October 2nd, 1942 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The USAAF 4th Fighter Group flies its first mission.
While approaching the Clyde the British liner RMS Queen Mary (83,000 tons) on the final leg of her trans-Atlantic journey meets her cruiser escort HMS Curacoa (D 41). A lookout on Curacoa reports a suspected U-boat sighting and Curacoa goes in pursuit of the submarine. The Curacoa cuts across the bow of Queen Mary while she is travelling at 28 knots, is cut into two halves the two sections ending up 100 yards apart, and sinks about 56 nautical miles north-northwest of Londonderry, at 55 50N, 08 03W is lost with 338 of her crew. There are 26 survivors. The Queen Mary does not stop, as are her orders, she has 15,000 American troops onboard. Such is the impact that the Queen Mary's bow plates are folded over for about 40 feet back into the vessel. The Queen Mary is transporting some of the subordinate units of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division including the 116th Infantry Regiment and 111th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm Howitzer, Truck-Drawn) from the US to Britain. (Ric Pelvin, Jack McKillop and Alex Gordon(108))
Corvette HMCS Weyburn arrived Liverpool UK for fitting of Oerlikon guns.
Royal Navy and US Navy agreed to pool their
knowledge in the effort to crack the four-rotor U-boat Enigma codes, as well as
Italian and Japanese naval codes
BELGIUM: During the day, six RAF Bomber Command Mosquitos attacked a steelworks at Liege without loss.
NETHERLANDS: During the night of 2/3 October, RAF Bomber Command sent three Wellingtons to lay mines in the Frisian Islands.
FRANCE: The USAAF Eighth Air Force flies Mission 13: 61 bombers and 54 fighters are dispatched to attack 3 targets in France; 1 fighter is lost:
* 32 B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb the Avions Potez aircraft factory at Meaulte; they claim 4-9-5 aircraft. Escort is provided by 31 P-38 Lightnings; 1 P-38 is lost.
* 6 B-17s fly a diversionary missions to Longuenesse Airfield at St Omer; they claim 5-4-4 aircraft. Escort is provided by 23 Spitfires; they claim 4-0-1 aircraft.
* 11 unescorted DB-7s attack a ship in a dock at Le Havre without loss.
Former prime minister and president of the chamber of deputies Edouard Herriot is arrested by the Vichy police. He challenged the legality of the 1940 parliamentary vote establishing the Vichy regime. Herriot is deported to German in 1944 but survived and re-entered French politics in 1945.
GERMANY: The German OKW issues a decree which in one fell swoop 'rehabilitated' c. 28,000 or so German citizens formerly 'unworthy of bearing arms' ('unwehrwurdig'), and established the formation of the '999. Bewaehrungstruppe' at Tr.Ub.plz. Heuberg/Swaebisch Alb, (WK.V) south of Stuttgart.
These men were a rather heterogenous grouping of dissidents who had previously spent time before the war in KL (konzentrationslager) 'protective custody' detention or civil 'zuchthaus' (prison) for both political or criminal reasons, and so were nominally exempted from military service. Their 'crimes' ranged from having either Socialist or KPD backgrounds, to having exhibited overtly critical behaviour toward the NS regime; some were even German volunteers who had fought on the Republican side in the Communist Brigades during the Spanish Civil War who had the misfortune to have come under German jurisdiction again. Among them, though in smaller numbers, were rapists, murderers, thieves, and what, according to the Gestapo's all inclusive category of 'enemy of the State', were the ubiquitous 'grumblers' and 'anti-social elements.' (Russ Folsom)
U-550, U-987, U-988 laid down.
During the night of 2/3 October, RAF Bomber Command dispatched 188 aircraft, 95 Wellingtons, 39 Halifaxes, 31 Lancasters and 23 Stirlings, to bomb Krefeld; seven aircraft, three Halifaxes, two Wellingtons, a Lancaster and a Stirling, are lost, 3.1 per cent of the force. The Pathfinders encountered dense haze and their marking is late. The raid which developed is dispersed and not expected to cause much damage. Only three streets in the northern part of the town are mentioned as being hit.
NORWAY: A 36 year-old German officer, a driver, die by firing squad, accused of being an "enemy of the people." His crime was to sell five litres of methyl alcohol, which he claimed was 98% alcohol and could be used to produce liquor, to an infantry regiment's anti-tank defence unit. Several soldiers fell ill, and two died.
According to the daily order, "the punishment shall be announced to the troops and auxiliary units, and it shall be used as a tool for repeated and insistent admonishment." (Andreas Ulrich, Der Spiegel. May 6, 2005)(Henry Sirotin)
U.S.S.R.: (Sergey Anisimov)(69)Baltic Fleet, Ladoga and Onega Flotillas: Shipping loss. MS "TSch-57 "Udarnik"" - mined close to Sescar Is.
MADAGASCAR: British forces take Antsirabe in the center of the island.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC
NEW GUINEA: In the Owen Stanley Range A-20 Havocs bomb and strafe Japanese campsites around Myola and hit several trails in the area, while P-400 Airacobras strafe bridges at Sirorata and Wairopi and a village northeast of Wairopi.
Australian troop continue moving north on the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea. At Nauro, the bodies of two Australians are found; one is bound to a tree and the second is decapitated.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-17s bomb shipping and airfield at Rabaul on New Britain Island, damaging the Japanese light cruiser HIJMS Tenryu.
ELLICE ISLANDS: The U.S. Marine Corps’ 5th Defense Battalion from Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Islands, occupies Funafuti Atoll in the Ellice Islands. Funafuti is located about 699 nautical miles (1 294 kilometers) south-southeast of Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: 11 B-24 Liberators and 6 P-39Airacobras bomb 2 Japanese cargo ships in Kiska harbor (no hits observed, drop demolition charges throughout the Main Camp area, and hit a hangar south of the seaplane ramp; 4 floatplanes and a biplane are shot down. Enemy aircraft bomb the Adak Island airfield without inflicting damage.
CANADA: Trawler HMS Baffin arrived Halifax to repair defective crankshaft.
NEWFOUNDLAND: A Sikorsky VS-44A Flying Boat, msn 4401, registered NC41880 and named “Excalibur” by the U.S. airline American Export Airlines, crashes at Botwood at 1905 hours local killing six of the 26 passengers and five of the eleven crew. This is American Export Flight 71 from New York City to Foynes, County Limerick, Éire via Botwood. While attempting to takeoff, the aircraft porpoised, attained a height of 35 feet (10,7 meters)t. and then crashed into the water and broke up. The crash is blamed on the inadvertent actuation of the wing flaps to the full 35 degrees position during the take-off run, thereby rendering the aircraft excessively nose-heavy and uncontrollable.
U.S.A.: President Roosevelt is granted power to control wages, salaries and agricultural prices as of November 1 by the Stabilization of the Cost of Living Act which becomes law today.
Elmer Davis, Office of War Information Director, recommends to President Roosevelt that Japanese Americans be allowed to enlist for military service. This provided the initiative for the concept of an all-JA military unit. Nisei trainees being welcomed to an Infantry replacement training centre. (Gene Hanson)
The Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, by amendment to a USN design study contract, is authorized to construct two 19A axial flow turbojet powerplants. Thereby, fabrication is initiated of the first jet engine of wholly American design.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: A USAAF B-18A Bolo of
the 99th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 9th Bombardment Group (Heavy), based at
Zandery Field, Surinam, sinks the German submarine
U-512 off French Guiana at position 06-50N, 52-25W, by Aerial depth charges.
One wounded survivor, Matrosengefreiter Franz Machen, self-escapes from the sea bottom and the crew of the B-18A
sights and drops him a life raft; he is rescued ten days later by the USS Ellis and spends the
rest of the war as a PoW. He survived in part by killing and eating seabirds
that attacked him while he lay exposed on the raft. (Mark Horan and Jack
McKillop and Dave Shirlaw)
U-175 sank
SS Aneroid.
U-175 was attacked twice by a
B-18 aircraft (USAAF),
but suffered no damage
U-201 sank SS Alcoa
Transport.