Tuesday, September 29, 1942. The British launch Operation Braganza, and the Japanese try again in Oregon.

The British launched Operation Braganza with the goal of capturing the ground around Deir el Munassib in Egypt.  It would fail.

The Japanese tried again with a second submarine launched seaplane bombing mission against the forest in Oregon, hoping to set them on fire. They did not.

The great comedic actress Madeline Kahn was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Lahn was born to Bernard and Freda Wolfson, who divorced when she was two.  Her mother later married Hiller Kahn who adopted her.  Her mother had wanted to be an actress and for a time pursued that goal.  Kahn graduated in 1964 with a degree in speech therapy from Hofra University and began purusing an actiing career herself soon after.

Kahn in 1964.

Starting with roles on Broadway, she broke into film in 1968 and by 1972 was in the major motion picture, What's Up Doc?, which I've never seen.  The following year, she was in Paper Moon, which is a great film, for which she secured an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.  She was in a series of notable roles after that.  In the 1990s she was in the television series Cosby, which was hugely respected, but which is now probably un-airable due to the later revelations about Bill Cosby.  She died in 1999 of ovarian cancer at age 57.

Saturday, September 5, 1942. British victory in the desert.

The Battle of Alam el Halfa, part of the larger First Battle of Tobruk, concluded with an Allied victory. 

Today in World War II History—September 5, 1942: Japanese reach Owen Stanley Gap in drive toward Port Moresby, New Guinea. New song in Top Ten: “I’ve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo.”

From Sarah Sundin's blog.

And, from the sadly inactive Today World War II Day By Day:

Guadalcanal. Just before 1 AM, Japanese destroyers Yudachi, Hatsuyuki and Murakumo shell Henderson Field as they return from landing troops at Taivu. A US Navy PBY Catalina floatplane drops flares to illuminate the attackers but instead lights up US fast transport ships (converted WWI-era destroyers) USS Gregory and USS Little in Savo Sound, which are promptly sunk by Yudachi (USS Gregory 22 killed, 43 wounded; USS Little 62 killed, 27 wounded; survivors from both ships rescued by US destroyer USS Manley). During the day off Santa Isabel Island, US Cactus Air Force operating from Henderson Field again sinks barges carrying heavy equipment for the Japanese troops on Guadalcanal.

The Red Army drove into the Sinyavino Gap, closing to within 3.5 miles of the Leningrad lines. They were, however, exhausted and could not advance further.  On the same day, the Soviet 24th and 66th Armies counterattacked the XIV Panzer Corp at Stalingrad, but their progress was halted due to the Luftwaffe.

The Saturday Evening Post, which I can't put up here due to copyright restrictions for 1942, published a classic in its Willie Gillis series with two young women both picking up photos of Gillis, from Gillis, at  their mailboxes.  The title of the illustration was "Trouble for Gillis".  On the same Saturday, The New Yorker published an illustration of male war workers looking out with envy at the lunches of their female coworkers.  The Toronto Star Weekly featured an illustration of charging Soviet cavalrymen.

Wednesday, September 2, 1942. The carrier escorted PQ-18

The escort carrier, the HMS Avenger.  She'd be sunk by a German submarine in November 1942, following Operation Torch, which would take all but 12 of her crew of over 500.

Today in World War II History—September 2, 1942: Allied convoy PQ-18 departs Scotland for USSR, the first Arctic convoy with an escort carrier and the first since the PQ-17 disaster; 13/40 ships will be lost.

From Sarah Sundin's blog.

Escort carriers were game changers.  While losing 13 out of 40 ships wasn't good, it was better than what the PQ-17 had experienced. With air cover, submarines were at a disadvantage.  The PQ-18 task force was, in fact, the largest and most successful Arctic run up to that time.

The carrier was the HMS Avenger, as Sundin's blog entry notes.

The U-222 and the U-626, German training submarines, collided in the Baltic sinking the U-222 which took 42 of her crew with her.

The German 46th Infantry Division, which had been dishonored following an unauthorized withdrawal due to Soviet landings on the Kerch peninsula in December 1941, crossed the Kerch Straits while the German 17th Army advanced into Novorossisk, putting Soviet positions on the Eastern Black Sea coast at extreme risk.  The Soviets began, on this night, evacuations from Black Sea ports which were harassed by German and Italian patrol boats.

The Germans sustained heavy material losses at Alam el Halfa resulting in an Afrika Korps withdrawal.

British commandos took a lighthouse and its occupants near Alderny without the Germans noticing and without loss in Operation Dryad.

Tom Williams of the Irish Republican Army was executed for the felony murder of Royal Ulster Constabulary officer Patrick Murphy.  This occurred when an IRA unit Williams was in command of staged a diversionary action against the RUC in order to allow parades commemorating the Easter Rebellion to occur.  Who killed Murphy is actually not known, but Williams was the acknowledged commander of the unit.

Sunday, August 30, 1942. Montgomery anticipates Rommel.

Aided by Ultra, Montgomery plans a heavy reception for an Afrika Korps attack he knows to be coming.  In the Battle of Alam el Halfa Rommel, on this day, finds his forces caught in dense minefields and bombed by a combined air effort by the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force.  The battle would continue until September 5.

The Red Army also found itself oppressed from the air, in this case in their effort to relieve Leningrad, which started to grind to a halt.

Japanese assaults at the Isurava Rest House on Papua caused the Australians to withdraw from the location to Eora.

The Japanese landed 1,000 troops overnight at Guadalcanal, as well as sinking the US fast transport ship USS Colhoun.

Monday, July 27, 1942. North African Stalemate

The First Battle of El Alamein ended with a tactical stalemate but a strategic British victory in that they arrested the Afrika Korps advance.

Sunday, July 26, 1942. Gene Autry joins the Army.

Today in World War II History—July 26, 1942: In a live radio broadcast, Gene Autry, cowboy singer/actor, is inducted into the US Army Air Force as a technical sergeant.

Via Sarah Sundin's blog.

I had no idea that Gene Autry had served in the military during World War Two.

I'm not an Autry fan, and indeed when I first read this in the early morning hours, I confused Autry with Roy Rogers.  Roy Rogers didn't serve in World War Two.  He was a few years younger than Autry, who did.

The other blog which had this correct, I'd note, noted this regarding Rogers:

Rogers and Wayne "are forever tainted with the stigma of opting out[,] unlike so many of their contemporaries from the Hollywood community who put country first before family [and] career," Bruce Hickey wrote. Seventy years later, people still have heated opinions about it. Wayne's lack of service has been written about more extensively than Rogers', but both are perennial topics of speculation, justification, and scorn.

I posted on the entry twice, once in error, and then to correct my error.

I suspect that Autry wasn't inducted as a Technical Sergeant so much as becoming one.  He was a private pilot and really wanted to be an Army Air Force pilot, and eventually did so in 1944, then holding the rank of Flight Officer.  He flew a C-109, a cargo variant of the B-24, which was not an easy plane to fly, and moreover, was one of those who flew "over the hump" in the CBI.

By the way, Autry did join the Army on a Sunday.  As readers of this blog may have noted, a lot of official government business of all types was conducted on Sunday during World War Two.  I don't know what the official policy was, but the government was clearly working at least partially seven days a week.

At El Alamein the British launched the counteroffensive Operation Manhood, with the combined British, South African and New Zealand forces taking most of their initial objectives.

The Japanese defending forces at Oivi on the Kokoda track, with the Papuan and Australian forces conducing a delaying action.

The German 6th Army broke through the Red Army's 62nd and 64th armies, reaching the Don just south of Stalingrad.

The Royal Air Force conducted a nighttime raid on Hamburg which resulted in the destruction of 823 homes, and which rendered 14,000 of its residents homeless.

July 22, 1942. Terror in Warsaw, Gas Rationing on the East Coast, Heroisam at El Alamein

Germany began to move residents of the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka in what was termed Grossaktion Warsaw.

Today In Wyoming's History: July 22: 1942 US initiates gasoline rationing 

This actually took place only along the Atlantic seaboard at first.  It was actually a measure taken to save rubber, rather than gasoline.

The Germans reached the great bend of the Don, near Stalingrad.

It was a very active day of combat at El Alamein.  Among the Australians, was Private Stan Gurney, who was killed there in an action that resulted in a posthumous Victoria's Cross. The citation stated:

No.WX.9858 Private Arthur Stanley Gurney, Australian Military Forces. For gallant and unselfish bravery in silencing enemy machine-gun posts by bayonet assault at Tell El Eisa on 22 July 1942, thus allowing his Company to continue the advance.

During an attack on strong German positions in the early morning of 22 July 1942, the Company to which Private Gurney belonged was held up by intense machine-gun fire from posts less than 100 yards ahead, heavy casualties being inflicted on our troops, all the officers being killed or wounded.

Grasping the seriousness of the situation and without hesitation, Private Gurney charged the nearest enemy machine-gun post, bayoneted three men and silenced the post. He then continued on to a second post, bayoneted two men and sent out a third as a prisoner. At his stage a stick grenade was thrown at Private Gurney which knocked him to the ground. He rose again, picked up his rifle and charged a third post using the bayonet with great vigour. He then disappeared from view, and later his body was found in an enemy post.

By this single-handed act of gallantry in the face of a determined enemy, Private Gurney enabled his Company to press forward to its objective, inflicting heavy losses upon the enemy. The successful outcome of this engagement was almost entirely due to Private Gurney's heroism at the moment when it was needed.

Friday, July 17, 1942. End of the Archangle Route, Soviet female snipers, Combat at El Alamein, Case Blue resupplied from the air.

Churchill informed Stalin that in light of the PQ 17 disaster, convoys to Archangel would be suspended. Stalin already believed that the British were exaggerating about their losses.

It's worth noting, in my view, that Stalin's grasp, in my view, of the difficulties faced by the Western Allies tended to be clouded.  The Soviet Union was no more of a naval power than Imperial Russia had been, indeed considerably less so, and Stalin's ability to grasp the problems faced by the United States Navy and Royal Navy was not necessarily great.

Red Army sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko and Roza Shanina appeared on the cover of Life Magazine.

Pavlichenko.

Pavlichenko, as her last name would indicate, was Ukrainian.  She was sent on a tour of the United States and Canada in 1942, where she was very blunt in her comments and found the questions asked of her by the press to sometimes be stupid.  Her husband died during the war, and she suffered from his loss and PTSD until her early death at age 58 in 1974.

Shanina

Shanina was a Russian from northwestern Russia.  Unlike Pavlichenko, she was highly photogenic and there are a great number of photos of her as a result, in which she is usally broadly smiling.

A bright, highly intelligent woman, she was killed in action in January 1945.

Shanina's death notice to her mother.

Australian and British forces at El Alamein attempted to take Miteirya Ridge, succeeded at first against Italian troops, but were later pushed back by combined German and Italian forces.

The Luftwaffe airlifts 200 tons of fuel to advancing German forces in Russia.  Hitler moved his headquarters to Werewolf, where he plans to personally oversee Case Blue.

Thursday, July 16, 1942. The Vel d'Hiv Roundup

Things for European Jews, French Jews in particular, and the French in general took a turn for the much worse when French police in occupied Paris began rounding up Jews in the city under Nazi orders.  While the city was occupied and northern France was under Germany's rule as a practical matter, the fact of that the police were complicit in it is a stain on France's honor and further demonstrates how none of the fascistic regimes of the period were free from guilt.

Those arrested in the sweep, some 13,152 souls, would end up being sent to Auschwitz.  Only 811 survived.

On the same day, Parisian authorities announced that close relatives of "troublemakers" would be shot if they were male, or forced into labor if they were female.

Hitler moved his battlefield headquarters to Vinnytsia, Ukraine.

Hitler would have a variety of headquarters in the East, which perhaps shows the degree to which he had begun to focus on that theater of the war.  Such a focus was, of course, understandable in that the vast majority of German resources were now dedicated to fighting the Soviet Union. In this instance, the location, code-named Werewolf, was used by the Wehrmacht as its headquarters, but was little used by Hitler.  The Germans destroyed it upon their retreat from the region, and the underground portions remain sealed.  Only a swimming pool really remains intact.

The British XXX Corps took another key ridge west of El Alamein.  In the same battle, Australians repelled an attack on Point 24 resulting in 50% German casualties.

The United States severed relations with Finland.

In Italian Harlem, the following took place:

Rare Photos of the “Festa di Madonna di Monte Carmela” of East Harlem-July 16, 1942.

Wednesday, July 15, 1942. Watery graves.

SS Pennsylvania Sun after being torpedoed by U-571 on this date in 1942.  It did not sink but was taken under tow at first and the proceeded under its own power to a U.S. port.  The U576 would go down off Cape Hatteras after being attacked by aircraft and a merchant ship.

The Soviets abandoned Boguchar and Millerovo as Case Blue advanced.

The Akutan Zero was recovered.

New Zealanders take the western edge of Ruweisat Ridge outside of El Alamein but British armor does not arrive as planned, and they are forced back in a pitched battle.  The Indians take the east end of the ridge.

The German armed merchant ship Michel attacks the British passenger/cargo ship SS Gloucester Castle sinking it off of the coast of Angola.  The attack was without warning and devastating, and it led to its captain, Helmuth von Ruckteschell being sentenced after the war to a ten-year sentence for war crimes based on the attack having been without warning on an unarmed ship.  Having said that, the ship did pick up survivors who were later interned by the Japanese.

The U582 sunk the SS Empire Attendant off of the Canary Islands, and the U201 sunk the SS British Yeoman.  Both ships had been part of the dispersed OS-33

Von Ruckteschell did not serve the full ten years as he died of a heart condition, while imprisoned, in 1948 at age 58.

The submarine USS Grunion sank Japanese submarine chasers Ch-25 and Ch-27, and damaged the Ch-26, in an attack on their anchorage at Kiska.

In an odd event, two B-17s and six P-38s went down in Greenland when they ran into bad weather and had their communications jammed by U-boats. All of the crewmen survived and were rescued.

Monday, July 13, 1942. Von Bock relieved.

Today in World War II History—July 13, 1942: Nazis massacre 5000 Jews in Rovno, Ukraine. Italian frogmen swim 5 km to Gibraltar and plant limpet mines, sinking three Allied ships.

And Feodor von Bock, as Sundin also reports on her blog, was relieved of command of Army Group B, although that became effective on July 15. 

Von Bock was not a Nazi, and indeed personally disliked the Nazis, but he was also passive in regard to their atrocities within his command.  That command included several officers who later were participants in the July 20 plot, which he was invited to participate in, but he declined to do so.

He was killed at the extreme end of the war when a vehicle he was in, along with his wife and stepdaughter, was strafed.

The German 21st Panzer division was repulsed by Australian and South African forces in an attack featuring heavy losses at Tel el Eisa and the El Alamein "box".

The USS Seadragon, still off of Cam Ranh Bay, sank the transport Shinyo Maru.

The RAF bombed Duisburg during thunderstorms, but missed the industrial areas.

Sunday, July 12, 1942. The deaths of Powell and Yeryomenko, The turning of Vlasov, The reinforcement of Stalingrad, The fatal commitement of the German 104th Infantry Regiment, The blindness of Hirsacker, The end of the Himaya Maru.

One of the most famous photographs of World War Two, and one of the best featuring the Red Army, was likely taken on this day in 1942.  The photo, entitled "Kombat", is commonly assserted to have featured political officer Aleksei Yeryomenko (likely a Ukrainian given the last name).  He is asserted to have been killed mere minutes after this photograph was taken.  While this is commonly accepted, there is doubt on these claims.  By RIA Novosti archive, image #543 / Alpert / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15579366

Today in World War II History—July 12, 1942: Australians reach Kokoda, New Guinea, having marched from Port Moresby over Owen Stanley Mountains. First 49 civilian Coastal Picket Patrol craft go on patrol.

Soviet General Andrey Vlasov is turned over to the Germans by a Russian farmer after having hid behind German lines for ten days outside of Leningrad.  He had been the commander of the Red Army's 2nd Shock Army.  He'd defect to the Germans and become the commander of the Axis Russian Liberation Army.

Vlasov's command would be in large part titular, as the Russian Liberation Army would not really be committed by the Germans until late in the war.  Having said that, a huge number of Russians and other Soviet citizens volunteered to serve the Germans in varying ways, not all armed, and not all for the same reasons.  Vlasov's efforts would result in his execution in 1946 by the Soviet government, which logically enough tried him for treason or something akin to it. Perhaps more surprisingly, a monument to him exists in a Russian Orthodox convent in Nanuet, New York, and a memorial service is said for him and his men twice annually.

The Soviets began to move massive numbers of troops to Stalingrad.

The newly arrived German 104th Infantry Regiments assaults Australian lines at El Alamein and suffers 50% casualties.

A German wolfpack attacks the unescorted convoy OS-33 in the Atlantic.  U-752, part of the wolfpack, reports not finding any vessels which would result in its commander, Heinz Hirsacker, later being convicted of cowardice in the presence of the enemy.

The USS Seadragon sank the Japanese transport ship Himaya Maru off of Cam Ranh Bay, Indochina.

Pioneering polymath African American aviator William J. Powell, who was an engineer by training and a veteran of the First World War, died from the lingering effects of poison gas exposure from World War One.  He was 44 years old.

Powell in 1917.

Saturday, July 11, 1942. The remanants of PQ 17.

Marine Corps recruiting poster released on this date.

 

Today in World War II History—July 11, 1942: Allied Arctic convoy PQ-17 arrives in ports in northern Russia, having lost 22 of 33 cargo ships plus two auxiliary vessels, to German U-boats and aircraft.

As Sarah Sundin notes on her blog.  The convoy, however, actually lost 24 ships.

The ships had started arriving in Archangel about two days prior.  So few came in that Stalin thought that the Allies had lied about the size of the convoy in order to purposely send less than they promised.  He later accuses the UK of lying about the convoy's troubles.

PQ 17 was the hardest hit convoy of the war.

On the same day, the Soviets sunk another Swedish freighter, this one the SS Lulea which was carrying iron ore to Germany.

The RAF bombed Danzig's submarine pens, with the loss of only two bombers. The raid took place at dusk.  The route over the North Sea was the longest RAF raid up until that point in the war.

Australian troops advanced at El Alamein.

Japan cancelled planned invasions of Fiji, New Caledonia and Samoa, demonstrating that the Japaneses staff appreciated that the war was not going as well as it had been formerly.

Friday, July 10, 1942. The Akutan Zero.

In the Aleutians, a PBY pilot spotted a nearly intact Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero on Akutan Island.  The aircraft would be recovered and rebuilt, with lessons learned from that instrumental in learning how to take on the advanced Japanese fighter.

The discovery was due to the crew of the PBY having becoming lost and having to reorient themselves before flying back to their base at Dutch Harbor.  The route took them over the downed aircraft.

The island had been evacuated, with its mostly native population having been removed the month prior. They would not return until 1944, although many chose to go back to the island.

The discovery was a major loss to the Japanese.

The A-26 Invader flew for the first time.

The first flight.

The twin-engined attack aircraft would remain in service until the late 1960s.

British forces launched an offensive on Italian forces outside of El Alamein, gaining ground.  By "British" we mean Commonwealth, as in this case the advancing troops were South African and Australian.  The battle at El Alamein was from a British prospective an international affair.

Two more ships of the harried convoy PQ 17 are sunk, this time by U boats.

Bombardier, the Canadian manufacture of snow machines (and jet aircraft), was founded.  The company, named for its founder, came about due to a tragedy when Jospeh-Armand Bombardier's two-year-old son was not able to reach the hospital due to snow blocked roads, and died of appendicitis.  This inspired Bombardier, who had made snow machines as a hobby before, to start making heavy snow machines commercially.

The Orson Wells directed tragedy, The Magnificent Ambersons, was released.

Friday June 5, 1942. PQ 17 scatters.

Ships in embattled convoy PQ 17 ordered to scatter, and the escorts ordered to return to the UK.

Rommel halts the offensive of the Afrika Korps due to material losses and logistical problems, combined with effective British resistance at El Alamein.

Axis forces reached the Don.

Thursday, July 2, 1942. Churchill's government survives an attempted Motion of Censure.

Members of the British Army's Special Air Service in North Africa with American Jeeps.

A Motion of Censure of Churchill's government was brought in the House of Commons, and then overwhelmingly failed.

The motion was brought due to recent reversals in North Africa, although the recent setbacks in the newly started war with Japan played a part as well.  Churchill specifically noted that he expected fortunes to reverse as British forces started receiving American arms.

Churchill had stated in response to the motion:

The will of the whole House should be made manifest upon important occasions. It is important that not only those who speak, but those who watch and listen and judge, should also count as a factor in world affairs. After all, we are still fighting for our lives, and for causes dearer than life itself. We have no right to assume that victory is certain; it will be certain only if we do not fail in our duty. Sober and constructive criticism, or criticism in Secret Session, has its high virtue; but the duty of the House of Commons is to sustain the Government or to change the Government. If it cannot change it, it should sustain it. There is no working middle course in wartime

Interestingly enough, things were already turning around, or at least not getting any worse. The Afrika Korps failed to take El Alamein for the second day in a row, with Briitsh forces mounting a counterattack that took 2,000 prisoners and 30 field guns.

The Tirpitz and Hipper, with escorts, left Trondheim to attack Allied convoy PQ17.  Seventeen He115s attacked the convoy unsuccessfully.

PQ17 was being shadowed by submarines and flying boats.

Wednesday, July 1, 1942. Stopping the Afrika Korps.

Rommel's forces make the first assaults on El Alamein.  They go badly.

Rommel with officers. By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-785-0287-08 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=631949

Axis forces take Sevastopol.  The battle had resulted in 18,000 Red Army KIA and 95,000 lost as prisoners.  5,000 were evacuated as sick and wounded. The Germans lost 5,786 men and the Romanians 1,874.  The German wounded amounted to 21,626 and the Romanian 6,571.

Axis forces also approach Voronezh in the Soviet Union, where the Red Army is preparing to meet them and counter-attack

The U.S. submarine USS Sturgeon sinks the Japanese Montevideo Maru, a passenger ship.  It was carrying Australian POWs and civilian internees, all who died in the sinking.

The USS Luckenbach, which was carrying 1/6th of the world's tungsten supply, hit two mines in a U.S. minefield off of the Florida Keys.  The tungsten would later be recovered.

Pierre Laval, Prime Minister of France, allowed German forces to enter Vichy controlled France to search for hidden radio transmitters.

Tuesday, June 30, 1942. Spreading Nazi Oppression.

The Third Reich closed all remaining Jewish schools inside of Germany.

This odd fact, that the schools were still open to some degree, points out the oddity that German Jews, while subject to all of the repression that Jews in German occupied territories were, were still safer than those in the occupied territories.  Indeed, the mortality rate during the Third Reich, while still ghastly and large, was significantly lower than it was for the occupied territories.  This has been explained by there being at least a remnant of laws applying to Jews in Germany, whereas those elsewhere were completely subject to Nazi lawlessness.

The U158, having destroyed 12 ships during a successful patrol, was sunk by a U.S. Navy PBM Mariner off of Bermuda, demonstrating how submarines were vulnerable to aircraft.

German forces moved forward again in Case Blue.  At Sevastopol, Stalin ordered senior figures evacuated by submarine.

The Afrika Korps arrived in front of El Alamein.

British troops at El Alamein.

Wedding fashions, by which we mean female wedding fashions, was the topic of the Life magazine that came out on this day.