1:
First Battle of El Alamein begins as Rommel begins first assault on British defences.
Sevastopol falls to the Germans; the end of Red Army resistance in the Crimea.2: Churchill survives a censure motion in the House of Commons.3:
Guadalcanal is now firmly in the hands of the Japanese.4: First air missions by American Air Force in Europe.11: Rommel's forces are now stalemated before El Alamein, largely because of a lack of ammunition.12: It now becomes clear that Stalingrad is the largest challenge to the invaders.A balloon from
Operation Outward knocks out a power station near
Leipzig.15: The only action around El Alamein is light skirmishing.16:
Vel' d'Hiv Roundup: On order from the
Vichy France government headed by
Pierre Laval, French police officers mass arrest 13,152
Jews and hold them at the
Winter Velodrome before deportation to
Auschwitz.18: The Germans test fly the
Messerschmitt Me-262 V3 third prototype using only its
jet engines for the first time.19:
Battle of the Atlantic: German Grand Admiral
Karl Dönitz orders the last
U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to an increasingly effective American convoy system.20: After landing in the Buna-Gona area, the Japanese in New Guinea move across the Owen Stanley mountain range aiming at Port Moresby in the south-eastern part of the island, close to Australia; a small Australian force begins rearguard action on the
Kokoda Track.22: The systematic deportation of
Jews from the
Warsaw Ghetto begins.
:
Treblinka II, "a model" extermination camp, is opened in Poland.24: Germans take Rostov-on-the-Don; the Red Army is in a general retreat along the Don River.26: A second attack by the British under Auchinleck fails against Rommel. First Battle of El Alamein may be said to be over.27: Heavy RAF
incendiary attack on Hamburg.29: The Japanese take
Kokoda, halfway along the Owen Stanley pass to Port Moresby.30: Continuing stalemate at El Alamein between Rommel and Auchinleck.