War Chronology 1942
January
1 The establishment of the "Anti-Fascist Organization" in the Kovno ghetto.
2 Japan conquered Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
3 Tuvia Bielski established the first base for the partisans in the forests of western Belarus.
7 The Battle of Moscow ends with a Soviet victory.
11 Japan conquered Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, declared war on the Netherlands, and invaded the East Indies (Indonesia).
14 The Nazis begin to round up Dutch Jews in Amsterdam.
16 Japan invaded Burma.
20 The Wannsee Conference - The Nazis' decision to exterminate 11,000,000 European Jews as the "Final Solution" of the "Jewish Problem".
21 The establishment of the United Partisan Organization-PAPA in the Vilna ghetto in Lithuania. Rommel began his offensive in North Africa against the British.
25 Japan invaded the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
26 The first American troops arrived in Europe, Northern Ireland.
29 The German AfriKa Korps captured Benghazi in North Africa.
February
14 The Japanese captured Sumatra in Malaysia.
15 The Japanese occupied Singapore.
19 Japanese aircraft attacked Darwin in Australia.
24 The illegal immigrant ship Struma, with 769 passengers, was sunk in the Black Sea by a Russian submarine.
28 Japan invaded the island of Java in Indonesia.
March
1 The beginning of the extermination in the Sobibor crematoria, until October 1943, about a quarter of a million Jews were exterminated there.
8 Rangoon, the capital of Burma surrenders to the Japanese.
17 The beginning of the extermination at the Belzec crematoria. The "aktion" in the Lublin ghetto in Poland.
20 German attack on Malta.
23 The Japanese captured the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.
26 The beginning of the deportation of Slovakian Jews to Auschwitz and Majdanek.
28 The first deportation of French Jews to Auschwitz.
April
1 The establishment of the "anti-fascist bloc" in the Warsaw ghetto. Formation of the "German Platoon” of the Palmach.
5 Japan attacked Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
7 German air attack on Malta.
9 Japan conquered the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines.
18 First US bombing raid on Tokyo, Japan under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel James H. Doolittle.
20 German attack on Malta.
24 The Luftwaffe bombs Exeter in England.
26 The Luftwaffe bombs the town of Bath in England.
29 Japanese forces cut off the Burma Road.
30 "Operation Bolero" - transfer of equipment and soldiers from Canada and the United States to England.
May
2 The Japanese captured Mandalay, Burma.
The Luftwaffe bombed Exeter, England.
4 Beginning of the Battle of the Coral Sea, between the Japanese and the Americans.
6 The last American force in the Philippines surrendered on Corregidor.
8 The Battle of Coral Sea in the Pacific ended.
15 Punitive actions by Jewish resistance against Jewish industrialists in northern France who worked for the Germans.
18 Herbert Baum's group set fire to the anti-Soviet exhibition in Berlin.
20 Japan completed the conquest of Burma.
26 Beginning of the Battle of Bir Hakim in the Libyan Desert. The Afrika Korps against the Free French Army commanded by General Pierre Koenig.
27 Gestapo commander, Reinhard Heydrich, was shot in Prague by Czech commandos sent from England.
29 The German army surrounded Kharkov in the Soviet Union.
30 The RAF attacked Cologne, Germany.
31 Japanese submarines attack Sydney Harbor in Australia. The Luftwaffe bombed Canterbury, England.
June
1 The opening of the extermination camp in Treblinka.
2 In the vicinity of Slonim in western Belorussia, a partisan group called “Sierczuk partisans” was organized.
3 In the area of Baranovichi, in the western part of Belorussia, groups of partisans were organized under Moshe Zalmanowicz.
4 Start of the Battle of Midway between the US and Japanese navies in the Pacific.
6 The Battle of Midway ended in an American victory.
7 Japan invades the Aleutian Islands in the Pacific and Bering Seas.
12 Sonderkommando uprising in the Belzec camp in Poland.
21 The Afrik Korps conquered Tobruk in Libya.
25 The British Air Force bombed Bremen in Germany.
28 the German offensive Operation Case Blue (Fall Blau) began to capture Stalingrad and the Caucasus. German and Italian armies reached El Alamein
July
1 The Battle of El Alamein began. First deportation of Dutch Jews to Auschwitz.
1 Germans occupied Sevastopol in the Crimea.
3 Japan occupied Guadalcanal.
11 Herbert Baum, the founder and leader of a Jewish fighting group in Nazi Berlin, was shot in the Gestapo prison.
21 The Jews of Kletsk, in the western part of Belorussia, set fire to their homes and broke out of the ghetto. Japan attacked New Guinea.
22 Armed resistance at the time of the liquidation of the Nieswiez ghetto in western Belorussia. The deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka death camp began.
23 The establishment of a Jewish Belgian defence organisation.
24 Rostov, was occupied by German forces.
26 The British Air Force bombed Hamburg.
27 The end of the first battle of El Alamein).
28 The establishment of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB) in the Warsaw ghetto, headed by Mordechai Anielewicz.
30 Establishment of the headquarters of the underground fighters in Lyon, France.
31 Gizi Fleischmann organized the underground organization "To Aid the Jews - Work Group" in Slovakia.
August
5 Janusz Korczak chose to go with the children sent to Treblinka. Start of the liquidation of the Jews of Radom Poland.
7 Commencement of Battle of Guadalcanal in the Pacific Ocean.
8 A detachment of Jewish partisans was organized under the command of Dr. Yehezkel Atlas, in the forests of Pashce Lipicanska in western Belarus.
9 Armed resistance during the liquidation of the Mir ghetto in western Belorussia.
10 The Italian submarine "Scire" is sunk near the port of Haifa. Jews participating in a partisan attack on the town of Derechin in western Belarus.
11 A German submarine sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Eagle.
Eisenhower is appointed as the Anglo-American commander of “Operation Torch”
13 General Bernard Montgomery is appointed Commander of the Eighth Army in North Africa.
14 "Aktion" in the Lvov Ghetto, Poland, 40,000 Jews were deported to extermination camps.
22 Brazil declared war on Axis powers.
26 The Battle of Milne Bay began in New Guinea.
28 The deportation of the Jews of Antwerp to extermination camps.
30 The first deportation of the Jews of Croatia to Auschwitz.
31 The formation of a Jewish partisan unit under the command of Hirsch Kaplinski in the vicinity of Zhetel, (Zdzieciol)s in Western Belorussia.
September
3 Armed resistance during the liquidation of the Lachwa ghetto in western Belorussia.
9 Armed resistance during the liquidation of the Kremenets ghetto in Western Ukraine.
23 Armed resistance during the liquidation of the Tochin ghetto in western Ukraine. Counter-attack by the British in El Alamein.
October
23 The beginning of the battle of El Alamein II.
28 First transport from the Theresienstadt ghetto to Auschwitz.
30 The establishment of the Jewish National Committee in the Warsaw Ghetto, which decided that the Jewish Fighting Organization would be the armed arm of the united underground in the ghetto.
31 Establishment of the Jewish Fighting Organization in France Organization Juive de Combat.
November
3 The second El Alamein battle ended with the retreat of the German forces.
8 “Operation Torch", the invasion of Algeria, began aided by the underground under the command of Jose Abulker.
13 The British Eighth Army captured Tobruk.
15 American Navy's victory over the Japanese fleet near Guadalcanal.
19 The Red Army in Stalingrad began a counterattack.
22 The Red Army in Stalingrad surrounded the German Sixth Army.
25 The beginning of the deportation of the Jews of Norway to Auschwitz.
26 First transport of Jews from Norway to Auschwitz.
30 The establishment of the He - Chaluts ha - Meuchad underground organization in the Theresienstadt ghetto.
December
4 The establishment of the Committee for Aid to Jews, with the participation of representatives of the Jewish underground and the Polish underground.
5 Partisan commander Yehiel Atlas fell during a battle in the Ruda Forest in Belarus.
16 Armed resistance in the Kroszina labor camp in the Radom ghetto, Poland.
22 Members of the underground in Krakow attacked German soldiers in the Cyganeria Cafe.
In the South of France, a Jewish organization for resistance and mutual aid was established.
30 The escape of an armed group from the town of Sosnowiec and the beginning of the Jewish partisan movement in the Parczew Forest in the Lublin Region.
31 A Jewish partisan company was formed under the command of Yechiel Grinshpan.