At 00.46 AM 40 miles Northeast of Tobruk, Libya, U-559 sinks Australian sloop HMAS Parramatta, escorting ammunition ship SS Hanne into Tobruk. 160 crew and 8 passengers from gunboat HMS Gnat are killed, 21 survivors are rescued by British destroyer HMS Avon Vale and 3 swim ashore behind British lines.
Operation Crusader. Overnight, New Zealand 2nd Division supported by 90 tanks breaks through the German cordon and links up with the garrison from Tobruk (which has 70 tanks). Both 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions head from Bardia to Tobruk to break up this attempt to raise the siege. 21st Panzer runs into New Zealand infantry while 15th Panzer encounters British 7th Armored Division (which has three times the number of tanks) at Bir el Chleta 30 miles west of Tobruk. 22nd Armored Brigade blocks the advance of 15th Division while 4th Armored Brigade pummels the extended German column from the side but at dusk the British tanks withdraw South to lie up for the night in a defensive huddle. 15th Panzer uses the respite to continue their move to Tobruk in the dark.
Operation Typhoon. 30 miles West of Moscow, SS Reich Division (4th Panzer Army) captures Istra from Siberian 78th Rifle Division. 37 miles North of Moscow, 7th Panzer Division (3rd Panzer Army) advances 15 miles East from Rogachevo to the Moskva/Volga canal at Yakhroma. They are faced by newly-formed Soviet 1st Shock Army.
In the Caucasus, Southern USSR, Soviet 37th Army recaptures Rostov-on-Don from General von Kleist’s 1st Panzer Army (which has held the city for only 6 days). Hitler orders that there be no retreat in the Rostov sector but Army Group South commander Field Marshal von Rundstedt refuses to cancel his orders to retreat back to the Mius River at Taganrog.
The last Italian stronghold in East Africa is Gondar in Ethiopia. After British 12th (African) Division capture 2 mountain passes overlooking the town of Gondar, the garrison of 23,500 troops under General Nasi surrenders.
Japanese Prime Minister Tojo Hideki rejects the American proposal (“Hull note”). The Japenese carrier will not be recalled and the stage is set for the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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On Nov. 28 1941 at the Tabor Theatre Denver I saw newsreels of Allied troops fighting in Tobruk as I ate a milknickel I had paid 10 cents for in the lobby. On the same day the nurse Miss Niedrig took my temperature under my armpit and said, "I came from Denmark across the Pacific." She added, "if you fake sickness to avoid school you get an enema."
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