August 9th, 1942
(SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The first aerial victory by a Hawker Typhoon is scored today when a plane of No. 266 Squadron RAF shoots down a Ju-88. (22)
POLAND: Auschwitz: Edith Stein a Catholic nun of Jewish
parentage, is murdered in the gas chamber.
U.S.S.R.: In the Caucasus, Maykop, falls to the German 1st Panzer Army and Krasnodar falls to the 17th Army.
The retreating Russians have demolished the oil installations at Maykop.
Ukraine, Kiev: The Start Stadium is the site of the so-called Death Match. A team of Ukrainian football players defeat a military team of Germans thought to be from artillery and perhaps Luftwaffe units.
According to local folklore the Germans warned the local team beforehand or at halftime that it had better lose the match. When the Ukrainians ignored the threat and won, key members of the team were killed in retribution.
The final score was 5-3. That much seems widely agreed upon. And four or five Ukrainian players did die within six months of the game, according to various accounts. Were they killed because they won a soccer match? All the participants are believed to be dead. The truth remains elusive. One player who popularized the legend seemed to tell as many versions of the story as there were goals in the match, both burnishing the myth and betraying it. More
INDIA: Mahatma Ghandi is arrested by the British authorities after riots across the country for independence
SOLOMON ISLANDS: The US Navy
suffered a sharp reverse off Guadalcanal today when a Japanese night attack
overwhelmed Allied naval units near Savo Island, sinking three American and one
Australian cruiser. The US cruisers lost were the Vincennes, Astoria and Quincy,
together with the Canberra, of the Royal Australian Navy. They were all caught
by surprise when two radar equipped American destroyers patrolling off Savo
Island failed to detect the approach of the Japanese.
Over 1,000 Allied sailors are feared to have died. However, a vital target, the
transports supporting the US invasion of Guadalcanal, was untouched. The Japanese attacking force of seven cruisers and
one destroyer escaped detection in its high speed dash from Rabaul and suffered
very little damage.
Shortly after 1:00 am the IJN 8th Fleet commanded by Admiral Mikawa, passes Savo Island. His force is prepared for battle and shielded by weather. The US and Australian ships are dulled by the fatigue and trust in radar.
The Allied naval forces split into two groups and patrol east of Savo Island while the transports and cargo ships remain off Tulagi and Guadalcanal. The northern group consists of the heavy cruisers USS Astoria (CA-34), USS Quincy (CA-39) and Vincennes (CA-44) and 2 destroyers. The southern force consists of the heavy cruisers HMAS Canberra and USS Chicago (CA-29) and the destroyers USS Bagley (DD-386) and USS Patterson (DD-392). At approximately 0140 hours local, the Battle of Savo Island commences. The Japanese task force of 4 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers and a destroyer spotted and reported yesterday by an RAAF Hudson, evades the US destroyer USS Blue (DD-387) and sails down the channel to the west of Savo Island and, after sailing around the southern part of Savo, attacks the southern force.
The destroyer Patterson saw the
Japanese force approaching and signalled: "Warning, Warning, strange ships
entering harbour." But it was too late. The Japanese commander had given
the order "every ship attack": torpedoes were on their way to the
unsuspecting Allied ships.
Brilliant flares dropped by Japanese float planes silhouetted the US cruiser
Chicago and the Canberra as the Japanese cruisers opened fire.
HMAS Canberra is hit by a torpedo, possibly from USS Bagley, and Japanese gunfire from IJN Chokai Aoba, Kako, Kinugasa and Furutaka; USS Chicago is also damaged by a Japanese torpedo; and USS Patterson is damaged by gunfire. USS Chicago and USS Patterson return fire and damage a Japanese cruiser however, no alert is sent to the Allied northern force. The Japanese force then divides-inadvertently-into two separate groups and turns generally northeast passing on either side of the three US cruisers. USS Astoria is sunk by the gunfire of 4 Japanese heavy cruisers; USS Quincy is sunk by gunfire of 3 heavy cruisers and a light cruiser and is torpedoed by a light cruiser; and USS Vincennes is sunk by gunfire and a torpedo from a heavy cruiser. The Japanese do not fire does not go unanswered; gunfire from USS Astoria and USS Quincy damages the Japanese flagship while shellfire from USS Quincy damages a heavy cruiser.
In the morning, HMAS Canberra is deemed beyond salvage and is later sunk by the destroyers USS Ellett (DD-398) and USS Selfridge (DD-357) south of Savo Island at 09 15S, 159 40E. There are 84 survivors. The Japanese make a big mistake and withdraw rather than attack the transport and cargo ships. The Americans also have a large problem. Since the 3 aircraft carriers withdrew yesterday, and there are no aircraft on Guadalcanal and 4 heavy cruisers have been sunk, the surface vessels have no air or surface support and all are withdrawn leaving the 17,000 Marines and sailors ashore with only half of their supplies.
During the day the Marines consolidate their lines and
defences on Guadalcanal. Admiral
Turner continues unloading supplies and men until he departs at sunset. He leaves
promising aircraft for the still uncompleted Henderson Field by the 11th.
Despite a 50-foot (15.24 meter) gash in her side, the USN destroyer USS Jarvis (DD-393), which was severely damaged by a torpedo yesterday off Guadalcanal, is considered seaworthy and ordered to proceed under cover of darkness to Efate, New Hebrides. Apparently unaware of the order, her captain, decided to steam to Sidney, Australia, for immediate repairs.
Unnoticed by her own ships, USS Jarvis departed Tulagi at 0000 hours local and moved slowly westward through "Ironbottom Sound" and between Savo Island and Cape Esperance. At 0134 hours she passed 3,000 yards (2,743 meters) northward of Rear Admiral Mikawa's cruisers, steaming to meet the Americans at the Battle of Savo Island. Mistaking her for a cruiser of the New Zealand Achilles-class, they fired torpedoes, and destroyer Yunagi later engaged her briefly, all without effect. The destroyer, continuing to retire westward, had little speed, no radio communications, and few operative guns; but she refused aid from the destroyer USS Blue (DD-378) upon being sighted at 0325 hours. After daybreak, a scout plane from the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) sighted her 40 miles (64.4 km) off Guadalcanal, trailing fuel oil and down by the bow. That was the last time Americans saw her.
The Japanese, however, still mistaking Jarvis for an escaping cruiser, dispatched 31 planes from Rabaul to search out and destroy her. Once discovered, the badly damaged destroyer was torpedoed and, according to Japanese records, "split and sank" at 1300 hours on 9 August with the loss of all hands.
In support of operations in the Solomon Islands, USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses of the Allied Air Forces bomb shipping and airfields at Rabaul, New Britain Island and Gasmata Island off the southern coast of New Britain Island. (Jack McKillop and Alex Gordon(108))
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: 6 USAAF 11th Air Force
bombers fly armed reconnaissance over Kiska and Attu Islands and then bomb Kiska.
U.S.A.: Nazi saboteurs plough arrows into a field in Long
Island indicating the whereabouts of Mitchell Field air base.
The German submarine U-98 sows mines at the mouth of the St Johns River east of Jacksonville, Florida.
The 15-minute radio show "Our Secret Weapon," sponsored by Philco, debuts on CBS on Sundays at 1900 hours Eastern Time. The most outrageous lies transmitted by the Axis shortwave radio stations were read and then countered by Rex Stout the author of the Nero Wolfe detective stories. For example, when the Germans claimed that the best major league baseball players were all German, Stout replied, "They've got the facts, no getting away from it. Take the six leading batters in the major leagues -- Williams, Gordon, Wright, Reiser, Lombardi, Medwick. Some bunch of Germans. Also the great German prize-fighter, Joe Louis." The show remained on the air until 8 October 1943.
During WW II, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) produced
numerous documents, most commonly known are the Intelligence Bulletins. The
Military Intelligence Special Series commences with "British Commandos, Origins,
Training, Eval." (William L. Howard)
CARIBBEAN SEA: Apprentice Donald Owen Clarke (b.1923) died after rowing for two hours to pull a full lifeboat away from his torpedoed tanker, despite severe burns to his hands - which had to be cut free - face and legs. (George Cross)
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-130 sinks SS Malmanger
U-155 sinks SS San Emiliano
U-176 sinks SS Radchurch in
Convoy SC-94.
U-752 sinks SS Mendanau.