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November 4 – Rommel’s Axis forces are forced to retreat from El Alamein. Italian soldiers withdraw on foot through the desert. Eventually 16,000 Italians are captured in 14 days. Rommel loses 32,000 men, 1,000 guns and 450 tanks. The Afrika Korps now only consists of 35 German tanks and almost 100 obsolete Italian tanks. British Commonwealth Forces lose 13,500 troops, but win in a decisive victory over the Axis Forces.
Italian torpedo boat Centauro is sunk off Benghazi by British bombers.
AFRICA
November 8 – Operation Torch is underway. 107,000 Allies, mostly Americans, land in Casablanca, Oran and Algiers. In fear of an outflanked Rommel, Axis air and ground units are routed to Tunisia, eventually numbering 250,000 troops.
MEDITERRANEAN
November 27 – Italian torpedo boat Circe sinks off Sicily after accidentally being rammed by a merchant vessel it was escorting.
TOULON, FRANCE
November 27 – Two German columns roll into Toulon to take possession of all French ships. Forewarned, Admiral Jean de Laborde orders his fleet scuttled. He ensured that all ships scuttled would rest on even keels in the hope that some day they can be salvaged to sail for France again. A total of 77 ships rested on the bottom of the sea at the port of Toulon. It was not the French, but Italian engineers who were the first to salvage the ships. In 9 months, Italian engineers were able to salvage 30 ships. They then confiscated the 30 vessels along with everything that was salvageable above the waterline. Some items confiscated were the aircraft catapult and turret armor of the Battle Cruiser Strasbourg, and the interior fittings of the Dunkerque. Seven French destroyers and 1 submarine were either towed or sailed on their own power to ports in Italy.
December 2 - Italian destroyer Folgore is sunk off Tunisia by British force Q.
Italian torpedo boat Lupo is sunk off the coast of Greece by British bombers.
December 4 – Italian cruiser Muzio Attendolo is sunk in the port of Naples by U.S. bombers.
SOVIET UNION
Mid December – Axis forces begin losing ground in the Soviet Union. Russian troops mount a counterattack on the frozen Don River.
Italian troops retreating through the Russian frozen hell
Fierce fighting is reported and eventually the Hungarian and Romanian forces flee, leaving only the Italians to fight. Outnumbered 4-1, The Italians are forced to retreat leaving only crack Alpine troops to fight until they too are almost encircled.
GERMANY
December 16 – Mussolini realizes that a 2 front war is un-winnable. He sends Conte Ciano to meet with Hitler to discuss a possible peace settlement with Russia. Hitler discounts this proposal and claims that the Axis can win a 2 front war.
December 17 - Italian destroyer Aviere is sunk near Palermo by U.S. bombers.
MEDITERRANEAN
December 25 – Italian Torpedo Boat Ardente sinks British submarine P48 off the coast of Tunisia.
Sources: Battle Maps Credit to Afrika Korps; Ballantine’s Illustrated History of World War Two; Campaign Book, No. 1; Major K.J. Macksey, M.C. World War II, Time Life Books, Italy at War; World War II, Time Life Books, The War in the Desert; , SIEGE: MALTA 1940-1943 by Ernle Bradford, World War II, by McCombs and Worth. Destroyers of World War 2 and Cruisers of World War 2 by Mike J. Whitley; courtesy Stefan Schlemmer. The Mediterranean; World War II-Time Life Books-Alexandria, Virginia; Whipple. Lucio Ceva. Decisive Campaigns of the Second World War; Edited by John Gooch: Journal of Strategic Studies. Volume 13. March 1990. “Of Myths and Men: Rommel and the Italians in North Africa, 1940-1942″; James J. Sadkovich. The International History Review, XIII. 2. May 1991,
pp.221-440. I Paracadutisti Italiani 1937/45; Giuseppe Lundari, Pietro Compagni. Editrice Militare Italiano-Serie “De Bello” 09. “The battle for the Mediteranean”, Donald Macintyre (Courtesy Pasquale di Gesu).
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