September 30th, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Escort carrier HMS Attacker commissioned.
NETHERLANDS: During the night of 30 September/1 October, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 20 Wellingtons and 5 Stirlings minelaying missions off Texel and in the Frisian Islands; 18 aircraft lay mines in the Frisian Islands and four lay mines off Texel. One Stirling and one Wellington are lost.
GERMANY: Berlin: Josef Goebbels, the German minister for propaganda, today launched the country's fourth wartime winter appeal by announcing that last year the population donated some 1.2billion Reichsmark [£100 million] for needy families. A growing proportion of the money is now being used to finance official welfare bodies such as the National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV). Money is raised in house-to-house collections made by members of the NSV and other organizations, for example the Hitler Youth, the SA and the SS, who remind reluctant donors of their public "duty".
Berlin: In a major speech at the Sportspalast, Hitler ridicules the Allied leadership as "military idiots ... mentally sick or perpetually drunk."
U-529 commissioned.
U-242 laid down.
U-307 launched.
U-649 launched.
U.S.S.R.: the Soviet 92nd Naval Rifle Brigade is
tonight sent to the vicinity of the Barrikady Plant. After heavy fighting the
battalion, which had 147 men left, was moved to the city center to reinforce the
37th Rifle Division. All day the seamen fended off the savage attacks by the
Germans. During the night seamen crossed to the left bank of the Volga, to the
settlement of Rybachiy. Here, replenished by Pacific Fleet seamen, the battalion
once again became a brigade, which returned to combat in early November. The
fighting was especially fierce in the vicinity of the Krasnyy Oktyabr',
Barrikady,and Traktornyy plant, in the defence of which the 92nd Brigade and the
308 th Rifle Division participated. Repulsion of the numerous attacks and the
daily bomb runs and artillery bombardment thinned the ranks of the 92nd Brigade.
The brigade commander, Hero of the Soviet Union Colonel M.S. Batrakov, chief of
staff Lieutanant Colonel Ye.G.Sazonov, battalion commander F.S.Zhukov, chief of
communication Captain Troyko, chief of brigade headquarters section No.1 Major
Shumilo and other officers recieved serious wounds. Command of the brigade was
assumed by Captain P.A.Unzhakov (commander of 3rd Battalion), and political
department chief Senior Battalion Commisar F.L.Lukin assumed the duties of
military commissar. (Russell Folsom)(215,
Chap. 3)
EUROPE: This month, 14,000 Jews from France, 6,000 from the Netherlands and 5,000 from Belgium have been deported to Auschwitz. 20,000 Polish Jews perished at Belzec, and at least 6,000 Jews from Theresienstadt camp, in Czechoslovakia, were slaughtered at Maly Trostenets.
EGYPT: El Alamein: While thousands of British troops were undergoing training in desert warfare in the rear lines, watched by their new chief, Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery, the British Eighth Army set out to probe the defences of the Afrika Korps, also - while Rommel is in Germany for medical treatment - under a new chief, General Georg Stumme.
The 44th Division - just two brigades - then mounted a very small action to assess the strength of German positions in the Munassib Depression. Today's battle took place to the south of the Alamein line, with heavy casualties on both sides.
LIBYA: Tobruk: The top-scoring Luftwaffe ace Hans-Joachim Marseille (158 British aircraft) who was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds on 3 September is killed. He was flying a new Messerschmitt Bf-109G-2 fighter, W.Nr. 14256, on a mission escorting Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers. While returning to base at 1135 hours, Marseille indicated that he had smoke pouring into his cockpit and it was becoming difficult to either breathe or see. Other members in the flight urged Marseille to remain with his aircraft for another couple minutes since they were still over enemy-held territory. By 1139 hours, smoke in the cockpit was now unbearable and Marseille was forced to leave his airplane. Marseille's last radio transmission was, "I've got to get out now. I can't stand it any more". Now over German territory, at approximately 10000 feet (3,048 meters), Marseille rolled his aircraft inverted in a standard manoeuvre to prepare for bailout. Suffering from probable spatial disorientation, possible toxic hypoxia, as well as being blinded by the smoke in the cockpit, Marseille's aircraft entered an inverted dive with an approximate dive angle of 70 to 80 degrees. At a speed of approximately 400 knots (460.3 mph or 740.8 km/h), Marseille jumped out of his damaged aircraft. Unfortunately, the left side of Marseille's chest struck the tail of his airplane, either killing him instantly or incapacitating him to the point where he was unable to open his parachute. As the other members of Marseille's squadron watched in horror, Jochen's body landed face down 7 km (4.3 miles) south of Sidi Abd el Rahman, an unfitting end to the "African Eagle."
TURKEY: It is announced that Turkey had signed a treaty with Germany for the exchange of chrome for armaments. This is a development of the Turkish-German trade pact signed 9 October 1941.
BURMA: The British 123rd Brigade's advance reaches Bawli Bazar
in the Arakan Valley. The weather, which would normally clear during November,
has not cooperated thus making the advance extremely difficult.
JAPAN: The German surface Raider "Thor"
is destroyed by fire in the Yokohama, Japan Harbor. From January through
October, 1942 the Thor sank 10 merchant ships for 56,000 tons.
The Japanese Navy changes their entire communications system. Many useful tools are lost, to the U.S. in the radio intelligence war.
NEW GUINEA: The US forces attacking Buna make their first significant gains.
US Fifth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses, A-20 Havocs, and P-40s pound occupied areas at Menari, Myola Lake, Kagi, and Efogi and a bridge at Wairopi.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz travels from Noumea to Guadalcanal via B-17 bomber to (1) to determine if the island can be held and (2) to award decorations. The plane becomes lost, and Commander Ralph Ofstie navigates to Henderson Field using a map from National Geographic. Nimitz views the mud of Henderson Field, since it has been raining. He tours Edson's (Bloody) Ridge and the perimeter with General Vandegrift and leaves tomorrow.
The Japanese Navy changes their entire communications system. Many useful tools are lost, to the US, in the radio intelligence war.
At 9:40 pm the Japanese steam past Savo Island headed for their supply drop on Guadalcanal. These 8 destroyers are loaded with supplies in drums lashed to their decks their torpedo reloads are left behind. At the same time US naval TF 67 enters the eastern end of Lengo Channel. At 2308 the US radar shows 7 - 8 ships. The Japanese spot the US ships, without radar, at 2312. The US destroyers fire torpedoes at 2320 and their cruisers open fire at 2321. Japanese torpedoes are fired at 2323. At 2327 the Japanese torpedoes begin to strike. The losses in this battle are one Japanese destroyer, Takanami. US losses are severe damage to 3 cruisers, and the loss of the USS Northampton.
Japanese Admiral Tanaka received much of the credit for the Japanese success in the Battle of Tassafaronga. It should be noted that Captain Sato Torojiro was in command of the Japanese destroyer division that many credit with launching the successful torpedoes. As a final note to the Battle of Tassafaronga, the last of the 13 US "treaty cruisers" has been sunk or damaged around Guadalcanal. These ships will not participate in any further night battles in the Solomon Islands.
AUSTRALIA: The Board of Inquiry into the sinking of the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra (D 33) during the Battle of Savo Island on 9 August 1942, finds that the ship was not in an adequate state of readiness when attacked by the Japanese.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIANS: Of 9 US Eleventh Air Force B-24 Liberators off to bomb Kiska and Attu Islands, 2 turn back; the others blast the Attu Camp area, and at Kiska Harbor score at least 1 direct hit and near misses on a ship; 8 fighters intercept over Kiska and Little Kiska Islands but inflict no losses.
Japanese air reconnaissance discovers that the Americans are building an airfield on Adak Island.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Lindsay laid down.
U.S.A.: Baseball!
Everyone from the First Lady downwards had made it clear that the American war effort demands that women play dramatically different roles. Not only women themselves are being educated into new ways; so, too, are employers, labour leaders, store owners, men in uniform and legislators.
Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, for instance, called for easing the burden of housework for those women working to win the war. She suggested that restaurants should prepare meals which working women could pick up and take home for quick service. More child care is needed, she said, as is transportation to and from schools.
Training started this month to teach women such trades as welding, armature winding and burning. Mrs. Elinore M. Herrick, the newly-appointed director of personnel for Todd Shipyards, which as 12 yards on three coasts, said training for more difficult jobs will start soon, since Selective Service has given semi-skilled males but six months' deferment. At Republic Steel, 1,000 women have been hired in its 27 plants to make and assemble aircraft parts and accessories. They are given uniforms, hairnets and pay equal to men's. But the company says that it will draw the line on women in open-hearth areas because of the 100-degree Fahrenheit heat. Asked if more women would be hired, one Republic vice-president growled: "There are too many women here now." However, he was in the midst of 25 women reporters.
Production jobs are not the only ones open to women. Columbia University has begun a course to train women to be engineering aides for Grumman Aircraft Corporation, and the Red Cross wants more nurses' aides, targeting "leisure-class" women. Women are joining up in record numbers, according to the WAACS and WAVES. The chief of the WAVES (the US equivalent of Wrens), Mildred McAfee, says that she doesn't mind at all being called "the old man".
Submarine USS Flasher laid down.
Destroyer escort USS J Richard Ward laid down.
Minesweeper USS Oracle launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-596 was attacked by an aircraft in the North Atlantic and suffered heavy damage. She managed to reach base at St. Nazaire on 3 October.
U-125 sank SS Empire Avocet
and Kumsang. Captured master and a machinist from Empire Avocet captured.
U-506 sank SS Siam II.
U-516 sank SS Alipore.