Posted on 09/06/2012 4:43:01 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Richard Tregaskis, Guadalcanal Diary
The News of the Week in Review
Twenty News Questions – 11
British Are Determined to Crush Rommel Now (Kluckhohn) – 12-13
Pacific Outlook is Improved (Darnton) – 13
Eight Focal Points in the Pacific Theatre of War (map) – 14
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 15
The New York Times Magazine
The WAAGs (by H.I. Brock, first-time contributor) – 16-19
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/sep42/f06sep42.htm
Germans advancing in Caucasus
Sunday, September 6, 1942 www.onwar.com
On the Eastern Front... Elements of German Army Group A capture Novorossiysk.
In North Africa... The fighting around Alam Halfa ends. The Germans have fought their way back to their original positions. German intelligence reports that the British 8th Army is scheduled to receive large reinforcements and supplies. Rommel begins to prepare an elaborate labrinyth of boob traps and minefields as well as barbed wire defenses.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
September 6th, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: The Messerschmitt Me210 is first used over Britain; two are shot down by Hawker Typhoons over the North Yorkshire coast.
USAAF OPERATIONS IN THE EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (8th Air Force): The VIII Bomber Command flies Mission 10: 76 bombers and 37 fighters in 3 forces attack targets in France; 2 B-17 Flying Fortresses are lost.
(1) 12 DB-7s attack Drucat Airfield at Abbeville at 1702 hours; escort is provided by 37 Spitfires;
(2) 30 B-17s, 30 attack the Avions Potez aircraft plant at Meaulte at 1740-1748 hours; they claim 4-19-20 Luftwaffe aircraft; 2 B-17s are lost (this is the VIII Bomber Command’s first loss of aircraft in combat); and
(3) 11 B-17s, 11 hit Longuenesse Airfield at St Omer and 2 Ft Rouge Airfield at St Omer without loss. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.S.R.: In Stalingrad, heavy house-to-house fighting continues in the center of the city while both sides bring up reinforcements. (Jack McKillop)
EGYPT: The battle of Alam Halfa ends with the Germans back in their original positions. The supply position of the British 8th Army makes the difference in this battle.
British 8th Army commander Bernard Montgomery tells visiting U. S. envoy Wendell Wilkie that 300 U. S.-built Sherman tanks have arrived in Port Said and will be in the forefront of his attack on Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps. Montgomery says the climactic battle near El Alamein will begin next month. (Jack McKillop)
In the air, U.S. Army, Middle East Air Forces P-40s fly an offensive sweep over the battle area near the Rayil Dayr Ar Depression, claiming 3 Ju 87s shot down; P-40s also escort RAF bombers and fly 2 interceptor missions. (Jack McKillop)
NEW GUINEA: The Australian 2/14th and 2/16th Battalions withdraw 15 miles (24 kilometres) to Efogi Spur beyond Gap Mountain, where defensive positions are already established. Despite this retreat, the Japanese are suffering, savaged by Australian fire-discipline and Bren guns and by tropical diseases. Allied troops enjoy a medical superiority in sulfa drugs that the Japanese do not have. At Milne Bay, the Japanese retreat and destroyers sail into the bay to start withdrawing their defeated men. (Jack McKillop)
In the air, USAAF 5th Air Force P-400 Airacobras, A-20 Havocs, and B-17s strafe and bomb positions, troops, and shipping at Myola, Mubo, Kokoda, Myola Lake, Eora Creek, and Milne Bay. (Jack McKillop)
TONGA ISLANDS: The U. S. Navy suffers a serious setback when the fast, new battleship USS South Dakota (BB-57) strikes an uncharted corral pinnacle in Lahai Passage, Tongatabu Island, and suffers extensive damage to her hull. USS South Dakota is one of only three modern battleships in the Pacific Fleet and its temporary loss is keenly felt. She will return to Pearl Harbor for repairs on 12 September and will not return to the fleet until 12 October. (Jack McKillop)
SOLOMON ISLANDS: 11 SBD Dauntlesses attack Japanese installations on Gizo Island. Meanwhile, 12 SBDs of the Scouting Squadron Three (VS-3) in USS Saratoga (CV-3) arrive at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal for duty with the Cactus Air Force. (Jack McKillop)
USAAF OPERATIONS IN ALASKA (11th Air Force): In the Aleutians, a B-24 Liberator flying patrol and armed reconnaissance over Tanaga Island, attacks an IJN mine layer and strafes a tender as well as nearby tents and buildings. (Jack McKillop)
CARIBBEAN SEA: The Canadian Upper Lakes and St. Lawrence Transportation Co. bulk laker John A Holloway (1,745 GRT) was sunk by a torpedo from U-164, KKpt. Otto Fechner, CO, in the Caribbean Sea, in position 14.10N, 071.30W. The ship was on route with a cargo comprised mainly of construction materials from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Trinidad, where she was to load bauxite. One crewmember was lost. U-164 surfaced after the attack and questioned the survivors, who had taken to two lifeboats and two rafts. The 23 survivors sailed in the lifeboats to Santa Marta, Columbia. The first boat arrived at 1900 on 12 Sep and the second arrived after midnight on the 13th. Although they were suffering from dehydration, there were no casualties while in the boats. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
Armed yacht HMCS Raccoon (no survivors) and SS Aeas (29 survivors) sunk by U-165 in Convoy QS-33.
U-109 sank SS Tuscan Star.
U-375 sank SS Turkian.
U-514 sank SS Helen Forsey. (Dave Shirlaw)
"The Lódz Ghetto deportations often separated families--husbands from wives, parents from children.
Saying goodbye to loved ones being deported was a traumatic experience.
In the vast majority of cases, family members would never see each other again."
"Many of the victims of the Gehsperre deportations, from the Lódz Ghetto in September 1942, sought to escape their fate by fleeing.
But those attempting to elude deportation were summarily shot.
This photograph shows Jewish policemen--who had been promised that their children would be spared if they participated--rounding up women and children attempting to escape from the assembly point at the Jewish hospital on Drewnowska Street."
"This man was among the many killed during the Gehsperre action in Lódz, even before the deportation to Chelmno.
The action proceeded with unprecedented speed, beginning with the sick in the hospitals and moving on to the elderly and children.
People were transported in five-ton trucks to the train station outside the ghetto, where they were shipped to the death camp in trains or trucks.
Some were even forced to walk.
Often friends and family did not know that someone had been deported until well after he or she was gone.
Operation Gehsperre was part of a larger effort, Operation Reinhard, to kill all of the Jews in the Generalgouvernement."
Both questions 1 & 2 are amazing!
I knew of the USS Panay, but not it's full significance.
But question 2 is even more significant: it shows that at their peaks, Germany and Japan conquered territory almost 90% as large as the Continental United States, but three times the population, and more population than the US, Russia and British Empire combined -- not including India, of course.
So at this point in the war, a lot of the odds are fairly even -- providing the Axis powers can harness all their human and natural resources effectively...
boob traps? Where can I get those?
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