Air Operations - CBI

Capt Albert J. Baumler, a 10th Air Force staff officer, downs a Ki-27 'Nate' fighter over Changsha, China, the 10th Air Force's first aerial victory of the war.

Air Operations - Europe

• 12 Bostons are dispatched to Dunkirk. 6 planes hit the dock area and 6 bomb a nearby airfield. There are no losses.
• 227 aircraft are sent to bomb Emden. Included in this total are 144 Wellingtons, 38 Stirlings, 26 Halifaxes, 11 Lancasters and 8 Hampdens. 196 crews claim good bombing results, but it is believed decoy fires drew many of the bombloads. Reports from the ground say 50 houses are destroyed and another 100 damaged. 6 people are killed and 40 injured. 4 Wellingtons, 1 Lancaster and 1 Stirling are lost.
• In minor operations, 10 Blenheims are on intruder flights and 2 Stirlings make leaflet flights over France. There are no losses.

Caribbean

The unarmed US tanker E. J. Sadler (9639t) is shelled by U-159 about 175 miles south of the Windward Passage and abandoned. After the 36 survivors take to their lifeboats, a boarding party form the U-boat sink the tanker with demolition charges.

CBI

Lt-Gen Joseph W. Stilwell's command is retitled American Forces in India, China, and Burma by order of the War Department. Stilwell is chaged with accomplishing US political and miltary goals in the theater. First, he must maintain the cohesion of the Chinese army of about 3.8 million men, which is divided between support for Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang, local warlords, and the Communists. The Communists are fighting a guerilla war against not only the Japanese, but the Nationalist Kuomintang as well. Stilwell is troubled that Chiang keeps his most capable units focused on the Communists, not the Japanese.

Second, Stilwell must find a way to maintain logistical support to China so that the Nationalists can continue to fight the Japanese. If China's armies collapse, the Japanese could release tens of thousands of troops to other areas on their defensive perimeter. But the Germany-first strategy in Washington puts China near the bottom of the priority list. To build the 30-division army and 500 aircraft air force that has been promised to the Chinese, Stilwell will have to provide 7,500 tons of supplies a month. At best, only 3,500 tons a month can be delivered, base on priorities and airlift available. Stilwell has only 57 transport aircraft in theater.

Diplomatic Relations

Maxim Litvinov, Soviet Ambassador to the US, demands the immediate launching of a 'Second Front' during a speech in New York.

Eastern Front

On the anniversary of the German invasion the Sovinformbureau publishes a Review of the First Year of the War which compares the losses by the two sides. Dead, wounded and prisoners: Germany, about 10 million; USSR, 4-5 million; Guns lost: Germany, 30,500; USSR, 22,000; Tanks: Germany, over 24,000; USSR, 15,000; Aircraft: Germany, over 20,000; USSR, 9,000.

Since published by the Russians, these highly improbable figures have not been repeated in any of the histories of the Second World War. The official figures given by the Germans for their losses during the same period are just as improble: 271,612 dead and 63,730 missing. The figures for German losses the Gen Halder put in his diary are more convincing. The statistics for dead, wounded and prisoners, not counting the sick, were up to February 15, 1942 946,000; to May 10, 1,183,000; to May 20, 1,215,000; to June 10, 1,268,000; to June 30, 1,362,000. By September 10, 1942 German losses in dead, wounded and prisoners are put at 1,637,000 as a result of the campaign preceding the Battle of Stalingrad.

Russian figures for human losses must certainly be greater. Those for material losses may have been 'inflated' to stimulate the war industries to maximum production and perhaps also to get more substantial help from their Western Allies.

Hitler issues Directive No. 41 which defines the objectives for the summer campaign: liquidation of the Russians in the Crimea, capture of Voronezh so as to threaten both the central sector of the front and also Stalingrad; encirclement and elimination of the Soviet forces in the great bend of the Don, attacking from Voronezh in the north and Taganrog in the south. With the road to Stalingrad open, the capture or destruction of that city; a wheel south to the Caucasus to capture the Maykop, Grozny and Baku oilfields, bringing the Germans to the Turkish frontier, which may induce the Turks to line up with the Axis. A new effort to liquidate Leningrad is also planned.

The campaign does not go according to plan. The Russians hold up the Germans at Voronezh, but give way quickly at Rostov. Hitler is induced to make some far-reaching changes in his strategy. For example, he wants to carry out the taking of Stalingrad and the conquest of the Caucasus at the same time. As Zhukov will later say, this was a monstrous error, pregnant with disastrous consequences for the Wehrmacht.

Army Group South opens a limited offensive in the Izyum sector to improve German positions east of the Donetz in preparation for the great offensive that is to be launched as soon as Sevastopol is taken. The struggle for Sevastopol becomes more intense The last of the Russian fortifications around Sevastopol is knocked out by the Germans.

The 6th Army and the 1st Panzer Army begin another limited operation to destroy the 38th and 9th Armies around Kupyansk.

Army Group South is now ready to launch Operation BLUE. Its order of battle is as follows: 6th Army (330,000 troops and 300 tanks and assault guns); 2nd Army (95,000 troops); 17th Army (150,000 troops and 180 tanks and assault guns); 1st Panzer Army (200,000 troops and 480 tanks). The Hungarian 2nd and Italian 8th Armies, at present in transit, will also support the offensive. Luftwaffe support totals 2,690 aircraft.

Gulf of Mexico

The unarmed US tanker Rawleigh Warner (3664t) is torpedoed by U-67 about 40 miles south of South Pass, Louisiana. The explosion ignites ship's cargo of gasoline incinerating the ship and her crew. There are no survivors from the 33-man crew.

North Africa

The British 8th Army falls back to Mersa Matruh. The Axis forces reach Bardia near the Egyptian border. The German 90th Light Div actually crosses the border into Egypt.

Gen Auchinleck pays a visit to 8th Army headquarters to discuss the situation with Gen Ritchie.

United States, Home Front

(21st?)A Japanese submarine shells the military depot at Fort Stevens, Oregon, on the Columbia River estuary. The damage is minimal. This is the first attack on a military installation in the United States since the War of 1812, and it will be the only one of this war.

Pledge of Allegiance Passes into Law

The Pledge of Allegiance was passed into law by Congress on June 22, 1942. The children’s magazine, The Youth’s Companion, in order to help sell flags for their “schoolhouse flag movement,” hired the Socialist, Francis Bellamy to write the “Pledge of Allegiance.” The Pledge was to be part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival to the Americas – an event conceived and promoted by James B. Upham, the marketer of The Youth’s Companion. The Pledge was originally published in the September 8th issue of the magazine in 1892 and went as follows: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” The accompanying Bellamy salute was dropped during WWII, on December 22, 1942, for obvious reasons, and Congress instituted the current hand-over-heart version.

Vichy, Politics

Vichy Prime Minister Laval broadcasts on the desirability of a German victory and urges Frenchmen to work hard in German industry.