September 9th, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeper HMS Cadmus commissioned. Escort carrier HMS Empress laid down.
NETHERLANDS: During the night of 9/10 September, RAF Bomber Command dispatches aircraft to lay mines in two areas: seven lay mines in the Frisian Islands and three lay mines off Texel Island..
GERMANY: Chancellor Adolf Hitler takes over direct command of Army Group A on the Eastern Front. General List is sacked.
During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatches six Mosquitos to attack three cities without loss: three bomb Osnabruck and one each bomb Bielefeld and Munster.
During the night of 9/10 September, RAF Bomber Command dispatches aircraft to lay mines: five each mine Gironde Estuary, Heligoland Bight and Kattegat. One Lancaster is lost.
U-361 is launched.
U.S.S.R.: Vinnitsa: Field Marshal List is sacked as commander of Army Group A, currently operating in the Caucasus; General Paul von Kleist succeeds him.
LIBYA: US Army, Middle East Air Force B-24 Liberators attack Tobruk harbor and shipping.
MADAGASCAR: British troops renew their offensive in order to ensure the safety of military objectives and gain air and sea control of the Mozambique Channel. The 29th Brigade makes a surprise landing on the west coast in the vicinity of Majunga during the night of 9/10 September and seizes the town virtually unopposed.
IRAN: The government declares war on Germany.
NEW GUINEA: On the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea, the Australians continue their delaying withdrawal southward and reach Menari about noon.
US 5th Air Force A-20 Havocs, in support of encircled Australian ground forces, strafe and bomb troops in the Efogi Spur area.
The Australian 25th Brigade lands at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. This unit will be rushed northward to reinforce the troops fighting on the Kokoda Track.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Lieutenant General Hyakutake Seikichi, commander of the 17th Army, lands at Tassafaronga, Guadalcanal. Elements of the 2nd Division are also landed. As commander of the Japanese 17th Army, his presence on the island indicates some importance now attached to the battle for this island and Henderson Field. His previous HQ was at Rabaul, New Britain and he controlled operations in New Guinea.
The IJN sends 26 "Betty" bombers (, Navy Type 1 Attack Bombers) and an unknown number of "Zeke" fighters (Mitsubishi A6M, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighters) to attack Guadalcanal at noon. USMC F4F Wildcats intercept and shoot down 7 "Betties" and 3 "Zekes;" the Marines lose 4 F4Fs. On Guadalcanal, Fighter-1, the grass-surfaced auxiliary fighter airfield, is declared operational.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: In the Aleutian Islands, a US 11th Air Force B-26 Marauder patrols Tanaga and Adak Islands.
CANADA: Canadian War Cabinet closes the St. Lawrence to all Allied shipping except coasters; due to German U-Boat submarine danger.
U.S.A.: Lieutenant General Henry H "Hap" Arnold, Commanding General USAAF, submits to the Chief of Staff a plan (AWPD-42) estimating the size of the air force necessary to attain air ascendancy over the enemy and outlining suggestions for the use of these forces in the several theaters; this plan, which by 17 November 1942 has been approved by the War Department and President Roosevelt, includes the build up of the depleted 8th Air Force in the UK and contains the seeds of the Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO).
An IJN Yokosuka E14Y Navy Type 0 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane, Allied Code Name "Glen," launched from the submarine HIJMS I-25 off the west coast, drops four 76 kg (167.5 pound) incendiary bombs on a mountain slope 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Brookings, Oregon, causing a small forest fire. This is the first time the continental U.S. was bombed in WWII. The aircraft is crewed by Warrant Officer Noburo Fujita and his observer Shoji Okuda.
President Roosevelt orders a news blackout for morale purposes. (Jack McKillop and Phil Jacobsen)
Light cruiser USS Montpelier commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-66 sinks SS Peiping.
The last radio message from the U.S. Coast Guard weather ship USCGC Muskeget (WAG-48) is received. It is believed that she is sunk by the German submarine U-755 somewhere in the North Atlantic while en route from Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.A., to Weather Station Number 2 located about 509 nautical miles (943 kilometers) northeast of Saint John’s, Newfoundland. All 121 men aboard are lost.
In the North Atlantic, Convoy ON 127 (U.K. to North America) is sighted by German submarine U-584. The convoy consists of 32 merchant ships escorted by two Canadian destroyers, HMCS Ottawa (H 60) and St. Croix [I-81, ex USS McCook (DD-252)], three Canadian corvettes, HMCS Amherst (K 148), Arvida (K 113) and Sherbrooke (K 152), and the British corvette HMS Celandine (K 75). U-584 loses contact during the night. ( Jack McKillop)