force until the rest of the town was captured.

The next day Soviet tanks poured over the bridge and met up with the southern arm of the pincer movement 30 miles to the southeast at Sovetsky. The ring was closed.

Inside it are Paulus’ Sixth Army and part of Hoth’s 4th Panzer Army, 270,000 men comprising 22 divisions. There are also the remains of the Third and Fourth Romanian Armies, whose men have been surrendering in their thousands. The situation is reminiscent of the Germans’ early great encirclement victories, and the Russians’ aim is the same as their enemy’s was: the destruction of the trapped divisions.

Paulus wants to break out to safety in the west. When he was told of the Russian link-up at Sovetsky he sent a signal to Hitler: “Army heading for disaster. It is essential to withdraw all our divisions from Stalingrad.” But Hitler has ordered him to stand firm: “I will do everything in my power to supply the Sixth Army adequately and to disengage it when the time is convenient.”

Göring , inspired by the Luftwaffe’s successful supply of the Wehrmacht’s “hedgehogs” last winter, has promised Hitler he will be able to airlift sufficient supplies to keep Paulus’s army in being until the Russians are driven off. But the Luftwaffe is going to be hard-pressed. Virtually every transport aircraft in the air force will be needed to carry the daily total of 500 tons of fuel and ammunition necessary to sustain the trapped army. Many of its transport aircraft have been sent to the Middle East; two-thirds of them are unserviceable at any given time. The weather is appalling. The only two airfields still in German hands are in danger of falling to the Russians. As Paulus says the, the Sixth Army is heading for disaster.
NORTH AFRICA: The British 78th Division captures Medjez el Bab, Tunisia. A US armored battalion raids the German air base at Djedeida.

THAILAND: USAAF planes attack Bangkok oil refinery.

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Gladstone launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Japanese General Imamura formally assumes command of the 18th Area Army at Rabaul. Col. Sugita presents a paper outlining the current situation on Guadalcanal and suggesting withdrawal. General Imamura refuses to formally accept the paper because it is defeatist. Major Hayashi arrives from Guadalcanal with the news that all rice and barley there would be entirely consumed that day.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Chambly commenced refit Liverpool, Nova Scotia. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: The motion picture Casablanca premieres at the Hollywood Theater in New York City. One copy of the film was rushed to the theater to take advantage of the military events occurring in North Africa. Directed by Michael Curtiz, this romantic drama set in December 1941 Casablanca stars Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Dooley Wilson and S.Z. Sakall. This was just another Warner Brothers film and nobody had any idea that it will be considered one of the greatest films ever made. (Jack McKillop)

Destroyer USS Nelson commissioned.

Destroyer escorts USS Stadtfield and Martin laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

COLOMBIA: The nation severs diplomatic relations with France. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-263 met an Allied submarine, which fired two torpedoes, but both missed their target.
U-262 sank SS Ocean Crusader in Convoy HX-216.

U-663 sank SS Barberrys in Convoy SC-110.

UD-3 sank SS Indra.

(Dave Shirlaw)