Air Operations, Bismarcks

A V Bomber Command B-17 strafes Japanese ships in the Bismarck Sea near Kavieng.

Air Operations, Libya

During the night, USAMEAF B-24s attack shipping and port facilities at Benghazi and Tobruk.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command B-17s, 22nd Medium Bomb Group B-26s, 3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s, and V Figther Command P-400s attack the airfield and landing barges at Buna. V Fighter Command P-40s attack ground targets at Goodenough Island.

A new bomb-bay device is used for the first time in the attack on the Buna airfield. It allows low-flying A-20s to drop clusters of 23-pound parachute-fragmentation bombs. Deeming the test successful, the use of parachute clusters will become common in A-20 missions.

Air Operations, Solomons

• 42 G4M 'Betty' bombers and an unknown number of escorting A6M Zeros attacking Guadalcanal are intercepted by 11 F4Fs and 21 VF-5 F4Fs. Marine Corps F4F pilots claim 9 'Bettys' and a Zero down over New Georgia Sound about 1130 hours, and VF-5 pilots claim 5 more 'Bettys' over Guadalcanal around 1145 hours. 1 VF-5 is written off after a bad landing in which the pilot is killed.
• 15 11th Heavy Bomb Group B-17s search the area for a reported Japanese carrier. No carrier is found and 3 B-17s are lost in bad weather with all but 2 crewmen rescued from the sea.

Arctic Ocean

In a series of attacks lasting ten days U-boats and the Luftwaffe aim at two Allied convoys, PQ-19 and QP-14, carrying supplies to Russia. 17 ships totalling 94,791 tons are sunk. The Germans lose 4 submarines and 41 aircraft.

U-88 is sunk by British destroyer HMS Faulknor during operations against convoy PQ-18. Faulknor was crossing ahead of the convoy when her asdic located a firm contact. A depth charge attack is made six minutes later. Shortly afterward the asdic operator reported distinct breaking-up noises.

U-88

Torpedo Attack on Outbound Arctic Convoy PQ-18, September 1942

Barents Sea

The German steamer Robert Bornhofen (6643t) in Porsangerfjord, Norway.

Battle of the Atlantic(?)

• U-156, en route to the area of the Cape of Good Hope, sinks the liner Laconia just south of the equator. Laconia is carrying about 1,800 servicemen's wives and children and Italian prisoners of war. Only when he surfaced and started picking up survivors did Korvettenkapitan Werner Hartenstein realize who was on the ship. He sends radio messages to the Allied authorities in plain language. U-156 is, however, attacked by an American plane, a Liberator bomber. Dönitz, therefore, gives orders that there are to be no further similar rescue attempts by U-boats. He also arranges for Vichy ships from Dakar to be sent to finish the rescue work. These ships subsequently rescue the bulk of the ship's passengers and crew. The Laconia Order of Sept 17, 1942 forms one of the counts against Dönitz at Nuremberg.

  Shuttle service for shipwrecked persons from the Laconia between U-156 (foreground) and U-507 (background) as they redistribute the rescued men between them on the 15th September 1942. Picture taken by Oblt. z. S. Leopold Schuhmacher.

  Shipwrecked Persons Transfer

  Over 1,000 Men Are Adrift in the Laconia’s Lifeboats

  A tragedy of errors over the next 4 days compounds the original horror. French ships are en route from west Africa when an American plane out of Ascension attacks the German sub even though it has displayed a giant Red Cross flag. The attack was ordered even though it was known survivors from the Laconia might be killed. 2 other U-boats are also in the area in the rescue effort, and the 3 submarines eventually turn over the survivors to the French. Of the original 2,732 people aboard, which includes 80 women and children, 1,111 survive. Both sides are embittered by the losses.

• The US tanker Patrick J. Hurley (10,865t), en route to Belfast, Ireland, is shelled by U-512 and abandoned. 31 of the 41 merchant seamen and 14 of the 18 Armed Guard sailors survive the loss and are rescued by the British steamship Loch Dee and the Swedish steamship Etna.

Britain, Home Front

In Horse Racing, Gordon Richards wins St Leger at Newmarket riding 'Sun Chariot'.

Eastern Front

The German 6th Army continues its intense pressure on the outskirts of Stalingrad from both north and south. The Soviet perimeter around Stalingrad is now only about 30 miles long. In this desperate situation Gen Vasily I. Chuikov is appointed to command 62nd Army, soon to be besieged in Stalingrad. The Communist Party is represented here by Nikita Khrushchev. Chuikov performs superbly throughout the battle. His orders are responsible for the Russian close-quarter style of fighting which so effectively disrupts the normally fluid all-arms cooperation of the German forces. His firm and abrasive character are also essential to the defense.

The first winter snows are reported in the Caucasus.

Gen Vasily Chuikov assumes command of the 62nd Army. The German 6th ane 4th Panzer Armies have a combined total of 590,000 troops, 10,000 artillery pieces and 100 tanks. Facing them are the Stalingrad Front (1st Guards, 24th, 21st, 66th and 4th Tank Armies) and Southeastern Front (62nd, 64th, 57th and 51st Armies), with a combined total of 590,000 troops, 7,000 artillery pieces and 600 tanks.[MORE]

Guadalcanal

At 1100 the usual raid of Bettys from Rabaul comes in. 7 planes are shot down, but 1 F4F plane and its pilot are lost on a crash landing. Shortly afterwards Adms Turner and McCain arrive for an upclose survey of how it's going on the island. The Americans do receive valuable reinforcements of aircraft flown in from the carrier Wasp (CV-7). Late in the afternoon the dive bombers of Scouting Squadron Three go on their usual late patrol. They find Japanese ships north of the Solomons: a cruiser and 3 destroyers 40 miles off Rendova, a destroyer off Choiseul and more destroyers of Santa Isabel. These ships are the cruiser Tenryu and her destroyers coming in to open the combined assault that is to secure the airfield for the Japanese.

The provisional raider-parachute battalion conducts a reconnaissance in force along a ridge, to become known as Bloody or Edson's, south of their outpost line and about 800 yards east of Lunga River, to close the route of approach to Henderson Field. Despite enemy fire, the force reaches the southernmost knoll. Around 2200 the Japanese begin their bombardment, first striking at the marines on the ridge, then shifting to the airfield. Several pilots are killed in their camp. The Japanese begin major attacks especially around 'Bloody Ridge'. The attacking units, about 6,000 strong, are from Gen Kiyotake Kawaguchi's 35th(25th?) Bde. After furious fighting which goes on throughout the night the Japanese succeed in infiltrating into the American defensive perimeter near Lunga. Fatigue, rain and tropical diseases combine with the incessant artillery and rifle fire of the Japanese to exhaust the Americans.