October 8th, 1942 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
London: An unpleasant quarrel between the British and German governments has led to PoWs being handcuffed in defiance of the Geneva Convention of 1921.
GERMANY first announced that, because of British "brutalities" in the treatment of Germans taken prisoner during a Commando raid on the Channel Island of Sark on 4 October, all 2,190 British prisoners taken in the Dieppe raid would be manacled. Britain promptly retaliated by announcing that an equal number of Germans would be manacled.
During the raid on Sark five Germans were captured, and their hands were tied while they were being taken to the commando's escape boat. When the Germans realized how few their captors were they began to struggle. The commandos, fearful of the alarm being raised, shot three of the prisoners and made off.
The Germans, finding the three bodies with their hands tied behind their backs, assumed the men had been shot in cold blood. An enraged Hitler at once ordered reprisals. The Swiss government, which is the protecting power for both British and German PoWs, now has the task of persuading the two powers to see reason.
Major General Ira C Eaker, Commanding General Eighth Air Force sends a letter to Major General George E Stratemeyer, Chief of the Air Staff in Washington, indicating plans for the development of a highly-skilled intruder force capable of using bad weather as a cloak for small blind-bombing operations. These missions are also to serve the purpose of keeping the enemy from resting during periods of bad weather when big strategic missions cannot be flown.
Trawler HMS Anticosti commissioned.
BELGIUM: German decrees are issued, ordering registration for war work. These effect all males between 18 and 50 and females between 21 and 35. These decrees indicate that Germany's manpower needs are approaching a crisis situation.
During the night of 8/9 October, six RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines off Ostend without loss.
NETHERLANDS: During the night of 8/9 October, RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines in two area: 22 aircraft lay mines in the Frisian Islands and five lay mines off Texel Island (one aircraft lost).
FRANCE: During the night of 8/9 October, RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines off six ports: five aircraft mine off Brest, four off St. Nazaire (1 aircraft lost) and three off Lorient.
GERMANY: The German High Command abandons their attempt to storm Stalingrad, U.S.S.R., and announces a plan to reduce the city by heavy artillery. The change in program is adopted to avoid "unnecessary sacrifice" of German blood.
During the day, one RAF Bomber Command Mosquito is dispatched to Saarbrücken and bombs a factory believed to be in the nearby town of Bous.
Major Roy W. Evans, commanding officer of the 335th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group, USAAF Eighth Air Force, achieves ace status when he downs a Bf 109 near Oldenburg at 1455 hours. He scores one more victory to end the war with six kills. (Skip Guidry)
U-643 commissioned.
POLAND: The Polish Home Army uses mines to destroy Warsaw's main rail yards.
NORWAY: Trondheim: Josef Terboven, the Reich commissioner for Norway, arrived in the port of Trondheim today, and by mid-afternoon ten people had been shot for sabotage and 700 arrested. The port is used as a German naval base from which attacks on British convoys to Russia are mounted. Norwegian resistance fighters are believed to have sabotaged military communications.
Terboven, acting under a state of emergency, has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew, taken over the railways and announced death penalties for any attempts to interfere with work, supplies or communications.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: US Army, Middle East Air Force B-24s fail to reach the target at Bengasi, Libya because of bad weather. The Hal Bombardment Squadron manages to attack shipping at Bengasi.
U-179 (Type IX D2) is sunk in the South Atlantic near Cape Town, South Africa, at position 33.28S, 17.05W, by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS Active. 61 dead (all crew lost). (Alex Gordon)
CHINA: Brigadier General Claire Chennault, Commanding General China Air Task Force of the USAAF Fourteenth Air Force, delivers a letter to Wendell L. Willkie for U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt asking for increased authority and air power in order to destroy the Japanese Air Force in China, then attack Japanese Empire. President Roosevelt had asked Wilkie to make an airplane flight around the world as his special envoy to show the world that although America is engaged in a vigorous political debate at home, she is united in her desire to combat fascism throughout the world.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Torrential rains slow the plans of the Marines on Guadalcanal to cross the Matanikau River. Company H of the 2nd Btn, 5th Marines finds itself between the 9th Company of the 4th IJA regiment and the balance of the regiment. Effective company level leadership allows Company H to recover. The main attack by the Marines is postponed one day as night approaches. The 5th Marine Regiment and raiders reduce the Japanese bridgehead on the east bank in costly fighting. When the Japanese plans for counteroffensive are discovered, Major General Alexander Vandegrift, Commanding General 1st Marine Division, changes the plan of attack, Instead of driving toward Kokumbona and the Poha, marines are to raid the Point Cruz area in force and return to the Lunga perimeter.
NEW GUINEA: On the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea, the Japanese withdrawal northeast across the Owen Stanley Range slows as they prepare to make a stand at Templeton Crossing north of Myola. The Australian 25th Brigade, 7th Division, makes contact with this rear-guard force. The role of the U.S. 126th and 128th Infantry Regiments, 32d Infantry Division, is defined as “to attack the Japanese at Buna from the east and southeast.”
B-25s bomb the Buna area while A-20 Havocs bomb the Buna-Kokoda trail.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The Eleventh Air Force sends 9 B-24 Liberators, 3 B-17 Flying Fortresses, and 12 P-38 Lightnings to attack Kiska Island Harbor installations (starting fires in Main Camp), and strafe AA positions, hangars, a corvette (silencing her guns), and a freighter.
CANADA: Destroyer HMCS Algonquin (ex-HMS Valentine) laid down.
U.S.A.: The motion picture "Flying Tigers" is released today. Directed by David Miller, this war drama stars John Wayne, John Carroll, Anna Lee and Paul Kelly; Richard Loo, who appeared as a Japanese officer in just about every WWII film, appears in an uncredited role. This film is a "Hollywoodized" version of the activities of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) in China in early WWII. It is nominated for 3 technical Academy Awards.
Washington: German saboteurs Heinrich Heimack, Edward Keiling, Herman Neubauer, Richard Quirin and Werner Thiel are executed in the electric chair at Washington D.C. Jail for sabotage. They had been tried by a military commission appointed by President Roosevelt on July 8, 1942. (Russell Folsom)
Destroyer USS Glennon commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-125 sank SS Glendene.
U-159 sank SS Clan MacTavish.
U-172 sank SS City of Athens.
U-179 sank SS John Carter Rose. After sinking the John Carter Rose, the crew of U-201 gave the shipwrecked survivors provisions and bandages. This was four weeks after the issuing of the Laconia order, in which Admiral Dönitz directly forbade U-boats to undertake any rescue activity of this kind.
U-68 sank SS Swiftsure, Koumoundouros, Gaasterkerk and Sarthe.
U-172 was depth charged by the corvette HMS Rock Rose but suffered only slight damage.
U-179 sunk in the South Atlantic near Cape Town, South Africa, in position 33.28S, 17.05E, by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS Active. 61 dead (all hands lost).
Worldwide: Roman Catholics observe a day of prayer for Poland.