August 15th, 1942 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeper HMS Antares launched.
Rescue tug HMS Oriana is launched.
GERMANY: Vickers Wellington heavy bombers of Nos. 109 and 156 Squadrons join the newly-formed Pathfinder Force of Bomber Command. (22)
U-189, U-358 and U-759 commissioned.
U-272 launched.
U-862 laid down.
EUROPE: 5,000 Jews from Vichy France are rounded up for deportation to Auschwitz; in Zagrodski, in Poland, German troops shoot dead 500 Jewish families.
U.S.S.R.:
German forces continue to advance in the Caucasus especially around Gerogivesk.Moscow: In four days of talks with Stalin in the Kremlin, Churchill gave the Soviet leader a detailed explanation of the Anglo-American plans for driving the Germans and Italians out of North Africa and then mounting an attack on the European mainland, in southern Italy.
Stalin was not well pleased with the Germans at the gates of Stalingrad, on the Volga river and striking deep into the Caucasus, he wanted an Allied second front in western Europe. Churchill argued that a thrust into Italy would put pressure on Hitler to draw off forces from the Soviet front.
Before leaving Moscow to return to London, Churchill sent a message to Stalin thanking him for his "comradely attitude" and adding: "I am very glad to have visited Moscow, firstly because it was my duty to speak my mind, and secondly because I am certain that our contact will play a useful part in furthering our cause."
Churchill flew to Moscow in an American Liberator with a US Ferry Command pilot. His aircraft and two others carrying military and diplomatic advisers were escorted on the final stage of their journey by Red Air Force fighters. The British prime minister broke his journey to Moscow with a stop in Cairo for talks with British military leaders.
Finnish Patrol Boat VMV 5 sinks enemy sub. M 97 at Suursaari by depth charges.
MALTA: Today is the feast of Saint Marija in Malta, and tonight the churches of Valetta are filled with worshippers celebrating both the saint and the miracle of the battered tanker OHIO and four other ships unloading their cargoes in the harbour. If these ships had not managed to reach Malta, the island would certainly have been forced by hunger to surrender. The date 6 September - had already been broadcast by the governor.
No convoy has been so powerfully escorted. Four aircraft carriers, HMS Victorious, HMS INDOMITABLE, HMS EAGLE and HMS FURIOUS - which carried Spitfire reinforcements - joined the battleships HMS NELSON and HMS RODNEY, together with the cruisers, HMS NIGERIA, KENYA and MANCHESTER, the anti-aircraft cruiser HMS CAIRO and a host of destroyers. Eight submarines were stationed to combat any surface attackers. The convoy sailed through Gibraltar on 10 August. A major setback came the following day. At 1.30pm HMS EAGLE was hit by four torpedoes and sank quickly; 900 of her 1,610 crew rescued. Later, 36 German bombers struck at the convoy but scored no hits.
At noon on 12 August 80 aircraft appeared from the direction of Sicily but were driven off. The VICTORIOUS was hit by a bomb that failed to explode and the merchant ship DEUCALION was damaged by a near miss; later in the day she was sunk by torpedo-bombers.
Ordeal by submarine was to follow, but no ship was hit and an Italian U-boat was rammed and sunk by HMS ITHURIEL. In the early evening more air attacks began, and four bombs put the carrier INDOMITABLE's flight deck out of action. Then the Italian submarine AXUM succeeded in torpedoing the NIGERIA, the CAIRO and the OHIO.
At dusk another carefully synchronised air attack sank two merchant ships and slightly damaged the KENYA. E-boats were the next menace as the convoy rounded Cape Bon at midnight. Five more merchantmen were sunk, and the MANCHESTER was scuttled later.
Dawn brought continuous air attacks from enemy airfields less than 100 miles away.The WAIMARAMA carrying ammunition and petrol, blew up. The MV DORSET was overwhelmed by a hail of bombs but, under protection of RAF fighters from Malta, three ships limped into the Grand Harbour. Next day the damaged MV BRISBANE STAR arrived. This left the OHIO with her important cargo of fuel, hit five times and under tow for the last 40 miles. At two knots she arrived to cheers today - Malta was saved.
MALTA: Capt. Dudley William Mason (b.1901) and the crew of the stricken tanker SS OHIO brought her into port after five days of constant attacks. (George Cross)
EGYPT: Cairo: Until now the name of General Sir Harold Alexander, the new Commander-in-Chief Middle East, has been associated with the two great retreats of this war - Dunkirk and in Burma. No one can deny, however, that he conducted them both brilliantly.
At Dunkirk, Alexander was the last to leave the beaches and toured them at dusk to ensure that no one was left behind. In Burma, he succeeded in bringing four-fifths of his men safely across the mountains into India - having fought all the way against the better equipped Japanese. Politically, he will make an excellent foil to Montgomery; but now the challenge is to attack.
NORTH AFRICA: At school they say, he was good at games, but refused to play unless he was the captain. He is arrogant, brusque and so far little known. Bernard Law Montgomery, the new commander of the British Eighth Army in North Africa, is a diminutive professional soldier with sharp features, bird-like eyes, and the total certainty that God is on his side. He won the DSO and was seriously wounded during the First World War. Twenty years later, in much the same part of France and Belgium, he commanded the 3rd Division before the retreat from Dunkirk. Now "Monty" faces his greatest challenge: defeating the "Desert Fox."
NEW GUINEA: 3,000 Japanese reinforcements land. (William L. Howard)
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Shepperton is launched.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Guadalcanal: 4 APDs (converted WWI Wickes class DDs) land the first supplies, aviation fuel and CUB 1 (aircraft maintenance unit) on Guadalcanal.
Martin Clements, coastwatcher, Jacob Vouza and other natives arrive at the Lunga perimeter on Guadalcanal. This group will become an important part of the scouting and intelligence for the 1st MarDiv in the campaign.
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Digby arrived Halifax from builder Quebec City, Province of Quebec.
Tug HMCS Kingsville assigned to Bay of Bulls, Newfoundland.
Corvette HMCS Atholl laid down Quebec City, Province of Quebec
Tug HMCS Glendower laid down Owen Sound, Ontario. Corvette HMCS Atholl laid down.
U.S.A.: Submarines USS Pompon and Snook launched. Submarine USS Hackleback is launched.
Minesweeper USS Threat launched.
Destroyer USS Waller launched.
Destroyers USS Boyle and Butler commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-705 sank SS Balladier in Convoy SC-95.