September 25th, 1942 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: Britain announces that it has taken Madagascar under its protection to ensure that a friendly regime will be established there. Or officially, "in order to ensure law and order and to provide for the administration pending the establishment of a friendly regime."
Frigate HMS Nith launched.
Submarine HMS Trespasser commissioned.
NETHERLANDS: During the night of 25/26 September, RAF Bomber Command sends ten Wellingtons on a minelaying mission in the Frisian Islands without loss.
NORWAY: RAF No. 105 Squadron flying Mosquito Mk IVs makes a low-level attack on Gestapo headquarters in Oslo in an attempt to destroy any records relating to the Norwegian Resistance.
The aircraft are based at Horsham St. Faith, Norfolk, but staged out of Leuchars, Fife, to make the mission possible. The mission is intended to be a morale raiser for the Norwegian people and is timed to coincide with a rally of Norwegians who support the Germans. The four aircraft at intercepted by Fw 190s on their low-level bombing run and one Mosquito is shot down. Four bombs hit the Gestapo building but three pass right through without exploding and the fourth, which remains inside the building, also fails to explode.
SPAIN: U-66 had to put an ill crewmember on shore in El Ferrol.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: US Army, Middle East Air Force B-24s fail to locate a shipping convoy south of Crete and return without bombing.
LIBYA:
US Army, Middle East Air Force B-24s bomb Benghazi.
Miteiriya Ridge: Pte.
Percival Eric Gratwick (b.1902), Australian Military Forces, alone wiped out a
machine-gun post and a mortar and died charging a second post. (Victoria Cross)
MADAGASCAR: The East Africa 22d Brigade establishes contact with the 29th Independent Brigade, giving the British control of the central part of the island.
CHINA: The US Tenth Air Force's China Air Task Force bombers fly 11 missions during the remainder of September and early October to support Chinese ground forces attempting to hold the Japanese on the west bank of the Salween River.
Shanghai: 1,816 British prisoners of war are loaded onto the Lisbon Maru, a freighter. They include Arthur Betts of the First Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. The prisoners have spent ten months in a debilitating prisoner of war camp before being selected for slave labour in the docks of Japan. (Will Pavia)
FRENCH INDOCHINA: 4 US B-25 Mitchells of the US Tenth Air Force's China Air Task Force, with an escort of 10 P-40s, attack Hanoi, French Indochina; the strike force is intercepted by 10 fighters but the B-25s place several bombs on the runway at Gia Lam Airfield; the P-40s claim at least 9 fighters shot down.
PORTUGESE TIMOR:
Destroyer
HMAS Voyager is attacked by Japanese aircraft. As she cannot be refloated, she is thoroughly wrecked by her own crew and abandoned. Location;
Timor Island at 09 11S 125 43E. (Alex Gordon)(108)
NEW GUINEA:
25th Brigade, Australian 7th Division, opens a counteroffensive, attacking
strongly towards Ioribaiwa, to drive the enemy back along Port Moresby-Kokoda
trail. On the Kokoda Track, B Company of the Australian 2/25th Battalion attacks
the Japanese north of Imita Ridge and gains some ground and captures weapons.
Australian General Thomas Blamey flies to
Milne Bay where he informs Major General Cyril Clowes that the 2/10th Battalion
will be airlifted to Wanigela, about 100 miles (161 kilometres) to the
northwest, where it would advance towards Buna.
In the air, USAAF Fifth Air Force P-40s again bomb the bridge at Wairopi,
scoring a direct hit on the northeastern end, which is demolished.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Guadalcanal, the 2d Battalion of the 5th
Marines joins the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, on the northwest slope of Mt.
Austen to continue the attack against the enemy in the Matanikau-Kokumbona area.
Two companies of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, return to the Lunga perimeter.
A patrol of the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, reconnoiters Koli Point without
incident. General KAWAGUCHI Kiyotake has ordered his troops to higher
ground. He has received orders to seize the east bank of the river to prepare
for the arrival of the 15 cm (5.9 inch) artillery. These units will be found the
next day. (John Nicholas)
In the air, four USAAF
B-17s attack Japanese warships in Tonolei Harbor in the Shortland Islands while
other B-17s attack shipping in Buka Passage and strafe the seaplane base at
Rekata Bay on Santa Isabel Island.
GILBERT ISLANDS: Japanese troops land on Beru Island located 265 miles (426 kilometres) southeast of Tarawa.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The USAAF Eleventh Air Force dispatches 9 B-24 Liberators, a B-17 Flying Fortress, and a B-24 photo aircraft, escorted by 11 P-39Airacobras and 17 P-40s, fly the first of 2 missions to Kiska Island; RCAF Kittyhawks participate in this first combined Canadian-American mission; later 2 B-24s and a B-17, escorted by 15 P-39s, pound Little Kiska and Kiska Islands; radar installations at Little Kiska Island are destroyed and explosions and fires are caused in the Main Camp area; other targets include shipping, stores, and tents; the P-39s also strafe 2 submarines; 2 float planes are downed; 5 to 8 biplanes are probably destroyed on the water; 1 large transport vessel is hit and lists badly; and 150 personnel are believed killed.
U.S.A.: The US Maritime Commission announces that 488 cargo ships have been built in the past year.
The War Labor Board orders equal pay to women as recognition of role in war.
Destroyer escort USS Austin launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-253 (Type VIIC) is believed to have been lost with all 46 crew off the northwest coast of Iceland at approximate position 67.00N, 23.00W.
U-253 reported for the last time from the approximate position 67.30N, 21.00W on 24 Sept, 1942 while operating against convoy OP.14. The following day she was ordered into the Atlantic, and would have had to cross submarine minefields SN 11 or SN 71 which were laid in June and August 1942.
(Alex Gordon)
U-216
sank SS Boston in Convoy RB-1.
U-96 damaged SS New York in
Convoy RB-1.
U-442 sank SS Empire Bell in
Convoy UR-42.