November 13th, 1942 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Escort carrier HMS Shah laid down.
NETHERLANDS: During the day, two RAF Bomber Command Mosquitos set out to Flushing to attack a damaged merchant ship but do not return. It is believed, however, that they did hit the ship again. Two more Mosquitos and six (A-20) Bostons then take off to carry out a sea search for the crews of the two2 lost Mosquitos. These are not found and one of the Bostons is then lost.
FRANCE: El Salvador, Brazil and Panama severed diplomatic relations with Vichy France.
During the night of 13/14 November, 12 RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons are dispatched to lay mines off Bay of Biscay ports: five lay mines off St. Nazaire and four off Lorient.
GERMANY: U-714 launched.
During the day, six RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons are sent to bomb Emden but only one aircraft drops bombs, which hit fields.
U.S.S.R.: Stalingrad: General Paulus, desperately anxious to secure Stalingrad before winter sets in, launched yet another offensive against the city's defenders two days ago, with infantry and tanks fighting their way through the rubble behind one of the most intensive barrages of the battle.
The Germans managed to reach the Volga on a 500-yard front, thus splitting the defences. They also captured most of the Red October factory, clearing it room by room, floor by floor. Both sides have developed special units for this type of fighting. The Germans call them Kampfgruppen, and they fight in cellars and attics and sewers with cruel expertise.
Despite the German successes, the Russians are still holding on, defying Hitler's boast in his Munich Beerkellar speech last week that "we've got Stalingrad ... there are only a few more tiny pockets of resistance."
There are also signs that Paulus has shot his bolt. His men and machines are exhausted and the Volga has begun to freeze. Meanwhile the Russians have been building up a formidable new army in the east.
ITALY: During the night of 13/14 November, RAF Bomber Command sends 67 Lancasters and nine Stirlings to bomb Genoa; 70 aircraft bomb the city and docks.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA:
U-331 was attacked by an escort and was slightly damaged when she dove too deep and hit the sea bed.
NORTH AFRICA: The British 36th Brigade has now passed Djidjelli as they move east from Algiers.
Admiral Darlan and General Clark sign a formal agreement recognizing Darlan as head of the French civil government in North Africa. Generals Eisenhower, Nogues and Juin will ratify it later. General Giraud will command the French armed services.
ALGERIA: French Admiral Jean-Francois Darlan, Commander in Chief of the Vichy French Army, and U.S. Major General Mark Clark, Deputy Commander in Chief Allied Force, sign a formal agreement recognizing Darlan as head of the French civil government in North Africa. U.S. Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander in Chief Allied Force and French Generals Charles-Auguste Nogues, high commissioner of Morocco, and Alphonse-Pierre Juin, commander of Vichy forces in North Africa, will ratify it later. General Henri-Honeré Giraud will command the French armed services.
Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, flies to Algiers to conclude the agreement with Admiral Jean-Francois Darlan. Allied convoy arrives at B6ne and unloads 17/21 Lancers Regimental Group (later called Blade Force), 1st Parachute Brigade (-), transport of the 78th Division (-), and Advance Headquarters of the British First Army. The main body of the 36th Brigade, 78th Division, advances to Djidjelli, 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Bougie.
USAAF Twelfth Air Force C-47 Skytrains, with P-38 Lightning escort, fly antiaircraft guns and aviation gasoline (petrol) to Duzerville Airfield. USAAF Spitfires patrol the Oran-Tafaraoui area.
LIBYA: Tobruk falls to the British Eighth Army's X Corps.
NEW GUINEA: Papua: The Japanese General Horii pulls back over the Kumusi river, marking the Kokoda campaign's end.
Australian troops destroy the Japanese rear guard at the Kumusi River crossing in Papua New Guinea. In the early afternoon, the Australian 2/31st Battalion reaches Waitropi.
AUSTRALIA: Iron Range, Queensland: USAAF 90th Bombardment Group (Heavy) begins combat operations defending eastern Australia and New Guinea. They fly the Consolidated B-24 Liberator.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: USN Task Group 67.4, comprising the heavy cruisers USS San Francisco (CA-38) and Portland (CA-33); light cruisers USS Helena (CL-50), Atlanta (CL-51) and Juneau (CL-52); and destroyers USS Aaron Ward (DD-483), Barton (DD-599), Cushing (DD-376), Fletcher (DD-445), Laffey (DD-459), Monssen (DD-436), O'Bannon (DD-450) and Sterett (DD-407) encounters the Japanese Bombardment Force that includes the battleships HIJMS Hiei and Kirishima, the light cruiser HIJMS Nagara and destroyers HIJMS Akatsuki, Amatsukaze, Asagumo, Harusame, Ikazazuchi, Inazuma, Murasame, Samidare, Shigure, Shiratsuyu, Teruzuki, Yadachi, Yugure and Yukikaze, steaming to bombard Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, shortly after 0000 hours; a savage nocturnal naval action ensues.
Off Guadalcanal, in Ironbottom Bay, the US naval forces are steaming westward along the north coast. The Japanese naval forces sight Cape Esperance at 0125. Weather, recurring rain squalls in the slot, have disrupted the Japanese formation. Their mission is to bombard Henderson Field. The US forces have again not made the best use of the radar equipped ships. Assuming that his destroyers have swept ahead and found no US ships, he orders the bombardment shells readied. USS Helena reports a radar return at 27,100 yards (24,700 meters, 13.5 miles). A series of course changes disrupts the US column. The Japanese open fire at 0148.
The two naval forces are on a collision course. The battle, which is really more of a melee, will be fought at close quarters. The battle of the Japanese battleships and US cruisers has begun. It will end with stricken Hiei without power north of Savo Island, and destroyer Yudachi abandoned and sinking. US destroyers Monssen and Cushing or abandoned, cruiser Portland with damaged steering, Atlanta powerless, drifting and afire, Juneau and San Francisco with heavy damage. The bombardment mission is cancelled at 0200 and the landing of the Japanese reinforcement convoy on the 14th is cancelled.
US Admirals Norman Scott and Daniel Callaghan were killed. Along with BM1 Reinhard John Keppler they will be awarded the MOH posthumously. Lt. Commanders Herbert Schonland and Bruce McCandless are also awarded the MOH.
Adm Scott was aboard the Atlanta. The other 4 sailors were aboard the San Francisco. Schonland and McCandless were the senior surviving officers of San Francisco and their efforts at damage control were instrumental in her survival of the battle. [Anyone knowing why BM1 Keppler was awarded the MOH, I would appreciate knowing.]
The captain of the USS SAN FRANCISCO was Commander Cassin Young who is awarded the Navy Cross. He is killed by enemy shells while closely engaging the Japanese battleship HIEI. The USS SAN FRANCISCO subsequently receives the Presidential Unit Citation. (Drew Philip Halevy)
The destroyer USS Fletcher steams last in line. Radioman 2/c Jason Robards is aboard. Witnessing the spectacular explosion of the USS Barton during the battle, the Fletcher and her crew survive the melee unscathed. (Matt Clark)
Rear Admiral ABE Hiroaki's force inflicts heavy damage on TG 67.4 before it retires northward; Rear Admirals Callaghan and Norman Scott are killed on board their respective flagships, hea vy cruiser USS San Francisco and light cruiser USS Atlanta. Both Callaghan and Scott are awarded Medals of Honor (posthumously). On board San Francisco, Lieutenant Commanders Herbert E. Schonland and Bruce McCandless prove instrumental in saving their ship, and Boatswain's Mate First Class Reinhardt J. Keppler performs a succession of heroic acts in fighting fires and removing wounded during the thick of the battle. Those three men (Keppler posthumously) also earn the nation's highest award for bravery.
This battle became known as the 3rd Battle of Savo Island. It is now referred to as Part 1 of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Part II will take place in two days with much action in between.
USN Task Force 16 (Rear Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid), formed around the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6), the last operational fleet carrier in the Pacific, nears the battle area and launches air search and attacks against the Japanese.
Light cruiser USS Atlanta, irreparably damaged by Japanese naval gunfire and torpedo as well as by friendly fire from heavy cruiser USS San Francisco, is scuttled by demolition charges 3 nautical miles (5,6 kilometers) off Lunga Point. Also sunk are destroyers USS Cushing and Monssen (DD-435) to gunfire, USS Laffey to gunfire and torpedo, and USS Barton to two torpedoes.
Heavy cruiser USS Portland suffers torpedo damage; USS San Francisco, light cruiser USS Helena and destroyer USS Aaron Ward are damaged by gunfire; and friendly fire damages destroyer USS O'Bannon. With the loss of two light cruisers, the USN now has 25 light cruisers in commission.
Battleship HIJMS Hiei, damaged by gunfire from heavy cruisers USS Portland and San Francisco and destroyers USS Cushing, Laffey, and O'Bannon, is sunk by TBF Avengers of Torpedo Squadron Eight (VT-8) in aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and USMC SBD Dauntlesses of Marine Scout Bombing Squadron One Hundred Forty Two (VMSB-142) and TBF Avengers of VMSB-131 from Henderson Field. Destroyer HIJMS Akatsuki is sunk by San Francisco and Atlanta gunfire near Savo Island. Destroyer HIJMS Yudachi, damaged by gunfire, is sunk by heavy cruiser USS Portland southeast of Savo Island. Japanese destroyers HIJMS Murasame, Ikazuchi, and Amatsukaze are damaged by gunfire; destroyer HIJMS Yukikaze is damaged by aircraft, off Guadalcanal.
Destroyer HIJMS Michisio is also damaged by aircraft off Shortland Island..
The light cruiser USS Juneau damaged by gunfire and steaming south from last night's action [early morning of the 13th] with San Francisco, Helena and two destroyers, is torpedoed by Japanese submarine HIJMS I-26 about 121 nautical miles (224 kilometres) southeast of Henderson Field, Guadalcanal Island, in position 10.34S, 161.44E. A massive explosion occurs and the Juneau disappears. With her go 683 sailors including the five Sullivan Brothers, Francis, Joseph, Madison, Albert and George. George survives the explosion with 100+ others. Over the next seven days, all but ten of these survivors will die, due to a series of assumptions and mistakes.
Eight P-38 Lightnings of the 339th Fighter Squadron, 347th Fighter Group, arrive on Fighter 1 strip just east of Henderson Field after flight from Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.
At 0925 hours, a USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress sights 12 Japanese transports escorted by ten warships in New Georgia Sound. The force turns back and not sighted again today.
During the night of 13 November, heavy cruisers HIJMS Suzuya and Maya approach Guadalcanal to shell Henderson Field, intending to render it inoperable the following morning.
Air strength on Guadalcanal Island is raised by the arrival of three B-26 Marauders of the 69th and 70th Bombardment Squadrons (Medium), 38th Bombardment Group (Medium), from New Hebrides Island as the naval battle of Guadalcanal Island continues; Japanese cruisers and destroyers bombard Henderson Field on Guadalcanal during the night of 13/14 November, and destroy one of the new P-38s.
On Bougainville Island, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb shipping off Tonolai-Komaleai Point and the airfield at Kahili.
ADMIRALTY ISLANDS: A USAAF Fifth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress strafes a schooner in Lorengau harbor on Manus Island, Admiralty Islands.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: A USAAF Eleventh Air Force aircraft fly reconnaissance over Agattu and Japanese-held Attu Islands reveals five Japanese landing barges in Chichagof harbor on Attu Island.
CANADA:
Trawler HMS Magdalen arrived Halifax from workups Pictou , Nova Scotia.
U.S.A.: The minimum draft age is reduced from 21 to 18. (Tony Giuliani)
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-509 hit a mine off Casablanca but suffered only slight damage.
At 0615, destroyer HNLMS Isaac Sweers was hit by two torpedoes from U-431 on the starboard side. One torpedo struck an oil tank, spreading burning oil over the ship and the water. The second torpedo hit the longroom and officers quarters, killing all 13 officers sleeping there. The survivors were picked up by the British armed trawler HMS Loch Oskaig, which also tried to get alongside the burning ship, but did had to abandon the plan due to the heavy fires and exploding ammunition.