Timeline of World War II (1942) - August 1942

August 1942

1: The Germans continue their successful advance toward Stalingrad.

3: A convoy to Malta is decimated by the Luftwaffe and U-boats

5: The U.S. planning team for Operation Torch, which includes George S. Patton; Jimmy Doolittle; Kent Lambert; and Hoyt S. Vandenberg, meets in Washington, D.C. to join the combined planning team from London, England.

7: Operation Watchtower begins the Guadalcanal Campaign as American forces invade Gavutu, Guadalcanal, Tulagi and Tanambogo in the Solomon Islands.

8: Six of the eight German would-be saboteurs involved in Operation Pastorius are executed in Washington, D.C.
: The naval Battle of Savo Island, near Guadalcanal; the Americans lose three cruisers, the Australians one.

9: Numerous riots in favour of independence in India; Mahatma Gandhi is arrested.

10: Rommel begins an attack around El Alamein, but by September he is back to his original lines.

11: The HMS Eagle, a carrier on convoy duty to Malta, is torpedoed and sinks with heavy loss of life.

12: At a conference in Moscow, Churchill informs Stalin that there will not be a "second front" in 1942.
: American forces establish bases in the New Hebrides islands.
: Fighting increases as the Germans approach Stalingrad.

13: General Bernard Montgomery appointed commander of British Eighth Army in North Africa; Churchill is anxious to see more offensive action on the part of the British.
: Disastrous end to the Malta convoy, but one tanker and four merchant ships get through.

15: Malta is supplied via Operation Pedestal.

17: First US Army Air Forces B-17 heavy bomber raid in Europe, targeting the Sotteville railroad yards at Rouen, France.

18: Japanese reinforce New Guinea; Australians land troops at Port Moresby. Meanwhile, American planes have destroyed Japanese air power at Wewak, New Guinea.

19: Operation Jubilee, a raid by British and Canadian forces on Dieppe, France, ends in disaster; they come under heavy gunfire and eventually most are killed or captured by the German defenders.

20: Henderson Field on Guadalcanal receives its first American fighter planes.

21: Japanese counter-attack at Henderson Field; in another foray at the Tenaru (or Ilu) River, many Japanese are killed in a banzai charge.

22: Brazil declares war on the Axis countries, partly in response to numerous riots by a populace angry at the sinking of Brazilian ships.

23: Massive German air raid on Stalingrad.

24: The naval battle of the Eastern Solomons; the USS Enterprise is badly damaged and the Japanese lose one light carrier, the Ryujo.

26: Battle of Milne Bay begins: Japanese forces land and launch a full-scale assault on Australian base near the eastern tip of New Guinea.

27: Marshal Georgii Zhukov is appointed to the command of the Stalingrad defence; the Luftwaffe is now delivering heavy strikes on the city.

28: Incendiary bombs dropped by a Japanese seaplane causes a forest fire in Oregon.

30: The Battle of Alam Halfa, Egypt, a few miles south of El Alamein begins. This will be Rommel's last attempt to break through the English lines; British air superiority plays a large role.
: Luxembourg is formally annexed to the German Reich.