September 13th, 1942 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Salisbury, Wiltshire: Lt. William George Foster (b.1881), Home Guard, threw himself onto a grenade which had rolled back into his trench. He died instantly. (George Cross)
NETHERLANDS: During the night of 13/14 September, individual RAF bombers bomb Leeuwarden and Texel Airfields.
FRANCE: VICHY FRANCE: The authorities have instituted a Service National du Travail (STO) [National Work Service] which introduces compulsory labour for all men aged between 18 and 50 and unmarried women between 21 and 35.
GERMANY: The most bombed city in Europe, Bremen in northern Germany, suffers its 1,000th air raid.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 446 aircraft to attack Bremen; 374 bomb the target with the loss of 21 aircraft, 15 Wellingtons, two Lancasters, a Halifax, a Hampden, a Stirling and a Whitley, 41 percent of the force are lost. The Lloyd dynamo factory is put out of action for two weeks and various parts of the Focke-Wulf factory for from two to eight days. Five nearly completed aircraft are destroyed and three more damaged. The report also lists seven cultural and historical buildings hit in the center of the town as well as six schools and two hospitals. Seventy people are killed and 371 injured. Two aircraft bomb Oldenburg as a target of opportunity.
NORWEGIAN SEA: German aerial and submarine attacks begin against convoy PQ 18, bound for Archangel, USSR, approximately 100 miles (161 kilometres) southwest of Spitsbergen. U.S. freighter SS Oliver Ellsworth is torpedoed by German submarine U-589 and abandoned; one Armed Guard sailor is killed in the attack. Survivors (42 merchant seamen and 27 Armed Guard crewmen) are rescued by merchantman SS Copeland and British armed trawler HMS St. Kenan; the latter scuttles the crippled Oliver Ellsworth with gunfire. Later that day, German planes attack, torpedoing freighter SS John Penn; three of the 40-man merchant crew are killed. British destroyer HMS Eskimo and minesweeper HMS Harrier rescue the survivors, who include the 25-man Armed Guard; SS John Penn is scuttled by escort vessels. Shortly thereafter, freighter SS Oregonian is also torpedoed; escort vessels rescue 21 of the 40-man crew, in addition to 8 of the 14-man Armed Guard.
U-408 sank SS Oliver Ellsworth and SS Stalingrad in Convoy PQ-18.
U-589
rescued four Luftwaffe airmen in the Arctic. She did not have the chance to
bring them to shore as she was herself sunk the very next day.
U.S.S.R.: The perimeter held
by the Red Army at Stalingrad is closed to 30 miles. General Chuikov is
appointed to command the Soviet 62nd Army at Stalingrad.
Female Soviet fighter pilot Lidya Litvyak shoots down two German aircraft on her third mission, including one piloted by a decorated German ace. (K. Jean Cottam)
Convoy QP 14 (Archangel, U.S.S.R. to Iceland) sails today with 15 ships to gain the protection of the British escort aircraft HMS Avenger [D 14, ex SS Rio Hudson, ex U.S. Navy (USN) BAVG-2] and the cruiser and destroyer force escorting Convoy PQ 18. (Jack McKillop & Dave Shirlaw)
LIBYA: The British Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) and the Special Air Service (SAS) Unit under Major David Stirling attack airfields at Benghazi and Bare. Attempts at amphibious landings at Tobruk are beaten off with heavy casualties.
Stirling lost a quarter of his men after his modest plan for the raid is inflated into a full scale assault. The plan went against everything that Stirling believed is essential for a successful raid. He is forced to swell his ranks with newcomers, all of whom are not SAS trained; the element of surprise could not be achieved because a large force is being used and, finally, the use of a pre-arranged time table clamped the SAS's mobility resulting in the inability to strike as and when the opportunity presented itself.
During the night of 13/14 September, US Army, Middle East Air Force B-24s attack Tobruk and shipping in Benghazi harbor.
EGYPT: US Army, Middle East Air Force B-25 Mitchells hit landing grounds southeast of Matruh.
MADAGASCAR: British General Sir William Platt, Commander-in-Chief East Africa Command, establishes his headquarters ashore at Majunga. The East African 22nd Brigade continues toward Tananarive, hampered chiefly by roadblocks.
CHINA: U.S. Lieutenant General Joseph W. Stillwell, Commander-in-Chief U.S. China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater of Operations and Chief of Staff to Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, present a proposed plan of operations to Chiang Kai-Shek for the USAAF Tenth Air Force’s China Air Task Force, callinf for the defense of ferry routes from India to China as its primary mission.
ENTRECASTEAUX ISLANDS: USAAF 5th Air Force P-40s strafe P-40s strafe buildings on Goodenough Island which is off the eastern extremity of Papua New Guinea.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Vice Admiral Robert L. Ghormley, Commander South Pacific Area and South Pacific Force, orders the 7th Marine Regiment, now on Espiritu Santo Island in the New Hebrides Islands, to reinforce the Guadalcanal garrison.
Marine defenders defeat an IJA ground attack to seize Henderson Field. During the day, aerial reinforcements arrive: (1) pilots from USS Hornet (CV-8) ferry 18 F4F Wildcats to the island; and (2) in the afternoon, 12 SBD Dauntlesses of the USN's Scouting Squadron Three (VS-3) and 6 TBF Avengers of Torpedo Squadron Eight (VT-8), both assigned to the USS Saratoga (CV-2), are flown to Henderson Field while the Saratoga returns to Hawaii fro repairs. 4 of the 18 new F4Fs are lost in air battles during the day..
Staff Officers from the IJA 17th Army at Rabaul scout Guadalcanal aboard "Irving" recon aircraft. Despite interception by 28 Wildcat replacement fighters from Henderson Field, they report the airstrip held by the Japanese.
In late afternoon 12 SBDs of VS-3 from Saratoga arrive to join the Cactus Airforce on Henderson Field. There have been a total of 60 new planes join the Cactus AF during the last 3 days.
Colonel Oka Akinosuke, commander of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion, again radios General Kawaguchi Kiyotake, Commanding Officer 35th Brigade, to ask for a delay in his attack against the west flank of the Lunga Perimeter. The answer is No!
Colonel Merritt Edson, Commander of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion, regroups his units on the ridge after the fighting last night. He pulls back 200 yards to stronger positions that will be unfamiliar to the Japanese. His line consists of small combat groups of approximately platoon strength at 100 yard intervals. He cannot man a continuous line. Col. Merrill B. Twining visits the line and recommends immediate replacement of these troops. Division Reserve, 2nd Bn, 5th Marines moves up, but not into place by nightfall. At 1830 hours Kawaguchi attacks again.
At 2130 hours, bombardment of the perimeter begins, IJN light cruiser Sendai, and destroyers Shikinami, Fubuki and Suzukaze are offshore. Then an attack against the ridge begins. Col Edson has a combined 840 men between his Raider Battalion and the attached Marine Parachute Battalion. General Kawaguchi has 3 battalions, with 2,506 men, attacking. But the jungle has slowed the arrival of 2 battalions, his attack is very disjointed. The also get bogged down between the ridge and the Lunga River. Finally about 1 hour before daybreak the Japanese commanders begin to gain control of their units. They regroup to attack the next night.
By 2130 Marine artillery (75s) is dropping 200 yards in from of the line.
By 2200 the 105s are also involved. Division Command Post (near Henderson Field) is under sniper fire. Major Bailey brings forward a re-supply of grenades and ammo at 0300. Reserves are fed into the line around 0400. 7th Company, 4th Regiment IJA breaksthough a gap in the US lines and reaches the fighter airstrip about 0530 and are stopped by HQ Co and Co. D.
Daylight brings the attacks to a near stop. Kawaguchi finds that 1 Bn did not find the front line, but its CO and Exec are dead; Col Oka has not attacked despite orders; the attack against the eastern perimeter did not take place either. Col. Matsumoto, from the 17th Army, radios back to Rabaul on the 14th that the major attack will occur tonight due to the heavy jungle. The Battle of Edson's (Bloody) Ridge had already happened.
NEW GUINEA: On the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea, the Japanese fire mortars and artillery at the Australian defenders at Ioribaiwa but the night is uneventful.
US 5th Air Force B-26 Marauders pound the airfield at Lae while B-17 Flying Fortresses unsuccessfully attack a cruiser southeast of Rabaul, New Britain Island, Bismarck Archipelago.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIANS: The US 11th Air Force dispatches an LB-30 Liberator and 2 P-38 Lightnings to fly a photo reconnaissance, antisubmarine coverage and strafing mission over Kiska Island lakes and harbor; a tender in the harbor is slightly damaged, 1 Japanese float fighter is downed; a P-38 is hit by AA fire and fighters damage the LB-30.
CANADA: Corvettes HMCS Dundas, Edmunston, Timmins, Quesnel and New Westminster depart Esquimalt for Halifax.
U.S.A.: Minesweeper USS Prevail launched.
Destroyer USS Wickes launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: German U-Boat torpedoes destroyer HMCS Ottawa; BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC growing in intensity.
A man from U-66 took his own life. [Matrose II (Masch.) Horst Keller]
U-506 sank SS Lima.
U-515 sank SS Ocean Vanguard
and Nimba.
U-558 sank SS Empire Lugard,
Suriname and damaged SS Vilja in Convoy TAG-5.
U-594 sank SS Stone Street in
Convoy ON-127