1942
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1 January 1942 German forces retake Staritsa, 190 km northwest of Moscow.
German troops counterattack near Kerch, Crimea.
The four-month destruction of the Zagreb Synagogue stone by stone is completed.
150 Jews gather in Vilna (Vilnius) to protest the mass killing of Jews.
26 nations currently at war with the Axis sign the Declaration of the United Nations at Washington, pledging cooperation in defeating their mutual enemies.
The United States government bans the retail sales of all new cars.
Cello Sonata no.1 by Ross Lee Finney (35) is performed for the first time, in Pratt Memorial Music Hall, Mount Holyoke College, Northampton, Massachusetts.
2 January 1942 Japanese forces enter Manila.
Indian troops are forced back from Kampar, Malaya.
The Red Army breaks through the German front line at Rzhev, 210 km west of Moscow.
3 January 1942 Japanese forces capture Labuan Island off Sabah.
Japanese planes bomb Rabaul.
The Leningrad Radio Orchestra ceases operations owing to the fact that “too many players are ill, or starving, or dead.” See 5 April 1942.
4 January 1942 Piano Concerto by Carlos Chávez (42) is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York.
5 January 1942 The Dutch Council of Churches openly protests the German treatment of Jews.
6 January 1942 Japanese forces capture Brunei.
The Allied advance in Libya reaches Brega and El Agheila (Al’Uqaylah).
Pan American Airlines completes the first “round-the-world” commercial flight when the Pacific Clipper arrives in New York.
7 January 1942 Japanese forces attack Allied (Britain-India-Australia) defensive positions along the River Slim in Malaya, inflicting heavy losses and forcing retreat.
German troops drive partisans out of Olovo, Yugoslavia.
The Red Army begins a counteroffensive north of Novgorod.
Next of Kin, a film with music by William Walton (39), is shown for the first time, privately, in Curzon Theatre, London.
Statements for Orchestra by Aaron Copland (41) is performed completely for the first time, in New York. See 9 January 1936.
9 January 1942 Japanese forces attack the Abucay Line, the American-Philippine defensive line across the Bataan Peninsula. They meet stiff resistance.
Soviet forces begin an offensive in the Valdai Hills west and northwest of Moscow. They enjoy good initial success.
J. Sigfrid Edström of Sweden replaces Henri, comte de Baillet-Latour of Belgium as President of the International Olympic Committee.
11 January 1942 Japan declares war on the Netherlands, simultaneously invading and capturing Tarakan on Borneo and Manado on Celebes (Sulawesi). Japanese troops also occupy Kuala Lampur, Malaya.
Henry Cowell’s (44) Suite for piano and string orchestra is performed for the first time, in Boston.
12 January 1942 5,000 Jews are shot outside Kovno (Kaunas).
19,000 Jews are loaded into cattle cars in Odessa and sent to Balta concentration camp. The bodies of those who died along the way are piled up in Brerzovka and set alight before their families.
Pawnee Horses for piano by Arthur Farwell (69) is performed for the first time, in New York, 37 years after it was composed.
13 January 1942 Slobodan Jovanovic replaces Dusan Simovic as Prime Minister of the Yugoslav government-in-exile.
In London, representatives of nine allied countries sign a declaration that after the war those guilty of war crimes will be brought to justice.
Columbus: Bericht und Bildnis, an opera by Werner Egk (40) to his own words, is staged for the first time, in Städtische Bühnen, Frankfurt. See 13 July 1933.
14 January 1942 807 Jews are driven to the outskirts of Ushachi, near Vitebsk, and shot. Local Byelorussians go into the pit and extract gold from the bodies of the dead and dying. 925 Jews are similarly murdered in Kublichi with the same result.
15 January 1942 Japanese forces attack a new Allied (Britain-India-Australia) defense line along the River Muar, Malaya, eventually forcing further retreat.
Jawaharlal Nehru succeeds Mohandas K. Gandhi as head of the All-India Congress Party.
The first United States servicemen arrive in Britain.
16 January 1942 Philippine forces attack out of the Bataan Peninsula. After initial gains, the attack is repulsed.
Japanese forces break through Indian defenders to cross the Slim River Bridge in Malaya, 400 km north of Singapore.
Japanese forces invade Burma from Siam at Tavoy.
The British protectorate over Aruba passes to the United States.
Incidental music to Shakespeare’s play Macbeth by William Walton (39) is performed for the first time, in the Manchester Opera House.
Diversions on a Theme op.21 for piano-left hand and orchestra by Benjamin Britten (28) is performed for the first time, at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. Paul Wittgenstein is the soloist. Britten is not happy with the performance.
17 January 1942 German forces capture Feodosiya, Crimea.
Song of the West, a ballet by Roy Harris (43), is performed completely for the first time, in Humphrey-Weidman Studio Theatre, New York. See 8 November 1940.
19 January 1942 Japanese forces occupy Sandakan, capital of the British colony of North Borneo. They also complete their conquest of Tavoy, Siam (Dawei, Thailand).
The Canadian passenger liner Lady Hawkins is torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine off Cape Hatteras. 245 passengers and crew are killed. 71 survive in lifeboats and will be rescued 23 January.
20 January 1942 Soviet troops capture Mozhaysk, 110 km west of Moscow.
Leading Nazis, led by Reinhard Heydrich, meet at Wannsee to prepare the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.”
21 January 1942 Japanese forces enter the South China Sea, cutting off many American troops.
Japanese airplanes bomb Singapore.
Over the next three days, the Hungarian Army murders 2,000 Serbs and 1,000 Jews in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia.
German and Italian forces begin an advance against the Allies from their fortified positions in Agheila (Al’Uqaylah), Libya. The Allies are driven halfway from Benghazi to Tobruk (Tubruq).
Edward Hopper completes his painting Nighthawks in New York.
22 January 1942 Japanese forces occupy Mussau Island in the Bismarck Archipelago.
Germans take Agedabia (Ajdabiya), Libya.
Incidental music to Pogodin’s play The Kremlin Chimes by Aram Khachaturian (38) is performed for the first time, in Saratov.
William Schuman’s (31) Symphony no.4 is performed for the first time, in Cleveland.
23 January 1942 Japanese forces capture Kavieng and Rabaul in the Bismarck Archipelago. On Rabaul they take the garrison of a thousand Australians. Those surviving the attack are killed after surrendering.
The Red Army takes Kholm, 400 km northwest of Moscow.
Hungarian soldiers drive 550 Jews and 292 Serbs onto the frozen Danube at Novi Sad. They then shell the river. All are drowned.
At a meeting of foreign ministers of 21 American republics in Rio de Janeiro, a resolution is adopted unanimously urging all governments in the Western Hemisphere to sever their relations with Germany, Italy, and Japan. A clause making it compulsory is removed at the insistence of Argentina.
Concerto da camera for violin, strings, piano, and timpani by Bohuslav Martinu (51) is performed for the first time, in Basel.
24 January 1942 American and Philippine forces retreat south from the Abucay Line to new defensive positions on Bataan. Japanese troops land behind the US-Philippine line at Point Longoskayan.
Japanese forces capture Balikpapan on Borneo and Kendari on Celebes (Sulawesi).
A Soviet offensive south of Kharkov (Kharkiv) crosses the Donets and takes Barvenkovo.
A five-man presidential commission reports that the defeat at Pearl Harbor was due to the “dereliction of duty” and “errors of judgment” of the two commanders in Hawaii, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Lt. General Walter C. Short. Both were relieved of their commands on 17 December.
25 January 1942 Japanese troops land at Lae, Northeast New Guinea.
Siam declares war on Great Britain and the United States.
Great Britain declares war on Siam.
Allied forces abandon their last defensive position in Malaya, Batu Pahat, 120 km northwest of Singapore.
Bolivia and Paraguay sever diplomatic relations with Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Henry Cowell’s (44) Little Concerto for piano and band, an arrangement of movements 3-5 of the composer’s Suite for Piano and Strings, is performed for the first time, in West Point, New York the composer at the keyboard.
27 January 1942 Soviet troops capture Lozovaya, south of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
At the conference of foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro, Peru and Ecuador agree to settle their border dispute.
28 January 1942 Brazil severs all relations with Germany, Italy, and Japan.
29 January 1942 US and Philippine troops eliminate the Japanese bridgehead on Point Longoskayan, Bataan.
Soviet troops capture Sukhinichi, 225 km southwest of Moscow.
Germans take Benghazi, Libya.
The foreign ministers of Ecaudor and Peru sign a treaty in Rio de Janeiro ending their 125-year-old border dispute.
Ecuador breaks relations with Germany, Italy, and Japan.
30 January 1942 Japanese forces capture Moulmein, Burma (Mawlamyine, Myanmar).
The Finale from New Dance op.18b for orchestra by Wallingford Riegger (56) is performed for the first time, in Pittsburgh.
31 January 1942 Japanese forces capture Ambon Island in the Moluccas, almost wiping out the Australian defenders.
Remaining Allied troops (Britain-India-Australia) in Malaya complete their retreat onto Singapore and the connecting causeway with the mainland is destroyed.
1 February 1942 Japanese forces take Pontianak on the west coast of Borneo.
The last 38 Jews and Romani in Loknya (Russia) are murdered.
A Christmas Carol, a song by Charles Ives (67) to his own words, is performed for the first time, in Los Angeles.
3 February 1942 A coal mine near Ube, Japan collapses and kills 183 people, most of them Korean forced laborers.
Japanese air forces carry out extensive air raids on Java. Surabaya and other Dutch military bases are hit.
Japanese planes attack Port Moresby, Papua.
The South East London Tribunal at Lambeth assigns Michael Tippett (37) non-combative military duties in response to his request for conscientious objector status. The composer appeals the decision. See 16 November 1940 and 30 May 1942.
It is announced the Arnold Bax (58) has been appointed Master of the King’s Music.
4 February 1942 All 100 Jewish residents of Rakov, near Minsk, are killed.
5 February 1942 FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover informs the US State Department that Peter Pears is either a radical or a Communist.
Incantation and Dance for oboe and piano by William Grant Still (46) is performed for the first time, in Elmira College Chapel, New York.
7 February 1942 The Axis advance in Libya halts at Gazala.
8 February 1942 Japanese forces invade Singapore against Australian troops guarding the west side of the island.
Danses concertantes for chamber orchestra by Igor Stravinsky (59) is performed for the first time, in the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, Los Angeles, conducted by the composer.
9 February 1942 Japanese planes bomb Batavia (Jakarta), Surabaya, and Malang.
The New York chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties and the American Civil Liberties Union of New York petition the US House of Representatives to disband the Committee on Un-American Activities because of its “pro-Axis leanings” and its “unsavory record.”
Pursuant to the War Time Act passed 20 January, the United States goes on year-round daylight savings time, known as “war time.”
10 February 1942 Japanese forces capture Ujungpandang, Celebes (Sulawesi).
Japanese troops cross the River Salween near Martaban, Burma (Myanmar).
12 February 1942 William Walton (39) receives an honorary doctorate from Oxford University.
Grant Wood dies in Iowa City at the age of 50.
13 February 1942 The Allies evacuate 3,000 important persons from Singapore. Almost all of them are killed or captured at sea by the Japanese.
Japanese forces capture Bandjermasin (Banjarmasin) on the southern coast of Borneo.
14 February 1942 Japanese forces invade Sumatra at Palembang. The Sarawak royal yacht SS Vyner Brooke, evacuating Australian nurses and wounded allied soldiers from Singapore, is bombed by Japanese warplanes and sunk east of Sumatra. Many on board survive the sinking and reach Bangka Island where they are killed by the Japanese as soon as they make landfall. A total of 125 are killed.
All able-bodied Soviet men aged 16-65 are mobilized.
Most Polish underground groups unite in the Home Army.
15 February 1942 62,000 Allied (Britain-India-Australia-Malaya) defenders remaining on Singapore surrender unconditionally to the Japanese.
Indian forces in Burma retreat west of the River Bilin.
Since 9 January, 10,000 Jews have been murdered in Simferopol, Crimea.
A British submarine sinks the Italian SS Ariosto between Tripoli and Palermo. Of the 410 on board, 158 are lost, most of them British prisoners.
When Johnny Comes Marching Home for band by Roy Harris (44) is performed publicly for the first time, in Mandel Hall at the University of Chicago.
16 February 1942 Japanese forces capture Palembang.
65 Australian nurses and 25 British soldiers surrender to the Japanese on the coast of Malaya. The soldiers are stabbed and shot on the beach. Two survive. The nurses are ordered to march into the water and are machine gunned. One survives.
German submarines bombard Aruba.
17 February 1942 The Red Army launches an offensive near Rzhev, 200 km northwest of Moscow. Despite temperatures reaching -52°C, the Germans hold.
18 February 1942 5,000 leaders of the Chinese community on Singapore are rounded up by the Japanese. Within two weeks, all will be killed.
Two destroyers, USS Truxtun and USS Pollux are destroyed in a storm in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. 203 men are lost.
Christopher Isherwood writes to Benjamin Britten (28) politely declining Britten’s request that they work together on an operatic treatment of Peter Grimes.
19 February 1942 A Japanese air attack on Port Darwin, Australia devastates the city.
An inferior Japanese naval force beats back Dutch and Australian ships in the Badung Strait between Bali and Lombok. Japanese troops land on Bali.
At Riom, several pre-war leaders of France are put on trial, including Édouard Daladier, Léon Blum, Maurice Gamolin and others. See 14 April 1942.
20 February 1942 An American attack on Rabaul is driven off.
Japanese forces occupy Bali and Timor, entering Portuguese Timor.
Philippine president Quezon is evacuated from Luzon by an American submarine.
The Island God, an opera by Gian-Carlo Menotti (30) to his own words, is performed for the first time, in the Metropolitan Opera House, New York.
21 February 1942 Indian forces in Burma fall back to the River Sittoung.
23 February 1942 The Allied headquarters on Java is evacuated to Australia.
A revolt against the Dutch begins in Aceh and northern Sumatra, supported by Japan.
Odessa is declared “cleansed of Jews.”
Turkish authorities board MV Struma in Istanbul. The ship’s engines have been inoperative and they are unable to complete their attempt to take 781 Jewish refugees from Romania to Palestine. Having endured ten weeks of British pressure to stop the voyage, the Turks tow Struma out into the Black Sea, 16 km off Istanbul, and leave it there.
Despondent over the victories of fascism, especially the fall of Singapore, Stefan Zweig, one-time librettist for Richard Strauss (77), kills himself in Petropolis, near Rio de Janeiro. He and his wife Lotte take poison together. See 24 June 1935.
24 February 1942 A Soviet submarine torpedoes MV Struma off Istanbul. It sinks, carrying many of the Jewish refugees on board with her. No attempt is made to rescue the survivors and all but one die from drowning or exposure. The lone survivor is rescued by Turks in a rowboat.
27 February 1942 Japanese naval forces attack an Allied (Britain-United States-Australia-Netherlands) task force west of Bawean Island in the Netherlands East Indies. Five ships are sunk. 2,300 people are killed.
Japanese troops capture Mindoro Island, the Philippines.
28 February 1942 Japanese forces begin their invasion of Java.
The British try out their new Lancaster bomber on Lübeck. This city is chosen because it is a medieval town with narrow streets and timber-framed houses. It burns well.
In Detroit, 1,200 armed whites prevent blacks from moving into the federally-funded Sojourner Truth housing project. 40 injuries occur. Police arrest 220 people, three of them white.
Incidental music to Anderson’s radio play Your Navy by Kurt Weill (41) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of all four American radio networks, originating in New York.
1 March 1942 Over the night of 28 February-1 March Japanese naval forces sink two Allied (Australia-United States) cruisers in the Sunda Strait with the loss of 971 men. Four Japanese transports are sunk by torpedoes aimed by the Japanese at the Allies.
Four Allied ships are sunk in the Java Sea.
The Dutch SS Rooseboom, carrying about 500 passengers (mostly British fleeing the fall of Malaya and Singapore), is torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine west of Sumatra. 135 people survive the sinking and cling to one small lifeboat. Two survivors will be rescued by a Dutch ship in nine days but of the rest, only four are still alive when the lifeboat reaches land at Sipora Island in 26 days.
Japanese troops land at several points on Java.
The Red Army begins a new offensive in the Crimea.
After Nazi police invade the Trondheim Cathedral and the government decrees that all children aged 10-18 join the Quisling Youth Movement, seven bishops of the Norwegian State Church resign in protest.
Lieder nach Worten von Franz Kafka for voice and piano by Ernst Krenek (41) are performed for the first time, in Skinner Recital Hall, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York the composer at the piano.
Imaginary Landscape no.3 for audio-frequency oscillators, variable speed turntables, electric buzzer, amplified marimba, amplified wire, Balinese gongs, and tin cans, by John Cage (29) is performed for the first time, at the Arts Club of Chicago, conducted by the composer.
2 March 1942 The destroyer USS Pillsbury is sunk by Japanese surface ships south of Java. All 116 hands are lost.
Over 5,000 Jews are taken from the Minsk ghetto and murdered.
900 Jews are taken from Krosniewice to Chelmno and killed in gas vans.
3 March 1942 Japanese airplanes bomb Broome, Western Australia.
3,200 Jews from Zychlin, 90 km west of Warsaw, are gassed to death.
The RAF bombs the Renault works at Billancourt. Only five workers are killed but stray bombs hit the town killing 500 French civilians.
4 March 1942 3,000 Jews in Baranowicze, Poland (Baranovichi, Belarus) are taken from the ghetto and killed.
Song of Freedom for chorus and orchestra by John Alden Carpenter (66) to words of Martin is performed for the first time, in Chicago.
5 March 1942 The Dutch administration evacuates Batavia (Jakarta).
Japanese troops enter Pegu, Burma (Bago, Myanmar).
At Feodosiya, in the Crimea, today begins three weeks of sweeps which will kill over 2,000 people, Jews, Communists, partisans, Romani, and the mentally ill.
Symphony no.7 “Leningrad” op.60 by Dmitri Shostakovich (35), written in honor of his besieged native city, is performed for the first time, at the House of Culture, Kuibyshev. The concert is broadcast across the country and the world.
6 March 1942 In Klintsy (Russia), 300 Jews are stripped and shot.
7 March 1942 Japanese troops occupy Lae, the administrative center for Northeast New Guinea and Salamaua, across the Huon Gulf.
Japanese forces capture Surabaya on Java.
British forces evacuate Rangoon (Yangon).
Fantasia on a Theme of Handel for piano and orchestra by Michael Tippett (37) is performed for the first time, in Wigmore Hall, London.
8 March 1942 100,000 Allied (Britain-United States-Australia-Netherlands) soldiers defending Java surrender to the invading Japanese outside Bandung.
Japanese forces enter Rangoon (Yangon).
Three Pastels for piano by John Ireland (62) are performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC originating in Bedford, by the composer.
9 March 1942 While returning to Italy from Hungary by train, Luigi Dallapiccola (38) must stop over in Vienna. Here he meets Anton Webern (58) at the home of Alfred Schlee. “A mystic, a short man, who talks with some inflection of the Austrian dialect, kind, but capable of bursts of anger, cordial to the point of treating me like an equal.”
Miklós Kállay de Nagy-Kálló replaces László Bárdossy as Prime Minister of Hungary. Kállay leaks news of the January massacres in Novi Sad in an attempt to curb the Germanophile military.
Two Songs for voice and piano by Richard Strauss (77) to words of Weinheber are performed for the first time, in Vienna.
10 March 1942 Japanese troops occupy Buka Island in the Solomon Islands.
Large scale deportations of Jews begin from Lvov (Lviv) to the Belzec death camp.
11 March 1942 American commander in the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur, and his family are taken off Corregidor by an American PT boat. After a harrowing 35-hour voyage, they land in Mindanao.
Prime Minister Churchill announces his government’s offer to India, including specific steps toward dominion status.
12 March 1942 After the sinking of four Brazilian merchant ships by German submarines, mobs riot in Rio de Janeiro, especially targeting German, Italian, and Japanese establishments. President Getulio Vargas confiscates 30% of German assets in the country to pay for the lost ships.
The Defense of Corinth for speaker, male chorus, and piano-four hands by Elliott Carter (33) to words of Rabelais, is performed for the first time, in Sanders Theatre, Harvard University.
13 March 1942 A second “immediate death” camp begins operation at Belzec, Poland. 6,000 Jews arrive from Mielec, Poland and are killed.
Having recently been appointed Master of the King’s Musick, Arnold Bax (57) travels to Buckingham Palace for an audience with King George and Queen Elizabeth.
14 March 1942 Serge Koussevitzky announces that the Koussevitzky Foundation has commissioned Benjamin Britten (28) to write an opera.
15 March 1942 Quatre poèmes de Ronsard op.100 for voice and orchestra by Florent Schmitt (71) are performed for the first time, in Paris.
Concertino for piano and strings by Ross Lee Finney (35) is performed for the first time, at Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota.
16 March 1942 General Douglas MacArthur and his party (which includes his family) take off in three B-17s from Mindanao.
Benjamin Britten (28) and Peter Pears board the Swedish cargo ship Axel Johnson in New York bound for Great Britain. US Customs agents confiscate sketches for a clarinet concerto and a choral Hymn to Saint Cecilia in case they are messages in code. Britten will rewrite Hymn to Saint Cecilia from memory and finish the work during the Atlantic crossing.
Sinfonietta giocosa by Bohuslav Martinu (51) is performed for the first time, in New York.
17 March 1942 General Douglas MacArthur reaches Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia from the Philippines.
900 Jews are shot in Ilja, north of Minsk, after a courageous collective resistance.
Large scale deportations of Jews begin from Lublin to the Belzec death camp.
18 March 1942 President Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9102 which establishes the War Relocation Authority responsible for interning 110,000 people of Japanese descent in concentration camps. Many of the detainees are United States citizens.
Cello Sonata no.2 by Bohuslav Martinu (51) is performed for the first time, in New York.
20 March 1942 In Zgierz, Poland, 100 Poles are taken from a labor camp and shot by the Germans.
21 March 1942 German troops surrounded at Demyansk, 375 km northwest of Moscow, attempt to break out.
Hitler orders Frtiz Sauckel to obtain labor for Germany’s war machine “by whatever means necessary.”
Saluste du Bartas, a cycle for voice and piano by Arthur Honegger (50) to words of de Montlaur, is performed for the first time, in the Salle Gaveau, Paris.
After its president rejected six government appeals to arbitrate a labor dispute, the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad is seized by the US government by presidential order. It will be operated by the Director of Defense Transportation.
A suite for orchestra from Hugo Weisgall’s (29) ballet Quest is performed for the first time, in New York. See 17 May 1938.
23 March 1942 Japanese forces occupy the Andaman Islands.
Great Britain bans the production of white bread to save shipping space.
Two Italian destroyers go down in a storm off Libya with the loss of 460 men.
United States troops begin rounding up Japanese-Americans on the west coast and sending them to concentration camps in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
25 March 1942 Iannis Xenakis (19) takes part in a march in which students from Athens University parade through the capital to celebrate Greek independence day.
Mikis Theodorakis (16) is arrested for hitting an Italian officer during a demonstration in Tripolis at the grave of Theodoros Kolokotronis, hero of the Greek war of independence. While in prison he will be tortured and introduced to communism.
New works are performed for the first time in Carnegie Hall, New York at a memorial concert in honor of Kurt Schindler, founder of the Schola Cantorum: Las agachadas for chorus by Aaron Copland (41) to traditional Spanish words, and Tree of Sorrow, an arrangement of Spanish folksongs for chorus by Carlos Chávez (42).
26 March 1942 The first Jews arrive in Auschwitz, 999 women from Slovakia.
The destroyer HMS Jaguar is sunk by a German submarine off Sidi Barrani, Egypt with the loss of 193 men. 53 are rescued.
27 March 1942 La Duchesse de Longeais, a film with music by Francis Poulenc (43), is shown for the first time, in Paris.
28 March 1942 The last Dutch force on Sumatra surrenders to the Japanese at Kutatjane, Aceh.
British commandos destroy the German dry dock at St. Nazaire at the mouth of the Loire. 390 of the attackers are killed. When the raid begins the Germans panic and kill 300 French civilian workers.
The first deportation train leaves France for Auschwitz.
British planes attack Lübeck using a new technique where a second wave of bombers is guided by the fires set by the first wave. Sir Arthur Harris, head of Bomber Command, explains the choice: “Lübeck was not a vital target, but it seemed to me better to destroy an industrial town of moderate importance than to toil to destroy a large industrial city. I wanted my crews to be ‘blooded’ as they say in fox hunting, to have a taste of success for a change.” 312 people are killed, 15,000 left homeless. 2,000 buildings (80% of the city) are destroyed including the great organ of the Marienkirche where Dietrich Buxtehude (†234) gave his Abendmusiken and to which Johann Sebastian Bach (†191) walked 320 km to hear in 1705.
Hymn for chorus and orchestra by Hugo Weisgall (29) to words of the Yom Kippur liturgy, is performed for the first time, in Baltimore.
29 March 1942 The Chinese government institutes the National General Mobilization Act which, in theory, places every part of the economy in the hands of the government.
Speaking in New Delhi, cabinet minister Sir Stafford Cripps offers India dominion status, an elected constitutional convention, and the right to secede after the war is over.
30 March 1942 Japanese troops occupy Buka Island in the Solomon Islands.
31 March 1942 Japanese forces occupy Bougainville Island in the Solomon Islands, Christmas Island and Toungoo, Burma.
A new Axis drive against the Yugoslav partisans begins, driving them into northwest Bosnia.
The Swedish freighter Axel Johnson, with Benjamin Britten (28) and Peter Pears aboard, joins a convoy in Boston and heads for Nova Scotia.
1 April 1942 Japanese troops land at Sorong and Hollandia, Netherlands New Guinea.
Over the last month, 15,000 Jews from Lvov (Lviv) have been sent to Belzec death camp.
While sailing to La Spezia, the Italian cruiser Giovanni delle Bande Nere is sunk by a British submarine. 381 men, almost half of those on board, go down with her.
Fantasia on a Gregorian Theme for violin and piano by Norman Dello Joio (29) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
2 April 1942 The leadership committee of the All-India Congress Party rejects the proposals Sir Stafford Cripps of 29 March.
3 April 1942 Japanese forces begin a major offensive against the American and Philippine defenders of Bataan.
Japanese planes bomb Mandalay heavily. 2,000 people are killed. Most of the city is set afire.
The last 129 Jews in Augsburg, along with 1,200 Jews from Tlumacz, are deported to Belzec. The community of Augsburg was a center of Jewish culture for 700 years.
4 April 1942 1,500 Jews from Horodenka (Gorodenka, Ukraine) are deported to Belzec death camp.
Almost three weeks after departing New York, the Swedish freighter Axel Johnson, with Benjamin Britten (28) and Peter Pears aboard, departs Halifax, Nova Scotia bound for England.
Requiescat for female chorus by William Schuman (31) is performed for the first time, in New York under the baton of the composer.
5 April 1942 Japanese troops occupy Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands.
Japanese forces take Mt. Samat in the Philippines.
Japanese air forces bomb Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Four ships are destroyed with the loss of 500 men. Two ships are destroyed at Trincomalee with the loss of 300 people. In the same raid, 23 merchant ships are sunk in the Bay of Bengal.
The vast majority of Norway’s Lutheran clergy meet in Oslo and issue a declaration expressing the sovereignty of God above all ideologies. It is read from the pulpits throughout Norway and 654 of 699 ministers of religion resign their civil service positions.
The Leningrad Radio Orchestra, reconstituted since ceasing operations 3 January, gives a performance in the Pushkin Theatre. Without heat, the temperature in the theatre hovers between
-7° and -8° C but the standing room only audience is not deterred.
Stefan Wolpe’s (39) ballet The Man from Midian to a scenario by Palmer is performed for the first time, in Washington.
6 April 1942 Japanese air forces bomb Cocanada (Kakinada) and Vizagapatam (Vishakhapatnam), India.
The sale of white bread is ended in Great Britain.
7 April 1942 Jawaharlal Nehru, leader of the All-India Congress Party, calls on Indians to resist any Japanese invasion of the country.
In Germany, Protestant theologian Karl Friedrich Stellbrink and three Catholic priests are arrested for criticizing Nazi rule. All will be executed.
8 April 1942 Japanese forces occupy Talasea on New Britain.
The US War Production Board bans all non-essential construction to conserve building materials. It also restricts the use of wool, rayon, cotton, and other materials in garments and publishes maximum lengths for jackets, coats, and skirts.
9 April 1942 12,000 United States and 64,000 Philippine troops surrender to the Japanese on the Bataan Peninsula. The prisoners are immediately marched 100 km north from Balanga under conditions of such cruelty that it will be known as the Bataan Death March. At least 600 American and 5,000 Philippine soldiers will be killed. 17,000 more will die of starvation and brutality in the first few weeks of captivity.
Japanese airplanes attack Trincomalee, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The carrier HMS Hermes and the destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk with the loss of 315 men.
Circus Polka by Igor Stravinsky (59), in its original scoring for wind band and percussion, is performed for the first time, at the Barnum and Bailey Circus, Madison Square Garden, New York. The ballet is danced by 50 elephants in pink tutus. See 13 January 1944.
10 April 1942 Japanese troops land on Cebu, Philippines.
A joint administration of Papua and New Guinea is established by Australia.
11 April 1942 Given that the All-India Congress Party and the Moslem League have rejected his Indian Union plan, Sir Stafford Cripps withdraws them.
Published today is the announcement that Dmitri Shostakovich (35) has won a Stalin Prize for his Seventh Symphony.
13 April 1942 Japanese soldiers set upon 400 of the Philippine prisoners from Bataan, hacking them to death.
The Foreman Went to France, a film with music by William Walton (40), is performed for the first time, in the London Pavilion.
14 April 1942 Charges against former French leaders on trial at Riom are dropped due to their irrefutable defense. See 19 February 1942.
Concerto for piano and band by Roy Harris (44) is performed for the first time, in Hill Auditorium at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
15 April 1942 Trams run in Leningrad for the first time in months.
The US government warns all Americans in unoccupied France to leave as soon as possible.
16 April 1942 Japanese troops land on Panay, Philippines.
The entire population of Malta is awarded the George Cross for heroism in the face of furious German air attacks.
Second Essay for Orchestra op.17 by Samuel Barber (32) is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York.
17 April 1942 A third death camp begins operation just outside the village of Sobibor. 2,500 Jews arrive from Zamosc and are gassed within hours. Only one is determined to be fit for work.
This night, the Germans root out 50 Jewish provocateurs in the Warsaw ghetto, dragging them from their homes and shooting them in the street.
Benjamin Britten (28) and Peter Pears arrive in Liverpool aboard the Swedish merchant ship Axel Johnson after almost three years in North America.
Three Psalms for voice and piano by Arthur Honegger (50) to words from the Huguenot Psalter is performed for the first time, in Paris.
18 April 1942 After flying 1,125 km from a carrier in the north Pacific, 16 American bombers, led by Lt.Col. James H. Doolittle, attack Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe. They carry only four incendiary bombs each and do little actual damage but the debilitating effect on Japanese morale is enormous. One plane flies north to Vladivostok and the crew is interned by the Soviet Union. The other 15 crews crash their planes in Japanese-occupied China. Three men are killed in parachute jumps or crash landings. Eight men are captured by the Japanese and brought to Tokyo for interrogation and a show trial. The rest, including Doolittle, are spirited to Chinese lines by local citizens.
Pierre Laval replaces Henri Pétain as Prime Minister of the French State.
19 April 1942 Japanese troops conquer Cebu in the Philippines and Yenangyuang, Burma (Myanmar).
The Italian government issues a decree excluding Jews from all areas of the performing arts.
Three Trios op.99 for female voices and orchestra by Florent Schmitt (71) are performed for the first time, in Paris.
Canon (II), a song by Charles Ives (67) to words of Moore, is performed for the first time, at the Humphrey-Weidman Studio in New York.
20 April 1942 Japanese forces occupy Hollandia, Netherlands New Guinea (Jayapura, West Irian) and complete their conquest of the Philippine islands of Leyte, Negros, Panay, and Samar.
Béla Bartók (61) runs into his son Péter, by chance in a Bronx subway station. Péter left Hungary in December but Bartók had no idea when he would arrive in the US since that information was censored from the cable.
21 April 1942 German troops surrounded at Demyansk, southeast of Novgorod, are relieved after two-and-a-half months.
US President Roosevelt orders the seizure of all enemy-controlled patents, estimated at numbering 25,000.
Clarinet Sonata by Leonard Bernstein (23) is performed for the first time, in the Institute of Modern Art, Boston, the composer at the piano.
23 April 1942 Chinese troops in Burma begin a withdrawal from Taunggyi back into China.
Woman in War, dance music by Henry Cowell (45) to a scenario by Chen, is performed for the first time, in New York.
24 April 1942 A military court in Dublin sentences Brendan Behan to 14 years imprisonment for firing at police during an IRA march.
German planes carry out the Baedeker Raids, beginning with Exeter. These historic towns are chosen from the Baedeker Guide Book in retaliation for the RAF raids on Lübeck. Bath is also hit. 400 civilians are killed.
British planes bomb Rostock destroying 70% of the center of the medieval city.
25 April 1942 As required by law, Igor Stravinsky (59) registers for war work in Los Angeles. He will eventually be given the duty of stocking a chicken coop and growing a kitchen garden.
26 April 1942 An explosion at a colliery in Honkeiko, Manchukuo (Benxi, Liaoning), kills 1,549 people.
Two works for male chorus by Hans Pfitzner (72) are performed for the first time, in Cologne: Wir geh’n dahin op.49/1 to words of Franck, and Das Schifflein op.49/2 to words of Uhland.
27 April 1942 Ernest MacMillan (48) resigns as Principal of the Toronto Conservatory.
29 April 1942 Japanese troops occupy Lashio, Burma (Myanmar), 200 km northeast of Mandalay, cutting off the supply route to China.
Jews in the Netherlands are required to wear a yellow Star of David.
A military court in Zürich convicts two founders of the Swiss Nazi Party for “threatening the security of the Swiss Confederation.”
Private Ralph Shapey (21), on furlough from basic training in Alabama, conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra.
30 April 1942 Voting for the Japanese Diet results in a strong victory for the Taisei Yokusankai of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.
Allied troops in Burma take up new defensive positions north of the Irrawaddy.
14 black families move into the federally funded Sojourner Truth housing project in Detroit under National Guard protection.
Fons salutifer op.48 for chorus, orchestra, and organ by Hans Pfitzner (72) is performed for the first time, in Karlsbad.
Concerto for cello and orchestra by David Diamond (26) is performed for the first time, in Rochester, New York conducted by Howard Hanson (45).
1 May 1942 The Japanese seaplane carrier Mizuho is sunk by a US submarine off Omaezaki, Japan. 101 people are lost while 472 are rescued.
Japanese forces take Mandalay.
Gold and the Señor Commandante, a ballet by William Bergsma (21), is performed for the first time, in Rochester, New York.
2 May 1942 Americans intercept two Japanese invasion forces in the Coral Sea. A four-day battle ensues.
3 May 1942 Japanese troops land on Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.
Prime Minister Thorvald August Marinus Stauning of Denmark dies and is succeeded by Wilhelm Buhl.
An Organ Sonata by Ernst Krenek (41) is performed for the first time, in Vassar College Chapel, Poughkeepsie, New York.
4 May 1942 Japanese troops defeat Chinese at Bhamo, Burma.
After sending 16,000 artillery shells onto the island in the last 24 hours, a small Japanese force lands on Corregidor, to fierce resistance by American and Philippine troops.
Benjamin Britten (28) makes his “Statement to the Local Tribunal for the Registration of Conscientious Objectors.” He begins, “Since I believe that there is in every man the spirit of God, I cannot destroy, and feel it my duty to avoid helping to destroy as far as I am able, human life, however strongly I may disapprove of the individual’s actions or thoughts.”
5 May 1942 American and Philippine troops on Corregidor surrender to the Japanese.
Allied forces land on the north end of the Vichy-held island of Madagascar, near Diego Suarez.
7 May 1942 American planes attack and destroy a Japanese escort group providing air cover for a New Guinea invasion force, north of the Louisiade Archipelago.
Philippine Chief Justice José Abad Santos refuses to serve the Japanese occupiers. He is executed in Manila. General Wainwright broadcasts from Luzon asking all United States forces in the Philippines to surrender.
Vichy French defenders surrender the town of Antsirane (Antsiranana) and port of Diego Suarez, Madagascar, to Allied forces.
The fourth of the Four Piano Blues by Aaron Copland (41) is performed for the first time, in Montevideo. See 13 March 1950.
Fourth Construction for percussion quintet by John Cage (29) is performed for the first time, at the Holloway Playhouse in the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco. It is now known as Imaginary Landscape no.2 (March). Also premiered are two works by Lou Harrison (24): Canticle #3 for ocarina, percussion, and guitar, and In Praise of Johnny Appleseed for percussion and wooden flute.
8 May 1942 In the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval battle in history in which the opposing commanders can not see each other, one Japanese and one American carrier are damaged, seven ships in all are sunk. 76 planes are lost. The USS Lexington is abandoned. The Port Moresby invasion force is required to return to the Japanese base at Rabaul.
Japanese forces occupy Myitkyina, Burma (Myanmar).
German forces begin an offensive against the Kerch Peninsula and Sevastopol in Crimea.
Ernest Bloch (61) is awarded a gold medal by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the first composer so honored.
US Vice President Henry Wallace gives a nationally broadcast radio address entitled “The Price of Free World Victory: The Century of the Common Man.” Aaron Copland (41) hears the speech and will remember it when he is commissioned to write a fanfare later this year.
9 May 1942 Japanese troops occupy Soembawa (Sumbawa) Island east of Bali and virtually end American resistance near Dalirig on Mindanao.
The battle for Malta turns with the arrival of 62 British fighters from two carriers. Nine German and Italian air raids on Malta are all successfully intercepted.
The Germans liquidate the ghetto in Markuszow, Poland. 1,600 residents are removed while several hundred escape.
Céline, a song for voice, flute, harp and string trio by Arthur Honegger (50) to words of Aubry, is performed for the first time, in Paris.
10 May 1942 Japanese forces occupy Palawan Island in the Philippines.
General William Sharp, commanding American forces still fighting in the southern Philippines, orders surrender.
11 May 1942 Pursuant to an 27 April referendum, the Canadian Parliament passes full conscription.
William Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses is published in New York.
Native Land, a film with music by Marc Blitzstein (37), is shown for the first time, in the World Theatre, New York.
12 May 1942 Soviet forces renew their offensive near Kharkov (Kharkiv).
Sinfonía Porteña by Alberto Ginastera (26) is performed for the first time, in Buenos Aires.
13 May 1942 Japanese troops cross the Salween River, Burma, driving toward Kengtung.
Soviet troops begin to evacuate the Kerch Peninsula.
A German submarine sinks a Mexican oil barge in the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico launches a formal complaint.
14 May 1942 An earthquake centered off the coast of Ecuador kills 200 people.
Concerto for two pianos and orchestra by Norman Dello Joio (29) is performed for the first time, at a student composition concert at the Juilliard School, New York.
Two new works by American composers are performed for the first time, in Cincinnati: Lincoln Portrait for speaker and orchestra by Aaron Copland (41) and The Mayor LaGuardia Waltzes for orchestra by Virgil Thomson (45).
15 May 1942 German forces capture Kerch, Crimea.
The Next of Kin, a film with music by William Walton (40), is shown publicly for the first time, at the London Pavilion.
16 May 1942 Japanese troops occupy Flores Island just west of Timor.
Women vote for the first time in the Dominican Republic, in a presidential election. Unfortunately, the only candidate is Rafael Trujillo.
17 May 1942 German forces launch an offensive at Izyum, southeast of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
18 May 1942 Germans capture Izyum and 214,000 Red Army troops.
Arthur Honegger’s (50) Symphony for Strings (Symphony no.2) is performed for the first time, in Zürich.
21 May 1942 4,300 Jews are deported from Chelm in eastern Poland to nearby Sobibor death camp. All are gassed on arrival.
2,000 Jews in Korzec (Korets, Ukraine) are taken to fields near town and murdered.
IG Farben sets up a factory near Auschwitz to make synthetic oil and rubber using slave labor from the camp.
A decree in the Netherlands authorizes the complete expropriation of Jewish property.
Fiancailles pour rire, a cycle for voice and piano by Francis Poulenc (43) to words of Vilmorin, is performed for the first time, the composer at the piano.
Le journal tombe à cinq heures, a film with music by Arthur Honegger (50), is shown for the first time, in Paris.
22 May 1942 The US War Production Board announces that new tires and safety razors will not be available to the average citizen for at least two years.
Incidental music to LaGallienne’s (after Carroll) play Alice in Wonderland by Irving Fine (27) is performed for the first time, in John Hancock Hall, Boston.
24 May 1942 Thousands of partisans are caught and killed by the Germans in a six-day sweep by the Germans along the Bryansk-Vyazma railway southwest of Moscow beginning today.
26 May 1942 German and Italian forces in Libya begin an offensive against the Allied (Britain-South Africa-India-Free France) army, beginning around Bir Hacheim, south of Gazala.
Great Britain and the Soviet Union agree to a mutual assistance treaty which forbids either party from making a separate peace with Germany or its allies.
27 May 1942 An administration loyal to Free France takes over in Uvea and the Futuna Islands.
SS General Reinhard Heydrich, Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, is mortally wounded by two Czechs (flown in by the British) when they throw a bomb into his car near Prague.
German forces defeat British and Indians south of Bir Hacheim, Libya, but their move north is halted by the British. Free French troops fight off Italians at Bir Hacheim.
Suite op.9 for violin and cello by Vincent Persichetti (26) is performed for the first time, at the commencement of Philadelphia Conservatory.
28 May 1942 The Axis advance in Libya falters. They continue to attack toward Acroma (Akramah) and engage the British near Bir el Harmat.
200 Poles are taken from Warsaw to Magdalenka and shot.
Benjamin Britten (28) appears before a British court to explain why he should be exempted from military service as a conscientious objector. “I cannot take part in acts of destruction.” He claims he can best serve his country through his creative activities. The court exempts him but requires him to do non-combatant duties. Britten appeals. See 18 August 1942.
Basso Ezio Pinza is released from Ellis Island having been held since 12 March as an enemy alien.
29 May 1942 German forces complete the encirclement of 250,000 Soviet troops west of the Donets.
In heavy fighting in Libya, the balance of the day goes to the Axis.
In Radziwillow, Poland, 3,000 Jews are rounded up and shot, despite a breakout that gained temporary freedom for most of them.
The largest selling recording in history, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, is recorded by Bing Crosby.
30 May 1942 The Appellate Tribunal gives Michael Tippett (37) conditional registration, that is, full time work in air raid precautions, National Fire Service, or on the land. The composer refuses. See 3 February 1942 and 21 June 1943.
The Royal Air Force stages its first 1,000 plane raid, over Cologne, on the night of 30-31 May. The British drop 1,455 tons of bombs in 90 minutes. 469 people are killed, 41 planes are lost, 13,000 homes are destroyed, and 45,000 people are made homeless.
31 May 1942 Kenneth Patchen’s radio play The City Wears a Slouch Hat with music by John Cage (29) is broadcast for the first time, over the airwaves of WBBM originating in Chicago. The composer conducts.
1 June 1942 After fierce fighting, German and Italian forces eliminate the Free French defenders of Bir Hacheim, Libya.
Great Britain reduces the clothing ration by one-quarter.
Liberty Barricade, an underground newspaper of the Polish Socialist Party, publishes an extensive description of gassing at Chelmo. At least one death camp is now public in Europe and the West.
After the sinking of two Mexican ships by German submarines, the government of Mexico declares that a state of war has existed since 22 May with Germany, Italy, and Japan.
An airplane from the USSR arrives in New York. Aboard is a box of microfilm containing the score and parts of the Symphony no.7 “Leningrad” by Dmitri Shostakovich (35). See 19 July 1942.
The Royal Air Force sends 1,036 planes over Essen this night.
2 June 1942 William Edward Hanford and Donald Fletcher Holmes receive a US patent for polyurethane.
3 June 1942 The British government announces that it will be nationalizing the coal and milk industries.
Japanese planes bomb Dutch Harbor on Kiska in the Aleutian Islands.
4 June 1942 Japanese forces begin an air attack on Midway Island, doing much damage but receiving heavy losses from the defenders. American carrier based attacks destroy four Japanese carriers. Japanese planes severely damage one American carrier.
SS General Reinhard Heydrich, Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, dies of wounds suffered 27 May.
Song of the Free by Kurt Weill (42) to words of MacLeish is performed for the first time, as part of a revue in the Roxy Theatre, New York.
5 June 1942 A Japanese naval task force sent to capture Midway Island begins a hasty retreat.
The Chairman of the Council of Mayors of Greater Brussels sends a letter to the German authorities informing them that the council is unable to carry out a directive ordering the distribution of yellow badges to Jews, on moral grounds.
String Quartet in c minor op.50 by Hans Pfitzner (73) is performed for the first time, in Berlin.
The United States declares war on Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.
Norman Dello Joio (29) marries Grace Baumgold, the daughter of a diamond broker, in New York.
Charles Malcolm Dodge is born in Mary Greeley Hospital in Ames, Iowa, the third child of Albert F. Dodge, a professor of horticulture at Iowa State College, and Constance R. Dodge, a stenographer.
6 June 1942 Two struggling Japanese cruisers, damaged in the Battle of Midway, are set upon by American carrier based planes. One cruiser is sunk, one severely damaged.
Bachianas Brasileiras no.4 in an arrangement for orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos (55) is performed for the first time, in New York under the baton of the composer.
7 June 1942 German and Romanian forces begin a major assault on Sevastopol.
The US Wartime Civil Control Administration reports in San Francisco that virtually the entire population of the west coast of Japanese descent (99,770 people) have been moved inland.
The Aleutian Islands of Attu and Kiska are occupied by Japanese troops.
8 June 1942 Three Jews escape the Vilna (Vilnius) ghetto and blow up a German military train. In reprisal, 32 Jewish families from the ghetto will be arrested and shot.
An Italian submarine mistakenly sinks the destroyer Antoniotto Usodimare between Naples and Tripoli. Of the 306 on board, 141 are lost.
10 June 1942 The town of Lidice, 10 km northwest of Prague, is razed by the Germans. All male inhabitants are shot to death while the women and children are sent to Ravensbrück, Mauthausen, and Auschwitz. Every one of them will die. The action is in reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich.
1,000 Jews are deported from Prague for the death camps.
The Times of London reports on a speech by General Wladyslaw Sikorski where he outlines the genocide now occurring in Poland.
11 June 1942 Michael Kitzelmann, a young German officer and winner of the Iron Cross, is executed for speaking out against atrocities.
Six American bombers attack the Japanese occupying Kiska. This is the first air attack against an enemy occupying American soil.
12 June 1942 A young Dutch girl named Anne Frank receives a diary for her 13th birthday.
The destroyer HMS Grove is sunk by a German submarine between Tobruk and Alexandria with the loss of 110 men.
Over the next two days, 2,000 Jews are deported from Theresienstadt (Terezín) to the death camps.
13 June 1942 German and Italian forces defeat the British in a furious two-day tank battle near Al’Adam, Libya.
German scientists launch the first V2 (known to the Germans as A4) at Peenemünde. The rocket lifts off but crashes a kilometer away.
15 June 1942 After a journey of more than two weeks from Tbilisi, Sergey Prokofiev (51) and his mistress Mira Mendelson arrive in Alma-Ata (Almaty, Kazakhstan). He has traveled there at the invitation of Sergey Eisenstein to work on a new film about Ivan the Terrible.
The Italian cruiser Trento is struck by torpedoes from a British plane and submarine in the Ionian Sea. From a crew of 1,150, 570 men go down with her.
16 June 1942 German and Italian forces overrun Al’Adam, Belhamed ,and ‘Akramah, Libya.
German soldiers surprise the Czechs who killed Reinhard Heydrich in a Prague church. In the ensuing battle 14 Germans and seven Czechs are killed.
17 June 1942 German and Italian forces capture Sidi Rezegh, Libya.
20 June 1942 German and Italian forces begin a bombardment of Tobruk (Tubruq).
21 June 1942 Allied forces holding Tobruk (Tubruq) surrender to the Germans. 30,000 are taken prisoner.
22 June 1942 The Symphony no.7 “Leningrad” of Dmitri Shostakovich (35) is performed for the first time outside the Soviet Union, in London.
Concerto for piano and orchestra by Bruno Maderna (22) is performed for the first time, in Venice.
23 June 1942 The first group of Polish mental patients are deported to Auschwitz.
24 June 1942 German and Italian forces cross the frontier from Libya into Egypt.
Claiming that the killers of Reinhard Heydrich found refuge there, the Germans shoot all 33 residents of the Czech village of Lezáky near Prague.
May for unison chorus and piano by Benjamin Britten (28) to anonymous words, is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC Home Service.
25 June 1942 The Japanese destroyer Yamakaze is sunk by a US submarine off Yokosuka with the loss of all 226 aboard.
German forces begin an attack towards Rostov-on-Don.
Germans begin arresting 22,000 Jews in the Paris area for deportation.
1,000 Royal Air Force bombers attack Bremen. Bombs are dropped even though cloud cover makes identification of targets impossible.
Marcel Duchamp arrives in New York from Lisbon.
27 June 1942 President Roberto Ortiz of Argentina submits his resignation due to ill health. Vice President Ramón Castillo has been acting President since 3 July 1940 when Ortiz fell ill.
Epic March for orchestra by John Ireland (62) is performed for the first time, in Royal Albert Hall, London.
28 June 1942 German and Hungarian forces begin a major offensive centered at Kursk, there breaking the Soviet defenses and driving towards Voronezh.
New Zealand forces extricate themselves from surrounding Germans in a battle by moonlight near El ‘Alamein.
Petit Cours de Morale for voice and piano by Arthur Honegger (49) to words of Giraudoux, is performed for the first time, in the Salle Gaveau, Paris, Francis Poulenc (43) at the piano.
29 June 1942 German and Italian forces break through the Indian defenders of Matrûh, Egypt.
The Italian sloop Diana is sunk by a British submarine north of Tobruk. 336 men are lost while 119 are saved.
Valiant for Truth, a motet for chorus and organ ad lib by Ralph Vaughan Williams (69) to words of Bunyan, is performed for the first time, in St. Michael’s Church, Cornhill, London.
30 June 1942 The Germans place severe restrictions on the freedom of movement of Dutch Jews.
1 July 1942 A US submarine sinks the Japanese transport SS Montevideo Maru off the north coast of Luzon. It is carrying a large number of Australian prisoners of war. 1,054 prisoners and 68 crew are lost.
Axis troops reach El Alamein, Egypt.
Music for Ondes Martenot for Fabre’s play Dieu est innocent by Olivier Messiaen (33) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
Quadrilha Brasileira for piano by Claude Champagne (51) is performed for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro to celebrate Canada’s Dominion Day. The work was commissioned by Jean Désy, the ambassador from Canada to Brazil.
2 July 1942 The Germans begin regular deportations of Jews from Berlin to Theresienstadt (Terezín). By 17 December, 10,000 people will be deported.
3 July 1942 German troops complete the capture of Sevastopol, taking 90,000 prisoners.
German forces begin a final assault on Yugoslav partisans in the Kozara region. 2,000 partisans will die along with 150 Germans. Over 60,000 peasants are arrested, shot, or deported for slave labor.
A suite from the music to the film Regain by Arthur Honegger (50) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
Festive Occasion for band by Henry Cowell (45) is performed for the first time, in Central Park, New York, the composer conducting.
4 July 1942 United States planes join the British for the first time in bombing raids over Europe.
The Japanese destroyer Nenohi is sunk by a US submarine near Agattu Island, Alaska. 188 on board go down with her. 38 are rescued.
5 July 1942 German troops reach the Don near Voronezh.
The British troops ship SS Anselm is sunk by a German submarine in the North Atlantic with the loss of 254 men. 1,061 will be rescued.
7 July 1942 A fierce two-day Soviet resistance at Voronezh halts the eastern advance of the Germans.
The Finale of New Dance op.18c for band by Wallingford Riegger (57) is performed for the first time, in Brooklyn.
8 July 1942 Prime Minister Refik Saydam of Turkey dies of heart disease in Istanbul.
9 July 1942 German troops reach Rossosh and cross to the east bank of the Don, cutting the Moscow-Rostov rail line.
Mehmet Sürkrü Saracoglu replaces Refik Ibrahim Saydam as Prime Minister of Turkey.
The Frank family and four other Jews go into hiding in an Amsterdam warehouse.
10 July 1942 Stalin becomes Chairman of the High Command of the Red Army.
11 July 1942 Germans capture Lisichansk on the Donets in eastern Ukraine.
14 July 1942 Newsreel, in Five Shots for orchestra by William Schuman (31) is performed for the first time, in New York.
15 July 1942 German troops capture Millerovo (Russia) on the Voronezh-Rostov railway.
The first 2,000 Dutch Jews are deported to Auschwitz.
Chôros no.9 for orchestra and the orchestration of Rudepoema by Heitor Villa-Lobos (55) are performed for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro, conducted by the composer.
16 July 1942 13,000 Jews are arrested by French police and held for the Germans who will transport them east.
18 July 1942 The Germans liquidate the ghetto in Szarkowszczyzna, Poland. 1,500 residents are removed while 900 escape.
Chôros no.11 for piano and orchestra and Chôros no.6 for orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos (55) are performed for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro conducted by the composer.
19 July 1942 SS Commander Heinrich Himmler orders the entire Jewish population of the General Government (Poland) to be liquidated.
The Germans begin transporting French Jews to Poland, 1,000 per train, until 31 August. A total of 25,000 will be deported.
Arturo Toscanini, by the composer's wish, conducts the American premiere of the Symphony no.7 “Leningrad” by Dmitri Shostakovich (35) over the airwaves of the NBC radio network. Hired as an extra horn player for the concert is Gunther Schuller (16). Among the radio listeners is Igor Stravinsky (60). See 1 June 1942.
20 July 1942 700 Jews in Kletsk (Belarus) about to be murdered, set the ghetto on fire and run. Most are killed but some escape.
Music for Corwin’s play Appointment by Benjamin Britten (28) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC.
On the cover of the issue of Time magazine dated today appears a portrait of Dmitri Shostakovich (35) in fireman’s helmet.
21 July 1942 Jews in nearby Nieswiez (Nesvizh, Belarus) follow the example of their Kletsk comrades and set the ghetto on fire, with similar results.
US President Roosevelt states in a letter that “the American people not only sympathize with all victims of Nazi crimes but will hold the perpetrators of these crimes to strict accountability in a day of reckoning which will surely come.”
In a federal court in Hartford, Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze, leader of the German-American Bund, pleads guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit espionage.
22 July 1942 Japanese forces begin an advance from the north coast of New Guinea south to Port Moresby, capturing Buna (Garara) and Gona.
The Germans liquidate the ghetto in Nieswiez, Poland. 5,000 residents are removed while 25 escape.
07:30 The small ghetto in Warsaw is surrounded by special police.
10:00 The Germans begin the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto. Most residents will be sent to Treblinka.
23 July 1942 German forces capture Rostov-on-Don.
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge writes to Aaron Copland (41) asking whether he will accept a commission to write a dance for Martha Graham. He will accept.
Virgil Thomson’s (45) Canons for Dorothy Thomson for orchestra is performed for the first time, in Lewisohn Stadium, New York.
24 July 1942 The first movement of Henry Cowell’s (45) Symphony no.3 “Gaelic Symphony” for band and strings is performed for the first time, in West Saugerties, New York.
26 July 1942 The Royal Air Force launches a terror raid on Hamburg.
27 July 1942 German forces cross the River Don and enter Bataysk just south of Rostov.
The first of the radio dramas An American in England, entitled “London by Clipper”, with music by Benjamin Britten (28), is broadcast for the first time, over the CBS radio network originating in New York.
28 July 1942 Jews of the Warsaw ghetto set up an organization to forcibly resist deportation to death camps.
29 July 1942 After a four-day battle, Japanese forces take Kokoda, Papua from Australians.
31 July 1942 The Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (OXFAM) is founded in Britain to send food aid to the people of Greece.
1 August 1942 German forces capture Salsk, 150 km north of Stavropol, cutting the Moscow-Novorossisk railway, and reach the Kuban River near Kropotkin northwest of Stavropol.
The American Federation of Musicians bans its members from making commercial recordings. The union feels that musicians are cheated when radio stations play their recordings without paying royalties.
Credo in Us for four performers by John Cage (39) is performed for the first time, at Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont. It is for dances by Merce Cunningham and Jean Erdman.
The first of a series of radio broadcasts entitled Labor for Victory with music by Marc Blitzstein (37) is heard for the first time, over the airwaves of WEAF, New York.
Canon and Fugue op.33 for strings by Wallingford Riegger (57) is performed for the first time, in Berkeley, California. See 14 February 1944.
2 August 1942 A train with 1,000 people aboard begins the regular deportation of Jews from Belgium to Poland.
3 August 1942 German forces reach Stavropol.
4 August 1942 The US War Production Board prohibits the production of typewriters for private use as of 31 October.
5 August 1942 The Germans liquidate the ghetto in Pilica, Poland. 2,700 residents are removed while several hundred escape.
6 August 1942 German troops capture Tikhoretsk, north of Kropotkin.
The Germans liquidate the ghetto in Zdzieciol, Poland. 3,000 residents are removed while 800 escape.
7 August 1942 In the first offensive against the Japanese, American troops land on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Gavutu, Florida, and Tananbogo in the Solomon Islands, capturing an incomplete Japanese airfield on Guadalcanal.
8 August 1942 The All India Congress Committee passes the Quit India resolution in Bombay, calling for immediate withdrawal of the British government, thus leaving India free to prepare for a Japanese invasion, and calling on non-violent non-cooperation.
Four German saboteurs are executed in Washington. Their plans were never realized and they blew up nothing.
Les animaux modèles, a ballet by Francis Poulenc (43) to a scenario by de LaFontaine, is publicly staged for the first time, at the Paris Opéra. See 7 March 1943.
Two works by Roy Harris (44) are performed for the first time, at Colorado College, Colorado Springs: Namesake (A Theatre Dance) for violin and piano, and What So Proudly We Hail, a ballet for chorus, strings, and piano.
9 August 1942 Japanese forces attack the naval guard of an Allied landing force for Guadalcanal south of Savo Island. Three American and one Australian cruisers are sunk. 1,023 people are killed. Allied naval forces retire from the Solomon Islands, abandoning the Marines on Guadalcanal.
Several leaders of the All-India Congress Party are arrested in cities throughout India, including Mohandas K. Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, along with as many as 100,000 others. Gandhi is interned by the British in the Aga Khan’s palace at Poona. Rioting begins in major cities causing hundreds of injuries and arrests.
German forces capture Maikop and Krasnodar in the foothills of the Caucasus, and the nearby oil fields, but the Soviets blow up the oil wells as they withdraw.
The Symphony no.7 “Leningrad” by Dmitri Shostakovich (35) is performed for the first time in the besieged city for which it was named. The score was sent by a transport plane bringing medical supplies. The number of musicians living in the city is too small to perform the work so musicians serving on the Leningrad front are released for the performance and retired musicians are pressed into service. They are given extra rations to ensure their strength. The hall is filled and the concert is broadcast on speakers throughout the city. Just before the performance, Soviet commanders bombard the Germans to ensure their silence, and speakers are set up so that the enemy troops can hear the music.
Lou Harrison (25) and a friend move from San Francisco, driving to Los Angeles to work with the Lester Horton dance company.
10 August 1942 More riots occur in major Indian cities following the arrest of Congress Party leaders. 18 people are reported killed, hundreds injured. British troops are called out.
960 of 1,000 deportees from Theresienstadt (Terezín) are gassed at Maly Trostenets, near Minsk.
The second of the radio dramas An American in England, entitled “London to Dover”, with music by Benjamin Britten (28), is broadcast for the first time, over the CBS radio network originating in New York.
11 August 1942 Mobs continue to riot in major Indian cities. Government buildings are attacked in New Delhi. Hundreds are injured and arrested.
German troops take Kalach, to the west of Stalingrad.
The Germans begin the deportation of French civilians for slave labor.
The British carrier HMS Eagle is sunk by a German submarine south of Cape Salinas, Majorca. 131 men are lost.
12 August 1942 Police fire into rioting mobs in Bombay, Patna, and Poona. Several deaths and injuries are recorded.
13 August 1942 German troops reach Elitsa, 280 km due south of Stalingrad and the same distance from the Caspian Sea.
17 August 1942 German troops take Pyatigorsk and Yessentuki and reach the high valleys of the Caucasus at Kislovodsk.
The third of the radio dramas An American in England, entitled “Ration island”, with music by Benjamin Britten (28), is broadcast for the first time, over the CBS radio network originating in New York.
18 August 1942 A Japanese invasion force lands on Guadalcanal.
19 August 1942 A commando raid on Dieppe in German-occupied France by mostly Canadian forces is repulsed with over 50% casualties. 1,000 Allied soldiers are killed and 2,000 are taken prisoner. 345 Germans die in the raid.
All the patients (numbering several hundred) at a Jewish mental asylum at Otwock near Warsaw are sent to Treblinka.
A British judge rules that Benjamin Britten (28) not be required to do non-combatant war work, overturning the ruling of 28 May. He is registered as a conscientious objector unconditionally.
A draft law is passed in Mexico.
20 August 1942 President Getulio Vargas of Brazil prohibits all German nationals from leaving the country, except those with diplomatic passports. Those remaining will be detained in retaliation for the arrest of Brazilian nationals by the Germans in Europe.
The First of the Few, a film with music by William Walton (40), is shown for the first time, in the Leicester Square Theatre, London.
Banners: A Choreographic Chorale in Two Scenes by Henry Cowell (45) to words of Whitman is performed for the first time, in Lee, Massachusetts.
21 August 1942 Japanese forces attack the American defenders of Guadalcanal along the Ilu River. They are savagely beaten back and almost the entire landing force is killed. Over 800 people die in the battle.
22 August 1942 After a battle between partisans and Germans in the region of Slonim (Belarus), 200 partisans and villagers are shot.
In view of recent arrests of Brazilian citizens in Europe and the sinking of six Brazilian merchant ships in the past week, Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy.
23 August 1942 At Izbushensky-on-Don, Italian cavalry charges with sabres and hand grenades into Soviet machine guns. The Soviets run away. It is the last successful cavalry charge of the war.
Germans reach the Volga on an eight-kilometer front from Rynok to Yerzovka.
Music for Sayers’ play The Princes of this World by Benjamin Britten (28) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC.
24 August 1942 Japanese and American naval forces engage near the Solomon Islands. One Japanese ship is sunk, one American ship is damaged. 17 American planes are downed while the Japanese lose 70 planes. Several thousand people are killed.
Music for MacDougall’s play Lumberjacks of America by Benjamin Britten (28) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC, conducted by the composer.
The fourth of the radio dramas An American in England, entitled “Women of Britain”, with music by Benjamin Britten (28), is broadcast for the first time, over the CBS radio network, originating in New York.
25 August 1942 Japanese reinforcements for Guadalcanal are turned back by American ships.
German forces capture Mozdok, 230 km north of Tbilisi.
26 August 1942 Japanese forces occupy Nauru.
Japanese troops land at Milne Bay on the easternmost tip of Papua, but make little progress against Australians and Americans.
27 August 1942 The Times of London runs an article on a new drug called penicillin and ascribes its development to scientists at Oxford University.
29 August 1942 Marc Blitzstein (37) enlists in the United States Army at Bolling Field in Washington, DC. He will be assigned to the Eighth Air Force in London.
30 August 1942 Axis troops begin an offensive toward Cairo but meet stiff resistance.
Monseignor Théas, Archbishop of Montauban, France, protests in all the churches of his diocese against the brutality of the Germans.
Germany formally annexes Luxembourg.
Eugene Goosens, conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, writes to Aaron Copland (41), offering a commission for a fanfare to aid the war effort to be played in the orchestra’s upcoming season. See 12 March 1943.
31 August 1942 Japanese forces land on Guadalcanal in a second attempt to retake the island from the Americans.
The Japanese begin to evacuate Milne Bay, Papua.
The US government announces that meat rationing will go into effect in about four months.
The fifth of the radio dramas An American in England, entitled “The Yanks are Here”, with music by Benjamin Britten (28), is broadcast for the first time, over the CBS radio network,originating in New York.
1 September 1942 Axis forces fight their way into the suburbs of Stalingrad.
German and Romanian troops cross from Kerch, Crimea over to the Taman Peninsula.
Ernst Krenek (42) arrives in St. Paul, Minnesota to take up duties as Professor of Music, Chairman of the Music Department, and Dean of the School of Fine Arts at Hamline University.
2 September 1942 Faced with fierce resistance from Allied (Great Britain-New Zealand-Australia-South Africa-India) defenders, German troops withdraw from Alam Halfa Ridge at El Alamein, Egypt.
The Germans liquidate the ghetto in Lakhwa, Poland. 2,300 residents are removed while 600 escape.
Samuel Barber (32) is inducted into the United States Army.
3 September 1942 Japanese forces occupy Santa Isabel Island in the Solomon Islands.
4 September 1942 As 1,000 German planes fly numerous sorties over Stalingrad, German troops reach the Volga south of the city.
Soviet planes bomb Budapest for the first time.
5 September 1942 The first Soviet counteroffensive on the Volga is repulsed.
String Quartet no.2 by Sergey Prokofiev (51) is performed for the first time, in Moscow.
7 September 1942 American troops attack the Japanese base at Taivu, Guadalcanal doing great damage.
Japanese forces push Australians back from Efogi, Papua, 70 km northeast of Port Moresby.
A massive German attack at Stalingrad is repulsed.
4,100 Jews are marched into an anti-tank ditch near Mineralniye Vody, Ukraine and shot.
General Robert de St. Vincent, military governor of Lyon, is dismissed for refusing to round up Jews.
The sixth and last of the radio dramas An American in England, entitled “The Anglo-American Angle”, with music by Benjamin Britten (28), is broadcast for the first time, over the CBS radio network originating in New York.
9 September 1942 Japanese troops land at Tassafaronga, Guadalcanal.
German forces reach the railway line just north of Stalingrad (Volgograd).
The Germans liquidate the ghetto in Serniki, Poland. 1,000 residents are removed while 270 escape.
10 September 1942 German forces capture Novorossisk, home port of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet. The fleet, however, has escaped to Tuapse.
British troops land at Majunga and Morondava, Madagascar.
American planes bomb Japanese troops on Kiska Island, Alaska.
12 September 1942 The British troopship Laconia is sunk by German submarine U-156 just south of the equator off the coast of Africa. Aboard are 1,500 Italian POWs, 180 Polish guards, and 811 British passengers and crew. More than 1,400 people are killed. Upon learning of the cargo, the U-boat captain radios to all ships that he will not attack any ship coming to the rescue. As two British and one French warship arrive to pick up survivors, an American plane attacks the U-156. This incident causes Admiral Dönitz to order all U-boats to refrain from aiding survivors in all cases.
The Germans end their action in Warsaw. Of the 350,000 Jews in the ghetto on 22 July, only 45,000 remain.
13 September 1942 In a night attack 13-14 September, Japanese forces attack the American defenders of Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. The attack fails leaving 640 people dead. The area will henceforth be known as the “Bloody Angle.”
German forces drive towards the center of Stalingrad reaching Minina in the south.
14 September 1942 Japanese forces on Guadalcanal repeat the attack of last night, with similar results.
Japanese forces drive Australians back to Imita Ridge, less than 50 km from Port Moresby, Papua, but their advance is halted by a counterattack.
Soviet planes bomb Budapest and the Ploesti airfields.
Allied aircraft from Egypt bomb Sofiya, Bulgaria.
15 September 1942 Japanese submarines sink the carrier USS Wasp off the Solomon Islands. 193 men are lost but 1,946 are rescued.
American reinforcements join the Australians in Port Moresby.
16 September 1942 Australian and American troops halt the Japanese advance toward Port Moresby at Ioribaiwa.
Brazil orders complete mobilization.
Samuel Barber (32) reports for duty in the United States Army.
17 September 1942 Henri Hinirichsen, for decades the owner of the Leipzig music publishers CF Peters, is gassed to death at Birkenau, for the crime of being Jewish.
A suite from music for the film Coastal Command by Ralph Vaughan Williams (69) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC originating in Manchester. See 16 October 1942.
18 September 1942 Soviet troops take up positions in Stalingrad’s grain elevator and proceed to repulse ten German attacks today.
British troops land at Tamatave, Madagascar.
19 September 1942 While 3,000 Jews are deported from Brody near Rovno (Ukraine), 300 break out of the train. Almost all are machine gunned to death.
5,000 Jews are deported from Parczew, southwest of Brest-Litovsk, to Treblinka.
20 September 1942 The first cremation of corpses takes place in Auschwitz.
Music for Sayers’ play King of Sorrows by Benjamin Britten (28) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC.
21 September 1942 Pro-Nazi candidates do badly in the Swedish election.
22 September 1942 German forces reach the center of Stalingrad.
Wilhelm Kube, who is responsible for the deaths of at least 10,000 Jews and Russians, is killed by a bomb in Minsk. The device was placed under his bed by is Byelorussian maid, Yelena Mazanivk, a partisan. She escapes.
23 September 1942 A Soviet counterattack in the Orlovka district, northwest of Stalingrad, makes some gains. In fierce hand-to-hand fighting, the Germans are slowly pushed back around the oil storage depot.
A German offensive in the Caucasus is stopped on the first day.
Over the next week, 6,000 Jews will be taken from Theresienstadt (Terezín) to Maly Trostenets. None will survive.
The Germans liquidate the ghetto in Tuczyn, Poland. 4,000 residents are removed while 2,000 set the ghetto on fire and escape.
British and Imperial African forces capture Tananarive (Antananarivo), capital of Madagascar, as the Vichy governor flees south.
Pvt. Samuel Barber (32) is assigned to the Second Service Command of Special Services. He will spend part of each day in basic training in Battery Park and the rest of the day doing work in an office on Broadway.
Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo op.22, a cycle for voice and piano by Benjamin Britten (28), is performed for the first time, in Wigmore Hall, London by Peter Pears and the composer. It is a triumph, especially for Pears.
24 September 1942 Soviet partisans burn down the town of Ryabchichi, a German supply station on the Smolensk-Bryansk highway.
The Germans liquidate the ghetto in Korzec, Poland. 5,000 residents are removed while several dozen escape.
25 September 1942 In Stalingrad, panzers reach the western edge of the Krasny Oktyabr factory and the southwest corner of the Barrikady factory on the Volga.
An administration loyal to Free France takes over in Réunion.
27 September 1942 Australian troops begin to push back the Japanese on New Guinea.
A swastika is raised over the headquarters of the Stalingrad Communist Party.
Soviet troops cross the Volga near Rzhev, 210 km west of Moscow, and capture 25 villages.
28 September 1942 Incidental music to Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar by John Ireland (63) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC originating in London.
Vladimir Ussachevsky (30) is inducted into the United States Army.
29 September 1942 255 Czechs are sentenced to death for supporting, sheltering or refusing to denounce the killers of Reinhard Heydrich.
British troops land at Tuléaron, Madagascar.
1 October 1942 The Japanese ship Lisbon Maru is hit by a torpedo from a US submarine off Hong Kong and starts to go down. On board are 1,816 British POWs being transported to Japan. When the prisoners try to leave, the Japanese batten down the hatches. Hundreds attempt to break out and are shot by the Japanese. Those who make it into the water try to climb the ropes of four other Japanese ships in the area. They are kicked back into the sea. Over 840 are killed.
The Red Army brings the German advance in the Caucasus to a halt.
In the United States, fuel oil rationing begins in 17 eastern states. A nationwide speed limit of 35 miles per hour (56 kph) goes into effect for civilian vehicles.
Kurt Weill (42) meets Bertolt Brecht in California, for the first time since 1935.
2 October 1942 RMS Queen Mary, carrying 10,000 US troops to Europe, collides with HMS Curacoa north of Ireland, splitting her in two. The cruiser goes down in six minutes. 239 of her crew of 338 are lost.
President Roosevelt is granted power to control wages, salaries, and agricultural prices beginning 1 November.
3 October 1942 German scientists successfully launch a V2 at Peenemünde.
Malambo, a film with music by Alberto Ginastera (26), is released in Buenos Aires.
4 October 1942 Australians capture Effogi, Papua.
Axis troops begin another assault in Stalingrad into the Barrikady, Krasny Oktyabr, and tractor factories.
British troops take Antsirabe, 100 km south of Tananarive (Antananarivo).
5 October 1942 The Germans complete the liquidation of the Czestachowa ghetto. 2,000 Jews have been killed in a two-week process. 39,000 have been sent to Treblinka.
6 October 1942 German troops capture Malgobek, south of Mozdok in the Caucasus.
Chester F. Carlson receives a US patent for electrophotography. In 1947 he will assign commercial rights to the Haloid Company, which will later be called the Xerox® Corporation.
7 October 1942 Fierce fighting continues near the tractor factory, Stalingrad.
8 October 1942 The Germans order all Belgian men 18-50 and women 21-25 to register for war work.
Marc Blitzstein is stationed in London with the US Army Air Corps.
9 October 1942 American forces on Guadalcanal attack from Henderson Field along the Mataniko River. In the largely successful attack, 765 people are killed.
The first of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, A Fanfare for Airmen by Bernard Wagenaar, is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
10 October 1942 Japanese reinforcements arrive on Guadalcanal to begin their third attempt to retake the island from the Americans.
Political commissars are abolished in the Red Army. Full control is granted to military authorities.
11 October 1942 US surface vessels sink the Japanese cruiser Furutaka off Guadalcanal. 143 men are lost while 514 survive, some as prisoners of war. The destroyer Fubuki is also sunk, killing 110 of her crew.
For the first time in two months, there is no fighting in Stalingrad.
Soviet partisans blow up the Bryansk-Lgov railroad (western Russia) in 178 places.
Leonard Bernstein (24) takes part in a Youth for Victory rally in Boston. The fact is entered into his FBI file because the printer who produced the programs has also done work for leftist organizations.
The third suite from Descobrimento do Brasil, a film with music by Heitor Villa-Lobos (55), is performed for the first time, in the Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro the composer conducting. The film was commissioned by the Brazilian Cacao Institute of Bahia.
12 October 1942 In naval action off Savo Island in the Solomon Islands, two Japanese ships are sunk while one American ship is sunk.
Incidental music to MacNeice’s radio play Christopher Columbus by William Walton (40) for alto, tenor, bass, two speakers, female speaking chorus, male speaking chorus, guitar, and orchestra, is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC originating in Bedford. It celebrates the 450th anniversary of the landing of Columbus in the New World.
14 October 1942 Two Japanese battleships blast the American installation at Henderson Field, Guadalacanal, beyond recognition. 41 people are killed. Only 42 American planes remain intact.
Axis forces renew their offensive at Stalingrad sending five divisions and 300 panzers toward the tractor factory. Fighting is hand-to-hand in every building in the vicinity of the tractor and Barrikady factories but the Germans are unable to dislodge the Soviets.
The Germans begin the deportation of 22,000 Jews from Piotkrow, Poland to Treblinka.
The German cruiser Komet is sunk by British torpedo boats off Cap de la Hague, taking all 251 aboard with her.
The ferry SS Caribou is sunk by a German submarine off Port aux Basque, Newfoundland. 137 of the 237 people on board are killed
Incidental music to the radio play The Man Behind the Gun by David Diamond (27) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the CBS radio network.
15 October 1942 The destroyer USS Meredith is sunk by Japanese warplanes in the Solomon Islands. 81 of 273 officers and crew will survive.
Incidental music to Native Country by Dmitri Shostakovich (36) to words of Alymov, is performed for the first time, in the Dzerzhinsky Central Club, Moscow. See 7 November 1942.
The Skin of Our Teeth, a play by Thornton Wilder, is performed for the first time, in New Haven.
16 October 1942 A two-day cyclone over the state of Bengal, India kills 40,000 people.
British troops capture Ambositra, Madagascar 225 km south of Tananarive (Antananarivo).
50 Polish communists are publicly hanged in Warsaw, their bodies displayed as a warning.
Coastal Command, a film with music by Ralph Vaughan Williams (70), is shown for the first time, in the Plaza Cinema, Picadilly Circus, London. See 17 September 1942.
Rodeo, a ballet by Aaron Copland (41) to a scenario by De Mille, is performed for the first time, at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. It is a glittering sold out event and a great success. In the audience, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II decide to hire Agnes de Mille to choreograph their next project, Oklahoma!. See 28 May 1943 and 22 June 1943.
The second of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, A Fanfare for Russia by Deems Taylor, is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
17 October 1942 The Australian advance north from Port Moresby runs into fierce Japanese resistance.
Over 10,000 Jews from Buchenwald and 7,000 Jews in Sachsenhausen are deported to Auschwitz.
The Japanese destroyer Oboro is sunk by US warplanes off Kiska Island. 202 people are lost, only 17 rescued.
18 October 1942 Germans renew their attacks in Stalingrad making progress into the Krasnye Oktyabr factory.
In his review of the Symphony no.7 by Dmitri Shostakovich (36), Virgil Thomson (45) calls the music “unoriginal and shallow.”
20 October 1942 Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century gallery opens in New York.
21 October 1942 Germans make gains in vicious fighting in the Barrikady and Krasnye Oktyabr factories.
A torpedo bomber from the Royal New Zealand Air Force sinks the MS Palatia off Lindesnes, Norway. 986 people are killed, mostly Soviet prisoners being sent to Norway.
22 October 1942 Australian troops land on Goodenough Island, off the north coast of Papua.
The first snow of the season falls on Stalingrad.
Harry Partch (41) begins two days of lecture-recitals at Bennington College.
Symphony no.2 by John Alden Carpenter (66) is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York. The critics are generally negative.
23 October 1942 Japanese infantry and armor attack across the Mataniko River on Guadalcanal. The American defenders completely destroy them, killing 600.
An Allied (Britain-Australia-New Zealand-South Africa-India-Greece-Free France) army in Egypt begins a general counter-offensive against Germans and Italians west and south of El ‘Alamein.
The third of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, A Fanfare for the Fighting French by Walter Piston (48), is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
24 October 1942 Allies make slow gains at El ‘Alamein.
I capricci di Callot, an opera by Gian Francesco Malipiero (60) to his own words after Hoffmann, is performed for the first time, in Teatro Reale dell’Opera, Rome.
Totem Ancestor for prepared piano by John Cage (30) is performed for the first time, in New York to accompany a dance by Merce Cunningham.
25 October 1942 Japanese forces again attack the American defenders of Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. Again the attack is crushed. The attack is renewed at dusk and again repulsed. The day’s action leaves 3,000 Japanese dead.
German troops resume their offensive south of the Terek in the Caucasus.
A massive tank battle continues at El ‘Alamein. Australians strike north, toward the Mediterranean.
26 October 1942 American and Japanese naval forces engage in the Santa Cruz Islands (Solomon Islands) area. One American carrier (USS Hornet) is sunk while several ships on both sides are damaged. This is a tactical Japanese victory, but the American forces succeed in thwarting Japanese attempts to support their ground attacks on Henderson Field, Guadalcanal.
Allied forces secure the heights of Kidney Ridge at El ‘Alamein.
1,866 Jews are deported from Theresienstadt (Terezín) to Auschwitz.
The Quisling government arrests all Norwegian Jewish men over 15 years of age, and expropriates all property of Norwegian Jews.
Arthur Honegger (50) meets Werner Egk (41) for the first time, in Paris. Egk is in town for a production of his Peer Gynt at the Opéra. He is an admirer of Honegger’s work.
27 October 1942 Germans gain ground between the Barrikady and Krasnye Oktyabr factories in Stalingrad.
German and Italian forces attempt an armored counterattack in the Battle of El ‘Alamein.
17-year-old Helmuth Günther of Hamburg is executed in Berlin for listening to foreign radio broadcasts and distributing pamphlets of information from the broadcasts.
William Schuman’s (32) application to serve in the US Army Specialist Corps is denied for medical reasons.
28 October 1942 Capriccio, an opera by Richard Strauss (78), to words of Krauss and the composer, is performed for the first time, at the Munich Staatsoper. It is a hit with press and public.
Australian night attacks at El ‘Alamein make gains.
29 October 1942 Australians force the Japanese out of Eora, Papua.
The British troops ship MV Abosso, carrying a mixed passenger list of military and civilians, is sunk in the North Atlantic by a British submarine. Of the 393 aboard, 31 will be rescued.
The Alaska Highway is completed, largely for war needs.
30 October 1942 Australians and Germans battle on the north and east of Tell el Eisa.
British troops capture Fianarantsoa, Madagascar.
Sonata for violin and piano by Roy Harris (44) is performed for the first time, in Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, Washington. He is awarded the Coolidge Medal by the library.
The fourth of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, A Fanfare to the Forces of Our Latin-American Allies by Henry Cowell (45), is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
1 November 1942 German troops capture Alagir in the Caucasus.
Went the Day Well?, a film with music by William Walton (40), is shown for the first time, in the London Pavilion.
Processional for organ by Henry Cowell (45) is performed for the first time, in the National Cathedral, Washington.
2 November 1942 German forces capture Nal’chik in the Caucasus Mountains.
British and New Zealand forces break through the Axis defenders at El ‘Alamein.
110,000 Jews are seized by the Germans from 65 villages in the Bialystok region of Poland. All will end up in Auschwitz or Treblinka. In the small village of Marcinkance, all 360 Jews resist and are shot on the spot.
The Last Reader, a song by Charles Ives (68) to words of Holmes, is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
3 November 1942 Australian forces retake Kokoda, Papua.
Japanese troops successfully land at Koli Point, Guadalcanal, despite American attacks.
Congressional elections in the United States see a 45-seat loss for the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives and eight seats in the Senate, but they retain majorities in both.
Incidental music to Saroyan’s play The Beautiful People by Lou Harrison (25) is performed for the first time, in Royce Hall of UCLA.
4 November 1942 American troops land at Aola, Guadalcanal, 40 km outside their perimeter.
Indian troops seal the outcome of the Battle of El ‘Alamein by breaking through Axis defenders south of Tel el Aggagir. German and Italian forces begin a wholesale retreat of 1,600 km back into Libya.
Three Romances on Texts by Burns for voice and piano, part of op.62 by Dmitri Shostakovich (36), are performed for the first time, in Kuibyshev. See 6 June 1943.
5 November 1942 The Vichy governor of Madagascar surrenders to Allied forces, thus ending resistance on the island.
New Zealanders, in pursuit of fleeing Germans, capture Fûka, Egypt.
6 November 1942 German forces attempt a breakout in the Caucasus but are stopped at Ordzhonikidze (Vladikavkaz, Russia).
The fifth of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, A Fanfare for Friends by Daniel Gregory Mason (68), is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
7 November 1942 Americans on Guadalcanal begin attacking east toward Koli Point.
Allies occupy Matrûh, Egypt.
The orchestral suite Native Leningrad by Dmitri Shostakovich (36), an arrangement of his music for Native Country, is performed for the first time, in the Dzerzhinsky Central Club, Moscow. See 15 October 1942.
8 November 1942 American and British forces land in strength east and west of Algiers and take the city, capturing the Vichy French commander, Admiral Jean-François Darlan. Americans also land in the Bay of Arzew, east of Oran, and in three places in French Morocco. The United States Navy destroys seven French surface ships and three submarines. French Resident-General Charles Noguès surrenders Morocco to the invading Americans at Casablanca. The Vichy government breaks relations with the United States.
Today is declared “Stalingrad Day” by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia of New York.
The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowships for Latin America are announced, including one Alberto Ginastera (26).
9 November 1942 New Zealanders enter Sîdi Barrâni, Egypt.
With Vichy acquiescence, German forces occupy airfields in Tunisia.
4,000 Jews from Lublin arrive at Majdanek today.
Canada and Mexico break relations with the Vichy government.
10 November 1942 After resistance by Vichy French forces, Americans take Oran.
American troops enter Casablanca.
The destroyer HMS Martin is sunk by a German submarine in the western Mediterranean. 63 of her crew of 224 are rescued.
Erik Scavenius replaces Wilhelm Buhl as Prime Minister of Denmark.
The Germans establish a Jewish ghetto in Lvov (Lviv).
Responding to the question of Indian independence, Winston Churchill declares that “I have not become the King’s First Minister in order to preside at the liquidation of the British Empire.”
11 November 1942 In Stalingrad, Axis troops reach the Volga on a 450-meter front, capturing most of the Krasnye Oktyabr factory and almost cutting it off from the Barrikady factory.
Germany invades and occupies Vichy France while Italian forces occupy Nice, Monaco, and Corsica. Savoy, Nice, and Corsica are transferred to Italian sovereignty.
The Allies control 2,100 km of the North African coast from Safi, Morocco to Algiers. The Vichy administration in North Africa surrenders to invading Allies. Admiral Darlan, commander of the Vichy French armed forces in North Africa, orders his troops to cease-fire.
British forces capture Bougie (Bejaïa), Algeria.
Allied troops cross from Egypt into Libya and capture Bardia (Bardiyah).
The Germans liquidate the ghetto in Marcinkance, Poland. 370 residents are removed while 200 escape.
Norway’s Lutheran bishops send a letter of protest to Quisling about deportations of Jews.
12 November 1942 Fearful that Governor-elect Earl Warren will keep his campaign promise to deny parole to sex offenders, Henry Cowell (45) applies to California Governor Culbert Olson for a pardon.
13 November 1942 American and Japanese naval forces engage in the Solomon Islands area. Four ships are sunk, seven are damaged. The cruiser USS Juneau goes down with a little under 600 of her crew. Other US ships in the area who witness the blast that takes the Juneau assume that there are no suvivors. However more than 100 survive, but only ten will be alive when rescuers finally reach them a week from now.
Allied troops enter Tobruk (Tubruq).
The Ductch destroyer HNLMS Isaac Sweers is sunk by a German submarine off Algeria. 108 of the 194-man crew are lost.
General Eisenhower strikes a deal in Algiers with Admiral Darlan whereby Darlan will retain control over French West and North Africa in return for his cooperation with the Allies.
Brazil breaks relations with the Vichy government.
Symphony no.1 by Bohuslav Martinu (51) is performed for the first time, in Boston.
Concerto for two pianos and orchestra no.1 by Darius Milhaud (50) is performed for the first time, in Pittsburgh.
14 November 1942 Japanese forces occupy New Georgia in the Solomon Islands.
American planes attack a Japanese reinforcement convoy heading to Guadalcanal. Six transports are sunk, one damaged. Later at night, American and Japanese naval forces engage north of Savo Island. Three ships are sunk.
Allied troops reach Gazala, Libya.
Béla Bartók’s (61) Concerto for two pianos, percussion, and orchestra, an arrangement of his Sonata for two pianos and percussion, is performed for the first time, in London.
15 November 1942 In three days of naval actions around the Solomon Islands, 13-15 November, Japanese forces have sunk two American cruisers and five destroyers while Allied forces sink five Japanese destroyers, one cruiser and seven fully loaded troop transports. The remaining four transports of a Japanese reinforcement group are run aground on Guadalcanal. They are immediately attacked by American planes. Of 12,000 men and 10,000 tons of supplies sent to reinforce Japanese attacks on Guadalcanal, only 4,000 men and five tons of supplies reach the island.
American paratroopers capture Youks-les-Bains, near Tebessa, Algeria.
British troops enter Tabarqa, Tunisia.
A German submarine sinks the escort carrier HMS Avenger west of Gibraltar. 516 of her crew of 528 go down with her.
16 November 1942 British paratroopers capture Souk-el-Arba, Tunisia. General de Gaulle announces that he does not accept Admiral Darlan’s authority over North and West Africa.
17 November 1942 Japanese warplanes sink the destroyer USS McKean in Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville Island. 116 men aboard are killed.
Advancing Allies reach Derna (Darnah), Libya.
American paratroopers reach Gafsa, Tunisia.
18 November 1942 British troops take Sidi N’Sir, Tunisia, 65 km west of Tunis.
19 November 1942 3,500 artillery pieces and mortars begin one of the largest and most intense bombardments of the war along a 25-km front as Soviet forces begin a counter-offensive against the Romanian and Italian defenders guarding the German salient into Stalingrad. They blow through the Romanians at Kletskiy, capturing 65,000 of them in the first 24 hours.
Soviets defeat the Germans at Ordzhonikidze in the Caucasus.
Marshal Henri Pétain broadcasts an appeal to French officers in North Africa to resist “Anglo-Saxon aggression.” He further adds, “you have but one country, France, which I incarnate.”
20 November 1942 The Soviet offensive begins its second phase as the southern pincer attacks Germans and Romanians south of Stalingrad. Initial progress is slow.
British forces capture Benghazi, Libya.
A convoy from Egypt reaches Malta, effectively ending the siege.
In a ceremony at Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory (at -37°), the 2,689 km Alcan Highway from Dawson Creek, Alberta to Fairbanks, Alaska is opened.
Sonata for two pianos by Paul Hindemith (47) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
21 November 1942 The northern Soviet pincer at Stalingrad breaks through the Romanians on an 80-km front.
Claude Champagne (51) is appointed assistant director of the Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique de la province de Québec.
22 November 1942 British forces capture Bone (Annaba) and Djidjelli (Jijel) airfield, Algeria.
Hymn to Saint Cecilia op.27 for chorus by Benjamin Britten to words of Auden is performed for the first time, in a recording over the airwaves of the BBC Home Service, on the saint’s day and the composer’s 29th birthday.
Ritornels for piano by Bohuslav Martinu (51) is performed for the first time, in New York.
23 November 1942 Soviet army pincers meet south of Kalach on the Don, encircling the 250,000 members of the German Sixth Army in Stalingrad.
After fighting at Agedabia (Ajdabiya), Axis troops fall back to El Agheila (Al Uqaylah).
25 November 1942 Over the night 25-26 November, Greek partisans destroy the Gorgopotamos railway viaduct.
26 November 1942 The Anti-Fascist Council of the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) meets for the first time in Bihac. It will become the main political body of Yugoslav resistance.
The main deportation of Norway’s Jews to Poland takes place.
The Conservatório Nacional de Canto Orfeônico is inaugurated in Rio de Janeiro by Heitor Villa-Lobos (55).
Michael Curtiz’ film Casablanca is shown for the first time, in the Hollywood Theatre, New York.
27 November 1942 As German forces attempt to take control of the French fleet docked at Toulon, a few French officers effect the scuttling of the entire compliment of 73 ships.
The sixth of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, A Fanfare for Paratroopers by Paul Creston, is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
28 November 1942 Free French forces occupy Réunion.
A German submarine sinks the British troop ship RMS Nova Scotia off Natal Province, South Africa. It goes down with 858 of those on board, including 650 Italian prisoners. The Portuguese freighter NRP Afonso de Albuquerque from Mozambique rescues 194 survivors.
A fire at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston kills 492 people.
29 November 1942 A Japanese resupply force is attacked by American naval forces off Guadalcanal. One Japanese destroyer is sunk while the Americans lose one cruiser sunk and three cruisers badly damaged. But again, the Japanese resupply mission fails.
British paratroopers land at Depienne (Smidja), 40 km south of Tunis.
Near Novorossisk, Germans murder 107 villagers in Verkhne-Bakanskaya for aiding partisans.
Coffee rationing begins in the United States.
30 November 1942 Japanese reinforcements for Guadalcanal are turned back by Americans off Tassafaronga.
1 December 1942 German forces in Tunisia counterattack against invading Americans, British, and French at Tebourba, 30 km west of Tunis. It is repulsed after heavy casualties.
Nationwide gasoline rationing begins in the United States.
2 December 1942 British ships attack an Italian troop convoy off Skerki Bank between Sicily and Tunisia. All four troop and materiel carriers are sunk along with one destroyer. Another destroyer is badly damaged. Over 2,000 Italians are lost.
Konstantinos Ioannou Logothetopoulos replaces Georgios Tsolakoglou as Prime Minister of Greece under German occupation.
At Stary Ciepielow the SS lock 13 Poles into a cottage and ten more into a barn, then burn them all alive on suspicion of harboring Jews.
10:00 Scientists at the University of Chicago, led by Enrico Fermi, begin an experiment which by 15:45 p.m. produces the world’s first, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
3 December 1942 German forces take Djedeida and Tebourba, west of Tunis.
Gayaneh, a ballet by Aram Khachaturian (39) to a story by Derzhavin, is performed for the first time, in Molotov (Perm, Russia). The performers are members of the Kirov Ballet evacuated from Leningrad.
4 December 1942 In Warsaw, Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz lead a group of Christian Poles in setting up a Council for the Assistance of the Jews.
US bombers attack the port of Naples. The cruiser Muzzio Attendolo is sunk with the loss of at least 188 hands.
US President Roosevelt receives a petition from 244 Congressmen supporting a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
US President Roosevelt orders the end of the Works Projects Administration by 1 February. With increased employment because of the war, it is no longer necessary.
5 December 1942 A Ceremony of Carols op.28 for boys’ chorus and harp by Benjamin Britten (29) to anonymous medieval texts is performed for the first time, in Norwich Castle. This premiere is performed by women.
6 December 1942 Americans repulse two Japanese reinforcement attempts at Guadalcanal.
Australian troops overrun Gona on New Guinea. All of the Japanese defenders die in the battle.
Germans break through American troops in Tunisia.
7 December 1942 The British SS Ceramic is hit by torpedoes from a German submarine in heavy seas in the mid-Atlantic. The ship’s complement of 377 passengers and 278 crew abandon ship in good order but all the lifeboats are eventually swept away in the storm. Only one crew member survives, a prisoner of the German submarine.
8 December 1942 German forces occupy Bizerte, Tunisia, capturing 16 French warships.
Roger Désormière conducts the Orchestre Pierné in Paris in the first recording of any music by Olivier Messiaen (33).
9 December 1942 Huit hommes dans un château, a film with music by Arthur Honegger (50), is shown for the first time, in Paris.
The 20th anniversary of the League of Composers is celebrated in Town Hall, New York with several first performances, including String Quartet no.11 by Darius Milhaud (50), Quintet for flute and strings by Walter Piston (48), Danzón cubano for two pianos by Aaron Copland (42) performed by the composer and Leonard Bernstein (24), and Madrigal-Sonata for flute, violin, and piano by Bohuslav Martinu (52).
10 December 1942 Night Shift, a film with music by Marc Blitzstein (37), is released in the United States.
11 December 1942 Germans in the Caucasus withdraw north to a line Mozdok-Elitsa.
Leslie Bassett (19) enlists in the United States Army at Camp Beale, Marysville, California.
The seventh of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Fanfare de la liberté by Darius Milhaud (50), is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
I Wonder as I Wander for orchestra by Ernst Krenek (42) is performed for the first time, in Minneapolis.
12 December 1942 Axis forces begin a drive to break through the Soviet encirclement of Stalingrad, at Kotelnikovo, 165 km southwest of the city.
13 December 1942 Allied troops take Mersa Brega (Marsa al Burayqah), Libya.
14 December 1942 An agreement signed in London by Foreign Minister Anthony Eden and Charles de Gaulle turns Madagascar over to a Free French administration.
16 December 1942 The Red Army counterattacks against the Axis along the River Don, northwest of Stalingrad. The Italian Eighth Army and the Romanian Third Army are wiped out.
SS Commander Heinrich Himmler orders that all people of mixed Romani blood be sent to Auschwitz.
Seven Choruses from the Medea of Euripedes (tr. Cullen) by Virgil Thomson (46) is performed for the first time, in the Hotel Plaza Ballroom, New York.
17 December 1942 The Volga finally freezes over, allowing the resupply of Red Army troops in Stalingrad.
A British submarine sinks the Italian destroyer Aviere off Bizerte. 220 men are killed, 30 rescued.
The destroyer HMS Firedrake is sunk by a German submarine in the North Atlantic. 118 men are lost, 27 are rescued.
The USSR, United Kingdom and United States issue declarations in their capitals that Germany is now carrying out genocide against the Jews in occupied Europe and describing Nazi atrocities. The British House of Commons rises to its feet in honor of all the Jews killed by the Nazis.
18 December 1942 Japanese forces capture Aitape and Wewak in Northeast New Guinea.
The eighth of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, A Fanfare for American Heroes by William Grant Still (47), is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
19 December 1942 A German relief force to Stalingrad is halted near the Myshkova River.
Japanese planes bomb Calcutta for the first time.
The Inter-Allied Information Committee reports in London and New York that up to 5,000,000 Jews face death in occupied Europe. They call Poland “one vast center for murdering Jews.”
20 December 1942 An earthquake centered near Erbaa and Tokat, Turkey kills 3,000 people.
22 December 1942 Soviet troops capture Morozovsk, 200 km west of Stalingrad.
In Krakow, six members of the Jewish Fighting Organization blow up two cafes frequented by members of the SS and Gestapo. At least 20 and perhaps 50 people are killed. Their leader, Adolf Liebesiand, who died in the attack, is reported to have said, “We are fighting for three lines in the history books.”
23 December 1942 German relief forces come within 50 km of the Sixth Army besieged in Stalingrad.
24 December 1942 Admiral Jean François Darlan, commander-in-chief of French forces in North Africa, is shot to death in Algiers by Fernand Bonnier de la Chapelle, a radical royalist.
A flying bomb is successfully launched at Peenemünde.
Germans enter Bialowieza, Poland and murder 300 Poles for partisan activity.
Sidney Cowell meets with Governor Culbert Olson at the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento to plead for a pardon for her husband Henry (45). Despite a negative recommendation from his Advisory Pardons Board, Olson agrees.
25 December 1942 Allied forces occupy Sirte (Surt), Libya.
26 December 1942 After being convicted in a court martial of murdering Admiral Darlan, twenty-year-old Fernand Bonnier de la Chapelle is executed by a French firing squad in Algiers.
27 December 1942 American attacks on Mt. Austen, Guadalcanal fail.
The Japanese open the first internment camp for Dutch women at Ambarawa in central Java.
Piano Suite in Three Movements by Roy Harris (44) is performed for the first time, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
28 December 1942 An Indian attack on Rathedaung, 40 km north of Akyab, Burma (Sittwe, Myanmar) is thrown back by the Japanese.
Governor Culbert Olson of California pardons Henry Cowell (45), now on parole, so that he may continue his war work. He is part of efforts to create greater cultural ties between the United States and Latin American countries to counter German efforts to separate them.
29 December 1942 The Red Army retakes Kotelnikovo, 165 km southwest of Stalingrad in a general advance along the front.
Germans march 69 villagers into the schoolhouse in Bialowola, Poland and shoot them to death.
A Vichy administration in French Somaliland is replaced by one loyal to Free France.
30 December 1942 Soviet troops capture Remontnoye, 60 km northwest of Elista.
HMS Fidelity is sunk by a German submarine in the North Atlantic. All 369 men on board are lost.
31 December 1942 German surface ships attack a British convoy in the Barents Sea. The minesweeper HMS Bramble is sunk with the loss of all 120 hands and the destroyer HMS Achates goes down with 113 of her crew. The German destroyer Z16 Friedrich Eckoldt is sunk with the loss of all 341 aboard. The entire convoy will safely reach its destination in the USSR.
The RAF raids Düsseldorf using their new radio beam device which allows bombs to be dropped on a target even if it is not visible from the air.
©2004-2015 Paul Scharfenberger
20 September 2015
Last Updated (Sunday, 20 September 2015 05:54)