September 4th, 1942 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Belfast: Police clash with IRA gunmen in street battles.
Corvette HMS Cornel is launched.
NETHERLANDS: Three RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons lay mines in the Frisian Islands
GERMANY:
During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatches six Mosquitos and three bombed the Cologne, Essen and Münster areas through thick cloud without loss. During the night of 4/5 September, 251 aircraft, 98 Wellingtons, 76 Lancasters, 41 Halifaxes and 36 Stirlings, are dispatched to bomb Bremen. The Pathfinders introduced new techniques on this night, splitting their aircraft into three forces: 'illuminators', who lit up the area with white flares; 'visual markers', who dropped coloured flares if they had identified the aiming point; then 'backers-up', who dropped all-incendiary bomb loads on to the coloured flares. This basic pattern - illuminating, marking and backing-up - would form the basis of most future Pathfinder operations with proper target-indicator bombs and various electronic bombing aids being employed as they became available. The weather is clear and the Pathfinder plan worked well; heavy bombing of the target followed by 221 aircraft. Bremen confirms that this is a successful raid. Among the industrial buildings seriously hit are the Weser aircraft works and the Atlas shipyard. Four dockside warehouses are destroyed and three oil-storage tanks are burnt out. Various public buildings together with seven schools and three hospitals are hit. One hundred twenty four people are killed and 470 injured. Six aircraft bomb five other targets of opportunity.
U-241 and U-548 are laid down.
HUNGARY: Soviet planes bomb Budapest in the war's first air raid on the Hungarian capital.
U.S.S.R.: The Germans attack at Stalingrad, splitting Soviet 64th Army and driving to the Volga at Krasnoarmeisk. The city has been under continuous bombardment by over 1000 Luftwaffe aircraft for 24 hours.
RAF No. 144 Squadron equipped with Hampden Mk. Is flies
from Britain to Africa and, Russia, to provide protection for Arctic convoys.
Nine of the Hampdens are lost, either running out of fuel and being forced to
crash land in Sweden, or, in one case, being accidentally shot down by Soviet
aircraft as they approach the Russian coast. Even in the water, the Soviets keep
firing on the crew, until their shouts of "Angliski!" over the radio
are recognized. One Hampden is forced to land in Norway and the crew is captured
before they can burn the plane which contains secret documents about the
imminent convoy PQ 18.
Black
Sea Fleet and Azov Flotilla: GB "Rostov-Don" and
GB "Octyabr" exploded by crew to prevent capturing, on Kuban river (Sergey
Anisimov)(69)
GREECE: Colonel David Sutherland is part of a 12-man Special Boat Service unit which is making a raid on the occupied island of Rhodes.
At midnight the unit is landed by the Greek submarine Papanikolis; they had no radio, and were instructed to live off the land for the next fortnight. With three Royal Marines and two Greeks, Sutherland successfully blew up three Italian aircraft and a fuel dump, as well as starting a dozen fires.
But the enemy then pursued them closely over the barren mountains, and mined the beaches after discovering the SBS's boats hidden in a grotto.
Most of the raiding party were killed; Sutherland and Marine John Duggan had to hide in a cleft of rock without food or water for a day while suffering agonising cramp as one of their pursuers sat smoking only a few feet away.
Finally reaching the shore, Sutherland contacted the submarine Traveller. Although it was five days since they had eaten (a tin of sardines each), the two men swam out to sea to the discouraging sound of engines dying away, unaware that this came from the Italian patrol boat which was hunting them. As they climbed aboard the submarine, it was forced to crash-dive, and they had to be revived with mugs of pusser's rum as the patrol boat dropped depth charges.
Sutherland was awarded the Military Cross and Duggan the Military Medal.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: U.S. Army, Middle East Air Forces): B-24 Liberators, in
conjunction with the RAF and the RN, attack a convoy at sea; 2 merchant ships
are reported sunk and 1 left burning.
The Italian torpedo boat Polluce is sunk off Tobruk by British bombers.
EGYPT: Operation Beresford ends with the New
Zealanders withdrawing, being overextended. 132 Brigade has lost 700 men while 6
Brigade, in a diversionary attack, has lost 159 men, including Brigadier George
Clifton, who is taken POW. He makes nine escape attempts, succeeding the final
time.
USAAF B-25 Mitchells and RAF Bostons, repelling counterattacks during the Alam-el-Halfa, Egypt, battle, hit troop concentrations and vehicles, while P-40s, operating with the RAF, escort bombers and engage in combat over the battle area, claiming 1 fighter destroyed.
NEW GUINEA: Cpl. John Alexander French (b.1914), Australian Military Forces, eliminated three machine guns before dying of wounds. (Victoria Cross)
On the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea, the Australian forces continue to withdraw southward fighting the Japanese as they go. Under cover of darkness, the Australian 2/16 Battalion reaches Myola.
In the Milne Bay area of Papua New Guinea, Australian troops move forward and come up against Japanese positions at Goroni. Repeated attacks fail to dislodge the Japanese. During the night of 4/5 September, the Japanese destroyer HIJMS Yayoi, covered by two other destroyers, evacuates 224 wounded Japanese troops.
RAAF Kittyhawks bomb and strafe Japanese forces in the Milne Bay area at Goroni, Wagga Wagga, Ahioma, and north of Lilihoa.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: During the night of 4/5 September, a Japanese evacuation force sets sail from Rabaul, New Britain Island to Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea. The force consists of a light cruiser, three destroyers and two patrol boats.
USAAF OPERATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA (5th Air Force): In New Guinea, P-40s bomb and strafe forces in the Milne Bay area at Goroni, Wagga Wagga, Ahioma, and north of Lilihoa.
Australian ground forces pushing east along Milne Bay reach Goroni and the Japanese begin evacuating Milne Bay, the first defeat of a Japanese amphibious landing in WWII.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: The Marine 1st Raider Battalion lands on Savo Island and finds it free of Japanese troops.
During the day, USMC and USN F4F Wildcats, SBD Dauntlesses and USAAF P-400 Airacobras bomb and strafe Japanese landing barges attempting to cross open water between Santa Isabel and Guadalcanal Islands.
PACIFIC OCEAN: USN submarines sink five Japanese ships:
(1) USS Growler (SS-215) sinks an ammunition ship in Formosa Straits, about 50
miles (80 kilometres) northeast of Keelung, Formosa; (2) USS Guardfish (SS-217),
operating off the northeast coast of Honshu, Japan, sinks two merchant cargo
ships and a passenger cargo ship off Kuji Bay, Iwate Prefecture; and (3) USS
Pompano (SS-181) sinks a guardboat northeast of Honshu, Japan.
During the day in the Solomons Sea, two RAAF Hudsons attack two Japanese destroyers northeast of Normanby Island, D'Entrecasteaux Islands. They drop eight 250-pound (113 kilogram) bombs; two just missed the stern of one of the ships.
AUSTRALIA: Brisbane: To strengthen the war effort, the Australian government is moving to cut down on "fun and games" in the domestic scene. In a national broadcast here last night, the prime minister, John Curtin warned that should Port Moresby and Darwin fall to the Japanese, Australia faced a bloody struggle on its own soil. Austerity measures to be brought in are intended to restrict horse and dog races, raise the tax on all entertainments, reduce the drinking of alcohol, smoking and the eating of expensive meals, check black-marketeering and deglamourize activities described in gossip columns.
U.S. General Douglas MacArthur Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, orders “all available naval forces” to cover convoys in the Coral Sea and prevent Japanese reinforcement of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: USAAF OPERATIONS IN ALASKA (11th Air Force): In the Aleutians, 2 B-24 liberators and a P-38 Lightning bomb and patrol Nazan and Kuluk Bays on Atka Island, but bombing of Kiska Island is cancelled due to weather.
U.S.A.: Tug HMCS North Shore commissioned New Orleans, Louisiana. Sailed to Canada with civilian crew.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: An unidentified German U-boat comes across a lifeboat containing 19 survivors of U.S. freighter SS California, sunk by Italian submarine Reginaldo Giuliani on 13 August and provides rations and navigational assistance before departing.
U-171 sinks SS Amatlan.