WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO SEPTEMBER 1942
Find out what all happened February to September 1942

World War II: the Battle of Guadalcanal begins – United States Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. (7. August 1942)

French prisoner of war General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein. (17. April 1942)

World War II: The Japanese imperial submarines I-21 and I-24 shell the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle. (8. June 1942)

The heavy cruiser USS Houston is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed, along with HMAS Perth which lost 375 men. (28. February 1942)

World War II: Nazi Germany started its strategic summer offensive against the Soviet Union, codenamed Case Blue (28. June 1942)

World War II: second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. A Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned-back by an Allied air attack, losing one destroyer and one transport sunk, and one light cruiser heavily damaged. (25. August 1942)

World War II: Siege of Leningrad – Soviet forces open a much-needed railway link to Leningrad. (8. April 1942)

Diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and the Soviet Union are established. (10. July 1942)

Holocaust: the systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins. (22. July 1942)

Voice of America, the official external radio and television service of the United States government, begins broadcasting with programs aimed at areas controlled by the Axis powers. (1. February 1942)

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress. (6. August 1942)

World War II: The Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō is sunk and US carrier USS Enterprise heavily damaged. (24. August 1942)

World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as the Japanese victory becomes inevitable. (22. February 1942)

World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by Japan against the United States mainland. (21. June 1942)

World War II: the Battle of Alam Halfa begins. (30. August 1942)

World War II: The Japanese take Bataan in the Philippines. (8. April 1942)

World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore. (18. February 1942)

World War II: Tobruk falls to Italian and German forces. (21. June 1942)

World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with Japanese Imperial Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington. The battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships. (8. May 1942)

World War II: Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrenders. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war, the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history. (15. February 1942)