Air Operations, Europe

The RAF hit Berlin with their biggest raid yet. About 200 RAF bombers including four-engined Sterlings and Halifaxes take part in the two-hour attack. Among areas hit are the residential district of Hochmeisterplatz, the zoo and the Eden Hotel. This attack is made on the one-year anniversary of the first German mass attack on London.

A Stirling crew watching their aircraft being bombed up ready for the night's operations

Arming up for Bombing Mission

Halifax Heavy Bomber in Flight

A Formation of Stirlings

Battle of the Atlantic

• The Norwegian steamer Eikhaug (1436t) is sunk in an attack on a convoy by German motor torpedo boats off the Norfolk coast with the loss of 15 crewmen. 4 survivors are rescued.
• German bombing attacks sink the British steamers Marcrest (4224t) 2 miles east of Yarmouth and the Trsat (1369t) northeast of Kinnaird Head. The entire crew are rescued from the Marcrest, 3 are lost from the Trsat.

Eastern Front

Leningrad is vigorously shelled and bombed. Delayed-action mines are also dropped and cause many deaths. The greatest problem for the defenders, however, is how to feed three million people.

Having been trapped at Leningrad, the Russian battleship Marat begins shelling the German forces attempting to encircle the city. She is joined on Sept 8 by her sister ship the Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya.

Guderian's 2nd Pzr Group reaches Lokhvista, about 100 miles east of Kiev. With the 1st Pzr Group under von Kleist wheeling up from the south, the Russians defending Kiev are facing encirclement.

After a week of heavy fighting, the 20th Motorized and 12th Panzer Divisions break through the 48th Army and advance north upon Schlusselberg. Sinyavino falls during the fighting.

Heavy fighting rages in the Chernigov, Konotop and Oster sections as the southern wing of Army Group Center folds back the northern flank of the Southwest Front.

Potapov's 5th Army is in imminent danger of being split apart by German attacks. The 2nd Army pushes from the northeast and the 6th Army from the east. The Stavka refuses 5th Army permission to fall back. The 5th SS Motorized Division Wiking launches strong attacks north from the Dnepropetrovsk bridgehead. After heavy fighting the Kamenka Heights fall to the Germans.

Mediterranean

• The US merchant ship Steel Seafarer is sunk by German aircraft in the Gulf of Suez.
• The British submarine Thunderbolt sinks the Italian steamer Sirena (974t) 50 miles west of Benghazi. The steamer was part of a convoy that left Tripoli for Benghazi on 4 September.

Norway

The carrier Victorious again sends air attacks against German installations in and around Tromso, but little damage is done.