September 17th, 1942 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeper HMS
Inverell commissioned.
Destroyer HMS Holcombe commissioned.
Trawler HMS Cailiff commissioned and loaned to RCN.
FRANCE: During the night of 17/18 September, four RAF Bomber Command Halifaxes dropped leaflet in France without loss.
GERMANY: U-305 and U-640 commissioned.
NORWAY: The premier, Vidkun Quisling, reintroduces the death penalty.
U.S.S.R.: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meets with Soviet Premier Josef Stalin in Moscow as the German Army rams into Stalingrad.
Stalingrad: Lt. Andrei Khoyzyanov and a platoon of Soviet marines dressed in striped shirts and navy hats, reinforce the troops holding the huge grain elevator just south of the Tsaritsa Gorge. (Russell Folsom)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: During the night of 16/17 September, US Army, Middle East Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb Bengasi, Libya harbour; during the day, targets for B-24s are in GREECE: shipping in Pylos Bay and shipping and piers near Sphakia, and in Khalones and Pylos Island. P-40s make an offensive sweep with the RAF over the front lines.
Submarine HMS Talisman sailed from Gibraltar on 10 September, and last reported on 15 September. She is lost in the Mediterranean South of Sicily. There are no survivors or any Axis claims for her loss. It is likely that she was mined in the Sicilian Channel on or around 16/17. (Alex Gordon)(108)
MADAGASCAR: The Vichy Governor-General rejects the proposed armistice terms from the British.
Instead the Governor General of Madagascar announced that he was sending plenipotentiaries to the British commander asking for an armistice and the opening of negotiations.
NEW GUINEA: By 1100 hours local, Australian forces have withdraw to Imita Ridge on the Kokoda Track in Northeast New Guinea. Japanese ground forces, halted within sight of Port Moresby, are unable to attack without reinforcements and supplies, neither of which are available.
In Northeast New Guinea, USAAF 5th Air Force B-17s hit Lae, and hit a beached cargo vessel at Salamaua; P-39and P-400 Airacobras and P-40s strafe and bomb landing barges at Buna and Sanananda Point.
BISMARK ARCHIPELAGO: On New Britain Island, US 5th Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses, carrying out single-bomber attacks, bomb airfields at Rabaul.
AUSTRALIA: U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander South West Pacific Area, accuses Australian troops in New Guinea of a "lack of efficiency" (.Jack McKillop)
CANADA: Canadian warship attacks German U-Boat in the St. Lawrence before the submarine flees.
U.S.A.: Army Brigadier General Leslie Groves is put in command of the Manhattan Engineer Project. This project is the cover name for the atomic bomb project and, under his direction, the basic research is carried out, mainly at Columbia University in New York, New York, and the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Due to overstated concern for security and simple chauvinism, he is strongly opposed to sharing any information with the British.
Roosevelt begins a 15-day, 8,500 mile nationwide inspection of war industries.
Atomic weapons research is put under military control; Colonel Leslie Groves is appointed to manage the programme.
Minesweeper USS Notable laid down.
Destroyer USS Owen laid down.
Submarine USS Hoe launched.
Destroyer USS Ammen launched.
During WW II, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) produced numerous documents, most commonly known are the Intelligence Bulletins. The Military Intelligence Special Series continues with "German Military Training" (William L. Howard)
SOUTH ATLANTIC: As a result of the USAAF B-24 attack on German and Italian submarines rescuing survivors of the torpedoed British transport Lanconia, Admiral Karl Doenitz, Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, orders his U-boats not to pick up survivors of ships they sink. Meanwhile, the Vichy French ships light cruiser FR Gloire, colonial sloop Dumont D'Urville and minesweeper Annamite rescue 1,041 survivors of the sinking.