October 11th, 1942 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine ORP Dzik (ex-HMS P-52) launched.
NETHERLANDS: During the day, one RAF Bomber Command Mosquito bombs a chemical plant at Sluiskil.
During the night of 11/12 October, nine RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines in the Frisian Islands.
FRANCE: During the night of 11/12 October, five each RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines off Lorient and St. Nazaire.
DENMARK: During the night of 11/12 October, nine RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines in the Little Belt, the strait between Fyn Island and the mainland of Denmark connecting the Kattegat with the Baltic Sea.
GERMANY: During the day, RAF Bomber Command Mosquitos bomb two targets: three bomb Hannover with the loss of two aircraft and one bombs Emden.
During the night of 11/12 October, RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines off four areas: 14 aircraft lay mines in the Heligoland Bight, six in the Kattegat, five in the Kiel Area and three off Swinemunde.
U.S.S.R.: A lull in the
fighting around Stalingrad is the first in almost two months, as both sides seek
reinforcements.
Pacific Fleet: Submarine "L-16" is
sunk by Japanese "I-25", close to Cape Shumshu, approximately 500
miles west of Seattle, Washington, USA. All 50 aboard are killed. L-16 left
Petropavlovsk with L-15 to join the Northern Fleet on 26
September 1942. The two submarines intended to sail through Dutch Harbor and
San Francisco to the Panama Canal. The crew of L-15 witnessed the sinking. (Sergey Anisimov
and Dave Shirlaw)(69)
Polar
Fleet and White Sea Flotilla: Shipping loss. SKR
"Musson" (ex-RT-54 "Sudak") - mined in Matochkin Shar strait. (Sergey Anisimov)(69)
ITALY: Heinrich Himmler, Reichsfuhrer-SS, head of the Gestapo, flies to Rome to visit Italian dictator BenitoMussolini. The German government is very worried about the health of Mussolini. Himmler's visit is to assess Mussolini's health and the state of Fascism in Italy. Himmler later reports back to German Chancellor Adolf Hitler that if Mussolini remains alive, then so will the Fascist state.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: US Army, Middle East Air Force B-24s attack a convoy hitting one vessel and claiming one fighter shot down.
NEW GUINEA: On the Kododa Track in Papua New Guinea, Australian troops of the 2/33rd Battalion are ordered to take Templeton’s Crossing but they are unable to dislodge the Japanese.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: A Japanese transport force (Rear Admiral Joshima Koji), formed around seaplane carriers HIJMS Chitose and HIJMS Nisshin and six destroyers, reaches Tassafaronga, Guadalcanal, to disembark elements of the Japanese Army's 2d Infantry Division. Three heavy cruisers and two destroyers (Rear Admiral Goto Aritomo, his flag in heavy cruiser HIJMS Aoba) are to provide cover by shelling Henderson Field.
USAAF B-17s sight the cruisers and destroyers bearing down on Guadalcanal Island in the afternoon. USN Task Force 64 (Rear Admiral Norman Scott) consisting of the heavy cruisers USS Salt Lake City (CA-25) and USS San Francisco (CA-38), light cruisers USS Helena (CL-50) and USS Boise (CL-47) and five destroyers has been formed to thwart the "Tokyo Express," a steady flow of Japanese vessels maintaining reinforcement and re-supply to Guadalcanal.
At about 1615 hour local, the ships commenced a run northward from Rennel Island, to intercept an enemy force of two cruisers and six destroyers reported heading for Guadalcanal from the Buin-Faisi area.
The force continued north, to approach Savo Island from the southwest.
By 2330 hours, when the ships were approximately 6 miles (9.66 km) northwest of Savo, they turned to make a further search of the area.
A few minutes after setting the new course, radar indicates unidentified ships to the west, several thousand yards distant.
At about 2345, the Battle of Cape Esperance began.
Search planes were ordered launched from the cruisers, but in the process of launching, USS Salt Lake City's plane caught fire as flares ignited in the cockpit. The plane crashed close to the ship and the pilot managed to get free. He later found safety on a nearby island. The brilliant fire was seen in the darkness by the Japanese flag officers, who assumed that it was a signal flare from the landing force which they were sent to protect. The Japanese flagship answered with blinker light, and receiving no reply, continued to signal.
The American force formed a battle line at right angles to the Japanese T-formation (crossed the T), and thus were able to enfilade the enemy ships. The American cruisers opened fire and continued scoring hits for a full 7 minutes before the confused Japanese realized what was taking place. They had believed that, by error, their own forces were taking them under fire.
When the Japanese warships replied, their fire was too little and too late. The action was over in half an hour.
The Americans sink heavy
cruiser HIJMS Furutaka and destroyer HIJMS Fubuki and cripple heavy cruisers
HIJMS Aoba and HIJMS Kinugasa; one destroyer of the five-ship force escapes
damage.
After the battle, more than 100 of Fubuki's survivors refuse to be
rescued from shark-infested waters and are forcibly pulled onto two American
ships. Among the Japanese dead is squadron commander Rear Admiral Aritomo Goto.
USS Salt Lake City sustained three major hits during the action; USS Boise was severely crippled, but managed to rejoin the group under her own power; and the destroyer USS Duncan (DD-485) was left gutted off Savo Island. The ships formed up and steamed to Espiritu Santo. (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop)
During the day, the Japanese Navy initiates a two-part air attack against Guadalcanal which is interecepted by 39 USMC F4F Wildcats and 12 USAAF P-39 and P-400 Airacobras. The first attack is by 17 "Zeke" fighters (Mitsubishi A6M, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighters) which are not intercepted. The second part of the attack, which is forced to a low altitude by clouds, consists of 18 "Betty" bombers (Mitsubishi G4M, Navy Type 1 Attack Bombers) and 30 "Zeke" fighters. The Japanese second force is intercepted and the Marine Wildcat pilots shoot down nine "Bettys" and two "Zekes" and the USAAF Airacobra pilots shoot down two "Bettys." U.S. loses are one Wildcat and one Airacobra.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Japanese submarine HIJMS I-25, homeward bound from her deployment off the U.S. West Coast, torpedoes and sinks Russian submarine L 16 500 miles west of Seattle en route from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to San Francisco, California. All 50 aboard were killed. L-16 left Petropavlovsk with L-15 to join the Northern Fleet on 26 September 1942. The two submarines intended to sail through Dutch Harbor, San Francisco to the Panama Canal. The crew of L-15 witnessed the sinking. (Jack McKillop and Dave Shirlaw)
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC OCEAN: USN submarine USS Searaven (SS-196) torpedoes a German blockade runner in the Sunda Strait, Netherlands East Indies.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Japanese-held Kiska Island is hit by 3 bombing and strafing missions flown by 10 B-24 Liberators and 3 B-17 Flying Fortresses of the Eleventh Air Force; the B-17s make no contact; the B-24s blast harbor targets and Main Camp.
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Kapunda commissioned.
CANADA: Battle of the St. Lawrence - The Newfoundland-registered pulpwood bulk carrier Waterton (2,140 GRT) is torpedoed and sunk by U-106, KptLt Hermann Rasch, Knight's Cross, CO, in the Cabot Strait, in position 47.07N, 059.54W.
Waterton had been part of the Cornerbrook, Newfoundland, to Sydney, Nova Scotia, convoy BS-31.
There was no loss of life in this incident.
Henry Asbjorn Larsen 1899-1964 sails the RCMP patrol vessel St Roch into Halifax after making the first west-to-east crossing of the NW Passage; one of his eight-man crew had died of a heart attack in the Arctic as the wooden sailing schooner with an auxiliary engine spent the winter in the ice less than 80 km from the North Magnetic Pole. The St. Roch was built in North Vancouver in 1928. A wooden schooner with sail and auxiliary engine, she left Vancouver in the summer of 1940, took the southerly route through the Arctic islands, and spent two winters trapped in the ice; she was the second ship to sail the Passage, after Amundsen's Gjoa in 1908. She returned to Vancouver July-Oct. 1944 by the northerly Lancaster Sound route, and today you can see her berthed in Vancouver's Maritime Museum.
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Foote launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-589 sank SS Musson.
U-615 sank SS El Lago in Convoy ONS-136.
U-87 sank SS Agapenor.
SS Caribou, passenger steamship enroute from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland was torpedoed by U-69, KptLt Jost Metzler, Knights Cross, CO, in the Cabot Strait. Minesweeper HMCS Grandmere attacked with depth charges but with no result. Of the 237 persons aboard Caribou, only 104 survived and were rescued by Grandmere.