Air Operations, Aleutians

XI Fighter Command aircraft strafe ground targets on Kiska.

Air Operations, Bismarcks

V Bomber Command B-17s attack airfields in the Rabaul area.

Air Operations, Europe

• 12 Bostons attack whaling factory ship Solglint in Cherbourg harbor, ship is set on fire and gutted; no losses.

Water splashes rise from bombs hitting the water, and smoke can be seen rising from the Solglint (moored to the right of the splashes).

Attack on the Factory Ship Solglint Cherbourg, 15 September 1942

Another shot of bombs hitting the vessel and water. The ship is just visible in the center of the picture under the rising smoke.

Bombs Hitting the Ship and Water

• 27 Wellingtons and 13 Stirlings of 1 and 3 Groups lay mines in the Frisians and off Verdon without loss.

Vickers Light Tank AA Mk 1, a stop-gap anti-aircraft tank armed with four 7.92mm Besa machine guns, 15 September 1942.

Vickers Anti-Aircraft Tank

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command B-25s and 22nd Medium Bomb Group B-26s attack Buna, Sanananda, and Japanese Army bases in the Owen Stanley Mountains.

Air Operations, Solomons

11th Heavy Bomb Group B-17s mount 5 separate attacks against the Japanese Navy seaplane base at Rekata Bay, Santa Isabel.

Eastern Front

The Germans attack powerfully in the center of Stalingrad. Hundreds of dive-bombers assault the city. The Russian defenders, holed up in the factories, hold out. The Rodimtsev Division is ordered to 'clear' the Germans from Mamai Hill and the railway station in the city center. The railway station will change hands several times in the course of the battle.

The newly committed 13th Guards attack from its small bridgehead, crashing into the 71st Infantry Division. Bitter battles rage for control of the central railway station, which changes hands frequently. Other elements of the 13th Guards launch a fierce attack upon the Mamayev Kugan, hitting the 295th Infantry Division. While the 13th Guards launch its attacks, the 71st and 295th Infantry Divisions again try to push into the city center. To the south, the 94th Infantry, 24th and 14th Panzer Divisions fight their way through Dar Gova, Mnina and Yelshanka as they try to smash open the junction of the 64th and 62nd Armies at Kuporosnoye. During the night, Chuikov brings more units of the 13th Guards across the Volga into Stalingrad.

Columns of Soviet Prisoners of War. Soviet Union, September 15, 1942

Guadalcanal

The 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, extends its positions south of Henderson Field to include Bloody Ridge. The enemy southeast of the Lunga perimeter continues to fire intermittently on the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marines which are also hit by shells from a Japanese battleship.

New Guinea

The first American infantry units, units of the 32nd Inf Div, arrive at Port Moresby from Australia. Along with these infantry are also some engineering and anti-aircraft units.

Pacific

(14th?)An American task force commanded by Rear-Adm Noyes, escorting a convoy taking reinforcements to Guadalcanal from Espiritu Santo, in the New Hebrides, is attacked by 2 Japanese submarines. The I-19, under Commander Narahara, fires 6 torpedoes which, in turn, hit the battleship North Carolina (BB-55), the destroyer O-Brien (DD-415), a strike of 3 on the Wasp (CV-7), and a near miss at the carrier Hornet (CV-8). The attack sinks the aircraft carrier Wasp (CV-7) and damages the battleship North Carolina (BB-55) and the destroyer O'Brien (DD-415).[MORE]

USS Wasp Ablaze

On September 15, 1942, a powerful task force of US naval vessels steamed towards Guadalcanal Island in the South Pacific. Consisting of the aircraft carriers USS Wasp and Hornet, the battleship USS North Carolina and ten other vessels, the task force intended to land a regiment of US Marines on Guadalcanal to reinforce the US troops already vying for control of the island. As mid-afternoon approached, a Japanese submarine, I-19, maneuvered within firing range of the squadron and loosed a volley of six torpedoes at the Wasp. Despite attempting to outmaneuver them, three of the torpedoes slammed into the Wasp while a fourth missed and struck the North Carolina. A mighty conflagration quickly ensued as the torpedoes had detonated close to the ship’s fuel stores and magazines. Damage control efforts and maneuvering into the wind proved fruitless and within 35 minutes of the torpedo strikes, the order for abandon ship was given. When the Wasp finally slipped beneath the Pacific Ocean’s waves, 193 souls followed her leaving approximately 1900 survivors with 366 of them wounded. Unfortunately for the Wasp and her crew, the Wasp had been built on the tail end of the limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. As a result, the ship had minimal armor and suffered from a poor design for ammunition and gasoline storage in order to fit the ship into the tonnage restrictions left to the US Navy under the treaty. Sadly, the US Navy lost 193 good men, 45 aircraft and a valuable ship to the good intentions of a treaty designed to prevent conflict – a treaty which proved to do nothing but force allied naval forces to fight with one hand behind their back for the first years of World War Two.

USS O'Brien (DD-415) just after being hit by a torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-19. The USS Wasp(CV-7) is seen burning in the background.

Destroyer O'Brien Hit By Torpedo