Fall, 1942

Chapter 20

The Storm Breaks

October-December

As 1942 wound down, the war was only intensifying on all fronts. The German drive into the Caucasus would continue as the blitzkrieg stalled on the banks of the Volga, while in North Africa Rommel’s catastrophic defeat at El Alamein would be compounded by the entrance of the Americans into the theater. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, the struggles on Guadalcanal and New Guinea would continue unabated as the Allies fought to check Japanese expansion.

Europe: The Eastern Front

***German soldiers on a muddy road near Rzhev***
*German Federal Archives*

By this point in the war the sector of the Eastern Front around Rzhev had gained a reputation with both the Red Army and the Wehrmacht as a meat grinder. Numerous battles had been fought here since the failure of the Germans to take Moscow in late 1941, but the Germans still retained control of a salient around the city., controlled by their 9th Army. A major operation, designated “Mars”, was launched by the Red Army with the forces of two Fronts (Army Groups), outnumbering the Germans in the salient by more than two to one. Commencing in late November, Operations Mars would turn into yet another costly failure for the Soviets, even if it demonstrated that the German position at Rzhev was vulnerable. Despite this and the recommendations of the local German commanders, OKW (German High Command) remained convinced that the salient had value as a potential jump-off point for another attack on Moscow, and thus the Germans remained in position into the new year.

***A German Tiger tank near Leningrad***

As Operations Mars continued, the Soviet 3rd Shock Army launched their own attack north of the Rzhev Salient. The objective here was the town of Velikiye Luki; an important rail hub used by the Germans for supporting their operations from the Rzhev Sector north to Leningrad. The Soviets attacked in November with a pincer movement, encircling the German defenders in the town within days. As at Rzhev, OKW again forbade an attempted retreat, forgoing a breakout operation in favor of sending additional troops to relieve the siege. As heavy fighting began to push the defending German garrison deeper and deeper into Velikiye Luki itself the efforts of Army Group North, already thoroughly occupied around Rzhev, to relieve them came to nothing. By the end of December the garrison was still holding out, but all efforts to drive back the enveloping Soviets had failed.

***Civilians on the streets of Leningrad in December of 1942***
*Russian International News Agency*

At Leningrad the siege was now over a year long, and the Soviets remained in control of the old Imperial Capitol despite the efforts of German and Finnish forces. In early October the Soviets had halted their main offensive in the sector, failing to lift the siege but succeeding in preventing the Germans from making their planned killing blow. Within the city, starvation was rampant, with the NKVD reporting incidents of cannibalism among some of the population. Despite this, most citizens remained grimly determined to survive the siege, even as its second winter began.

***Red Army troops set up a roadblock in the Caucasus***

In the south, the main objectives of the Germans’ Case Anton remained out of reach. The drive through the Caucasus toward the oilfields of Azerbaijan was beginning to slow, both due to Soviet resistance in the region as well as developments to the north. More and more German forces were being redeployed to the Volga, as developments at Stalingrad began to turn for the worse as the winter set in.

Europe: North Africa

***American GIs head toward the beach at Oran***

Even as the Germans faced catastrophe in Egypt at El Alamein, the situation in North Africa was about to deteriorate yet further for the beleaguered Axis forces. After being in the war for almost a year, the United States was finally ready to enter the European War in force, with an invasion force sailing toward Morocco in late October, with some forces departing Britain to join the main force sailing directly from the US. Supported by carrier aircraft, Operation Torch commenced on November 8, with US troops landing at Casablanca and Oran, along with further US and British troops landing at Algiers.

***American troops land at Algiers, the large flag hoped to encourage the Vichy French defenders not to resist***

Both Morocco and Algeria were French possessions, and belonged at the time to the Axis-controlled Vichy State, and it was hoped that the defenders would not offer resistance to the landing forces. Large US Flags were sewn onto uniforms and painted onto tanks, and the first waves were to go ashore with large banners in hand. This indeed occurred at Algiers, where Jewish resistance operatives had successfully overthrown the Vichy administration hours before the landings started on 8 November, and most coastal batteries were silent. At Oran scattered resistance was encountered, including from the French fleet there, which broke out of the harbor to engage the invasion forces, and US paratroopers were dropped to secure two French airfields, which was done after some resistance.

At Casablanca the French coastal defenses were active, and opened fire on the landing ships. With no pre-landing bombardment having been performed, the French troops were still fully combat ready, and a coup attempt by local resistance had been thwarted, succeding only in placing the garrison on high alert. It would take two days for the Americans to envelop the city itself, and the French surrendered on 10 November rather than engage in a pointless urban final stand.

The Allied invasion and subsequent collapse of Vichy resistance alarmed the German and Italian commands, who were by now reeling from the disaster at El Alamein. German reinforcements were quickly rerouted into French Tunisia, seizing control of various airfields and other strategic positions in the country, preparing to meet the American advance. By December a force of three German divisions was in the country, with an addition two Italian divisions on the way. A half-hearted attempt at resisting them by the local Vichy troops was quickly defeated, and Allied forces attempting to press for Tunis were likewise repulsed by the newly arrived Axis forces. By the end of the year the lines had stabilized, with failed offensives on both sides. Likewise in the east, Montgomery’s 8th Army was continuing its pursuit of Rommel from El Alamein, and eventually the rest of the Axis forces would consolidate in Tunisia.

***American General Dwight D. Eisenhower (left) during negotiations with Vichy French commander Admiral Francois Darlan (second from left)***

While Operation Torch was in progress, political developments were afoot in the Vichy administration. Admiral Francois Darlan, a prominent Vichy official and the current High Commissioner for North Africa, was aware of the way the wind was blowing in late 1942. He had been ousted from his position as the second most powerful man in Vichy after Petain in April, although he remained the head of the Vichy military.

Darlan was in Algiers when the Allies landed, and he was captured at Algiers by resistance forces and handed over to the Americans, and soon came to make a deal with US commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower. When the local French forces put up a fight and failed to recognize General Henri Giraud of the Free French, Eisenhower turned to Darlan, allowing him to retain his position in command of all French forces in Africa as well as head of the civil administration there in return for Darlan immediately standing down his forces. This was much to the fury of the Free French, who viewed Darlan as a traitor and collaborator, to say nothing of the slight to Giraud. The response in Vichy was immediate, with Petain stripping Darlan of his rank and titles and ordering resistance to continue, but his regime had lost all control of the situation there. This was noted by the Germans, who immediately enacated their contingency plans both in North Africa and France itself.

Darlan, for his part, was not to be a problem for inter-allied relations for long. He would be assassinated by a monarchist on Christmas Eve, and although his assassin was captured and executed two days later few tears were shed.

Europe: Africa

Off the eastern coast of Africa, the war for Madagascar came to and before the year. by late October the last Vichy aircraft on the island had been destroyed, and the British forces were advancing rapidly. After a last engagement on 18 October, a failed ambush resulting in 800 Vichy soldiers surrendering, the French capitulated, with the Colonial Governor being taken as a POW in early November.

Europe: The War at Sea

***A view from the rear gunner seat of a US Navy SBD Dauntless dive bomber after an attack on a Vichy French submarine***

As the transports made their way to North Africa, another, possibly formidable obstacle awaited them. The French fleet, despite the damage sustained at Mers El Kibir in 1940, remained based around Casablanca and Oran, and still counted a number of warships amongst its numbers, including the new (and only partially complete) battleship Jean Bart.

After a period of inaction following the initial landings at midnight on 8 November, five Vichy submarines sortied out to take up positions to intercept incoming US ships, as their air forces engaged incoming US Navy carrier bombers. Shortly after, the US warships, led by the battleship USS Massachusetts, approached the harbor, coming under fire from coastal artillery and the moored Jean Bart. After a brief exchange American shellfire disabled the only operational turret on Jean Bart, freeing the attackers to engage the batteries.

*The Vichy French battleship* Jean Bart lies damaged at her dock in Casablanca

While this was underway, a group of French destroyers and a cruiser also sortied out and engaged the approaching troopships. In the ensuing gun battle the French were able to sink a single landing craft and damage a transport, but were turned back with the cruiser destroyed. Over the next two days the battle continued, with the Jean Bart repaired and back in action before being sunk at her moorings by US Navy dive bombers on 10 November. Submarine attacks were unsuccessful until the arrival of German U-boats to reinforce the beleaguered French, but it was too late. By the time the French surrendered on 11 November they had lost one cruiser and four destroyers, with the remaining three destroyers all damaged and beached. The Jean Bart was badly damaged and sunk in the harbor, and the entire local air force the Vichy French had available had been destroyed. The Americans lost a total of four transports, and no warships to the action off Casablanca.

Europe: The Air War

In the skies over Europe, the air war continued to escalate, as the USAAF launched its first raids on Italy along with increasing RAF raids on that country. Raids on Germany and occupied Europe likewise continued, as did the Luftwaffe’s intermittent attacks on British cities. In one major development, however, the Siege of Malta, the small British controlled Mediterranean island, finally came to an end. With the invasion of West Africa and the collapse of the Vichy forces there, compounded with the disaster at El Alamein, both the Luftwaffe and the Regia Aeronautica were forced to redirect their assets to support the failing campaign in the desert, lifting the siege after almost two and a half years.

Europe: Occupied Europe

***An SS Panzer crew watches as a Vichy battleship burns at Toulon***
*German Federal Archives*

The shockwaves of Operation Torch reverberated into Occupied Europe as well. For Hitler and the German High Command, the abject failure of the Vichy government in France to defend their African possessions proved that the French puppet regime had outlived its usefulness. A pre-planned contingency, Case Anton, was launched on 10 December, with German and Italian troops crossing the demarcation line into the so called “Zone Libre” and advancing rapidly to the Mediterranean coast. Petain’s government in Vichy did little more than raise feeble protests to this violation of their 1940 armistice, but when the Germans demanded that their army disarm and stand down, they complied. The only small victory for the Vichyists was the successful scuttling of their fleet based at Toulon, thereby denying their use to the Kriegsmarine. Petain and his ministers remained in Vichy, nominally retaining control of civil affairs in Metropolitan France, but their status as the legitimate government had come to an end. The Germans assumed total control of the country, and De Gaulle’s Free French moved to consolidate themselves as the legitimate French government.

The Pacific: Pacific Islands

***F4F Wildcats of the “Cactus Air Force” lined along Henderson Field on Guadalcanal***

As October began, the Japanese had begun reinforcing their presence on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, massing in the jungle for an attack on Henderson Field from the south. With almost 20,000 soldiers available, only slightly less than the 23,000 US Marines deployed onto the island to oppose them, the attack was to be prefaced with a feint attack along the coast toward the airbase in order to weaken the American defense.

The attack on the airfield commenced on 23 October, with a small attack supported by tanks being repulsed with high casualties, including all of the tanks. Large scale frontal attacks on the Marine lines commenced the following night, with intense combat raging around the perimeter of Henderson Field. The Japanese launched numerous human wave attacks, into the teeth of American machine guns and artillery, with canister shells notably wreaking carnage upon the attackers. After three days, the Japanese finally withdrew, with casualties approaching 3,000 compared to less than 100 dead Marines.

***Marines carry a wounded comrade to an aid station on Guadalcanal***

As November began, the Marines launched counteroffensives on the Japanese, pursuing them into the jungles and away from Henderson Field. Japanese reinforcements were already arriving, however, and the going was difficult for the Americans. As fighting continued with the reinforced Japanese, US Marine Raiders landed behind their lines, conducting a deep patrol over the course of a month, pursuing the weakened Japanese deeper into the jungles. As they were slowly pushed back across the island, the situation began to look untenable to the Japanese command. A recommendation to withdraw from the island was brought to the Imperial Headquarters on New Year’s Eve, which the Emperor approved, although he remained convinced that a new offensive could allow Japan to retake the initiative in the Pacific.

***An Australian mountain howitzer batter in action near Gona***

In New Guinea, the Austalian counteroffensive against the Japanese along the Kokoda Track was continuing as well. In late October they routed the Japanese troops around Kokoda itself, capturing the town and its important airfield in by 2 November. The Japanese retreated to Buna-Gona, with many, including General Tomatiro Horii, drowning while attempting to cross the flooded Kumusi River. The Australians set about consolidating their positions for some time, before bridging the river and continuing to push the Japanese back toward their original beachheads.

***US troops of the 32nd Infantry cross the Buna River***

Meanwhile, as the Australians pushed back the Japanese, the first US Army forces began to enter the battle as well. The 32nd Infantry Division, the famed “Red Arrow Division” of First World War fame, began to deploy its forces to New Guinea, landing in Port Moresby. The 32nd Division was thusly ordered to advance along the treacherous Kapa Kapa Trail to flank the Japanese at Buna-Gona, while other units, including the 127th Regiment, took their place along the line with the Australians.

Supported by Stuart light tanks, the combined Allied force pressed the attack, pushing the Japanese back against the sea. Buna itself was retaken in late December, and by the end of the year the Japanese had been pressed into two small pockets.

Pacific: Southeast Asia

***Japanese soldiers view the Shwethalyaung Buddha in Burma***

The British had been expelled from Burma by the summer of 1942, but had not managed to advance past the Indian border. A counteroffensive began on 17 December, with the British Indian Army crossing back into Burma with the objective of liberating the Arakan Province. Despite this, the Japanese were well dug in, and repulsed many of the initial thrusts. As the year drew to a close, additional Japanese reinforcements were sent to shore up the line still further, as the Anglo-Indian attack stalled.

Pacific: The War at Sea

USS Hornet *under attack at the Santa Cruz Islands*

As the battle for Guadalcanal raged in the jungles around Henderson Field, the seas around the Solomons continued to play host to naval engagements between the Japanese and American fleets. In late October the Imperial Japanese Navy launched its own offensive to coincide with the Army’s attack on the US lines on Guadalcanal, striking with a force of four carriers against the Americans near Savo Island. The ensuing battle was a victory for the IJN, as the carrier USS Hornet was sunk and another, the USS Enterprise, was badly damaged, prompting the Americans to withdraw, leaving control of the seas around Guadalcanal in Japanese hands.

Despite this setback, the new US Navy Theater Commander, Admiral William D. “Bull” Halsey was not a man to stay down for long. In early November the Americans sent a convoy to reinforce Guadalcanal, with an escort of five cruisers and eight destroyers. As this force entered Savo Sound a Japanese force steamed in from the opposite direction with a mission to bombard the US Marine positions on the island itself. Despite being picked up on American radar, the Japanese were approaching from multiple directions, leading to a confused response. The Japanese closed to point blank range, and in the ensuing fight the Americans took a severe beating, although they were able disable the Japanese battleship Hiei, which would later be sunk by USAAF bombers.

Notably, among the US cruisers was the USS Juneau, which was torpedoed after limping away from the battle. She went down with almost her entire complement, including all five Sullivan brothers. The destruction of this entire family would lead to the US War Department adopting a new policy to prevent similar tragedies from taking place in future, which remain in effect to this day.

*The five Sullivan Brothers, who all went down with the* USS Juneau in the battle off Guadalcanal

Despite the damage taken by the Americans, they did succeed in turning back the Japanese force, sparing the Marines on Guadalcanal the naval bombardment that Admiral Hiroaki Abe had prepared for them. But this was not the end of the IJN’s ambitions around Guadalcanal. Reinforced, they sailed once again into the Savo Sound, where they were met by a US Navy patrol.

A second night action ensued, and the Americans, aided by the radar, opened fire with the battleships USS Washington and USS South Dakota. The shells landed with no effect, and the Japanese response sank two American destroyers and crippled two others. Despite this, the Japanese mistook the destroyers for the entire US force, and proceeded to their bombardment stations, sailing directly into the teeth of the US battleships. When they met, South Dakota, already crippled by a series of electrical failures, began to be pummeled by the Japanese, who in turn failed to notice the approach of Washington. She closed with the Japanese, and fired salvo from her main batteries into the Japanese battleship Kirishima at close range. Subsequent hits tore the Japanese ship apart, and subsequently they withdrew. Kirishima would eventually succumb to her wounds and sink, ending one only two battleship versus battleship engagements of the Pacific War with an American victory.

Pacific: The Air War

***WWI “Ace of Aces” Eddie Rickenbacker inspects a PBY flying boat after his ordeal in the Pacific***
*US National Archives*

Across the Asia-Pacific Theater, the air war continued unabated as well. On Guadalcanal, the US Marine were routinely operating various aircraft out of Henderson Field, now dubbed the “Cactus Air Force” after the island’s codename. By mid-November efforts to improve the base had begun to bear fruit, and their planes had notably flown in support of the naval operations near the island, including sinking the damaged battleship Hiei.

In another interesting incident, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the “Ace of Aces” of the Great War (the top scoring US ace of that conflict, with 26 victories), was taking a tour of US bases in the Pacific when he took off as a passenger on a B17 bomber from Hawaii, bound for the South Pacific. Faulty navigation equipment resulted in the bomber running out of fuel over the open ocean and ditching, leaving the crew and their famous passenger adrift. The group would be adrift under the scorching tropical sun for 24 days before being rescued by US aircraft, near death from starvation.

The Homefront

***German rocket scientist Werner von Braun with Wehrmacht officers at the Peenemunde Research Station***
*German Federal Archives*

Returning to Germany, another sign of things to come came at the top secret research base at Peenemunde, where the fourth prototype of the new A4 ballistic missile managed, in a test launch, to reach the edge of space. This would herald a new era of human exploration, but only after the war was concluded. Until then, this technology, like almost so many others, would be used only to continue the onslaught of death and destruction that was consuming the entire world.

Timeline

10-1-1942

The Soviet offensive at Rzhev grinds to a halt after months of no gains and appalling casualties
A US submarine torpedoes and sinks the Japanese transport Lisbon Maru, only later learning that the ship was ferrying British POWs. 800 are killed.
The Germans form a “trading company” in Occupied Greece to better monopolize the economy of the country in their favor

10-2-1942

Antsirabe in Madagascar falls to the British

10-3-1942

Elkhotovo in the Caucasus falls to the Germans as they approach the border of the Georgian SSR
British commandos raid to the Channel Island of Sark
A German A4 cruise missile prototype becomes the first man-made object to reach the edge space in a test firing

10-4-1942

The Germans attack the heavily defended Tractor Factory in Stalingrad

10-6-1942

The oil producing city of Malgobek in the Caucasus falls to the Germans
The Germans initiate a clamp-down in Norway in response to resistance activity, eventually executing 34 civilians around Trondheim
US Marines attack Japanese positions along the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal

10-7-1942

The Red Army is pushed from the Orlovka Gully in Stalingrad
Italian forces attack the town of Prozor in Croatia to push out Communist partisans
Polish Home Army forces attack rail infrastructure around Warsaw

10-9-1942

US Marines complete their actions along the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal, overrunning the Japanese positions there

10-10-1942

A Soviet attack at Sinyavino aimed to relieve Leningrad is defeated by the Germans
German POWs revolt at the prison camp in Bowmanville in Ontario, Canada after several are sent to be shackled in retaliation for similar treatment by the Germans

10-11-1942

A US Navy task force engages the Japanese near Cape Esperance on Guadalcanal, sinking one heavy cruiser and three destroyers for the loss of one American destroyer

10-12-1942

Japanese Admiral Aritomo Goto is killed when his flagship is sunk at Cape Esperance

10-13-1942

Two Japanese battleships bombard the US Marine positions on Guadalcanal

10-14-1942

The German raider Komet is sunk in the English Channel by a British torpedo boat
Chetnik insurgents massacre 500 civilians suspected of being Communists in Yugoslavia

10-17-1942

The Tractor Factory in Stalingrad falls to the Germans

10-18-1942

Admiral William D. “Bull” Halsey takes command of the US Navy forces in the South Pacific
Hitler issues the infamous Commando Order, mandating that all captured Allied commandos face summary execution

10-19-1942

The Red Army launches an offensive along the Don

10-21-1942

An RAF bomber accidentally kills almost 1,000 POWs when it sinks a German transport bringing them to labor camps in Norway
World War I Ace of Aces Eddie Rickenbacker’s B17 bomber crashes while taking him on an inspection tour. Rickenbacker and his fellow survivors would face almost a month adrift at sea.

10-22-1942

RAF bombers raid Genoa
Australian forces land on Goodenough Island in Papua to expel the Japanese forces there

10-23-1942

The Battle of El Alamein begins
Japanese forces launch a counteroffensive to retake Henderson Field on Guadalcanal

10-24-1942

As temperatures plummet the exhausted Germans begin to slow at Stalingrad
General Georg Stumme, commander of the German forces in North Africa in Rommel’s absence, dies of a heart attack at El Alamein
An Allied invasion fleet departs England, heading south around France, headed for Africa

10-25-1942

Erwin Rommel arrives to resume command of German forces in North Africa
US and Japanese carrier fleets clash at the Santa Cruz Islands

10-26-1942

Nalchik in the Caucasus falls to the Germans
The Japanese offensive at Henderson Field is repulsed
The carrier USS Hornet is sunk by Japanese aircraft at the Santa Cruz Islands

10-27-1942

The Australians secure Goodenough Island
The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands ends in Japanese victory
17 year old Helmuth Hübener is executed in Germany for anti-Nazi activities

10-28-1942

Mussolini does not make an appearance for the 20th anniversary of the March on Rome

10-30-1942

German forces crush a Soviet partisan cell operating from a quarry in the Crimea, where they had been besieged for months
The Royal Navy captures German Enigma codebooks from the U-559. Lt. Tony Fasson drowns while recovering the books, and is posthumously awarded the George Cross

10-31-1942

Hitler moves his headquarters back to the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia
The Luftwaffe bombs Canterbury

11-1-1942

Alagir in the Caucasus falls to the Germans
Strikes occur in Vichy France in response to forced deportation or workers to Germany
US Marines launch a counteroffensive on Guadalcanal
Four German sailors escape a prison camp at Fort Stanton, New Mexico. They are recaptured two days later

11-2-1942

Australian troops capture the airfield at Kokoda in New Guinea

11-3-1942

As the situation at El Alamein deteriorates, Hitler orders Rommel and his men to fight to the end
US Marines attack the Japanese at Koli Point on Guadalcanal

11-4-1942

The US offensive on Guadalcanal ends in victory, but the Marines withdraw to counter other Japanese forces

11-5-1942

The Stalingrad power plant fails

11-6-1942

The last Vichy French forces on Madagascar surrender to the British
US Marine Raiders commence a month long patrol into Japanese lines on Guadalcanal

11-7-1942

French General Henri Giraud escapes Vichy France aboard a British submarine to take command of Free French forces slated for the upcoming invasion of French North Africa

11-8-1942

Hitler announces that Stalingrad has been secured, save for a few isolated holdouts
British and American troops land in French North Africa in Operation Torch, facing limited resistance from Vichy French troops
The Vichy fleet is mauled by the Allies at Casablanca
US forces attack Port Lyautey in Morocco

11-9-1942

German forces in Libya are diverted into Tunisia as the Vichy troops there collapse in the face of the Allied invasion

11-10-1942

Vichy French Admiral Francois Darlan orders a cease fire in North Africa, he subsequently defects and is named leader of Free French Forces in the region by US commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, to the outrage the Free French leadership
Oran falls to US forces
The Vichy battleship Jean Bart, still incomplete, is badly damaged by Allied planes at Casablanca
The Germans invade and occupy Vichy France

11-11-1942

The Battle of El Alamein ends in a crushing Allied victory in the western Sahara
Monaco is invaded and occupied by the Italians

11-12-1942

US Marines secure Koli Point on Guadalcanal
The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal begins
Eddie Rickenbacker and his compatriots are finally rescued at sea after 21 days adrift in the Pacific

11-13-1942

Tobruk falls to the advancing British
The cruiser USS Juneau is sunk off Guadalcanal. As all five Sullivan Brothers go down with the ship, a new US policy is enacted to prevent the deaths of entire families in the war.
Also at Guadalcanal, an additional American cruiser is sunk in battle, while the Japanese lose the battleship Hiei. Several destroyers are lost on both sides. US Rear Admiral Norman Scott is killed when his flagship, the cruiser USS Atlanta, goes down

11-15-1942

The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal ends in an American victory. The US Navy loses two cruisers and seven destroyers, while the Japanese lose two battleships, one cruiser and three destroyers
In Britain, the church bells ring to celebrate the victory at El Alamein, the first time they have been allowed to ring since 1940

11-16-1942

Allied objectives for Operation Torch are completed
Australian forces advancing from Kokoda isolate the Japanese beachheads at Buna-Gona

11-17-1942

Advancing British forces take Derna, Libya

11-18-1942

British forces reach Cyrene in Libya
Petain authorizes Prime Minister Pierre Laval to rule by decree in what remains of Vichy France

11-19-1942

Operation Uranus begins; a drive by the Red Army to surround the Germans at Stalingrad
A Soviet offensive is launched at Velikiye Luki south of Leningrad
A British glider-borne commando raid on Norway ends in disaster when all are killed in crashes or by the Germans

11-20-1942

Benghazi falls to the British
The Siege of Malta ends as German and Italian air assets are forced to prioritize support of the collapsing North African Front

11-21-1942

Hitler orders the 6th Army to stand and fight in Stalingrad, forbidding retreat

11-22-1942

The Red Army crosses the Don as they continue to close the pincer around Stalingrad
A command reorganization sees Erich von Manstein take command of a new German Army Group Don, while Paul von Kleist takes command of Army Group A

11-23-1942

The envelopment of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad is completed
Japanese General Tomitaro Horii, commander at Buna-Gona, is killed when his boat is swept out to sea crossing the Kumusi River

11-24-1942

The German Summer Offensive in the East, Case Blue, ends with failure of strategic objectives

11-25-1942

The Red Army launches another offensive around Rzhev
Greek Resistance fighters and British SOE agents destroy a major bridge in occupied Greece

11-25-1942

The Luftwaffe begins an airlift to supply the 6th Army in Stalingrad

11-26-1942

Riots break out in Brisbane, Australia between US and Australian servicemen

11-27-1942

The Vichy French fleet at Toulon is scuttled to prevent its seizure by the Germans

11-28-1942

Free French Forces take Reunion Island near Madagascar from the Vichy forces there

11-29-1942

The British advance in the western desert is halted at El Agheila
German forces engage the advancing American and British armies in Tunisia

11-30-1942

In another small engagement off Guadalcanal the Japanese sink an American cruiser for the loss of one destroyer

12-1-1942

A German counteroffensive is launched in Tunisa
Fuel rationing begins in the US

12-2-1942

The Royal Navy intercepts and destroys and entire convoy of Italian reinforcements heading to Libya
Manhattan Project scientists successfully achieve a self-sustaining nuclear reaction in a Chicago lab

12-3-1942

Axis forces in North Africa are placed under the command of a new German 5th Panzer Army, commanded by Hans-Jurgen von Arnim

12-4-1942

The first American air raid on Italy commences as USAAF B24 Liberators attack Naples

12-6-1942

The RAF bombs Eindhoven in the Occupied Netherlands
31 Polish civilians are slaughtered by the Germans in a revenge attack for Poles aiding Jews

12-7-1942

Royal Marines raid the harbor at Bordeaux

12-8-1942

German forces take Bizerte in Tunisia

12-9-1942

Australian forces in New Guinea take Gona

12-10-1942

A German attack on Majaz al Bab in Tunisia is repulsed by the British

12-11-1942

British forces attack Rommel’s lines at El Agheila
Italian frogmen attack shipping at Algiers

12-12-1942

The Germans launch a counteroffensive to break the encirclement of Stalingrad
The Soviets launch an offensive toward Rostov-on-Don, Operation Little Saturn

12-13-1942

Rommel begins to retreat from El Agheila

12-15-1942

US Marines attack the Japanese on a series of hills on Guadalcanal

12-17-1942

The Volga freezes, allowing easier supply of Red Army forces in Stalingrad

12-18-1942

The British take El Agheila
Mussolini sends his foreign minister, Count Ciano, to plea with Hitler to make a separate peace with the USSR

12-19-1942

German relief forces are halted by the Soviets thirty miles from Stalingrad

12-20-1942

The Soviet offensive at Rzehv ends in failure
Japanese planes bomb Calcutta

12-21-1942

British troops launch an offensive into Burma

12-22-1942

Morozovsk near Rostov is liberated by the Red Army
Five German anti-Nazi resistors are executed

12-23-1942

The German effort to relieve Stalingrad is called off

12-24-1942

Soviet tanks break through the German lines and attack the Luftwaffe base at Tatsinskaya, engaging the Germans as they desperately take off and flee
The Red October Factory in Stalingrad is retaken by the Red Army
French Admiral Francois Darlan is assassinated by a monarchist in North Africa

12-25-1942

Pope Pius XII denounces genocide in his Christmas address from the Vatican

12-26-1942

Rommel halts his retreat at Buerat, under orders from Mussolini to stand and fight

12-27-1942

Japanese forces at Mount Asten on Guadalcanal repel an American assault

12-29-1942

The Soviets liberate Kotelnikovo near Stalingrad

12-31-1942

A Kriegsmarine task force attacks a convoy in the Barents Sea, ending in the loss of one British and German destroyer, and no merchantmen sunk
Emperor Hirohito authorizes the evacuation of Japanese forces on Guadalcanal