NORTH AFRICAN THEATRE
August 19th: A force of mainly Canadian troops attempt to seize the Germanoccupied French port of Dieppe. The Canadians suffered a casualty rate of almost 70%, before the decision was made by Allied commanders to call a retreat some 6 hours later. While the raid itself was a failure, valuable lessons were learned by the Allies of what resources would be required for a full-scale invasion of Europe.
August 23: The German army reached the banks of the Volga and began the battle for Stalingrad. This battle was the deadliest battle to take place during the Second World War and is one of the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare
August 25th: German advance in Stalingrad halted by heavy and determined Russian resistance.
December 23rd: The attempt to relieve Stalingrad was abandoned sealing the fate of the German attackers. By the time it was all over in February 1943 there was an estimated two million total casualties. Over 91,000 Germans were taken prisoner, most of whom died in captivity.
The German defeat at Stalingrad marked a turning point in the war with the invincibility of the German army shattered. The news of the battle sent a message around the world, with many people now believing that Hitler's defeat was inevitable.
June 21st: Tobruk is captured by Rommel’s Panzer Army Afrika Corps. 35,000 Allied troops surrendered. The British 8th Army was pushed back to Egypt.
The First Battle of El Alamein – this was fought from July 1st-27th. Having been badly defeated by Axis forces at Gazala in June 1942, the British 8th Army retreated east into Egypt and assumed a defensive position near El Alamein.
The battle was a stalemate, but it had halted the Axis advance on Alexandria (and then Cairo and ultimately the Suez Canal).
August: General Montgomery was promoted to Field Marshall and given command of the 8th Army.
The Second battle of El Alamein – this resulted in a decisive victory for the Allied forces. Montgomery spent some time making sure his forces were ready and attacked the German positions on October 26th. The battle ended on November 4th with the German army in North Africa in full retreat.
November 8th: Operation Torch – the Allied invasion of North Africa. Allied troops, British and American landed near Casablanca, Oran and Algiers.
After some initial defeats inflicted by Rommel’s forces, Allied troops (American and British Commonwealth) learned some hard lessons and went on to squeeze the German forces between themselves advancing from the west and the British 8th
Army under General Bernard Montgomery advancing from the East. Many battles were to follow. However, the pressure was kept on the Germans, and they were finally defeated by superior forces, their expulsion from North Africa was now only a question of time.
On May 13th, 1943 Axis forces in North Africa surrendered.
AIR WAR
The RAF continued to bomb targets in France, the Low Countries and Germany. For now, this was the only way to bring the war to Germany.
In 1942 Bomber Command received a new aircraft – the Avro Lancaster – and a new leader – Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris. Accepting that precision bombing was proving impossible, the War Cabinet sanctioned 'area bombing' – the targeting of whole cities to destroy both factories and their workers. It was judged necessary to defeat an enemy that seemed on the brink of victory
By June 1942 seven squadrons were equipped with the Lancaster, which went on to become the most effective heavy bomber of RAF Bomber Command in World War Two. Britain focused more on night bombing at this stage of the war due to heavy losses from daytime missions.
February: The United States 8th Air Force was activated in February 1942 as a heavy bomber force based in England and began regular operations on August 17th when the 97th Bombardment Group flew twelve Boeing B-17E Flying Fortresses on the first VIII Bomber Command heavy bomber mission of the war from RAF Grafton Underwood, attacking the Rouen-Sotteville marshalling yards in France. Its B-17 Flying Fortresses were capable of sustaining heavy damage while continuing to fly, and its B-24 Liberators, long-range bombers, became famous for precision bombing raids in daytime on France, the Low Countries and Germany.
The United States 8th Air Force favored daylight bombing as opposed to the RAF strategy of night operations. They believed that tight formation flying and with aircraft bristling with guns they would be able to deal with defending German Luftwaffe fighters. This strategy did not always work as planned and heavy losses were inflicted by the Luftwaffe in the early stages of the air campaign.
Losses would reduce after the introduction of the P47 Thunderbolt and P51 Mustang fighter bombers in late 1942. These aircraft with modified fuel tanks, high maneuverability and massive fire power against air to air or air to ground targets, were able to provide cover for the bombers to and from their targets deep in Germany.
NORTH ATLANTIC
U-Boat Menace: The Battle of the Atlantic is one of the most overlooked battlegrounds of World War 2, but it proved no less important for control of vital shipping lanes between North America and Europe. The German U-boat scourge was one of the deadlier components of the German war machine. The U-boat became the greatest threat to merchant men traversing the long, open causeways of the Atlantic Ocean for most of the war.
While 1941 saw nearly 500 Allied ships and over 2.4 million tons of goods lost, 1942 was even worse with over 1,000 ships and nearly 5.5 million tons of goods lost. In the January to March period, some 216 vessels were sunk off the east coast of the United States. June was the single worst month of Allied shipping losses, with some 834,000 tons of supplies badly needed in England and Russia sent to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
German U-Boats would continue to operate until the end of the war in May 1945.
With the end of 1942, the war was only about halfway through, many battles, air, sea and land lay ahead before final defeat of the Axis powers in 1945. Things were however looking better for the Allies than at the start of the year. Technology and manufacturing capacity were evolving and would prove vital to the Allied powers gaining the upper hand in the remaining years of the conflict.