Posted on 09/03/2012 5:27:37 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Richard Tregaskis, Guadalcanal Diary
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/sep42/f03sep42.htm
New Zealanders battling Germans
Thursday, September 3, 1942 www.onwar.com
New Zealand Division soldiers attacking [photo at link]
In North Africa... British General Montgomery orders the New Zealand Division positioned at Alam Nayil south to threaten the German retreat. They encounter heavy fighting on the way and make little progress.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
September 3rd, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: London: A reciprocal lend-lease deal is signed by Britain, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and the Free French.
Submarine HMS Viking is laid down. Destroyer HMS Obdurate is commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
On 27 August, the USN’s transport USS Wakefield (AP-21, ex SS Manhattan) departed the Clyde estuary as part of Convoy TA-18, bound for New York City. During this evening, fire breaks out deep within the bowels of the ship and spreads rapidly. In the port column of the formation, Wakefield swings to port to run before the wind while fire-fighting begins immediately. Ready-use ammunition is thrown overboard to prevent detonation, code room publications are secured, and sick bay and brig inmates are released. The destroyer USS Mayo (DD-422) and light cruiser USS Brooklyn (CL-40) close to windward to take off passengers, a badly-burned officer, and members of the crew not needed to man pumps and hoses. Other survivors were disembarked by boat and raft, to be picked up by the screening ships. At 2100 hours, USS Brooklyn again comes alongside to remove the remainder of the crew, while a special salvage detail boards the ship.
On 5 September, towing operations commenced, and the transport nosed aground at McNab’s Cove, near Halifax, Nova Scotia, at 1740 hours on the 8th. When fire-fighting details arrived alongside to board and commence the mammoth operation, fires still burned in three holds and in the crew’s quarters on two deck levels. The last flames were extinguished 4 days later, and the ship was re floated on the 14th. While USS Wakefield was undergoing partial repairs in Halifax harbor, a torrential rainstorm threatened to fill the damaged ship with water and capsize her at her berth. Torrents of rain, at times in cloud-burst proportions, poured into the ship and caused her to list heavily. Salvage crews, meanwhile, cut holes in the ship’s sides above the waterline, draining away the water to permit the ship to regain an even keel. For the next 10 days, the salvagers engaged in extensive initial repair work-cleaning up the ship, pumping out debris, patching up holes, and preparing the vessel for her voyage to the Boston, Massachusetts Navy Yard for complete rebuilding.
Temporarily decommissioned, the charred liner proceeded to Boston with a four-tug tow, and was declared a “constructive total loss.” The Government purchased the hulk from the United States Lines and stripped the vessel to the waterline. The repairs and alterations began in the fall of 1942, and lasted through 1943. On 10 February 1944, USS Wakefield was recommissioned at Boston. (Jack McKillop)
Channel Islands: British commandos captured seven German soldiers and seized codebooks during a raid on a lighthouse last night.
ENGLISH CHANNEL: Flying at 24,000 feet over the Channel off Shoreham, Sussex, yesterday, an 18-year-old Canadian Spitfire pilot shot a raider into the sea. Then he helped rescue the wounded German pilot. “I saw him inflate his dinghy,” said the Canadian sergeant, “but he was too badly wounded to get into it. I circled over him until he was rescued by a naval launch which my companion and I in the Spitfire guided to the spot.” (8)
Daily Herald
GERMANY: U-678 and U-679 are laid down. U-645 and U-646 are launched. U-638 is commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: Stalingrad: Units of the German 6.Armee (von Paulus) penetrate the city’s western and northern suburbs after having joined up with forward elements of 4.Panzer-Armee (Hoth) advancing from the south. (Jack McKillop)
Stalin orders an immediate attack to relieve pressure on the defenders.
SPAIN: Madrid: General Franco has fired three key ministers in a rebuff to Spain’s Fascist party, the Falange. The most senior man to go is his own brother-in-law, Ramon Serrano Suner, the foreign minister and Falangist chief. His German sympathies have angered the Spanish army, which is fiercely nationalistic and resents the idea of being a pawn of Hitler. The new foreign minister is a general, Gomez Jordana.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA:U-375 sinks Palestinian vessels Miriram and Arnon. (Dave Shirlaw)
USAAF OPERATIONS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (U.S. Army, Middle East Air Forces): B-24 Liberators attack a convoy at sea and B-25s hit troop concentrations, vehicles, and airfield installations in the battle area of Alam-el-Halfa, Egypt and behind enemy lines; P-40s, mostly operating with the RAF, escort bombers and engage fighters in combat, claiming at least 1 shot down. (Jack McKillop)
EGYPT: At El Alamein, Operation BERESFORD is initiated by the 2 New Zealand Division and the British 132 Brigade; the objective is Rommel’s weakest point, Munassib. 132 Brigade runs into the determined paratroopers of the German Ramcke Brigade and the Italian Folgore Division, both eager to prove their abilities. The advance turns into a mess of confused communications, burning trucks, and disintegration when brigade commander is wounded. The New Zealand, 21and 28 Battalions, do better, with the force charging through their depression. The Maoris take 50 POWs, both take their objectives, but run into heavy German resistance. The Germans suffer another 2,450 casualties, lose 50 guns and 400 AFVs and 10,000 tons of fuel is used up. Because of his losses, Rommel adopts Marshall Graziani’s “Capisaldi” (strong points) defence used in 1940 for the very same reasons, i.e., too weak to attack, no resources for a mobile defence and an order not to retreat. A final stand is set for El Alamein. (Jack McKillop)
As Rommel’s Panzers retreat, badly savaged and harassed all the way by the British infantry and the Desert Air Force, it is the turn of the Allies to capture the booty of war. The Germans and Italians were facing a serious fuel shortage when they attacked, and now the desert is littered with abandoned Axis vehicles.
British engineers have been assigned the task of disabling these tanks. One engineer, Sapper Irvine Adam of Paisley, near Glasgow, told how he was ordered to blow up a slightly damaged German tank, “I had just a minute to get away before it blew,” he said.
USAAF OPERATIONS IN THE CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER OF OPERATIONS (10th Air Force): In French Indochina, China Air Task Force B-25 Mitchells dump bombs and pamphlets on Hanoi in the first US raid against that city; munitions, supplies, and several parked aircraft are destroyed or damaged; 9 interceptors pursue the B-25s for about 30 miles (48 km) but fail to make contact. For the next 3 weeks, bad weather and inaccurate Chinese weather forecasts severely limit bomber operations. (Jack McKillop)
NEW GUINEA: 1,000 Japanese landed last night to reinforce the Buna garrison.
USAAF OPERATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA (5th Air Force): Lieutenant General George C. Kenney assumes command of the 5th Air Force in Brisbane, Australia, where the 5th’s HQ is remanned; the 5th has not functioned as an air force since February 1942 while USAAF units served under the control of the American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command and later the Allied Air Forces. General Kenney retains command of the Allied Air Forces. In New Guinea, Japanese warships begin removing troops from Milne Bay area. P-400 Airacobras bomb and strafe the Kokoda Pass area, hitting the airfield at Kokoda and in the vicinity of Alola, Isurava, and Missima; B-25s and A-20 Havocs pound the Mubo-Busama-Salamaua area. A B-17 Flying Fortress strafes seaplanes at Faisi Island in the Shortland Islands. (Jack McKillop)
JAPAN: Tokyo: The foreign minister Shigenori Togo, the only civilian in the cabinet, resigns “for personal reasons”; the war minister and premier, Hideki Tojo, takes over his portfolio for the time being.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: USAAF OPERATIONS IN ALASKA (11th Air Force): In the Aleutian Islands, 6 bombers and 5 P-38 Lightnings are dispatched to bomb Kiska Island and fly air cover over Kuluk Bay, Adak Island but 5 bombers and 3 fighters abort due to weather; the others strafe seaplanes and boats in Kiska Harbor and nearby installations claiming 1-4 seaplanes destroyed on the water. This is the longest over-water attack flight thus far in World War II; the 2 fighters which reach the target area return from the 1,260 mile (2,028 km) round trip with only 40 US gallons (151 liters) of fuel left. (Jack McKillop)
CANADA: Reciprocal Lend-Lease agreements with the United States and its armed forces are signed. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Frank Sinatra bids adieu to the Tommy Dorsey Band and his Orchestra as he starts his solo singing career. (Jack McKillop)
CARIBBEAN SEA: U-162 (Type IXC) is sunk in the Caribbean Sea near Trinidad, at position 12.21N, 59.29W, by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS Vimy , HMS Pathfinder and HMS Quentin. 2 dead, 49 survivors. (Alex Gordon)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-705 (Type VIIC) is sunk in the Bay of Biscay west of Brest, France, at position 46.42N, 11.07W, by depth charges from a British Whitley aircraft (Sqdn. 77/P). 45 dead (all crew lost). (Alex Gordon)
Baldwin’s article about the lack of a Japanese submarine presence on the west coast was interesting. Not even Baldwin seemed aware that the Japanese had excellent submarines and torpedoes but didn’t know how to employ them effectively.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cactus_Air_Force
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Geiger
On September 3, 1942, the fortunes of the beleaguered aviators changed with the arrival of Brigadier General Roy Geiger on board the first SCAT plane to land on the island, an R4D Skytrain.[19] As the “Commander, Aircraft, Guadalcanal” (ComAirCACTUS) and the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, Geiger set up his headquarters in a wooden Japanese pagoda that was up on a hill about 200 yards (180 m) from the airfield. Through his energy, example and sheer force of personality he raised the collective spirits of the squadron’s survivors. He was described as “...curt, cold and some said ruthless....he was determined to squeeze the ultimate ounce of performance from men and machines”.[20] During his time in command, it was said that there was a “sense of desperation but never defeatism,”[21] Ultimately, the strain of command and harsh living conditions seriously fatigued, both mentally and physically, the then 57 year old Geiger. Geiger turned over the command on November 7 to his Chief of Staff, Brigadier General Louis E. Woods.[22][23]
Roy Stanley Geiger
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