November 28 in U.S. military history

1864: Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s forces assault Union-held Fort Sanders. The defenders are well prepared: telegraph wire is strung up around the position – one of the first times in military history that wire is used as a defensive tool. Many Confederates break their ankles on the wires during the assault, and are picked off as they attempt to disentangle themselves. Those that don’t become casualties from the wire are unable to climb over the frozen and near-vertical wall surrounding the fort. As a result of the disaster at Fort Sanders, Longstreet is forced to abandon his campaign to capture Knoxville.

1941: The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) departs Pearl Harbor to ferry F4F Wildcat fighters from Marine Fighter Squadron 211 (VMF-211) to Wake Island, thus saving the carrier from the coming Japanese attack.

1941: Adolf Hitler meets with Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and the two determine that Jews in the Middle East must be exterminated.

1942: (Featured Image) The first Ford production B-24 Liberator rolls off the new production line in Ypsilanti, Mich. By war’s end, the plant will build 8,500 Liberators – and by June of 1944, at the incredible rate of one per hour.

1943: In Teheran, Iran, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin meet for the first time to plan a strategy to defeat Nazi Germany.

1950: Gen. Walton Walker, Commander of the Eighth Army, declares that his offensive is over. Gen. Douglas MacArthur informs the Joint Chiefs that “We face an entirely new war.” Nearly half a million Chinese soldiers drive US forces before them.

Meanwhile, the Chinese launch a massive offensive intending to wipe out the 1st Marine Division. Three Marines from the 2d Battalion, Seventh Marines, First Marine Division – one in E Company (SSgt. Robert S. Kennemore) and two in F Company (Capt. William E. Barber and Pvt. Hector A. Cafferata Jr.) – will earn the Medal of Honor on this date.