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• » 12 Sep 1942

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Kavieng. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]
• The 7th Marine Regiment and elements of the 5th Defense Battalion arrived at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides from Samoa. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German troops in the Caucasus region of southern Russia reported the first snow of the winter. ww2dbase [Caucasus Campaign | CPC]
• Captain Matsuro Eguchi was named the commanding officer of repair ship Akashi. ww2dbase [Akashi | CPC]
• Major General Allan Adair assumed command of the British Guards Armoured Division, which he would command throughout the remainder of the war. ww2dbase [AC]
• German aircraft re-established contact with Allied convoy PQ-18 at 1320 hours. At 2100 hours, German submarine U-88 attacked PQ-18 400 miles north of Norway; U-18 was instead counterattacked and sunk by depth charges from British destroyer HMS Faulknor, killing all 46 aboard. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | CPC]
• Soviet submarine S-13 sank Finnish ship Jussi in the southern end of the Gulf of Bothnia near the Ã…land Islands at 0348 hours; 6 survived. Also in the Gulf of Bothnia, Soviet submarine ShCh-309 sank Finnish ship Bonden. ww2dbase [CPC]
• British submarine HMS Sahib sank Italian fishing boat Ina S. with gunfire 8 miles off Sardinia, Italy. ww2dbase [CPC]

• German submarines attacked Allied convoy ON-127 750 miles east of Newfoundland; U-211 damaged British whale factory ship Hektoria (1 was killed) and British ship Empire Moonbeam (3 were killed) at 0105 hours; U-608 sank Hektoria at 0351 hours and sank Empire Moonbeam at 0459 hours; U-404 damaged Norwegian tanker Daghild at 0617 hours; counterattacks by escorting vessels damaged U-218 and U-380, forcing them to return to France for repairs. In the South Atlantic, U-68 sank British merchant ship Trevilley 750 miles southwest of Gold Coast, British West Africa at 0332 hours; 2 were killed, 53 survived. U-515 sank Panamanian tanker Stanvac Melbourne (at 1000 hours; 1 was killed, 48 survived) and Dutch tanker Woensdrecht (at 1041 hours; 1 was killed, 73 survived) 40 miles east of Trinidad. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | AC, CPC]
• At 2207 hours, U-156 sank British troopship Laconia 290 miles northeast of Ascension Island; U-156 surfaced and rescued 200 of the 2,741 aboard, most of whom were Italian prisoners of war, which was a surprise for U-156's commanding officer Korvettenkapitän Werner Hartenstein. ww2dbase [Laconia Incident | CPC]

• While at Brisbane, Australia, Lieutenant Commander Edward Hannon was made the commanding officer of USS S-43, relieving Lieutenant Henry Sturr. ww2dbase [S-43 | Brisbane, Queensland | CPC]

• Matome Ugaki observed activities of the personnel of the headquarters of the Japanese 11th Air Fleet at Rabaul, New Britain. ww2dbase [Matome Ugaki | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]
• Tenryu arrived at Rabaul, New Britain. ww2dbase [Tenryu | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• During the day, USS Wasp delivered aircraft to Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. After dark, the three-day Battle of Bloody Ridge on Guadalcanal began as 6,200 Japanese troops attacked positions held by 12,500 Americans; faulty Japanese intelligence reported that the American strength was only about 2,000. The Japanese attack was supported in the air by aircraft and from the sea by cruiser Sentai and three destroyers. ww2dbase [Guadalcanal Campaign | Henderson Field | Lunga Point, Guadalcanal | TH, CPC]
• USS Enterprise departed Tongatapu, Tonga for Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Enterprise | Tongatabu, Tonga | CPC]

• Vichy France suspended the 11 Oct 1940 Married Women's Work Act which forbade a wife from public sector employment if her husband could work. This was partly due to French men being drafted for labor in Germany, and partly due to the many women's poor living conditions particularly in urban areas. ww2dbase [CPC]

• 140 miles southwest of Acapulco, Mexico, USS Bailey made sonar contact with a submerged target and deployed four depth charges with no results. Upon further consideration, Bailey’s own assessment was that an actual submarine contact seemed doubtful, but Bailey had fired her first shots of the war. ww2dbase [Bailey | DS]

• General Friedrich Paulus began a fresh offensive toward Stalingrad, Russia with artillery and aerial bombardments. His ground troops then reached the strategically vital hill 102 of Mamayev Kurgan which overlooked the city. This hill, an important line of defence for centuries, would now see a bloody struggle by both sides as its loss would allow the Germans to control the entire river, across which all Soviet supplies had to travel. By the end of the day, the Soviet 62nd Army had been reduced to 90 tanks, 700 mortars and 20,000 men. ww2dbase [Friedrich Paulus | Battle of Stalingrad | Stalingrad | CPC, AC]

• RAF Debden in Essex, England, United Kingdom was transferred to the United States Eighth Air Force (Station 356) becoming the home to the US 65th Fighter Wing. ww2dbase [Debden, England | AC]
• Prince Emanuel Galitzine, great grandson of Russian emperor Paul I, in a specially modified Spitfire IX fighter, intercepted a high-flying pressurized Junkers Ju 86 over the Solent in southern England, United Kingdom at an altitude of over 42,000 feet, far higher than any other RAF fighter could attain. After evading four attempts by Galitzine to shoot down the intruder, the German bomber, expertly flown by Oberfeldwebel Horst Goetz, jettisoned its 550-pound bomb and escaped to land at Caen, France with only one cannon hole in its wing. ww2dbase [England | AC]

• USS Ancon departed Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, United States. ww2dbase [Boston Navy Yard | Ancon | Boston, Massachusetts | CPC]
• The last of the internees of the Puyallup Assembly Center in Washington, United States boarded a train destined for the Minidoka War Relocation Center in Jerome, Idaho, United States. ww2dbase [Internment of Japanese-Americans and Japanese-Canadians | Puyallup Assembly Center | Puyallup, Washington | CPC]

12 Sep 1942 Interactive Map