Hanford Site. Left to right: Vannevar Bush, James B. Conant, Major General Leslie Groves and Colonel Franklin Matthias. Date July 1945
Source: National Nuclear Security Administration, U.S. Department of Energy.
By: Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
From Berlin, the Nazis announce on September 18, 1942, that food rations are being reduced for Jews in Germany. In the U.S., the Army’s Col. Leslie Groves purchases for the Manhattan Project 1,250 tons of high-grade uranium ore from the Belgian Congo that was being stored on Staten Island, N.Y. British forces land on the east coast of Madagascar, at Tamatave. The 7th Marines, part of the 1st Marine Division, take up positions on Guadalcanal, strengthening the U.S. presence on the island.
On September 19, German submarine U-516 sinks the American cargo ship MV Wichita about 300 miles northeast of Barbados. All hands — 40 merchant crewmen and 10 U.S. Naval Armed Guards — are lost. In the U.S., the Manhattan Project’s Col. Groves, acting quickly, purchases 52,000 acres of land in Tennessee. The property will become the site of the massive weapons-grade-uranium enrichment facility known as Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The RAF raids Saarbrücken and Munich, in Germany, but fails to do much damage.
Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus on September 20 declares that the German Sixth Army needs substantial reinforcements if it is to continue its assault on Stalingrad. Paulus and his immediate superior, Army Group B commander, Gen. Maximilian von Weichs, are also worried about their flank defenses, which consist of Italian, Hungarian and Romanian troops. However, Hitler is determined to capture Stalingrad before reorganizing the flanks. Allied commanders set November 8, 1942, as “D-Day” for “Operation Torch,” the Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa. In Paris, the Nazis execute 116 people in retaliation for increasing attacks on German officers. At Auschwitz, in Occupied Poland, the first cremation of corpses takes place.
In Asia, British forces on September 21 begin their first land-based counterattack against the Japanese, at Arakan, in western Burma. In national elections in neutral Sweden, pro-Nazi candidates fare badly at the polls. In the U.S., the Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber makes its first test flight. Among the plane’s innovations: a pressurized, heated cabin and a computer-controlled system that permits one gunner to operate four machine-gun turrets.
On September 22, the German Sixth Army and 4th Panzer Army split the Soviet 62nd Army in two and capture nearly the entire southern part of Stalingrad, including a huge grain elevator that has been successfully defended by 40 Soviet Marines for over a week.
German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel leaves North Africa for Germany on September 23 for treatment of illness and exhaustion. He hands over command of the Panzer Army Africa (Germans and Italians) to Gen. Georg Stumme. Northwest of Stalingrad, a Soviet counteroffensive gains some ground; fierce hand-to-hand fighting pushes the Germans back around an oil-storage depot. In the U.S., the Army’s Col. Leslie Groves is promoted to the rank of brigadier general. Groves recruits J. Robert Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist and professor at the University of California at Berkeley, as Scientific Director for the Manhattan Project. In Chicago, RCA Victor’s Bluebird Records label releases the humorous song “Der Fuehrer’s Face” by Spike Jones & His City Slickers. The tune will re-appear in the 1943 Walt Disney anti-Nazi propaganda cartoon of the same name, featuring Donald Duck.
Units of German Army Group A launch an attack against the Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse on September 24. The German Chief of Staff, Gen. Franz Halder, is sacked by Hitler for “mismanaging the campaign on the Eastern Front” and is replaced by Gen. Kurt Zeitzler. In the Soviet Union, Olga Yamshchikova, a fighter pilot for the Red Army, shoots down a German Ju-88 twin-engine bomber over Stalingrad, becoming the first female to score an aerial victory. In the Atlantic, off the coast of Dutch Guiana, the U.S. Naval Armed Guard detachment and the civilian crew of the American Liberty ship SS Stephen Hopkins fight a mismatched battle with a heavily armed German raider, the auxiliary cruiser Stier. The Liberty ship, with only one 4-inch gun, manages to sink the Stier. Damage incurred during the battle, however, causes the Stephen Hopkins to go down as well, with only 15 of her 60-man complement surviving. In the Pacific, Japanese troops take over Maiana Atoll in the Gilbert Islands.
