http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/sep42/f25sep42.htm
US built 488 cargo ships
Friday, September 25, 1942 www.onwar.com
American ship under construction [photo at link]
From Washington... The Maritime Trade Commission announces that 488 cargo ships have been built in the past year.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
September 25th, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: London: Britain announces that it has taken Madagascar under its protection to ensure that a friendly regime will be established there. Or officially, “in order to ensure law and order and to provide for the administration pending the establishment of a friendly regime.”
Frigate HMS Nith launched.
Submarine HMS Trespasser commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORWAY: RAF No. 105 Squadron flying Mosquito Mk IVs from Horsham St. Faith, Norfolk, England, makes a low-level attack on Gestapo headquarters in Oslo in an attempt to destroy any records relating to the Norwegian Resistance. The bombs miss their target and hit surrounding buildings killing four people. (Jack McKillop)
SPAIN: U-66 had to put an ill crewmember on shore in El Ferrol. (Dave Shirlaw)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: US Army, Middle East Air Force B-24s fail to locate a shipping convoy south of Crete and return without bombing.
LIBYA: US Army, Middle East Air Force B-24s bomb Benghazi. (Jack McKillop)
Miteiriya Ridge: Pte. Percival Eric Gratwick (b.1902), Australian Military Forces, alone wiped out a machine-gun post and a mortar and died charging a second post. (Victoria Cross)
MADAGASCAR: The East Africa 22d Brigade establishes contact with the 29th Independent Brigade, giving the British control of the central part of the island. (Jack McKillop)
CHINA: The US Tenth Air Force’s China Air Task Force bombers fly 11 missions during the remainder of September and early October to support Chinese ground forces attempting to hold the Japanese on the west bank of the Salween River. (Jack McKillop)
Shanghai: 1,816 British prisoners of war are loaded onto the Lisbon Maru, a freighter. They include Arthur Betts of the First Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. The prisoners have spent ten months in a debilitating prisoner of war camp before being selected for slave labour in the docks of Japan. (Will Pavia)
FRENCH INDOCHINA: 4 US B-25 Mitchells of the US Tenth Air Force’s China Air Task Force, with an escort of 10 P-40s, attack Hanoi, French Indochina; the strike force is intercepted by 10 fighters but the B-25s place several bombs on the runway at Gia Lam Airfield; the P-40s claim at least 9 fighters shot down. (Jack McKillop)
PORTUGESE TIMOR: Destroyer HMAS Voyager is attacked by Japanese aircraft. As she cannot be refloated, she is thoroughly wrecked by her own crew and abandoned. Location; Timor Island at 09 11S 125 43E. (Alex Gordon)(108) and (William L. Howard)(188, 189, 190, 191)
NEW GUINEA: 25th Brigade, Australian 7th Division, opens a counteroffensive, attacking strongly towards Ioribaiwa, to drive the enemy back along Port Moresby-Kokoda trail. On the Kokoda Track, B Company of the Australian 2/25th Battalion attacks the Japanese north of Imita Ridge and gains some ground and captures weapons. (Jack McKillop)
Australian General Thomas Blamey flies to Milne Bay where he informs Major General Cyril Clowes that the 2/10th Battalion will be airlifted to Wanigela, about 100 miles (161 kilometres) to the northwest, where it would advance towards Buna. (Jack McKillop)
In the air, USAAF Fifth Air Force P-40s again bomb the bridge at Wairopi, scoring a direct hit on the northeastern end, which is demolished. (Jack McKillop)
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Guadalcanal, the 2d Battalion of the 5th Marines joins the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, on the northwest slope of Mt. Austen to continue the attack against the enemy in the Matanikau-Kokumbona area. Two companies of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, return to the Lunga perimeter. A patrol of the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, reconnoiters Koli Point without incident. General KAWAGUCHI Kiyotake has ordered his troops to higher ground. He has received orders to seize the east bank of the river to prepare for the arrival of the 15 cm (5.9 inch) artillery. These units will be found the next day. (John Nicholas)
In the air, four USAAF B-17s attack Japanese warships in Tonolei Harbor in the Shortland Islands while other B-17s attack shipping in Buka Passage and strafe the seaplane base at Rekata Bay on Santa Isabel Island. (Jack McKillop)
GILBERT ISLANDS: Japanese troops land on Beru Island located 265 miles (426 kilometres) southeast of Tarawa. (Jack McKillop)
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The USAAF Eleventh Air Force dispatches 9 B-24 Liberators, a B-17 Flying Fortress, and a B-24 photo aircraft, escorted by 11 P-39Airacobras and 17 P-40s, fly the first of 2 missions to Kiska Island; RCAF Kittyhawks participate in this first combined Canadian-American mission; later 2 B-24s and a B-17, escorted by 15 P-39s, pound Little Kiska and Kiska Islands; radar installations at Little Kiska Island are destroyed and explosions and fires are caused in the Main Camp area; other targets include shipping, stores, and tents; the P-39s also strafe 2 submarines; 2 float planes are downed; 5 to 8 biplanes are probably destroyed on the water; 1 large transport vessel is hit and lists badly; and 150 personnel are believed killed. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: The US Maritime Commission announces that 488 cargo ships have been built in the past year.
The War Labor Board orders equal pay to women as recognition of role in war. (Jack McKillop)
Destroyer escort USS Austin launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-253 (Type VIIC) is believed to have been lost with all 46 crew off the northwest coast of Iceland at approximate position 67.00N, 23.00W.
U-253 reported for the last time from the approximate position 67.30N, 21.00W on 24 Sept, 1942 while operating against convoy OP.14. The following day she was ordered into the Atlantic, and would have had to cross submarine minefields SN 11 or SN 71 which were laid in June and August 1942.
(Alex Gordon)
U-216 sank SS Boston in Convoy RB-1.
U-96 damaged SS New York in Convoy RB-1.
U-442 sank SS Empire Bell in Convoy UR-42. (Dave Shirlaw)
We’re probably going to have meat rationing next year too. ugh. thanks ethanol policy.
About 2700 Liberty Ships were built during WWII. By 1943, three a day were rolling off the line, making the port cities where they were built, like Mobile, Alabama, boom towns. They were ugly, but provided the badly needed shipping to keep Britain and Russia in the war - and our forces supplied.