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August 31st, 1942

UNITED KINGDOM: From now onwards all furniture manufactured must conform to the “Utility” specification covering 22 articles, most of them in three alternative designs. The prices are also fixed. A double bed with rails at head and foot costs £3/10/9 in oak and £4/11/- in mahogany.

There are three type of easy chair, an adjustable fireside chair (£2/10/6), an open-arm chair with upholstered seat (£3/12/-) and a spring-upholstered “easy” chair (£6/10/-). A convertible bed-chair is available at £3/19/6, but there are no three-piece suites. Leading designers have chosen the models. Permits to buy Utility furniture will be issued to those who can show that they really need them. People who have lost their furniture in air raids or who are setting up home on marriage get priority.

Wyton, Huntingdonshire: A perilous form of airmanship - target designating - has been introduced into Bomber Command this month against the wishes of its boss, Arthur Harris. RAF aircrew known as “pathfinders” will fly ahead of the main force and often nearer to the ground to mark the target with parachute flares. Harris has excluded any special training for these crews while increasing their number of continuous operations from the normal 30 to 50. He told the pathfinder leader, Air Vice-Marshal Donald Bennett: “Their chances of survival are small.”

USAAF OPERATIONS IN THE EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Twelfth Air Force): HQ XII Bomber Command arrives at High Wycombe, England, and is assigned to HQ Twelfth AF. This unit will support the Allied invasion of Northwestern Africa in November. (Jack McKillop)

Minesweeper HMS Arcturus launched.

Destroyer HMS Porcupine commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

BELGIUM: The Communist spy network Red Orchestra is broken up by the Germans in Brussels. (Jack McKillop)

EUROPE: An estimated 400,000 Jews have been murdered in occupied Europe this month.

GERMANY: Despite the Red Cross Convention of 1929, which lays down standards of treatment for PoWs, the Nazis are making up the rules as they go along. While most British prisoners in Germany - particularly officers who are confined to Oflags - enjoy adequate food and clothing, and even find time to organize entertainments, their Soviet counterparts are brutally exploited as forced labourers and murdered by the thousand. The number of British escapes is high, and this fact also deters their captors from putting them to work outside the camps.

U.S.S.R.: German units are within 16 miles of Stalingrad.

EGYPT: Rommel’s final offensive began last night. He intends to clear the British from Egypt. The British preparations are extensive; formations have been reconstituted; intelligence has been improved; minefields laid effectively. The battle occurs around Alam Nayil, Qaret el Himeimat and Alam Halfa. At 0800 hours this morning Rommel questions calling off the attack. Between fierce ground fighting, artillery bombardments and air strikes the British hold off the Axis forces.

Alam el Halfa: Romel’s tanks are tonight bogged down in the soft sands to the south of Alam el Halfa ridge, ten miles south of El Alamein. The Afrika Korps had attacked yesterday, hoping to outflank the British Eighth Army, but progress was slowed by newly-laid Allied minefields. This allowed the 8th and 22nd Armoured Brigades to pound the German forces who were also attacked from the air.

Without the benefit of surprise, Rommel switched the direction of his attack towards the Alam Halfa ridge, only to encounter not only the sticky sand but also reinforced defences from which the British could pound the German tanks. Rommel’s good fortune seems to be running out. He is a sick man, ill with jaundice. One of his generals has been killed; his corps commander Major-General Walther Nehring, is wounded. The Afrika Korps is also desperately short of fuel, despite the assurance of a petrol airlift by the C-in-C, Field Marshal Kesselring.

Ironically, the British plan to defend the El Alamein position was left for Generals Alexander and Montgomery by their predecessors. Woken to be told about his army’s success this morning Monty said: “Excellent - couldn’t be better.” And went back to sleep.

NORTH AFRICA: US Middle East Air Force B-25s attack aircraft on a landing ground, and B-24s raid the harbor at Tobruk, Libya. P-40s escort RAF bombers during a raid on Maryut, Egypt. B-25s, in conjunction with RAF Bostons, attack troop concentrations and military vehicles as the battle of Alam-el-Halfa begins along the El Alamein line.

INDIA: Sloop HMIS Hind laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

BURMA: China Air Task Force B-25 Mitchells bomb Myitkyina for the second consecutive day.

FORMOSA STRAIT: USN submarine USS Growler (SS-215) sinks a Japanese merchant cargo ship in position 25.43N, 122.38E. (Jack McKillop)

USS Silversides (SS-236), on its second war patrol, sinks a 300 ton trawler by gunfire at 33-51N, 149.39E. (Skip Guidry)

NEW GUINEA: Australian troops counterattack at Milne Bay, relying on machine guns and booby traps to defeat the Japanese. The Australian militiamen and the Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces are both ground down, but the Australians gain ascendancy. (Jack McKillop)

A units of American engineers helped the Australians and one engineer was killed. (Nathan Doyel)

In the air, USAAF P-40s of the Allied Air Forces bomb landing barges and strafe gun positions in Milne Bay area to assist the Australian ground forces in their offensive. (Jack McKillop)

SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS: At 7:48 am a torpedo from Japanese Type-B1 fleet submarine I-26, LCdr. M. Yokota, CO, strikes USS Saratoga (CV-3) with one torpedo (out of six launched). The torpedo slams into the blister on her starboard side and flooded one fireroom, but the impact caused short circuits which damaged Saratoga’s turbo-electric propulsion system and left her dead in the water.

The heavy cruiser USS Minneapolis (CA-36) took the carrier under tow while she flew her aircraft off to shore bases. By early afternoon, Saratoga’s engineers had improvised a circuit out of the burned wreckage of her main control board and had given her a speed of 10 knots. After repairs at Tongatabu in the Tonga Islands from 6 to 12 September, USS Saratoga arrived at Pearl Harbor on 21 September for permanent repairs.)

Among the 12 men injured is Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher. He also heads stateside. This marks the end of the fighting commands for Admiral Fletcher. He has commanded the US carriers since early in 1942. His actions since August 7, have sealed his fate. The air groups from Saratoga fly to Espiritu Santo and on to Henderson Field to augment the Cactus Airforce. (Jack McKillop and John Nicholas)

SOLOMON ISLANDS: The 3rd Marine defence Battalion establishes an air-search radar station using the SCR-268 radar system near Henderson Field. During the night, the “Tokyo Express” lands 1,000 IJA troops (the Kawaguchi Detachment) on Guadalcanal. The Japanese Army has now assigned Guadalcanal a higher priority than Papua, New Guinea.
Admiral Tanaka relinquishes command of Guadalcanal resupply efforts for the Japanese to Admiral Hashimoto. Richard Frank says: “But unlike Fletcher, this marked an interruption, not an end, to Tanaka’s tenure.”
General Kawaguchi lands, from DD Umikaze, with 1200 additional troops loaded on 7 DDs, of the 4th Infantry Regiment, at Taivu Point (east of the Lunga perimeter) on Guadalcanal. The 124th Infantry, under Col. Oka, will follow by barge and land west of the Lunga perimeter. General Kawaguchi now commands all of the Japanese troops on Guadalcanal.
IJA General Hyatutake, 17th Army at Rabaul, decides to evacuate the troops that were landed at Milne Bay, New Guinea. The evacuation is complete on September 7. He thinks he must concentrate on the fighting on Guadalcanal.
(Jack McKillop)

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: A PBY-5A Catalina of USN Patrol Squadron Forty Two (VP-42) based at NAS Kodiak, Territory of Alaska, and a PBY of VP-43 based on Nazan Bay, Atka Island, catch the Japanese submarine HIJMS RO-61 on the surface 5 miles (8 kilometres) north of Cape Shaw, Atka Island. The crew of the VP-42 PBY-5A depth charge the sub and heavily damage it. At 1915 hours local, the sub is located by the destroyer USS Reid (DD-369) which sinks it with gunfire in position 52.36N, 173.57W. Five survivors are rescued from the frigid waters. (Jack McKillop)
In the air, of 2 USAAF 11th Air Force B-24 Liberators flying weather, reconnaissance and patrol missions over Tanaga Island, 1 returns due to weather. (Jack McKillop)

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Lunenburg arrived Sydney, Nova Scotia to join Gulf Escort Force. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: Claude Wickard, US Agriculture Secretary, warns of possible meat rationing.

Camp Claiborne, Louisiana: The first ten detachments of the of the Army Engineer Fire Fighting service are activated. (Jean Beach)

Light fleet carrier USS Bataan laid down.

Destroyer USS Parker commissioned.

Destroyer USS Walker laid down.

Destroyer USS Sproston launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN:

U-609 sank SS Bronxville and SS Capira in Convoy SC-97.

U-516 sank SS Jack Carnes.

U-66 sank SS Winamac.

SS Sande sunk by unknown causes. (Dave Shirlaw)