2nd November 1942
Operation 'Supercharge', the breakout at El Alamein gets under way. Rommel has only 32 Panzer's left intact. Bitter street fighting continues in Stalingrad with neither side making much progress. Due to increasing supply problems and the onset of winter, Army Group A's advance in to the Caucasus ends with the 13th Panzer Division of 3rd Panzer Corps being stopped 5 miles short of Ordshonikidze, the southeastern-most point in Russia to be reached by the Wehrmacht. The Australians recapture Kokoda in New Guinea.
3rd November 1942
Rejecting out of hand Field Marshal Rommel's proposal to withdraw the Afrika Korps, now down to about 40 tanks, to the Fuka line, Hitler orders him to stand and fight. In an interview with American journalists, Stalin describes US military aid as of little effect. A British merchant seaman is hanged at Wandsworth for supplying the Germans with shipping information
4th November 1942
The Italian 20th Motorised Corps is destroyed. Rommel re-issues his orders for retreat with only 12 tanks left. 10,724 Axis prisoners are taken by the British, including nine generals.
5th November 1942
The British attack Rommel’s rearguard, which is now almost 100 miles to west of El Alamein. A peace treaty is signed in Madagascar with the Vichy French.
6th November 19422
Further progress made by the Eighth Army with 20,000 further Axis prisoners being claimed. Halted before Ordshonikidse in the Caucasus, the 13th Panzer Division is fighting to prevent itself being cut off by superior Soviet forces attacking its flanks and rear. In a speech to the Congress of Soviet Deputies, Stalin warns the United States and Britain that 'the absence of a second front against Fascist Germany may end badly for all freedom loving countries, including the Allies themselves'. He declares that 'the aim of the coalition is to save mankind from reversion to savagery and mediaeval brutality'.
7th November 1942
N/A
8th November 1942
Operation 'Torch' begins with Anglo-American forces under Lieutenant General Eisenhower landing in Morocco and Algeria against minimal Vichy French resistance. Mersa Matruh is re-taken by British. On the anniversary of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, Hitler tells his old comrades that Stalingrad is practically in German hands, adding that he didn't want to take that city just because it happens to bear the name of Stalin.