September 23rd, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Major General James Harold Doolittle assumes command of the US Twelfth Air Force.
USAAF 336th Fighter Squadron transferred to a satellite base, Great Sampford, Essex.
RAF No. 85 Squadron gives up its Douglas Havoc I night fighters. (22)
Destroyer HMS Wrangler laid down.
Submarine HMS Tudor launched.
Corvettes HMCS Louisburg and Woodstock arrived Humber from Convoy HX-207 for refit and fitting with extra Anti-Aircraft armament.
NETHERLANDS: Three RAF Bomber Command bombers lay mines in the Frisian Islands.
FRANCE: RAF Bomber Command aircraft laid mines off three ports: five aircraft laid mines off St. Nazaire, three off Lorient and two off La Pallice.
GERMANY: Thousands of German parents are today marking an unhappy anniversary in the lives of their children: two years ago today a decree by Adolf Hitler increased the power of the authorities to order the evacuation of city children to youth camps in the countryside. Paramilitary exercises form part of the daily routine in the camps, which are run by the Hitler Youth organization to indoctrinate young children in the ways of National Socialism. Thousands of young people are now spending several weeks a year away from home - and from their parents' influence - on "holidays" of this kind in school camps or youth hostels.
During this prolonged period of bad weather, RAF Bomber Command sent out three small raids without Pathfinders on the night of 23/24 September. The first is to Wismar with 83 Lancasters dispatched; 54 bombed the target. This is judged to be a successful attack on the Baltic coastal town and the nearby Dornier aircraft factory. Many crews came down to less than 2,000 feet (610 meters). Numerous fires are seen including a large one in what is believed to be the aircraft factory. Wismar reports 32 houses and eight industrial buildings seriously damaged, 67 people killed and 109 injured. Four Lancasters are lost. The second raid is to the U-boat shipyards at Flensburg with 28 Halifaxes dispatched; 21 bombed the target. Five aircraft are lost. The third target is Vegesack with 24 Stirlings dispatched; five bombed the target with the loss of one. Other targets bombed by one or two aircraft are Ardorf Airfield, Bremen, Kiel, Lubeck, Oldenburg and Wihelmshaven. Three other RAF aircraft laid mines in the Heligoland Bight with the loss of one aircraft.
At 0605hrs a man was lost overboard from U-177. [Bootsmannmaat Erwin Henning]
U-534
launched.
U-271 commissioned.
DENMARK: One RAF Bomber Command aircraft laid mines in the Little Belt, the strait between the Danish island of Funen and the Jutland Peninsula.
U.S.S.R.: German Army Group
B continues to make slow progress in Stalingrad against bitter opposition. Army
Group A assembles an assault force for a drive on the Black Sea port of Tuapse.
The Soviets begin a counterattack in the Orlovka district of northwestern
Stalingrad. Stiff resistance by the Germans allows this 3 day attack to make
slight gains. (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop)
Wendell Willkie, 1940 U.S. Republican presidential candidate, confers with Stalin and calls for a second front at the earliest possible moment.
Wendell Wilkie left from Mitchell Field, Hempstead, Long Island, New York, on
26 August 1942 on a 50-day trip around the world to more than a dozen countries.
This trip included stops at battle zones in Africa, the Soviet Union and China,
which he reported on in a radio speech to the nation soon after he returned and
in a best-selling book, "One World", published in 1943.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA:U-561 was forced to return to her base in the Mediterranean due to technical problems .
LIBYA: A He-111 leaves North Africa for Germany, with Field Marshal Rommel. He is going home for medical treatment. General der Panzertruppe Georg Stumme takes temporary command in Africa. General von Thoma is in command of the DAK under the command of Panzer Army Africa. Rommel's own choice of Heinze Guderian is ignored.
MADAGASCAR: Tananarive, the capitol, is declared an open city and falls to the British troops of the East African 22d Brigade.
NEW GUINEA: Australian General
Thomas Blamey arrives in Port Moresby to take direct command of the New Guinea
forces. Australian Lieutenant General Edmund F. Herring becomes commander,
Advance New Guinea Force, succeeding Australian Major General Sidney F Rowell.
Despite his position Blamey came into conflict with his commander, General
Douglas
MacArthur, who has become Australian Prime Minister Curtin's principle
military advisor. United States forces were kept out of the Australian land
commanders hands throughout the war in the Pacific but one historian wrote that
Blamey's career was marked by “year upon year of wise decisions, stubborn
determination to further the interests of Australia, and a deep concern for the
well-being of his soldiers."
On the Kokoda Track, the Australian 14th Field Regiment,
Maroubra Force, continues
bombarding the enemy. Intelligence estimates that there are 600 Japanese west of Ioribaiwa.
The 128th Infantry of the U.S. 32d Infantry Division reaches Port
Moresby by air and is assigned to garrison force under operational control of
Australian 6th Infantry Division.
In the air, USAAF Fifth Air Force P-40s, P-39s, P-400s, and B-17s hit
tanks, buildings, and airfield at Buna, Wairopi bridge and targets of
opportunity on the Buna-Kokoda trail, and Tau-Pota Mission near Goodenough Bay.
PORTUGUESE TIMOR: The reinforcements for Sparrow Force arrive at Betano Bay at 17.45 hrs. Captain Robinson orders Voyager to within 500 yards of the beach, and after anchoring orders the eight army barges hoisted away. The whaler is also lowered and soundings taken around the ship as no chart exists for these waters. Voyager was soon in trouble and at risk of going aground, the captain knew of this possibility and had planned for it but he had to go astern on the port engine and there were at that moment two army barges directly over that propeller, the ship soon went aground aft. (William L. Howard)(188, 189, 190, 191)
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Guadalcanal,
the 1st Marine Division begins a limited operation to the west of the Lunga
perimeter to eliminate the enemy within striking distance of Henderson Field:
the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, is directed to advance along the northern slopes
of Mt Austen, cross the Matamkau River, and push west to Kokumbona; the 1st
Raider Battalion is to establish a patrol base at Kokumbona at a point where the
inland trails intersect the coastal road.
Five SBD Dauntlesses of Marine Scout Bombing Squadron One Hundred Forty One
(VMSB-141) arrives at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. These are the first
aircraft from Marine Air Group Fourteen (MAG-14) to serve on the island;
reinforcements will arrive in small increments until the entire squadron arrives
on 6 October.
ENTRECASTEAUX ISLANDS: Troops of the Australian 2/10th Battalion, 18th Brigade find only eight Japanese on Normanby Island. They are taken prisoner and the Australians board the Australian destroyer HMAS Stuart (D 00) and return to Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea. The D’Entrecasteaux Islands are located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) across Goschen Strait from the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea, in the Solomon Sea.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-255 was attacked by
Catalina U from 210 RAF Squadron in AE
25. She was so heavily damaged by two depth charges that she had to return to
base.
U-505 was attacked by the
freighter Antonius with gunfire. The boat crash dived.
U-125 sank SS Bruyère.
U-211 sank SS Esso
Williamsburg.
U-515 sank SS Henke Lindvangen
and damaged SS Henke Antinous.
U-582 sank SS Vibran in Convoy
ON-131.
U-617 sank SS Athelsultan and
SS Tennessee in Convoy SC-100.
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: The movement of the 72d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) to the South Pacific Area on 18 September, plus subsequent movement of other squadrons of the 5th Bombardment Group (Heavy) to the SOPAC, makes it difficult for the US Seventh Air Force to maintain the minimum force of 35 heavy bombers considered necessary for the defence of the Hawaiian Islands; this situation is relieved by 90th Bombardment Group (Heavy), which stops in Hawaii while en route to the Southwest Pacific, and by the 307th Bombardment Group (Heavy), which is assigned to the Seventh Air Force for a time.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Weather causes a US Eleventh Air Force mission abort to Kiska Island; photo reconnaissance over Attu Island confirms it's abandonment by the enemy; aUSNPBY Catalina escorted by 2 P-38 Lightnings lands off Amchitka Island with a scouting party which determines that the island is unsuited as an airfield; the P-38s also bomb a radio shack and sink a submarine at Amchitka Island.
U.S.A.: Washington: At a meeting in the office of Henry Stimson, the secretary of war, today it was decided to put the armed forces in charge of plans for a new secret weapon - the "atomic bomb.
The essence of the decision was that the scientists, who were led by Dr. Vannevar Bush, a former vice-president of Massuchusetts Institute of Technology, dropped their objections to work on the atomic bomb being carried out by the military. In return, the military agreed to give the bomb top priority.
Colonel Leslie Groves, promoted to brigadier-general today, has been made "managing director" of the project, and left the meeting to go to Tennessee to inspect a site for a gigantic secret atomic "factory".
President Roosevelt was warned in October 1939 by emigre European scientists, led by Albert Einstein, that if the USA did not build an atomic bomb the Nazis might do so first. Earlier this month an American army officer quietly arranged to secure for the US the entire output of the Shinkolobwe mine in the Belgian Congo, the world's biggest source of the metal uranium, needed to make the atomic bomb.
Told of his assignment, Colonel Groves said that he would rather go overseas. "If you do the job right," he was told by his superior, "it will win the war."
Baseball, Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, Larry French of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitches a
brilliant one-hitter, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 6-0 for his 197th career
win. After a brief relief stint on 26 September, he joins the U.S. Navy, and
rises through the ranks retiring as a captain in 1969.
Larry MacPhail, the 52-year-old Brooklyn Dodger president, also
announces today that he is quitting at the end of the season to reenter the
army.
Destroyer USS Troubridge launched.
Aircraft carrier USS Lexington launched.