Friday, November 20, 1942. The Axis reels in defeat.

The Siege of Malta ended after 2.5 years.

The Axis effort to isolate and eliminate Malta as a British asset had been conducted principally from the air, but had also been heavily supported by the German and Italian navies.  For almost all the siege the defense of the of the island, which used numerically inferior numbers of aircraft, had been a strictly British affair, aided only in the end by the U.S. Navy assisting in ferrying aircraft to Malta.  It was a resolute British victory.

The tide had been turning since the British had been able to reinforce the island with new aircraft in 1942 and emergency supplies had been run in, keeping the island from starvation. The Germans had more or less given up in October, but Axis defeats in North Africa made maintaining the siege impossible, as the Axis had been required to switch its air assets to the failing campaign in North Africa.

Malta had been independent until 1798, having been governed by the monastic Order of Saint John, which lost power to Napoleon.  The Maltese rebelled and asked for British help, with the island becoming a British protectorate in 1800.  It became a Crown Colony in 1813, obtaining home rule in 1947 and independence in 1964.

The British 8th Army retook Benghazi, Libya.

The Red Army opened up phase two of Operation Uranus with Stalingrad Front commander Andrei Yeremenko opening up the southern prong after the fog lifted.  Again, Romanian troops failed and collapsed, with German forces attempting to react.  By then end of the day, only the 6th Romanian Cavalry Regiment stood between the Red Army and the Don.

The Alaska Highway officially opened.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 20: 1942 NHL abolishes regular season overtime until World War II is over.

Hockey fans weren't the only lonely ones.  Life magazine went to press with a black and white photograph of a woman smoking a cigarette and drinking coffee on its cover, entitled "Lonely Wife".

Joseph Robinette Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Norman Greenbaum, famous for his song Spirit In The Sky, was born in Malden, Massachusetts.

Joe Biden is the oldest person to ever be elected President.  In case a person wonders, he's only four years older, however, than Donald Trump.

Saturday, August 15, 1942. Ohio gets to Malta.

Today in World War II History—August 15, 1942: Allied “Pedestal” convoy arrives in Malta—only 5 of 14 cargo ships have survived (including tanker Ohio lashed to destroyers HMS Penn and HMS Ledbury).

From Sarah Sundin's blog. 

The Pedestal convoy was a major saga in 1942.  Even now, historians debate whether the huge convoy losses made the matter an Axis victory or the fact that some ships did get through, including the Ohio, made it an Allied one.  At the end of the day, the arrival of the Ohio was in fact materially important, and the supplies allowed Malta to carry on.

The Ohio after arriving in port.

Malta was in truth very near to being starved out of the war at this point and therefore, from my prospective, this was in fact a British naval victory, albeit one at a high cost.  The British could not afford to lose the island, however, and Pedestal prevented that and allowed it to go on to be used as an air and naval base to disrupt supplies going to the Afrika Korps.

Also on this day, the British submarine HMS Porpoise sank the Italian MV Lerici.  The U-705 sank the SS Balladier off of Ireland.  The Finnish patrol boat VMV 5 sank the Soviet submarine M-97 in the Gulf of Finland.

The Germans attacked Grozny.

The Marines, now suffering from short supplies, opened the captured Japanese airfield at Lunga Point, naming it Henderson Field.  On the same day, four ships arrived with much-needed supplies.

1942  The first landing at the Casper Air Base took place when Lt. Col. James A. Moore landed a Aeronca at the base.

Monday, August 3, 1942. Supplying Malta.

Today in World War II History—August 3, 1942: Lt. Cdr. Mildred McAfee is named the first director of the WAVES, becomes the first female officer in the US Naval Reserve.

From Sarah Sundin's blog.

The British launched Operation Pedestal, a naval operation designed to provide supplies to besieged Malta. The degree to which Malta was in desperate straights for much of 1941 and 1942 is often forgotten in the story of the war, as is the fact that the naval contest there was for a long time more evenly matched than we might otherwise remember.

Friday, June 12, 1942. Day of the Submarines.

Anne Frank received a diary on this day for her 13th birthday.

The U.S. Army Air Force bombed Polesti, Romania in a mission which saw 13 B-24s fly from Fayid Egypt to an intended landing in Iraq.  Four of the bombers made emergency landings in Iraq, and two in Syria. The ones in Turkey were interned. 

The bombers were actually in transit to China.  This was not part of Operation Tidal Wave, the famous low level raid that was also performed by B-24s.

On the same day, the Army Air Force raided Kiska for the second day in a row.

The Germans breakout in Libya and close to within fifteen miles of Tobruk.

The British launch Operation Harpoon in a desperate effort to resupply Malta by sea.

The Soviet Navy resupplied Sevastopol by sea, brining in 2,314 additional soldiers to the defense of the besieged city.

The Japanese submarine I-24 sank the SS Guatemala off of Sidney.  The I-16 sank the Yugoslavian flagged Supetar, the I-20 the Panamanian flagged Hellenic Trader, and the British Clifton Hall, all cargo vessels, in hte Mozambique Channel.

The German U-77 sank the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Grove off of Baria, Libya.  The U-124 sank the SS Dartford off of Newfoundland, the U-129 sank the SS Harwicke Grange off of Puerto Rico, the U-158sank the US SS Cities Service Toledo,an oil tanker, off of Louisiana.

The USS Swordfish sank the Japanese transport ship Burma Maru off of Cambodia.

George H. W. Bush graduated from Phillips Academy, turned 18 years old, and enlisted in the U.S. Navy on this day.

The recently completed Grand Coulee Dam was photographed.

Grand Coulee Dam, Washington.

Sunday, May 10, 1942. The Battle of Malta and P40s to Ghana.

Operation Bowery sees British Spitfires delivered to Malta, quickly refuel, and take flight again.  The action was the turning point in the air battle over Malta that had been going on for months.  On this day, in fact, in the  Battle of Malta, an Italian bombing mission on Malta sustained heavy losses and daytime raids on Malta ceased.

Spitfire being readied to take off from the USS Wasp.

The mission was the successor to one which had only recently taken place, in which all of the Spitfires had been destroyed on the ground immediately after landing in Malta.

On the same day, 60 P40s were launched from the USS Ranger to take up station at Accra in Ghana.

P40s on the USS Wasp.

This is an aspect of a truly world war that we don't consider.  Probably even many people who are highly literate on the history of the Second World War don't know that the United States Army Air Corp stationed fighters in a West African nation, or rather British colony, but it did. These no doubt served principally as a deterrant to German submraines operating off of the South Atlantic coast, but also as a deterrant to the threat of Vichy operations in Africa.

Churchill, on the occasion of the second anniversary of his taking office as Prime Minister, declared that if the Germans used poison gas against the Soviets, the United Kingdom would regard it as having been used against it.

In spite of the fear that the Germans would use poison gas, they in fact never did, and the only incident of combat theater gas deaths during the war came when the Luftwaffe hit a ship of the US Navy off of Italy later in the war which was carrying a supply of poison gas.

Sarah Sundin notes on her blog the following:

Today in World War II History—May 10, 1942: Assembly center for Japanese-Americans opens at Stockton, CA. US celebrates Mother’s Day.

Noting that it was Mothers Day for 1942, she also had this interesting poster on her blog: