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• British destroyer HMS Impulsive (escorting Allied convoy PQ-18) sank U-457 with depth charges 200 miels northeast of Murmansk, Russia, killing all 45 aboard. Later in the day, some of the warships escorting PQ-18 transferred to convoy sailing in the opposite direction QP-14. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Jürgen Stroop was promoted to the rank of SS-Brigadeführer. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS S-28 departed Dutch Harbor, US Territory of Alaska for her third war patrol. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• US bombers from the newly-completed airfield at Adak, Aleutian Islands attacked Japanese positions on Kiska, damaging Japanese transport Nojima Maru at 0437 hours. ww2dbase [CPC]

• German submarine U-558 sank US ship Commercial Trader 75 miles east of Trinidad at 1100 hours; 10 were killed, 28 survived. British tanker F. J. Wolfe and British ship Empire Soldier, members of Allied convoy ON-127, collided 25 miles east of St. John's, Newfoundland; Empire Soldier would sink from damages sustained in this collision. At 1200 hours, U-165 attacked Allied convoy SQ-36 at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River 10 miles northwest of Cap-Chat, Canada, sinking Greek ship Joannis, damaging British ship Essex Lance (1 was killed), and damaging British ship Pan York. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC, CPC]
• At 1125 hours, a US B-24 Liberator bomber based in Ascension Island spotted the 4 Axis submarines rescuing survivors of British troopship Laconia; despite the crew's observation of red cross flags, US Captain Robert Richardson III ordered the bomber to attack the submarines; the attack commenced at 1232 hours, and the submarines were forced to abandon the lifeboats they were towing and dive under the surface. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• US B-17 Flying Fortress bombers attacked Rabaul, New Britain, causing little damage. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Australian troops pulled back from the Ioribaiwa Ridge along the Kokoda Track in Australian Papua, 25 miles north of Port Moresby in preparation for a counterattack. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USAAF 57th Fighter Group, flying P-40 fighters, began arriving at the Landing Ground 174 airfield east of El Alamein, Egypt. ww2dbase [CPC]

• 369 British bombers attacked the Ruhr industrial region of Germany, damaging buildings in Essen (damaging a Krupp factory in Essen; 47 civilians killed), Bochum, Wuppertal, Heme, and Cochem; 39 bombers were lost during this night. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Permanent Officer-of-the-Day watch established ww2dbase [Main Article | DS]

• Japanese submarine I-29 sank British ship Ocean Honour in the mouth of the Gulf of Aden; 20 were killed, 33 survived. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Eduard Neumann informed Hans-Joachim Marseille that he had submitted the paperwork to promote him to the rank of Hauptmann. Later in the day, Erwin Rommel personally congratulated Marseille over the phone for having become the youngest Luftwaffe Hauptmann; Rommel also invited him to join him for dinner. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS Juneau arrived at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides and disembarked survivors of USS Wasp. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• The Soviet NKVD rifle battalion stationed on Mamayev Kurgan hill in Stalingrad, Russia continued to fight off German attempts to take this high point. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German 502nd Tank Battalion, stationed near Leningrad, Russia, received the first batch of Tiger I tanks. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• The United States Marine Corps established the 3rd Marine Division at Camp Elliott, California, United States. ww2dbase [CPC]

16 Sep 1942 Interactive Map