Air Operations, Aleutians

A 28th Composite Bomb Group B-24 on patrol duty sinks a Japanese Navy minelayer and strafes a tender at Tanaga Island.

Air Operations, Europe

• In a raid on Britain the Me-210 fighter-bomber makes its debut. 2 are shot down over the north Yorkshire coast. There is also a night raid on Sunderland.
• B-17s attack the marshalling yards at Rouen.

• 12 Bostons attack ships in Boulogne harbor, but score no hits; 5 Mosquitos to Germany, Bremerhaven is bombed, 1 Mosquito lost.

• 207 aircraft of 6 types to Duisburg.
• Cloud and haze present, bombing not concentrated; reports from the ground say heaviest raid to date, 114 buildings destroyed, 316 seriously damaged and 86 people are killed.
• 5 Wellingtons, 2 Halifaxes and 1 Stirling are lost.

• 9 aircraft lay mines off Heligoland and in the Frisians; 5 aircraft on leaflet flights; No losses.

Air Operations, New Guinea

RAAF bombers and V Fighter Command P-40s attack a Japanese cruiser and destroyer near Cape Kaitahua. 5th Air Force A-20s and P-400s attack ground targets in the Owen Stanley Mountains.

Britain, Home Front

British and German cross-Channel guns exchange fire for about an hour.

Eastern Front

Army Group A captures the major Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. The Battle of Stalingrad, the 'Red Verdun', reaches a critical phase as both sides throw in reinforcements.

The 1st Guards Army has worn itself out, having suffered crippling casualties. Farther south, the 62nd and 64th Armies dig into their final defensive positions before Stalingrad and prepare to fight a last ditch battle to prevent the Germans from taking the city.

In the Caucasus, Ruoff's 17th Army completes the capture of Novorossiysk after a bitter struggle with the 47th Army.

New Guinea

The Australians mop up the last centers of Japanese resistance at Milne Bay, but in the Owen Stanley Mountains they have to retreat further toward Port Moresby.

North Africa

The British XIII Corps makes slow progress southward, but at the cost of heavy losses in men and material.

The battle of Alam Halfa is over and the Germans are back in their original positions. They discover that large reinforcements for Montgomery are on the way and that, unless they also receive considerable help, the 8th Army will win in the end. Rommel sets his forces to prepare elaborate fixed defenses of barbed wire, minefields and booby traps. The 8th Army is busy regrouping, absorbing new equipment and training for the coming assault.

A Knocked-Out German PzKpfw IV Ausf F2 Tank, 6 September 1942

Pacific

The American battleship South Dakota (BB-57) strikes a coral reef off Tonga and is seriously damaged.