World war II chronology - September 1942

1 September 1942	South-west of Iceland, Royal Canadian Navy corvette Morden sinks German submarine U-756. British bombers intend to attack the Saar coalfield capital of Saarbrücken, but due to mis-marking by Pathfinders, they all bomb the town of Saarlaus, 13 miles away.
2 September 1942	German 4th Panzer Army joins the 6th Army at Stalingrad. British bombers attack Karlsruhe.
3 September 1942	In the Strait of Belle Isle, Newfoundland, German submarine U-517 torpedoes and sinks Canadian merchant ship Donald Stewart.
5 September 1942	German troops begin the main attack on Stalingrad. British bombers attack Bremen, hitting the Atlas shipyard and the Weser aircraft factory.
6 September 1942	In the Caribbean Sea, north-west of Netherlands Antilles, German submarine U-164 torpedoes and sinks Canadian merchant ship John A. Holloway.
7 September 1942	In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, off Cap Chat, German submarine U-517 torpedoes and sinks Canadian merchant ship Oakton. In the St. Lawrence River, Canada, submarine U-165 torpedoes and sinks Canadian armed yacht HMCS Raccoon, while escorting Convoy QS-33.
9 September 1942	Adolf Hitler dismisses Field Marshal Wilhelm List of Army Group A, taking personal command. Japanese submarine I-25 launches a Yokasuka E14Y floatplane off Oregon, bombing the coast. (This, and another strike on September 29, are the only enemy bombings of the continental US during the war.)   The Canadian government closes the Gulf of St. Lawrence to ocean shipping, due to dangers of submarine attacks, and the need of escort ships elsewhere.
11 September 1942	In the St. Lawrence River, near Cap Chat, Quebec, Canada, submarine U-517 torpedoes and sinks Royal Canadian Navy corvette Charlottetown. Ten die. 479 British aircraft attack Düsseldorf. 20,000 are made homeless.
13 September 1942	South of Greenland, German submarine U-91 torpedoes Royal Canadian Navy destroyer Ottawa. 114 die, 69 are saved.
14 September 1942	In the Atlantic ocean, Royal Canadian Navy destroyer Ottawa sinks as a result of torpedo hits from the previous day. 446 British bombers attack Bremen, damaging the Focke-Wulf aircraft factory and the Lloyd dynamo factory.   British Bomber Command begins dropping acoustic mines in addition to magnetic mines. Canadian merchant ship SS Cornwallis is torpedoed in Carlyle Bay, Barbados. Erwin Rommel is replaced in Africa by General George Stumme, with General Wilhelm von Thoma commanding the Africa Corps. The US Navy establishes coastal convoys along the Gulf of Mexico coast. American carrier Wasp is sunk off Espirito Santo.
16 September 1942	369 British aircraft attack Essen, Germany. Fifteen bombs and a crashing plane land on the Krupps armament complex. About 37 planes are lost.
18 September 1942	In the Caribbean Sea, off British Guyana, German submarine U-175 torpedoes and sinks Canadian merchant ship Norfolk.
19 September 1942	British Bomber Command makes its first daylight raid by Mosquitoes on Berlin, Germany.
23 September 1942	British bombers attack the submarine building yard at Wismar and the nearby Dornier aircraft factory.
24 September 1942	Adolf Hitler dismisses Army Chief of Staff Franz Halder, replacing him with Lieutenant General Kurt Zeitzler.
25 September 1942	Four British Mosquito bombers attempt to destroy the Gestapo headquarters in Oslo, Norway. Four bombs hit the building, but none explode. One plane is shot down.
27 September 1942	In London, England, the film In Which We Serve premieres at the Gaumont Haymarket theater. The film is based on the sinking of HMS Kelly off the west coast of Greece.
28 September 1942	A Royal Canadian Air Force plane destroys a Japanese seaplane over Kiska in the Aleutian Islands. (This is the only air combat fought by Canadian planes in the North American theatre.)
29 September 1942	For the second time, Japanese submarine I-25 launches a floatplane off the coast of Oregon, bombing the coast. In England, Geoffrey Pyke submits a 232 page proposal to Lord Louis Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations, to build aircraft carriers of frozen water and wood pulp, that he calls "pykrete". Code name for the vessel is Habbakuk.