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October 20th, 1942

FRANCE: Paris: Pierre Laval, the Vichy premier, today called for another 100,000 French workers to join the hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen already working in Germany. On 11 August, at Compeigne, the first train of French PoWs passed the first train taking Frenchmen to work for the Germans. Fritz Sauckel, Hitler’s manpower chief, made Laval send three workers to Germany for each PoW freed. In September, Laval mobilized all Frenchmen between 18 and 50 and all unmarried women between 21 and 35 for forced labour.

GERMANY: U-191 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

MALTA: For ten days the Luftwaffe has attacked Malta in a desperate attempt to paralyse the tiny island which has defied Axis bombardment ever since Hitler issued his directive on 2 December 1941 concerning air and sea supremacy in the Mediterranean. The fighting in this renewed assault has been fierce, with 100 German bombers claimed to have been shot down by the Allies. But Allied leaders believe that their planned offensive in North Africa will soon force Axis air power to be redeployed.

EGYPT: The RAF starts a bid to establish air supremacy over El Alamein.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Guadalcanal: IJN 2nd Division Headquarters reaches “Clear Water Valley”, 1 mile from his planned deployment area. General Maruyama estimates this is 4 miles south of Henderson Field, it is actually 8 miles south. He sets the attack for 1800 hours on the 22nd.

PACIFIC OCEAN:

USS Tautog (SS-199) sinks a sampan at 07-00 N, 119-40 E.

USS Drum (SS-228) sinks a cargo ship at 34-09 N, 136-46 E.

USS Finback (SS-230) sinks a passenger-cargo ship at 24-26 N, 120-26 E.

USS Silversides (SS-236) sinks a a passenger-cargo ship at 06-45 N, 151-30 E. (Skip Guidry)

Heavy cruiser USS Chester was sailing from Espiritu Santo to San Cristobal. Japanese submarine I-176 put a torpedo into her hull. (Dave Shirlaw)

CANADA: HMC ML 101 commissioned.

Minesweeper HMCS Brockville arrived Halifax from builder Sorel, Province of Quebec.. Entered 2-week refit to repair grounding damage entailed enroute.

Corvette HMCS Camrose departed Halifax for UK. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: The largest tax bill in US history, of $6.8 billion (US), is approved by Congress.

The US Alien Property Custodian, under the “Trading With the Enemy Act”, seizes the shares of the Union Banking Corporation (UBC), of which Prescott Bush is a director and shareholder. The largest shareholder is E. Roland Harriman. Bush is also the managing partner of Brown Brothers Harriman, a leading Wall Street investment firm.

The UBC was established to send American capital to Germany to finance the reorganization of its industry under the Nazis. Their leading German partner is Nazi industrialist Fritz Thyssen, who will write a book admitting much of this called “I Paid Hitler”.

Among the companies financed is the Silesian-American Corporation, which is also managed by Prescott Bush, and his father-in-law George Herbert Walker. This company is vital in supplying coal to Nazi war industry.

Prescott Bush is also a director of the Harriman Fifteen Corporation, (this one owned largely by Roland’s brother, Averell Harriman), which owned about a third of the Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation, the rest owned by Friedrich Flick, (a member of Himmler’s “Circle of Friends” who donates to the S.S.). Two of the principal attorneys for these undertakings are Alan Dulles, later head of the OSS in Italy and head of the CIA and John Foster Dulles, later Secretary of State under Eisenhower. (Scott Peterson)

Canadian-manned escort carrier HMS Nabob (ex-USS Edisto) laid down Tacoma, Washington.

Submarine USS Darter laid down.

Destroyer USS Hazelwood launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-216 (Type VIID) is sunk 20 Oct, 1942 southwest of Ireland in position 48.21N, 19.25W, by 6 depth charges from a British Liberator aircraft (Sqdn. 224/H). 45 dead (all hands lost). (Alex Gordon)

U-77 sank SS Mahrous.

U-662 rendezvoused with the milk cow U-463 in order to get medical aid from their doctor for a crewmember who was suffering severe bleeding of the stomach. However, the stormy weather made a transfer between boats impossible, and two days passed before the weather conditions allowed a consultation by the doctor. (Dave Shirlaw)