World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 14 Nov 1942

• USS Flying Fish attacked a Japanese cruiser in the Pacific Ocean; all six torpedoes fired missed. ww2dbase [Flying Fish | CPC]

• Three squadrons of US B-24 bombers moved from Iron Range airfield in northern Queensland, Australia to Port Moresby, Australian Papua and prepared for a strike on the under-construction airfield at Munda Point, Bougainville, Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Solomon Islands Campaign | Port Moresby | CPC]

• After dark, the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal began with Japanese ships severely crippling the American destroyer screen. Japanese destroyers launched Type 93 torpedoes that took the bows off destroyers USS Walke and Benham; Walke sank almost immediately and Benham was scuttled sixteen hours later by USS Gwinn, herself badly damaged in the action. ww2dbase [Guadalcanal Campaign | Type 93 | Savo Sound, Solomon Islands | CPC]
• Tadashi Kaneko was shot down and killed in the Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Tadashi Kaneko | CPC]
• Japanese Furutaka-class Heavy Cruiser Kinugasa was sunk by planes based at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal and by carrier planes from USS Enterprise as Kinugasa was withdrawing from a bombardment of Guadalcanal. ww2dbase [Solomon Islands Campaign | Guadalcanal Campaign | Henderson Field | Kinugasa | Enterprise | Solomon Sea | DS]

• During the night, off the Tunisian coast, 1,597-ton cargo ship SS Scillin was intercepted by the British submarine HMS Sahib (P-212). SS Scillin, which only had room in the cargo hold for about 300 passengers, was overcrowded with more than 800 Allied prisoners of war. Prior to her departure from Tripoli, Libya, British military doctor Captain Gilbert RAMC made strong protests to the Italian officers and port authorities, but he was ignored. HMS Sahib ordered SS Scillin to stop, but seeing her changing course and increasing speed, HMS Sahib attacked. The torpedo struck SS Scillin in the hold and caused the ship to sink rapidly, those people below decks were either killed in the explosion or were drowned, trapped in the ship. HMS Sahib was able to rescue 27 POWs (26 British and one South African) and 36 crew members, including the captain of SS Scillin's captain before the arrival of an Italian warship obliged her to dive and leave the area. It was only when survivors were heard speaking English, did Sahib's captain realize that the ship had been carrying POWs. The British Ministry of Defence kept this incident a closely guarded secret for fifty-four years, telling relatives that the victims had died in Italian POW camps or lost at sea. It was not until 1996, after repeated requests for information from the families of the drowned men that the truth came out. ww2dbase [HM]

• Two transports containing a total of 2,500 Jews from Ciechanow ghettos, Poland arrived at Auschwitz Concentration Camp; 633 men and 135 were registered into the camp, and the remaining 1,732 were killed in gas chambers. On the same day, 1,500 Jews from Bialystok District 2 in Poland arrived at Auschwitz Concentration Camp; 82 men and 379 women were registered into the came, and the remaining 839 were killed in gas chambers. Finally, the SS doctors of Auschwitz Concentration Camp sent 110 prisoners from the Auschwitz I hospital to Birkenau Concentration Camp to be killed in the gas chambers. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Oswiecim | CPC]

• The Taihoku Prisoners of War Camp No. 6 near Taihoku (now Taipei) was opened; on the same day, British prisoners of war from Singapore arrived on Taiwan via Kirun (now Keelung), destined for this camp. ww2dbase [Taihoku Prisoner of War Camp No 6 | Taihoku | CPC]
• The Kinkaseki Prisoners of War Camp in northeastern Taiwan was opened. ww2dbase [CPC]

14 Nov 1942 Interactive Map