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October 10th, 1942

UNITED KINGDOM: USAAF 31st Fighter Group is taken off operational status and their Spitfires are to be shipped to Gibraltar.

Submarines HMS Spirit, Vivid and Voracious laid down.

Frigates HMS Dart and Trent launched.

Minesweeper HMS Mutine launched.

Submarine HMS Spark laid down.

Destroyer HMS Melbreak commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY: The Germans set the bread ration for Allied PoWs at 800 grams (or 28.21 ounces) per day while sick prisoners are entitled to 225 grams (or 7.9 ounces) of sugar per week and the beer ration stood at 3 to 5 litres per month. Furthermore, to assure the prisoners that they were receiving an adequate food supply “it was standard practice to publish a complete menu indicating the calories and rations, thus allowing the Men of Confidence [”Vertrauensmaenner” or Camp Representatives] and the Protecting Power delegates to compare the prisoners’ menu to the official German rations. Most importantly as regards discipline, all collective disciplinary measures are prohibited by the Geneva Convention.” (175, P.55) (Peter Kilduff)

U-1161 laid down.

U-341, U-422, U-735 launched

U-197 and U-386 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

BALTIC SEA: Soviet submarine Shtsh-308 mined in Gulf of Finland. (Mikko Härmeinen)

The submerged U-339 collided in the Baltic Sea with the cruiser Nürnberg. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.S.R.: Black Sea Fleet and Azov Flotilla: ML “Comintern” - flooded at Hop river opening as a breakwater (Sergey Anisimov)(69)

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: German and Italian bomber forces begin a major offensive against the British island of Malta.

US Army, Middle East Air Force B-24s bomb shipping and the dock area at Bengasi, Libya, while B-25s hit landing grounds. (Jack McKillop)

A submarine duel occurred on this day in the Mediterranean. The British submarine P 247 fired two torpedoes at U-605, but missed. The U-boat replied with four torpedoes, but these also missed.

U class submarine HMS Unique is lost in the Mediterranean. HMS Ursula on patrol off the coast of Spain reported hearing sound of explosions like depth charges, but no Axis claims have been made for her loss and it seems likely that she was the victim of a drifting mine or an accident. (Alex Gordon)(108)

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Pirie commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

PACIFIC OCEAN: Two U.S. submarines sink a Japanese merchant transport and a collier. (Jack McKillop)

Submarine USS Tautog sinks a transport-cargo ship at 10-20 N, 108-43 E. (Dave Shirlaw)

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Fifth Air Force B-17s pound Rabaul and nearby Lakunai airfield on New Britain Island. (Jack McKillop)

USMC F4F Wildcat pilots shoot down 10 IJN floatplanes over New Georgia Sound and Rekata Bay at 0640 hours local. (Jack McKillop)

NEW GUINEA: A-20 Havocs hit targets along the Buna-Kokoda trail and, with P-400 Airacobras, strike villages in the area of Asisi and Sanananda. (Jack McKillop)

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The Eleventh Air Force dispatches 10 B-24 Liberators, 7 B-17 Flying Fortresses, and 4 P-38 Lightnings to fly 4 missions to Kiska Island; the third mission (3 B-17s) does not make contact; the others bomb and strafe the Main Camp area, hit shipping in Trout Lagoon and off South Head, where gun positions and installations are also blasted; fires are started in the Main Camp and hangar areas. (Jack McKillop)

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Westmouth and Minesweeper HMCS Milltown arrived Halifax from builder Port Arthur, Ontario.

Minesweeper HMCS Kentville commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: The record of “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter orchestra is released today. The song, featured in the motion picture “Holiday Inn” starring Crosby, Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds, remains on the best selling retail records chart for 15 week, 13 of them in first place, and goes on to become the Number 1-selling single of all time with over 30 million records sold. (Jack McKillop)

The U.S. Senate approves the largest tax bill in history. Americans will pay US$8.5 billion (US$84.2 billion in year 2000 dollars) in corporate and income taxes during 1943. (Jack McKillop)

Minesweepers USS Triumph and Logic laid down

Destroyer USS Stephen Potter laid down

Destroyer USS Aulick commissioned

Minesweeper USS Strive commissioned

Destroyers USS Bush and Spence launched.

Destroyer USS The Sullivans laid down.

Submarines USS Lapon and Balao launched.

Destroyer USS Mullany launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN:

U-172 sank SS Orcades.

U-177 encountered a US battleship with a destroyer escort, but had no opportunity to attack the ship.

On board U-442, bad weather caused an accident in which one man was badly injured.

U-436 damaged SS Frontenac, Gurney E Newlin and sank HMS LCT-2281, SS Sourabaya in Convoy HX-212.

U-509 sank SS Pacific Star and SS Stentor in Convoy SL-125.

U-604 sank SS Anglo Mærsk (already torpedoed the previous day) in Convoy SL-125.

After an explosion during torpedo loading on U-67 one man was killed. [Matrosenobergefreiter Heinz Hartmann].

The same day 3 men were washed overboard from the U-706, 2 men died but the third was saved by U-463. [Leutnant zur See Erich Eichmann, see right, Matrosenobergefreiter Ralf Köhler].

U-117 laid some mines off Iceland, but no sinkings resulted from this field.

The Canadian Pacific Steamships Line passenger liner Duchess of Atholl (20,119 GRT), Captain Moores, Master, was sunk in the South Atlantic, 200 miles east of Ascension Island, in position 07.03S, 011.12W, by U-178, KptzS Hans Ibbeken, CO. Duchess of Atholl was carrying 529 passengers, 104 from the sinking of Princess Marguerite (sunk on 17 Aug) and 37 from SS Gazcon. Only four crewmembers were lost in the original explosion and all 821 survivors were able to abandon the ship into lifeboats as the ship sank slowly on an even keel. HMS Corinthian, an armed merchant cruiser, rescued the survivors the next morning after speeding to the scene upon hearing their distress signal. (Dave Shirlaw)