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1931   (WEDNESDAY)

SWITZERLAND: The League of Nations Council passes a resolution noting the Japanese intention of withdrawal of its troops as rapidly as possible and disclaimer of territorial designs in Manchuria.

UNITED STATES: The USN Bureau of Aeronautics reports that studies are being conducted on catapulting land planes on wheels. This, the preliminary step in the development of flush deck catapults for launching land planes from aircraft carriers, visualizes the installation of powder catapults on hangar decks. The development is expanded to include the use of compressed air, and by the end of 1932, the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has successfully launched a Vought O2U-3 Corsair land plane with this latter equipment.

1937   (THURSDAY)

UNITED STATES: The USN commissions two warships today. The aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5) is commissioned at Norfolk, Virginia; the USN now has four aircraft carriers in commission. The light cruiser USS Brooklyn (CL-40 is commissioned in New York City, New York; she is the 12th light cruiser in commission.

1938   (FRIDAY)

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Given no other choice, Prime Minister Jan Syrový’s government accepts the Munich settlement and begins the evacuation of the Sudeten region. For all intensive purposes, the rump Czechoslovak state became a German satellite.

LUXEMBOURG: The Grand Duchess issues a decree calling for the addition of a 300 man company of volunteers to the Duchy’s armed forces.

POLAND: The government sends an ultimatum to Czechoslovakia to get the Teschen area by 2 October. A few thousand, Poles dwelling within Czechoslovakia; desire to prevent Germany from acquiring a region of great strategic and economic value.

SWITZERLAND: The League of Nations Council adopts a resolution for investigation of alleged use of poison gas by Japan.

UNITED KINGDOM: Quote by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on the Munich Agreement: "This is the second time there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.”

September 30th, 1939 (SATURDAY)

John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, Viscount Gort has been appointed commander-in-chief the British Expeditionary Force. Gort became Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1937, ahead of 90 more senior Generals. He is described as a soldier's soldier, having won the VC in September 1918 as the Grenadier Guards crossed the Canal du Nord under heavy artillery and machine gun fire. Though wounded, he crossed open ground to bring a tank into action. Wounded for a second time he continued to direct the attack taking the enemy position and 200 prisoners to boot.

Gort is generally thought by other senior officers of the British Army to be a poor choice. While his great courage is widely acknowledged, many believe that he has a fatal inability to comprehend 'the big picture' and that 'Gort's brain has lately been compared to that of a glorified Boy Scout! Perhaps unkind, but there is a lot of truth in it.' (Brooke, 'War Diaries'). (Adrian Weale)

London: The Hitler-Stalin pact and their carve up of Poland has sent shock waves through the communists in the West. Harry Pollitt, the British Communist Party's general secretary, had just published a pamphlet, 'How to Win The War', when Stalin gave orders that the war against fascism had to be attacked as an imperialist war. Pollitt protested at the central committee meeting that followed, but the committee voted to obey Stalin. Pollitt was sacked.

Football: Leeds United beat Derby County 3-1 at the Baseball Ground. The Derby players had to mow the pitch themselves.

RAF: 4 Group Whitley's of 10 Sqn. Leaflet Hamburg and Bremen. Four aircraft complete their tasks despite severe weather, one crashes on return

Reconnaissance over Germany, casualties to personnel.

The US freighters SS Ethan Allen and SS Ipswich, held by the British for 10 days, are released. However, the cargo carried by SS Ipswich bound for Hamburg, Germany is seized.

U-3 sank SS Gun and SS Bendia.
At 2255hrs in the North Sea, U-3 sighted a British submarine and fired a torpedo at it, but missed.

FRANCE:

General Wladyslaw Sikorski, who has been both prime minister and defence minister of Poland, has set up a Polish government in exile in Paris and is taking command of those forces which succeed in escaping from Poland. General Sikorski, who was in Paris when his country was overrun, has escaped the fate of the commander-in-chief, Marshal Smigly-Rydz and the government who fled to Romania, and been interned after pressure was put on the Rumanian's by Germany.

The French communists have been saved the embarrassment of trying to explain Stalin's actions by Daladier. The Prime Minister has banned the party, thus allowing it to stay silent.

3rd Division BEF arrive in France at Cherbourg. The Divisions road transport is meanwhile being unloaded at Brest, several hundred miles away, giving the French dockers ample time to pilfer every officer's locked car boot and force many of the doors on the impressed laundry vans that were used for transport. Back at Cherbourg, there are no vehicles to be impressed or even hired. The Division manage by pooling the advance party's transport to set off the train and car for Everon, the designated assembly area.

The French Army is called back from its invasion of Germany. The attack, code named Operation SAAR, only penetrated 5 miles (8 kilometres).

GERMANY: Berlin warns Britain that armed ships may be sunk without warning. "Several German submarines have been attacked by British merchant ships in the past few days. Hitherto German submarines have observed international law by always warning merchant ships before attacking them. Now, however, Germany will have to retaliate by regarding every vessel of the British merchant navy as a warship"

OKW issues Führer Directive #5. Following the conclusion of the ‘Treaty of Frontier Regulation and Friendship’ with Russia on 28th September the political form of the former Polish territories in the German sphere of interest will be reorganized. 
(i) The political frontier of the Reich will include areas of former German settlement and in addition some areas of special significance. The Demarcation Line will be built up as a line of military security towards the East, and marks the limit of the German sphere of influence in relation to Russia. 
(ii) As a temporary measure the whole of the former Polish State up to the Demarcation Line will be an ‘Area of Military Government’ under Commander-in-Chief Army. Proposals for dealing with the pacification of occupied territory, security and garrison requirements, and establishment of Military Districts, are requested. 
(iii) The precautionary Lithuanian occupation force is no longer required. 
(iv) All special limitations imposed on naval warfare against France are lifted. ‘Trade War’ will be waged in general subject to Prize Law with the following exceptions. Merchant and Troop ships definitely established as hostile may be attacked without warning, including all ships sailing without lights in English waters. Merchant ships using their radio after being  stopped will be fired upon. Attacks on passenger ships are still prohibited. 
(v) Air warfare restrictions remain in force except as follows: Aircraft may cross the frontier for purposes of local and combat reconnaissance, and to attack artillery liaison planes and captive balloons. Long range reconnaissance flights may be undertaken on the authority of the Commander-in-Chief Luftwaffe. (Marc Roberts)

U.S.S.R.: In today's Pravda editorial it notes that "the German-Soviet friendship is now established forever. ... Both parties hope that England and France will stop their absolutely pointless war against Germany. ... Should England and France fail to do so, Germany and the Soviet Union will take the appropriate steps." (Mike Yared)

U.S.A.: The first American college football game is broadcast by NBC's experimental TV station W2XBS (now WNBC), channel 1 in New York City. The game between Fordham University and Waynesburg College is televised from Triboro Stadium on Randalls Island in New York City. Fordham wins. 

The 15-minute radio program "Captain Midnight" debuts on the Mutual Network (WOR in New York City area) at 1745 hours Eastern Time sponsored by Ovaltine. Captain Midnight was a man of mystery but the listeners knew that he was a flying ace of the Great War who was engaged to stop the sinister activities of Ivan Shark, master criminal who sought to control the world. The show remained on the air until December 1949. It replaces Little Orphan Annie in this slot, but makes up for it by offering a decoder badge. (Jack McKillop and Matt Clark)(239)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: A British cargo ship, SS Clement, was sunk this afternoon by the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee off Pernambuco, Brazil. Captain F. Harris, spotted the Graf Spee at 1.00 a.m. She sent a sea plane which without warning machine gunned the bridge. The chief officer was slightly hurt, but the 50 strong crew took to the boats before the Graf Spee's shells sank the Clement.

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September 30th, 1940 (MONDAY)

Battle of Britain: During the daylight, London and the Westland factory at Yeovil are bombed. On this last day of mass daylight bomber raids the Luftwaffe reintroduces old tactics with close escorts to their bombers and pays a heavy price in bombers and fighters for negligible damage. 

(Night) London bombed.

The weather is generally fair but cloudy with light winds. During the day, four attacks of considerable weight were made over East Kent, one of which spread westwards, and two others took place in the Portland area. The second of these synchronised with the fourth attack (which spread westwards) in Kent. Other activity consisted of reconnaissance flights along the Coasts, and investigation and attacks on shipping were again reported. In the North and North-East at 1030 hours a single Luftwaffe aircraft approached the Firth of Forth but turned away when 40 miles (64 kilometers) to sea. In the East, a Ju 88 which made a reconnaissance of Chesterfield at 0630 hours re-crossed the Coast at the Humber and was shot down. Later a Naval Unit was bombed off Harwich. Reconnaissance of two convoys off Yarmouth and later off Cromer, were made at 0900 and 0930 hours. At 1010 hours a hostile reconnaissance was made over Bedford, Cardington, Duxford, Debden and Eastchurch. Between 1200 and 1300 hours other reconnaissances were made and a convoy reported that it was being shadowed. At 1700 hours a single German aircraft crossed the Coast at Bawdsey penetrating only a few miles inland. In the South-East from 0635 hours single Luftwaffe aircraft were active from the Estuary to Beachy Head and inland in two cases to Farnborough and Worthing. The first attack on Kent begam at 0900 hours when formations of 30 aircraft including 12 bombers and 50 aircraft all fighters, crossed the Coast East and West of Dungeness respectively. They were preceded by a single aircraft which flew in over Rye. The attack penetrated to Biggin Hill and Kenley. Meanwhile another raid of 12 aircraft patrolled Dungeness eastwards of the attack, just inland, and 50 additional aircraft remained off-shore at Dover. The second attack on Kent began at 1010 hours with 75 German aircraft composed of bombers with fighter escort crossed at Dungeness and again flew to the Biggin

  Hill - Kenley area where the formations were broken up; 25 German aircraft patrolled the Straits. By 1030 hours the raids had turned South. The third attack on Kent began at 1310 hours when some 100 Luftwaffe aircraft with 18 others in advance, flew inland at Lympne. A second wave brought up the total to about 180 aircraft in all, with 40 more patrolling at Dover. The formation of 18, followed by the main body, spread inland on a general for London. It was principally held up 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Central London, but nine aircraft consisting of Ju 88s and Bf 109s penetrated while others approached the South-Western suburbs. The aircraft were recrossing the Coast at 1345 hours. The fourth attack on Kent began at 1608 hours when four raids totaling about 200+ Luftwaffe aircraft flew from Dungeness to Biggin Hill and scattered over East Kent from Kenley to Hornchurch. Some flew West and approached Weybridge from the South. These again turned West down the Thames Valley

  as far as Reading. Dispersal continued and aircraft were over Middle Wallop, North of Tangmere and near Winchester. Bombers predominated in this attack which finished at about 1730 hours. In the South and West, the first attack on Portland began at 1055 hours when 100 German aircraft crossed the Coast at St Albans Head of which 50 came from Cherbourg, France, and 50 from the Seine in France. A split of 25 flew across Dorset and Devon to the Somerset border, but the remainder penetrated inland only some 15 miles (24 kilometers). The raid was over by 1200 hours. The second attack on Portland began at 1635 hours, while the East Kent raid was in progress, 50 aircraft flew over Portland, a further 50 following the Coast to Lyme Bay. These joined the first formation and flew inland some 20 miles (32 kilometers). Weymouth was bombed and damage is also reported in the Yeovil area. By 1700 hours the aircraft were returning to France. At 1730 hours a reconnaissance of Southampton was made by a single aircraft.

     During the night of 29 September/1 October, London is attacked again. There was considerable Luftwaffe activity over a widespread area during the earlier part of the night, but after 2330 hours raids were less in number and from 0100 hours onwards, were confined almost entirely to an area South of a line from the Wash to St David's Head. At 1900 hours, the first night raiders were plotted leaving the Seine Bay of France. These crossed the Coast at Selsey Bill and headed for London. Raids from the Dutch Coast crossed between Orfordness and Harwich, and some of them penetrated through Duxford/Debden areas to approach London from the North. From 2100 hours onwards, raids from Cherbourg and Havre, France, flew to the Isle of Wight and then to Bristol Channel, spreading to South Wales and the Midlands and up to the Liverpool and Mersey area. From 2200 hours, raids approaching from the East crossed the Coast between the Wash and the Thames Estuary, some heading for London, whilst others spread over East Anglia, penetrating through Lincolnshire to the Nottingham area. It was estimated at 0530 hours that 275 German aircraft had operated over or around this Country of which 175 penetrated to Central London. Activity continued until about 0600 hours, when the last raids were leaving the Country.

     RAF Fighter Command claimed 45-32-29 Luftwaffe aircraft and antiaircraft batteries claimed 1-0-0. The RAF lost 20 aircraft with eight pilots killed or missing.

Walti deposited a suitcase. It was water-stained and proved to contain a transmitter. When he returned to claim it, a detective superintendent disguised as a porter grabbed his wrist as he reached for his pistol.
Two German agents, Karl Drucke who had a loaded 6.35 Mauser automatic which was taken from Drucke by Inspector John Simpson after a struggle, a flickknife was found in his suitcase and Vera Eriksen, were arrested at Buckie, on the Moray Firth, having first been spotted in Port Gordon. A third member of the same group, Werner Walti (real name Robert Petter), was arrested in Edinburgh, where he had deposited a wireless set in a suitcase at the Waverley Street luggage office. After extensive MI5 interrogation in London the two men were sentenced to death at the Old Bailey and hanged in Wandsworth Prison on 6 August 1941. The woman, who had been a prewar part-time informant for MI5, escaped the same penalty. (Bill Howard)

Destroyer HMS Quail laid down.
Destroyers HMS Farndale and Brocklesby launched.
Corvette HMS Cyclamen commissioned.
Light cruiser HMS Dido commissioned.
Submarine ORP Sokol (ex-HMS Urchin) launched.

FRANCE:

Paris: The Reich Chief Security Office sets up a special section under orders from Adolf Eichmann">Eichmann in Berlin. It will register France's entire Jewish population.

GERMANY: KptLt Helmut Rosenbaum commissions U-73.

U-37 sank SS Heminge and SS Samala in Convoy OB-220.

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September 30th, 1941 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Prime Minister Winston Churchill addresses the House of Commons saying, "It seems likely now that we shall bring in several million tons more than the import total which I mentioned in private to the House earlier in the year, which total was itself sufficient to keep us going. We are now within measurable distance of the immense flow of American new building, to which, together with our own construction, we look to carry us through and on progressively till the end of the war."

Submarine HMS Taurus laid down.

GERMANY: U-801 laid down.

U-205 suffered a blow when one of its men, Fähnrich zur See Fritz Säger, took his own life.

U.S.S.R.: Guderian's Second panzer Army has completed its move north to be the right wing of the German attack on Moscow, Operation Typhoon. The Kiev battle is complete, which is why Hitler moved it to the south. These units begin to advance from Glukhov toward Orel and Bryansk.  

Kleist's 1st Panzer Army attacks east from the Dniepr at Dnepropetrovsk, and easily breaks through the Soviet defensive line. They are headed for Donetsk and Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov.

Leningrad's defenders have stopped the Germans seven miles from the city, within sight of its church spires. Today General Zhukov arrives to take charge of the cities defences. 

Kiev: Members of Einsatzgruppe C, led by Otto Rasch, are relaxing at the end of a particularly efficient piece of work. In two days they have murdered 33,771 Jews at Babi Yar, a ravine on the outskirts of the city.

Four days ago they put up posters asking Jews to report for resettlement. Rasch is proud to report that none of those who duly reported apparently realized that they were to die. The masses gathered at the prescribed place with their bundles of food and clothing. Divided into groups of 100, they were marched to the edge of the ravine.

The SS men varied their routine. First they machine-gunned the Jews and kicked them off the edge. Then they made them walk a plank and shot them in the neck. Children were simply thrown over.

The dead and half-dead piled up at the bottom, slowly moving as the living struggled to prevent themselves being suffocated by the growing weight of the dead. Moaning and sobbing rose up from the bleeding, bruised mound. When there was a break in the killing at the top of the ravine, the SS moved in at the bottom and used pistols to despatch those who still moved.

Miraculously, a handful of Jews escaped from Babi Yar. Among them was Dina Pronicheva, who pretended to be dead.

By the end of September, 1,360 Soviet heavy industrial plants had been moved from areas that are now occupied by the Germans to the Urals and points east. The Soviet Union is beginning its recovery from the summer onslaught.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The Italian submarine “Adua” is patrolling off Cartagena, Spain, where a large convoy is expected to be crossing. At 0350 hours, the submarine sights a large group of 11 destroyers. These destroyers are part of the British Force “H” which had escorted a convoy from Gibraltar to Malta. The sub fires four torpedoes at the British ships, the crew hears detonations and disengages to avoid the reaction of the destroyers. At 0525 hours, the sub sends a radio message which is picked up by the British and the destroyers use ASDIC (Sonar) to detect the sub. Two destroyers, HMS Gurkha (F 63) and HMS Legion (F 74) depth charge the sub sinking her at 1030 hours about 94 nautical miles (175 kilometers) east-southeast of Cartagena, Spain, in position 37.10N, 0.56E. There are no survivors. (Jack McKillop &  Dave Shirlaw

TURKEY embargoes chrome exports to Germany.

CHINA: Japanese forces fight their way out of the encirclement at Changsha suffering serious losses in the retreat to Yoochow. Chinese estimates range up to 40,000 losses for the Japanese, a major victory for the Chinese.

CANADA: HMS Seaborn renamed HMCS Sambro and became depot ship Halifax, Nova Scotia for destroyers and auxiliaries. HMS Seaborn was formerly the US yacht Seaborn and had been acquired by Northumberland Ferries Ltd. in 1939 and renamed the Charles A. Dunning. But she was almost immediately taken over for naval service and given her old name. On 7 December 1939 she was commissioned HMS Seaborn, flagship of the Rear Admiral with the 3rd Battle Squadron. When the 3rd Battle Squadron was withdrawn to the United Kingdom she was renamed HMCS Sambro, depot ship for destroyers and auxiliaries. On 6 March 1943 she was renamed HMCS Venture II, depot ship for fairmiles. To avoid confusion, the schooner Venture was re-designated Harbour Craft 190 and continued her duties as before. At the same time the depot ship dropped her Roman suffix and became the third Canadian Venture. She remained HMCS Venture until paid off on 14 January 1946. Sold for commercial purposes, she still existed in 1953 under the Panamanian flag.
Minesweeper HMCS Burlington arrived Halifax from builder Toronto, Ontario].

U.S.A.: US General Marshall directs MacArthur to arrange for the "regular use" of British and Imperial air fields at Port Darwin, Rabaul, Port Moresby, and Singapore, for the "emergency use" of fields in the Netherlands East Indies, and to ask the British to develop an additional air field in the northern part of Borneo. 

Sayre writes to MacArthur      "> MacArthur to complain of MacArthur’s lack of co-operation with the High Commission in civil defence. 

WPD develops plans for the stockpiling of ammunition and POL throughout the South-West Pacific. (Marc Small)

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September 30th, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Escort carrier HMS Attacker commissioned.

NETHERLANDS: During the night of 30 September/1 October, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 20 Wellingtons and 5 Stirlings minelaying missions off Texel and in the Frisian Islands; 18 aircraft lay mines in the Frisian Islands and four lay mines off Texel. One Stirling and one Wellington are lost.

GERMANY: Berlin: Josef Goebbels, the German minister for propaganda, today launched the country's fourth wartime winter appeal by announcing that last year the population donated some 1.2billion Reichsmark [£100 million] for needy families. A growing proportion of the money is now being used to finance official welfare bodies such as the National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV). Money is raised in house-to-house collections made by members of the NSV and other organizations, for example the Hitler Youth, the SA and the SS, who remind reluctant donors of their public "duty".

Berlin: In a major speech at the Sportspalast, Hitler ridicules the Allied leadership as "military idiots ... mentally sick or perpetually drunk."

U-529 commissioned.
U-242 laid down.
U-307 launched.
U-649 launched.

U.S.S.R.: the Soviet 92nd Naval Rifle Brigade is tonight sent to the vicinity of the Barrikady Plant. After heavy fighting the battalion, which had 147 men left, was moved to the city center to reinforce the 37th Rifle Division. All day the seamen fended off the savage attacks by the Germans. During the night seamen crossed to the left bank of the Volga, to the settlement of Rybachiy. Here, replenished by Pacific Fleet seamen, the battalion once again became a brigade, which returned to combat in early November. The fighting was especially fierce in the vicinity of the Krasnyy Oktyabr', Barrikady,and Traktornyy plant, in the defence of which the 92nd Brigade and the 308 th Rifle Division participated. Repulsion of the numerous attacks and the daily bomb runs and artillery bombardment thinned the ranks of the 92nd Brigade.
The brigade commander, Hero of the Soviet Union Colonel M.S. Batrakov, chief of staff Lieutanant Colonel Ye.G.Sazonov, battalion commander F.S.Zhukov, chief of communication Captain Troyko, chief of brigade headquarters section No.1 Major Shumilo and other officers recieved serious wounds. Command of the brigade was assumed by Captain P.A.Unzhakov (commander of 3rd Battalion), and political department chief Senior Battalion Commisar F.L.Lukin assumed the duties of military commissar. (Russell Folsom)(215, Chap. 3)

EUROPE: This month, 14,000 Jews from France, 6,000 from the Netherlands and 5,000 from Belgium have been deported to Auschwitz. 20,000 Polish Jews perished at Belzec, and at least 6,000 Jews from Theresienstadt camp, in Czechoslovakia, were slaughtered at Maly Trostenets.

EGYPT: El Alamein: While thousands of British troops were undergoing training in desert warfare in the rear lines, watched by their new chief, Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery, the British Eighth Army set out to probe the defences of the Afrika Korps, also - while Rommel is in Germany for medical treatment - under a new chief, General Georg Stumme.

The 44th Division - just two brigades - then mounted a very small action to assess the strength of German positions in the Munassib Depression. Today's battle took place to the south of the Alamein line, with heavy casualties on both sides.

LIBYA: Tobruk: The top-scoring Luftwaffe ace Hans-Joachim Marseille (158 British aircraft) who was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds on 3 September is killed. He was flying a new Messerschmitt Bf-109G-2 fighter, W.Nr. 14256, on a mission escorting Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers. While returning to base at 1135 hours, Marseille indicated that he had smoke pouring into his cockpit and it was becoming difficult to either breathe or see. Other members in the flight urged Marseille to remain with his aircraft for another couple minutes since they were still over enemy-held territory. By 1139 hours, smoke in the cockpit was now unbearable and Marseille was forced to leave his airplane. Marseille's last radio transmission was, "I've got to get out now. I can't stand it any more". Now over German territory, at approximately 10000 feet (3,048 meters), Marseille rolled his aircraft inverted in a standard manoeuvre to prepare for bailout. Suffering from probable spatial disorientation, possible toxic hypoxia, as well as being blinded by the smoke in the cockpit, Marseille's aircraft entered an inverted dive with an approximate dive angle of 70 to 80 degrees. At a speed of approximately 400 knots (460.3 mph or 740.8 km/h), Marseille jumped out of his damaged aircraft. Unfortunately, the left side of Marseille's chest struck the tail of his airplane, either killing him instantly or incapacitating him to the point where he was unable to open his parachute. As the other members of Marseille's squadron watched in horror, Jochen's body landed face down 7 km (4.3 miles) south of Sidi Abd el Rahman, an unfitting end to the "African Eagle."

TURKEY: It is announced that Turkey had signed a treaty with Germany for the exchange of chrome for armaments. This is a development of the Turkish-German trade pact signed 9 October 1941.

BURMA: The British 123rd Brigade's advance reaches Bawli Bazar in the Arakan Valley. The weather, which would normally clear during November, has not cooperated thus making the advance extremely difficult. 

JAPAN: The German surface Raider "Thor" is destroyed by fire in the Yokohama, Japan Harbor. From January through October, 1942 the Thor sank 10 merchant ships for 56,000 tons.

The Japanese Navy changes their entire communications system. Many useful tools are lost, to the U.S. in the radio intelligence war.

NEW GUINEA: The US forces attacking Buna make their first significant gains.

US Fifth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses, A-20 Havocs, and P-40s pound occupied areas at Menari, Myola Lake, Kagi, and Efogi and a bridge at Wairopi.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz travels from Noumea to Guadalcanal via B-17 bomber to (1) to determine if the island can be held and (2) to award decorations. The plane becomes lost, and Commander Ralph Ofstie navigates to Henderson Field using a map from National Geographic. Nimitz views the mud of Henderson Field, since it has been raining. He tours Edson's (Bloody) Ridge and the perimeter with General Vandegrift and leaves tomorrow.

The Japanese Navy changes their entire communications system. Many useful tools are lost, to the US, in the radio intelligence war.

At 9:40 pm the Japanese steam past Savo Island headed for their supply drop on Guadalcanal. These 8 destroyers are loaded with supplies in drums lashed to their decks their torpedo reloads are left behind. At the same time US naval TF 67 enters the eastern end of Lengo Channel. At 2308 the US radar shows 7 - 8 ships. The Japanese spot the US ships, without radar, at 2312. The US destroyers fire torpedoes at 2320 and their cruisers open fire at 2321. Japanese torpedoes are fired at 2323. At 2327 the Japanese torpedoes begin to strike. The losses in this battle are one Japanese destroyer, Takanami. US losses are severe damage to 3 cruisers, and the loss of the USS Northampton.

Japanese Admiral Tanaka received much of the credit for the Japanese success in the Battle of Tassafaronga. It should be noted that Captain Sato Torojiro was in command of the Japanese destroyer division that many credit with launching the successful torpedoes. As a final note to the Battle of Tassafaronga, the last of the 13 US "treaty cruisers" has been sunk or damaged around Guadalcanal. These ships will not participate in any further night battles in the Solomon Islands.

AUSTRALIA: The Board of Inquiry into the sinking of the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra (D 33) during the Battle of Savo Island on 9 August 1942, finds that the ship was not in an adequate state of readiness when attacked by the Japanese.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIANS: Of 9 US Eleventh Air Force B-24 Liberators off to bomb Kiska and Attu Islands, 2 turn back; the others blast the Attu Camp area, and at Kiska Harbor score at least 1 direct hit and near misses on a ship; 8 fighters intercept over Kiska and Little Kiska Islands but inflict no losses.

     Japanese air reconnaissance discovers that the Americans are building an airfield on Adak Island.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Lindsay laid down.

U.S.A.: Baseball!

Everyone from the First Lady downwards had made it clear that the American war effort demands that women play dramatically different roles. Not only women themselves are being educated into new ways; so, too, are employers, labour leaders, store owners, men in uniform and legislators.

Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, for instance, called for easing the burden of housework for those women working to win the war. She suggested that restaurants should prepare meals which working women could pick up and take home for quick service. More child care is needed, she said, as is transportation to and from schools.

Training started this month to teach women such trades as welding, armature winding and burning. Mrs. Elinore M. Herrick, the newly-appointed director of personnel for Todd Shipyards, which as 12 yards on three coasts, said training for more difficult jobs will start soon, since Selective Service has given semi-skilled males but six months' deferment. At Republic Steel, 1,000 women have been hired in its 27 plants to make and assemble aircraft parts and accessories. They are given uniforms, hairnets and pay equal to men's. But the company says that it will draw the line on women in open-hearth areas because of the 100-degree Fahrenheit heat. Asked if more women would be hired, one Republic vice-president growled: "There are too many women here now." However, he was in the midst of 25 women reporters.

Production jobs are not the only ones open to women. Columbia University has begun a course to train women to be engineering aides for Grumman Aircraft Corporation, and the Red Cross wants more nurses' aides, targeting "leisure-class" women. Women are joining up in record numbers, according to the WAACS and WAVES. The chief of the WAVES (the US equivalent of Wrens), Mildred McAfee, says that she doesn't mind at all being called "the old man".

Submarine USS Flasher laid down.
Destroyer escort USS J Richard Ward laid down.
Minesweeper USS Oracle launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-596 was attacked by an aircraft in the North Atlantic and suffered heavy damage. She managed to reach base at St. Nazaire on 3 October.

U-125 sank SS Empire Avocet and Kumsang. Captured master and a machinist from Empire Avocet captured.
U-506 sank SS Siam II.
U-516 sank SS Alipore.

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September 30th, 1943 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: This autumn's harvest looks like yielding less than last year's record-breaking crop, but in most areas productivity remains dramatically above pre-war levels. Farmers are "digging for victory" (and guaranteed markets) with such success that profound changes are now under way in the landscape itself.

Four-Fifths of Britain is a farmed landscape so changed in farming change the countryside. When the war began, about 17 million acres were grassland used for grazing livestock, with some 12 million acres as arable land to grow crops. Today the position is reversed.

The reason is simple enough. Before the war 70% of Britain's food was imported. The U-boat blockade threatened that lifeline, so intensive efforts were made to grow more food at home. Crops of potatoes, wheat and barley have virtually doubled, although all but barley will this year dip below the bumper levels of 1942.

This achievement is not without cost. Land such as chalk downs have been ploughed up, jeopardizing their wildlife. More tractors are being used, encouraging farmers to enlarge fields by removing hedgerows. More fertilizers are also being used to boost yields per acre. The government-appointed Scott committee sees "no antagonism between use and beauty". A minority is dissenting from this view.

Britain: Britain's war effort is being hampered by a wave of unofficial strikes. 9,000 engineers are out at Vickers Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness. They have been on strike for two weeks in protest at an arbitration award of rates of pay. At a mass meeting today they voted to stay out, despite the urgings of their union, the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU). The local strike leaders, critical of AEU officials, demand direct negotiation with Ernest Bevin, the minister of labour, who has refused to intervene. He insists that the honour of the trade union movement is at stake.

Striking is illegal under an Order of 1940, but the impracticality of sending strikers to prison was demonstrated last year at Betteshanger colliery in Kent. More than 1,000 summonses were taken out against strikers. They were fined, while their union branch officials were sent to prison for a month. When the miners refused to pay the fines, magistrates could not have them arrested because there wasn't enough room in the prisons. On Mr. Bevin's advice, the fines were held in abeyance and the men went back to work.

The same difficulty now applies to a strike of 7,000 miners in the Lanarkshire coalfield in Scotland. It is in protest at the arrest of fellow-miners for non-payment of their fines for joining an earlier unofficial strike. The local miners' president has blamed "outside elements" for extending the stoppage. Mr. Bevin recently told the House of Commons that there were three kinds of strike occurring. One was the "last straw" type, by the men. The second type was provoked by the employers. The third type was politically inspired by Trotskyists and others opposed to the war.

"While I will not be a party to anything to weaken the legitimate trade unions in any way - I want to strengthen them - I feel that steps must be taken to see the war effort is not impeded by these activities" he declared. This year has already seen a dock strike at Liverpool, and now a strike of 16,000 workers at Rolls-Royce aero engine factory at Hillington, Glasgow, is threatened over the unequal rates of pay for women, who now make up two-thirds of the workforce.

Frigates HMS Aylmer and Shiel commissioned.

Aircraft carrier HMS Colossus launched.
Submarine HMS Sturdy launched.

FRANCE: The underground newspaper defence de la France publishes the first photographs of Nazi concentration camps.

A French agent, Andre Comps, steals blueprints of a V1 launch site to send to London.

GERMANY: U-858 commissioned.
U-1197 and U-1198 launched.

NORWAY: U-711 suffered a man lost during landing in Narvik. [Maschinengefreiter Heinz Schiefelbein].

SWEDEN: Stockholm: In a bold and hazardous night operation, Danish fishermen are smuggling almost all of Denmark's over 7,000 Jews across the stormy Oresund Strait to the safety of Sweden.  The voyage costs £100 for each person; the price of failure is death. Among the refugees are the Nobel prize-winning atomic scientist Niels Bohr and his wife.

About 6,000 Jews and 1,400 half-Jews are at risk, and nearly 700 people married to Jews are expected to leave as well. The roundup of Danish Jews for deportation began a week ago with Gestapo agents calling on Jewish homes at night and taking whole families, including the old, the sick and children.

All Jewish private fortunes are being seized. The telephone system in Copenhagen was switched off to prevent Jews from warning one another of the Gestapo's coming.

Bohr came ashore from a Danish fishing boat at Helsingborg; he went straight to Stockholm to beg the Swedish government to help his fellow Jews. The Swedes promised asylum to all who reached their shores and sent a protest note to Germany. Swedish opinion is outraged by the latest persecutions. Even the explorer Sven Hedin, known for his German sympathies, has called them "deplorable". Pastoral letters from bishops condemning the Germans have been read out in Danish churches.

POLAND: Auschwitz-Birkenau: At least 5,400 Dutch, Belgian and French Jews have been gassed this month.

U.S.S.R.: The Soviets capture Krichev on the Sozh River.

Moscow: The Red Army continues to steamroller westwards. It has announced the capture of Rudnya, in the northwest and of Kremenchug, the important rail junction on the east bank of the Dnieper, 140 miles south of Kiev.

Huge forces are now massing for the final phase of the assault on Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine. Last nights communiqué says that Russian guns are shelling Gomel, and further north the Red Army has advanced six miles towards another important German base, Mogilev in White Russia. Unofficial reports from Moscow say that a fierce battle is also going on in the outskirts of Zaporozhe, at the southern end of Dnieper bend, some 50 miles from the town of Dnepropetrovsk.

This means that the Russian forces have now reached every important place along the Dnieper and that the Germans are fighting hard to maintain a toehold on the eastern bank.

More importantly, the Russians have expanded their bridgeheads on the western bank south of Kiev and have begun to link them up to form a solid base.

ITALY: Advance units of X Corps reach Naples. 

Allied troops have fought their way to the gates of Naples to find that the population has risen against the German garrison. Hundreds have been killed in street fighting which was finally put down today by the Hermann Göring Panzer Division. Outside the city, the British V Corps has surrounded Mount Vesuvius; and the US VI Corps has taken Avelino.  Naples seems certain to fall, but this anticipated triumph has not stilled the concern voiced by many US (and some British) commanders at the slowness of General Montgomery's Eighth Army in coming to assist the US Fifth Army at Salerno.

US Twelfth Air Force P-38 Lightnings, B-25s, and B-26 Marauders bomb road and rail and road bridges at Ausonia, Piana, Castelvenere, Amorosi, and Capua, and carry out sweeps from Bastia to Elba Island; 7 B-25s hit Benevento and surrounding rail and road communications; XII Air Support Command fighter-bombers carry out strafing and bombing missions north and northeast of Naples as Avellino falls to the US 3d Division.

     During the night of 30 September/1 October, 37 RAF No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group aircraft bomb the Coast Road at Formia; two other aircraft drop leaflets.

INDIA: Sloop INS Hind launched.

CHINA: 2 US Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and 4 P-40s sink an IJN auxiliary minesweeper in Kwangchow Bay.

SINGAPORE: A canoe-borne Australian Special Forces group has penetrated the heavily-protected harbour at Singapore and blown up between 37,000 and 38,000 tons of Japanese shipping in Operation Jaywick. 

The operation began on the night of 26-27 September. Led by Major Ivan Lyon of the Gordon Highlanders, six "Z" Special men entered the harbour in three canoes and attached limpet mines to seven ships, all of which were sunk or badly damaged. All three canoes were clear of Singapore when the first mines exploded at 5.15am on 27 September.

The "Z" Special group was a mix of army and navy men. Its canoes, limpet mines and equipment were conveyed to a point near Singapore in the 68-ton ketch KRAIT. The ketch left Exmouth Gulf, Western Australia, on 1 September and on entering enemy waters posed as an Indonesian trading vessel. The KRAIT is a former Japanese fishing vessel, the KOKUFU MARU, seized from the Japanese in the early part of the Pacific War.

Sailing to Singapore without incident the group sighted the lights of the city on 18 September. While attaching a limpet mine to a tanker two of the crewmen became aware of a sailor watching them intently through a porthole. The froze in their task, but fortunately the sailor did not raise the alarm.

NEW GUINEA: The Australian 2/43rd Battalion lands at Scarlet Beach in the Finschhafen, Northeast New Guinea area.

     USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators and B-25 Mitchells bomb Sorong Aerodrome in Dutch New Guinea.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: US Fifth Air Force B-24s and B-25s fly light raids against Boela on Ceram Island in the Moluccas Islands and Manatuto on Timor Island.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: 16 US Thirteenth Air Force B-24s, covered by 20+ P-38s and P-40s and a few USMC F4U Corsairs, pound the Kahili airfield area on Bougainville Island, hitting a supply and bivouac area northeast of the strip. 6 B-25s bomb Kakasa on Choiseul Island.

U.S.A.: The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps becomes the Women's Army Corps, a regular contingent of the U.S. Army with the same status as other army service corps.

USCGC (US Coast Guard Cutter) E.M. Wilcox foundered off Nags Head, North Carolina. There one man is lost.

Minesweeper USS Buoyant commissioned.
Destroyers USS The Sullivans, Remey, Hopewell and Hailey commissioned.
Destroyer escort USS Joyce commissioned.
Destroyer USS Samuel N Moore laid down.

Destroyers USS Cushing and Rowe launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-960 sank SS Arkhangel´sk in Convoy VA-18.

U-309 lost a crewmember in the North Atlantic while working out on the deck. [Mechanikergefreiter Erich Jungmann].

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September 30th, 1944 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: This month 190 civilians have been killed and 360 wounded in air raids.

The US Eighth Air Force in England flies Mission 655: 834 bombers and 629 fighters,in 3 forces, are dispatched to make PFF attacks on marshalling yards and airfields in western Germany; 8 bombers are lost. 
(1) 257 B-17s hit Bielefeld marshalling yard; 4 B-17s are lost; escort is provided by 240 P-47s and P-51s. 
(2) B-24s bomb the marshalling yard at Hamm (206); targets of opportunity are Munster (12) and other (1); 1 B-24 is lost; escort is provided by 170 P-38s, P-47s and P-51s. 
(3) B-17s attack the marshalling yard at Munster (35) and Munster/Handorf Airfield (14); targets of opportunity are Munster (239) and other (1); 3 B-17s are lost; escort is provided by 177 P-47s and P-51s. 

- 86 P-51s fly a sweep over northwestern Germany.

- 116 B-24s fly a TRUCKIN' mission carrying fuel to France.

TACTICAL OPERATIONS: 14 US Ninth Air Force B-26s bomb the Arnhem, the Netherlands road bridge with poor results; fighters fly sweeps over Belgium, eastern France, and western Germany and attack rail targets.

Escort carrier HMS Nabob paid off Rosyth; constructive total loss. Post war became German merchant ship Nabob.
Minesweeper HMCS Wasaga departed Devonport for refit Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

BELGIUM: The 1st Canadian Army continue their attacks north and west of Antwerp.

NETHERLANDS: A group of Dutch resistance fighters ambush four German soldiers near the small Dutch village of Putten The attack goes wrong and three of the soldiers escape to raise the alarm, the fourth being kept hostage. The German commander of the area, General Heinz Helmuth von Wuhlisch, orders all inhabitants arrested and the village burned down. Thirty nine are arrested immediately and lined up on the square. Hoping to save the 39 men, the resistance group release the hostage, Lieutenant Eggert. It makes no difference, all the other men in the village are rounded up and together with the 39 men on the square, forced to board a train bound for the Reich. In all, 589 men from the village are transported to Germany for forced labour. Only 49 are alive at the end of the war. Luckily, of the 600 or so houses in Putten, “only” 87 were burned down.

     Fourteen USAAF Ninth Air Force B-26 Marauders bomb the Arnhem road bridge with poor results.

FRANCE: Calais falls to the Canadian 3rd Division.

Calais: The prospect of a dour, bloody battle for Calais evaporated at midnight tonight with the sudden collapse of the last pockets of German resistance after two days' fighting. Yesterday opposing commanders met under a flag of truce to arrange the evacuation of 25,000 civilians. By then the big guns of Cap Griz Nez, which had shelled Dover, had been seized by the besieging Canadian 3rd Division. The Germans threatened to fight to the last man, but after some hour of shelling and air bombing they had had enough. White flags appeared, and 7,000 captives included the commander. Hitler's bunker mentality, his determination to hold the French coast, has cost 12,000 men.

Thus the month ends with the Allies in control of most of France. Huge swathes of the centre and south-west were liberated this month, but for the last three weeks there has been little progress beyond the Moselle along a line south of Aachen to Belfort. Patton's US Third Army has met strong resistance in Alsace-Lorraine, notably around Metz. Further north, limited forays have been made into Nazi territory, but there has been no breakthrough.

In the British I Corps area, the Polish 1st Armoured Division takes Merxplas, northwest of Turnhout.

     In the U.S. Third Army’s XII Corps area: In a desperate attempt to recover Fort de Grémecey, the Germans make a strong attack against both flanks of the 35th Infantry Division’s perimeter, breaching lines of 134th and 137th Infantry Regiments within the forest. So grave is the situation that the corps commander, at about 1420 hours, orders the 35th Infantry Division to fall back behind the Seille River after dark, but Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Commanding General Third Army, directs a counterattack by the 6th Armored Division to restore the situation. The 35th Division committing its last reserves, manages to hang on and Germans begin a planned withdrawal.

     In The U.S. Seventh Army’s XV Corps area, the 79th Infantry Division continues to meet strong opposition in Fort de Parroy area. Elements of the French 2d Armoured Division assist the U.S. 45th Infantry Division of the VI Corps in their attack on Rambervillers.

 GERMANY: Until last year the German people lived off the fat of the occupied lands, leaving the populations of Poland, France, Belgium, Greece and the Netherlands to starve as their food produce was diverted to the Reich. But with each new country liberated, the Nazi store cupboard becomes increasingly bare. Basic, foodstuffs such as bread, flour and fat are generally available, but people are beginning to feel the pinch of rationing. Daily consumption of fish and meat has fallen from the pre-war level of six ounces per person to just over three ounces, and of eggs from two-thirds to one-third of an ounce. People living in towns suffer most since railways are a prime target for Allied bombing.

     RAF Bomber Command Missions:

     - During the day, 139 aircraft, 108 Halifaxes, 21 Lancasters and ten Mosquitos, attempt to attack the Holton synthetic oil plant at Sterkrade but the target is cloud-covered and only 24 aircraft attacked the main target; 103 aircraft bomb the general town area of Sterkrade. One Halifax lost.

     - During the day, 136 aircraft, 101 Halifaxes, 25 Lancasters and ten Mosquitos, encounter similar conditions at Bottrop in their attempt to bomb the Welheim synthetic oil refinery. Only four aircraft attempt to bomb the oil plant; the remainder of the force bombed the estimated positions of various Ruhr cities. No aircraft lost.

     - During the night of 30 September/1 October, 45 of 46 Mosquitos dispatched bomb Hamburg.

U-2336 commissioned.

POLAND: Germans recapture Zoliborz district of Warsaw.

FINLAND: The Finnish attack against their former German allies begins when Lt.Gen Hjalmar Siilasvuo gives the go ahead for an amphibious landing. 

The landing site was a small town of Tornio. The landing was politically a god-sent, as the Russians gave on 30 Sept an Ultimatum, that if the Finns wouldn't start aggressive operations against the Germans, Red Army troops would come "to help".

(On 30 September, the Finnish troops in Lapland numbered some 60,000 men, in 2 Inf.divisions (3rd and 6th), the Armored division and the 15th Brigade + other smaller units). (Sami Korhonen)

Minesweeper Kuha 3 is lost in German mines off Suursaari. First troop transport to Tornio begins.

YUGOSLAVIA: Troops of the Soviet Third Ukrainian Front, having secured the Iron Gate, the Turnu-Severin-Orsova area in Romania, where the Danube River passes through the Transylvanian Alps, cross the Danube in force and push toward Belgrade.

ITALY:

In the U.S. Fifth Army’s IV Corps area, Regimental Combat Team 6 of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (BEF) advances its right flank to Fornoli, at the junction of the Serchio River and Lima Creek. In the U.S. II Corps area, the 351st Infantry Regiment of the 88th Infantry Division seizes Mont Cappello after hard fighting but other troops on Mont Battaglia are almost driven off by further German attacks. The Corps is now ready for drive on the Po Valley and Bologna, although wearied by recent fighting and hampered by heavy rains. In the British XIII Corps area, the Indian 8th Division, reaches San Adriano, on the road to Faenza.

     In the British Eighth Army’s V Corps area, the Indian 4th Division clears the Germans from Tribola while the British 46th Division takes Montalbano and patrols as far as the Fiumicino River. The V Corps begins a general attack during the night of 30 September/1 October. The Indian 4th Division takes Mont Reggiano and Borghi before dawn, but the British 46th Division in the center and the 56th Division on the right are unable to force the Fiumicino River.

     During the night of 30 September/1 October, 41 heavy bombers of RAF No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group bomb the pontoon bridge at San Benedetto.

US Twelfth Air Force B-25s bomb road and railroad bridges in the Po Valley at Piacenza, Voghera, Sesto Calende, Lonate Pozzolo, Galliate, Cittadella, Borgoforte, and Tortona; B-26s hit fuel dumps at Cremona, and bridges at Padua, Turbigo, and San Nazzaro; XII Fighter Command fighters hit motor transport, rail lines, roads, bridges, and rolling stock in the Po Valley.

BURMA: Over fifty US Tenth Air Force P-47 Thunderbolts hit various targets in the Myothit and Bhamo areas, attack targets of opportunity at Khalayang, sweep the Anisakan and Nawnghkio Airfield areas, bomb Nansiaung railroad bridge, and hit targets of opportunity on or near the Burma Road between Mangshih and Lashio; 11 B-25s knock out a span of the main bridge and damage 2 bypass bridges at Hsenwi. 18 B-24s haul fuel from Burma to Liuchow, Yungning, and Kunming, China.

CHINA: 29 US Fourteenth Air Force B-24s and 12 B-25s bomb Wuchou and Tien Ho and White Cloud Airfields at Canton; 6 B-25s hit targets of opportunity S of Lungfukwan; nearly 100 P-40s and P-51s on armed reconnaissance over wide areas of China south of the Yangtze River again hit numerous targets of opportunity, concentrating on river shipping.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The submarine USS Nautilus (SS-168) lands supplies on Panay Island and takes out 7 servicemen, 10 women, 5 civilian men and 25 children. Meanwhile, the submarine USS Stingray (SS-186) lands supplies on Mindanao.

BORNEO: 70 US Far East Air Force B-24s strike oil installations at Balikpapan; 4 B-24s are lost. On Celebes Island, Ambesia Airfield is pounded by B-24s while B-25s hit Mapanget, Langoan, and Sidate, and P-38s hit shipping in Wasile Bay. Other B-25s attack shipping in the Halmahera Island waters. P-38s hit Amahai on Ceram Island, Kairatoe and Halong seaplane base on Celebes Island, and Haroekoe Airfield on Haroekoe Island. 

NEW GUINEA: 64 B-24's 5th and 307th Bombardment Groups of the US 13th AF and ? B-24's 90th Bombardment Group - of the US 5th AF raid the Balikpapan refineries and oil storage Lutong (North Borneo) [small refineries + large oil storage facility] Details: 190 - 1000 lb bombs; Pendesari refinery - direct hits on a large tanker set on fire; at dock Large fires. (Robert McFall)

In Dutch New Guinea, A-20 Havocs and fighter-bombers hit Babo and Utarom (Kaimana) Airfields and Fak Fak; A-20s and B-25 Mitchells bomb Faan Airfield in the Kai Islands.

MARIANA ISLANDS: Saipan-based P-47s of the US Seventh Air Force blast the airfield area on Pagan Island; later in the day a B-24 hits the same target.

WAKE ISLAND: During the night of 30 September/1 October a Kwajalein Atoll-based B-24 bombs Wake Island.

CAROLINE ISLANDS: Rear Admiral George H. Fort, Commander of the Western Attack Force, declares Peleliu, Angaur, Ngesebus, and Kongarur Islands in the Palau Islands occupied. On Peleliu, the 1st Battalion of the Army’s 321st Infantry Regiment relieves the 5th Marine Regiment on Amiangal Mountain, which is not yet completely clear of organized resistance although marines report over 1,170 Japanese killed or captured there, far more than the 500 recently estimated to be on the mountain. The 7th Marine Regiment begins attacks to reduce the Umurbrogol Pocket; progress during the next few days is very slow.

AUSTRALIA: At their final meeting, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander South West Pacific Area, tells Australian Prime Minister John Curtin that the future operations of Australian forces would consist of “firstly, the garrisoning role for the neutralization of Japanese pockets on the various islands and, secondly, the operational activities of the two Australian Imperial Force divisions which were to accompany the U.S. forces in the advance against the Japanese.” MacArthur suggested that the Australian garrison forces should not attempt to liquidate the Japanese pockets and the commanders may wish to take some active actions. Expanding on future plans, MacArthur tells Curtin that the two Australian divisions would take part in the capture of Borneo and then in an attack on Java. Curtin makes no comment thereby giving tacit approval to this plan.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Rockcliffe commissioned.
Frigate HMCS Ettrci arrived Bermuda for workups.
Corvette HMCS Fredericton departed Londonderry escort for convoy ON-256
Corvette HMCS Whitby arrived St. John's to join EG C-4.

Frigate HMCS Cap De La Madeleine commissioned.

U.S.A.: Red Foley's record of "Smoke On The Water" makes it to the Billboard Pop Singles chart. This is his first single to make the charts and it stays there for 11 weeks reaching Number 7.

The auxiliary aircraft carrier Barnes (AVG-7, ex ACV-7, ex SS Steel Artisan) is transferred to the British under Lend-Lease and renamed HMS Attacker (D 02). She is th fifth ACV transferred to the Royal Navy and is returned on 5 January 1946.

Destroyer minelayers USS Gwin and Shea commissioned.
Escort carrier USS Saidor laid down.
Minesweeper USS Strength commissioned.
Destroyers USS Douglas H Fox and John W Thomason launched.

Patrol Escort Vessel USS CASPER sails from Seattle on weather patrol.

Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-347 was commissioned at Kewaunee WI with LT F. N. Blake, USCG, as commanding officer. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area during the war.

Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-201 was commissioned at New Orleans with LT R. P. Champney, Jr., USCGR, as commanding officer. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area.  (Henry Sirotin)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: This month 19 U-boats have been sunk.

The German “Milch Cow” submarine U-1062 left Bergen, Norway, on 3 January 1944 with 39 torpedoes to supply the Monsun boats in the Far East. The boat made it to Penang, Malaysia, on 19 April. U-1062 unloaded the torpedoes and left Penang for Europe on 6 July but is intercepted by a USN escort carrier group, consisting of the escort aircraft carrier USS Mission Bay (CVE-59) and destroyer escorts, in the central Atlantic today. TBM-3 Avengers of Composite Squadron Thirty Six (VC-36) in USS Mission Bay drop sonobuoys and destroyer escort USS Fessenden (DE-142) homes in on sonobuoy indications and sinks her with depth charges about 685 nautical miles (1 268 kilometers) west-southwest of the Portugese Capre Verde Islands in position 11.36N 34.44W. All 55 hands on the U-boat are lost. The U-boat was on her third patrol.

U-1026 intercepted by an escort carrier group in the central Atlantic where the destroyer escort USS Fessenden sank her with depth charges. 55 dead (all hands lost).

In the North Atlantic a Catalina aircraft attacked U-245. The gunners on the U-boat managed to keep it at bay.

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September 30th, 1945 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Oboe Blind bombing squadron 109 Squadron RAF (Mosquito) moves to Woodhall Spa airfield to disband.

CHINA: U.S. Marines of the III Amphibious Corps, commanded by Major General Keller E. Rockey, begin landing in North China to assist the Chinese Nationalist government in accepting the surrender of Japanese forces and repatriating Japanese soldiers and civilians.

U.S.A.: Hank Greenberg hits a dramatic ninth inning grand slam home run to give the Detriot Tigers a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Browns.

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