NOVEMBER 4 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

NOVEMBER 4

1940

The British Royal Navy launched Operation MB8 to protect Allied supply convoys in the Mediterranean Sea from November 4 to 11, 1940.  The fleet consisted of six forces, totaling two aircraft carriers, five battleships, 10 cruisers and 30 destroyers, in addition to Force H.  (Force H was formed in 1940 to replace the French naval power in the Mediterranean, which had been removed as a result of the French armistice with Nazi Germany.)   The forces were code-named Operation Coat, Operation Crack, Convoy MW 3, Convoy ME 3, Convoy AN 6 and the main element, Battle of Taranto (Operation Judgement).

1942

U-132 was sunk by falling debris after the British ammunition ship Hatimura exploded when it was attacked by the U-132.   U-132 and U-442 had also sunk the Empire Lynx, operating southeast of Cape Farewell (Greenland).  All 47 crew members of U-132 died, There were no survivors.  U-132 served in four patrols and sank eight ships, totaling 32,964 gross register tons (GRT). ] She was also a member of three wolfpacks.

1943

After the execution of over 1,000 Jewish prisoners in the Szebnie Nazi German concentration camp in Poland, an uprising broke out among the survivors. It was quickly suppressed by the German SS guards. The camp was closed the next day and about 3,000 prisoners were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp. Seven were known to have escaped. (Note: In August of 1943, the Jews were separated from the rest of prisoners and detained in the north side of the camp. Upon the orders of SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Amon Goeth,  two thousand Jews were murdered in mass executions at the nearby Dobrucowa Forest.  Previously, on September 22,  about 700 Jews were killed in one, having been forced to undress. By the end of September, their bodies were incinerated on site. By early October, another group of 500 Jews were executed and burned. By February 1944 only 80 Jews remained in the camp. They were transported to Kraków-Płaszów. Most of the remaining non-Jewish prisoners were evacuated between August 14 to 25, 1944 and deported further west to Grybów camp, all except for some 300 of the weakest prisoners.)