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September 4th, 1942

UNITED KINGDOM: Belfast: Police clash with IRA gunmen in street battles.

Corvette HMS Cornel is launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY: U-241 and U-548 are laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

HUNGARY: Soviet planes bomb Budapest in the war’s first air raid on the Hungarian capital. (Jack McKillop)

U.S.S.R.: The Germans attack at Stalingrad, splitting Soviet 64th Army and driving to the Volga at Krasnoarmeisk. The city has been under continuous bombardment by over 1000 Luftwaffe aircraft for 24 hours.

RAF No. 144 Squadron equipped with Hampden Mk. Is flies from Britain to Africa and, Russia, to provide protection for Arctic convoys. Nine of the Hampdens are lost, either running out of fuel and being forced to crash land in Sweden, or, in one case, being accidentally shot down by Soviet aircraft as they approach the Russian coast. Even in the water, the Soviets keep firing on the crew, until their shouts of “Angliski!” over the radio are recognized. One Hampden is forced to land in Norway and the crew is captured before they can burn the plane which contains secret documents about the imminent convoy PQ 18. (Jack McKillop)

Black Sea Fleet and Azov Flotilla: GB “Rostov-Don” and GB “Octyabr” exploded by crew to prevent capturing, on Kuban river (Sergey Anisimov)(69)

GREECE: Colonel David Sutherland is part of a 12-man Special Boat Service unit which is making a raid on the occupied island of Rhodes.

At midnight the unit is landed by the Greek submarine Papanikolis; they had no radio, and were instructed to live off the land for the next fortnight. With three Royal Marines and two Greeks, Sutherland successfully blew up three Italian aircraft and a fuel dump, as well as starting a dozen fires.

But the enemy then pursued them closely over the barren mountains, and mined the beaches after discovering the SBS’s boats hidden in a grotto.

Most of the raiding party were killed; Sutherland and Marine John Duggan had to hide in a cleft of rock without food or water for a day while suffering agonising cramp as one of their pursuers sat smoking only a few feet away.

Finally reaching the shore, Sutherland contacted the submarine Traveller. Although it was five days since they had eaten (a tin of sardines each), the two men swam out to sea to the discouraging sound of engines dying away, unaware that this came from the Italian patrol boat which was hunting them. As they climbed aboard the submarine, it was forced to crash-dive, and they had to be revived with mugs of pusser’s rum as the patrol boat dropped depth charges.

Sutherland was awarded the Military Cross and Duggan the Military Medal.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: U.S. Army, Middle East Air Forces): B-24 Liberators, in conjunction with the RAF and the RN, attack a convoy at sea; 2 merchant ships are reported sunk and 1 left burning.

The Italian torpedo boat Polluce is sunk off Tobruk by British bombers.

EGYPT: Operation Beresford ends with the New Zealanders withdrawing, being overextended. 132 Brigade has lost 700 men while 6 Brigade, in a diversionary attack, has lost 159 men, including Brigadier George Clifton, who is taken POW. He makes nine escape attempts, succeeding the final time. (Jack McKillop)

USAAF B-25 Mitchells and RAF Bostons, repelling counterattacks during the Alam-el-Halfa, Egypt, battle, hit troop concentrations and vehicles, while P-40s, operating with the RAF, escort bombers and engage in combat over the battle area, claiming 1 fighter destroyed. (Jack McKillop)

NEW GUINEA: Cpl. John Alexander French (b.1914), Australian Military Forces, eliminated three machine guns before dying of wounds. (Victoria Cross)

USAAF OPERATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA (5th Air Force): In New Guinea, P-40s bomb and strafe forces in the Milne Bay area at Goroni, Wagga Wagga, Ahioma, and north of Lilihoa.

Australian ground forces pushing east along Milne Bay reach Goroni and the Japanese begin evacuating Milne Bay, the first defeat of a Japanese amphibious landing in WWII. (Jack McKillop)

PACIFIC OCEAN: USN submarines sink five Japanese ships: (1) USS Growler (SS-215) sinks an ammunition ship in Formosa Straits, about 50 miles (80 kilometres) northeast of Keelung, Formosa; (2) USS Guardfish (SS-217), operating off the northeast coast of Honshu, Japan, sinks two merchant cargo ships and a passenger cargo ship off Kuji Bay, Iwate Prefecture; and (3) USS Pompano (SS-181) sinks a guardboat northeast of Honshu, Japan. (Jack McKillop)

AUSTRALIA: Brisbane: To strengthen the war effort, the Australian government is moving to cut down on “fun and games” in the domestic scene. In a national broadcast here last night, the prime minister, John Curtin warned that should Port Moresby and Darwin fall to the Japanese, Australia faced a bloody struggle on its own soil. Austerity measures to be brought in are intended to restrict horse and dog races, raise the tax on all entertainments, reduce the drinking of alcohol, smoking and the eating of expensive meals, check black-marketeering and deglamourize activities described in gossip columns.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: USAAF OPERATIONS IN ALASKA (11th Air Force): In the Aleutians, 2 B-24 liberators and a P-38 Lightning bomb and patrol Nazan and Kuluk Bays on Atka Island, but bombing of Kiska Island is cancelled due to weather. (Jack McKillop)

U.S.A.: Tug HMCS North Shore commissioned New Orleans, Louisiana. Sailed to Canada with civilian crew. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: An unidentified German U-boat comes across a lifeboat containing 19 survivors of U.S. freighter SS California, sunk by Italian submarine Reginaldo Giuliani on 13 August and provides rations and navigational assistance before departing. (Jack McKillop)

U-171 sinks SS Amatlan. (Dave Shirlaw)