September 1942

September

• 01

  • The Seabees on GuadalcanalOn 1 September 1942, 392 men of the 6th Naval Construction Battalion landed on Guadalcanal to finish Henderson Field and keep it working under fire.
• 02

  • The execution of Tom Williams and rioting in BelfastOn 2 September 1942 the 19-year-old IRA member Tom Williams was hanged in Belfast. In the days that followed the IRA attacked the police in Northern Ireland.
• 03

  • Key eventThe fighting for Stalingrad beginsOn 3 September 1942 the wings of the 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army met outside Stalingrad as Soviet armies fell back to the suburbs. The battle reached the city.
• 04

  • Groves takes over the Manhattan ProjectIn September 1942 Colonel Leslie Groves took charge of the US atomic programme. Within days he secured uranium, a site in Tennessee and top priority.
  • The forced labour law in FranceOn 4 September 1942 the Vichy government passed a law allowing men and women to be directed to work chosen by the state. It was used to send workers to Germany.
• 05

  • The end of the Battle of Milne BayOn 5 September 1942 the Japanese ordered their shattered landing force evacuated from Milne Bay – the first such complete defeat of Japanese land forces.
• 06

  • The Germans take NovorossiyskOn 6 September 1942 German and Romanian troops broke into Novorossiysk, a Black Sea Fleet base. They took most of the city, but not the bay's eastern shore.
• 09

  • Japanese incendiary bombs over OregonIn September 1942 a floatplane from the submarine I-25 twice dropped incendiary bombs on Oregon's forests – the only enemy air raids on the contiguous US.
• 10

  • The raid on DüsseldorfOn the night of 10–11 September 1942 the RAF sent 479 aircraft against Düsseldorf. The Pathfinders marked the target well and the city suffered heavy damage.
• 12

  • Key eventThe sinking of the LaconiaOn 12 September 1942 U-156 sank the troopship Laconia with 1,800 Italian POWs aboard. The rescue that followed ended in Dönitz's Laconia Order.
  • The deportation of Jews from Stanisławów to BełżecOn 12 September 1942, Rosh Hashanah, German police rounded up thousands of Jews in the Stanisławów ghetto and sent them to their deaths at the Bełżec camp.
  • The Battle of Bloody RidgeOn the nights of 12–13 and 13–14 September 1942 Kawaguchi's brigade attacked the ridge south of Henderson Field. Edson's Marines barely held it.
• 13

  • Chuikov takes command of the 62nd ArmyOn 13 September 1942 the Germans stormed central Stalingrad, held by General Vasily Chuikov, who a day earlier took over the 62nd Army, pinned to the Volga.
• 14

  • The Japanese at IoribaiwaOn 14 September 1942 the Japanese attacked at Ioribaiwa, in the mountains above Port Moresby. The Australians fell back to Imita, but the enemy got no further.
  • Convoys PQ 18 and ON 127On 13–14 September 1942 aircraft and U-boats sank 12 ships of convoy PQ 18 to the USSR, while a wolf pack in the mid-Atlantic mauled convoy ON 127.
• 15

  • Americans in Port MoresbyOn 15 September 1942 the first company of the US 32nd Division flew into Port Moresby. Two regiments followed – one by air, the other by sea.
  • The sinking of USS WaspOn 15 September 1942 the Japanese submarine I-19 torpedoed the carrier Wasp, covering a convoy to Guadalcanal. 193 men died and the blazing ship was scuttled.
• 18

  • The fighting for the grain elevator in StalingradFrom 14 September the Germans assaulted the grain elevator in southern Stalingrad. Guardsmen and sailors of the 92nd Brigade held it until 22 September.
• 19

  • Operation AgreementIn September 1942 the British raided Rommel’s rear at Tobruk, Benghazi, Barce and Jalo. Only the airfield raid worked; on 19 September Jalo held out.
• 20

  • The PEAN bombing in AthensOn 20 September 1942 the resistance group PEAN blew up the Athens offices of ESPO, a collaborationist party recruiting Greeks to fight for Germany in the east.
• 23

  • Rommel leaves AfricaOn 23 September 1942 a sick Field Marshal Rommel flew out of Africa for treatment. General Georg Stumme took over Panzer Army Africa at El Alamein.
  • The fighting on the MatanikauOn 23–27 September 1942 the Marines attacked the Japanese on the Matanikau on Guadalcanal. The attack failed; surrounded companies were taken off by boat.
• 28

  • The Japanese retreat along the Kokoda TrackOn 28 September 1942 the Australians attacked Ioribaiwa and found the trenches empty. Horii’s starving, cut-off force was already falling back towards Kokoda.
• 29

  • The Eagle Squadrons join the USAAFOn 29 September 1942 at Debden, the RAF's three Eagle Squadrons of American volunteers transferred to the US air force as the 4th Fighter Group.
• 30

  • Hitler's Sportpalast speech of 1942On 30 September 1942 Hitler opened the Winter Relief drive at the Sportpalast, vowing Stalingrad would fall and threatening that the Jews would “stop laughing”.