Air Operations, New Guinea

3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s bomb and strafe Japanese Army positions in the Owen Stanley Mountains. V Fighter Command P-40s strafe the airfield at Kokoda as well as bridges and Japanese Army ground troops in the Owen Stanley Mountains.

Air Operations, North Africa

Tobruk is raided by Allied bombers for the seventh time in 8 nights.

Allied Planning

Operational plans for Operation TORCH are issued. The landing in North Africa is to take place on November 8.

Battle of the Atlantic

The US freighter Silver Sword (4937t), in Convoy QP-14, is torpedoed and sunk by U-255 in the Greenland Sea. The British rescue ships Rathlin and Zamalek pick up all 32 crewmen and the 11-man Armed Guard and 18 passengers and take them to Glasgow.

Diplomatic Relations

Stalin continues to press Eden and Wendell Wilkie to open a second front.

Eastern Front

The bitter house-to-house fighting continues in Stalingrad where, as in Leningrad, Russian women fight side by side with the men. In the Caucasus the town of Terek, on the south bank of the Terek River, is captured by Army Group A.

Attacks by the 1st Guards and 24th Armies fail to break through to the 62nd Army. The 66th Army joins the attack with an equal lack of success.

At first light the Luftwaffe arrives over Stalingrad, bombing the central raiway station in force. Heavy artillery fire then joins the attack, closely followed by infantry and armor. Under ferocious fire, a single battalion of the 13th Guards Rifle Division attempts to hold out but is forced to give ground. Fighting as they fall back, the Soviet troops make a stand in the Nail Factory. German attacks rapidly envelop this position, hitting the Soviets from three sides as fighting rages on through the night. Fierce battles also continue in the grain elevator as elements of the 92nd Rifle Brigade fight on.

Greenland Sea

U-435 sinks the British minesweeper Leda, escorting Convoy QP-14, west of Bear Island with the loss of 14 of her crew. Survivors are picked up by the British rescue ships Rathlin and Zamalek.

A Crusader tank of 4th Light Armoured Brigade in the Western Desert, 20 September 1942.

Crusader Tank in the Western Desert

The crew of a Crusader tank prepare a meal in the Western Desert, 20 September 1942.

A Meal in the Western Desert

Norwegian Sea

U-703 torpedos the British destroyer Somali escorting Convoy QP-14. The British anti-submarine trawler Lord Middleton takes off most of the crew. A skeleton crew of 80 are left on board as the British destroyer Ashanti takes her in tow. The Somali sinks on the night of 23 September in bad weather north of Iceland. Only 35 of the skeleton crew are rescued.