September 24th, 1942 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS P-36 commissioned.
Submarine HMS Usurper launched.
Sloop HMS Chanticleer launched.
Frigate HMS Mourne launched.
Destroyer HMS Savage launched.
Submarine HMS Sea Dog commissioned.
NETHERLANDS: During the night of 24/25 September, RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines in two areas: 18 aircraft lay mines in the Frisian Islands and four off Texel Island.
GERMANY: Berlin: Hitler today sacked his army chief of staff, General Franz Halder, who had dared to point out to the Fuhrer that Stalin had a million and a half fresh troops, which were about to be thrown into battle on the eastern front. Germany, said Halder, did not possess the strength to hold the Russians at Stalingrad and also pursue an offensive against the Caucasus oil fields.Hitler was furious. "We need National Socialist ardour," he told Halder, "not professional ability. I cannot expect it of an officer of the old school like you." Halder told friends later. "So spoke, not a responsible war lord, but a political fanatic." General Kurt Zietzler is appointed in his place with responsibility for the Russian front.
During the night of 24/25 September, RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines in six areas: five aircraft lay mines in the Heligoland Bight, three off Danzig, two each off Pillau and Swinemunde and individual aircraft off the Fehmarn Channel and Sassnitz.
U-190
commissioned.
U-641 commissioned.
U-421 and
U-713 launched.
POLAND: During the night of 24/25 September, two RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines off Gdynia.
U.S.S.R.: Black Sea Fleet and Azov
Flotilla: Submarine "M-60" - mined and sunk in Odessa Gulf, close to
Bolshoi Fontan. (Sergey Anisimov)(69)
Stalingrad: Olga Yamschchikova becomes the first women fighter pilot to "kill" an enemy aircraft when she shoots down a German Junkers Ju88 dive-bomber.
600 Soviet partisans, some dressed in German uniforms and using heavy artillery, destroy the German supply station at Ryabchichi and burn down the town, between Bryansk and Smolensk on the Smolensk-Bryansk highway.
Units of Heeresgruppe A (List) launch an attack against the Black Sea port of Tuapse.
Portugese Timor: A Japanese Zero
fighter on reconnaissance appears over the grounded HMAS Voyager. The plane is
shot down by the ship's gunners but not before reporting the sighting. (William
L. Howard)(188,
189,
190, 191)
NEW GUINEA:
The Japanese receive an order from headquarters on Rabaul to withdraw the troops
on the Kokoda Track to the Buna-Gona area. This order results from a Japanese
High Command decision to give Guadalcanal priority at the expense of the
campaign in New Guinea. The Japanese 144th Regiment is chosen to perform a
rearguard action at Ioribaiwa with two battalions while its other battalion and
the 41st Regiment withdraws.
Fifth Air Force P-40s and A-20s hit Mubo while B-17s bomb wrecked vessel at
Gona; P-40s hit the airfield at Kokoda and targets along the Kokoda-Wairopi
trail, including a bridge at Wairopi.
GILBERT ISLANDS: Japanese troops land on Maiana Island, 26 nautical miles (30 miles or 48 kilometres) south of Tarawa Atoll.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-17s bomb shipping at Rabaul on New Britain Island.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Guadalcanal, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines is searching the west bank of the
Matanikau River, for straggling remnants of the Bloody Ridge Battle. The have
found several small groups of Japanese as they move from the foothills of Mt.
Austen towards the sea. The battalion suffers 7 dead and 25 WIA of which 18 are
stretcher cases. The 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines begins preparations to join
them. (John Nicholas and Jack
McKillop)
Four USAAF B-17s staging through Henderson Field on Guadalcanal attack
Japanese cargo vessels near the Shortland Islands. One B-17 is shot down over
Buin.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The USAAF Eleventh Air Force B-24s bomb the Main Camp, storage dumps, and dock areas on Kiska Island, starting several fires.
CANADA: Minesweeper
HMCS Fort William arrived Halifax from
builder Port Arthur, Ontario
Corvette HMCS North Bay laid down
Collingwood, Ontario.
U.S.A.: The motion
picture "Tales of Manhattan" is released. Directed by Julien Duvivier,
this comedy drama stars Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, Henry Fonda, Ginger
Rogers, Charles Laughton, Edward G. Robinson, Ethel Waters, Paul Robeson, Eddie
"Rochester" Anderson, Thomas Mitchell, Cesar Romero and George
Sanders.
Band leader Glenn Miller makes his last radio broadcast on the 15-minute
"Chesterfield Time" which is heard on CBS Radio three times a week. He
has appeared on this show since 27 December 1939. Miller has volunteered for
service in the U.S. Army and is replaced by Harry James.
Destroyer USS Brownson launched.
The auxiliary aircraft carrier (ACV) USS Suwanee (ACV-27, ex SS Markay,
ex-Maritime Commission Hull 5, ex AO-33) is commissioned at Newport News,
Virginia. She is the 11th ACV in commission.
Destroyer USS Charles J Badger laid down.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-175 sank SS West Chetac in
Convoy TRIN-14.
U-432 sank SS Penmar in Convoy
SC-100.
U-512 sank SS Antinous.
U-561 sank SS Sphinx.
U-617 sank SS Roumanie in
Convoy SC-100.
U-619 sank SS John Winthrop in
Convoy ON-131.
This was indeed a black day for
U-755. At 0549 hrs she was attacked by a convoy escort with gunfire; two
hours later the boat unsuccessfully attacked convoy SC-100 with four torpedoes.
She was attacked again at 1615 by an aircraft. Finally the boat was attacked by
an escort at 1700, during which the boat was so heavily damaged that she had to
return to base.