British aircraft and ships torpedo the Italian tanker San Andrea off Malta, sending tank fuel to the bottom. The british owe their knowledge of this ship's movements to their breaking of Italian cipher 38M, which has spelled out San Andrea's complete itinerary.

On Guadalcanal, the Japanese try a fighter sweep, sending in 18 crack pilots from their carrier groups. The carriers are in the body and fender shop. 18 Zeros swoop in on Guadalcanal at 11:45 and meet three groups of fighters, 11 P-400s (the export model of the P-39) and eight F4Fs. The Japanese splash four P- 400s, but the Americans down eight Zeros, boosting morale. The Marines are delighted, but the P-400 pilots furious, calling their planes "klunkers," lacking decent supercharging for high- altitude flights or recharging their oxygen system. P-400s cannot fly high enough to hit bombers and are to slow to mix with Zeros. After this day's action, the P-400s go to work in ground support.

That afternoon, the Japanese send 18 Bettys and 13 Zeros, which catch the destroyer-transport USS Colhoun, which has only four 20mm guns for self-defense. Six bombs hit the tincan, which rips guns from plates, engines from their bedplates, and ruptures oil lines and fire mains. Captain and crew take to the boats as Colhoun sinks with 50 aboard.

The day wraps up with 19 more Marine F4Fs landing at Guadalcanal, from VMF-224 and 12 SBDs from VMSB-231. Good timing: "Cactus" has only five flyable Wildcats left.

At sea, the "Rat Express" of Japanese destroyers and "Ant Freight" of motorboats struggle to haul Japanese troops to Taivu Point. Maj. Gen. Kiyotake Kawaguchi decides to send 2,400 men of 2nd Battalion, 4th Regiment, by destroyer to Taivu Point and 1,100 troops of 124th Regiment under Colonel Akinosuka Oka to Kokumbuna, 10 miles west of the airfield. From these points, the two forces will move on Henderson Field.

Kawaguchi hops on a cider box to tell his commanders, "I think our faith is our strength. Men who fight bravely, never doubting victory, will be the victors in the long run. Before we get to the battlefield, we must sail 300 miles and may very well encounter enemy attacks enroute. But we have trained ourselves, haven't we? I swear to all of you that we will smash the enemy. On to Guadalcanal!"

The officers raise their glasses in toast. Kawaguchi goes on deck, trailing war correspondent Gen Nishino, to find his men diving into the ocean and swimming back to the ship, as training. Kawaguchi says, "They need constant training," and spies a lieutenant leaning on the rail, smoking a cigarette. "Hey, lieutenant," Kawaguchi calls, "Why aren't you in there with the men?"

The lieutenant drops his cigarette into the water and jumps to attention, mumbling an excuse. Kawaguchi pushes the lieutenant over the rail, and says to Nishino, "There are some lazy ones. In war when you're thrown into the sea, even a hammer has to swim."

At midnight Kawaguchi and Nishino board the destroyer Umikaze. Kawaguchi tells the reporter that the Americans are well dug-in and have endless supplies. "When we come to think of such things it seems extremely difficult for a small unit like ours to retake the airfield. Wouldn't you think the destruction of the Ichiki Detachment would be a lesson to us? But Imperial Headquarters belittles the enemy on Guadalcanal and declares that once we land successfully, the Marines will surrender."

A Soviet transport plane bounces to a halt and Gen. Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov bounces out. He has a brief from Stalin: save Stalingrad. While Col. Gen. Andrei Yeremenko holds the city, Zhukov will prepare a counterattack. At Yeremenko's HQ, the two generals pour over maps. Zhukov believes the German attackers are greatly over-extended, despite air superiority and advantage in tanks. But the long German left flank is held, in order, by Rumanians, Italians, and Hungarians. The Italian Army, which consists mostly of mountain troops, is deployed to the plains between Rumanian and Hungarian forces to keep the bitter rivals apart. Zhukov recognizes the opportunity to cut through the weakly defended sides of the salient and isolate German forces at Stalingrad in a giant pincer movement. But to do so, the Germans must be defeated and tied down at Stalingrad. Zhukov heads back to Moscow to make his plans.

Meanwhile the battle of Stalingrad rages on. 4th Panzer Army attacks from the south of the city while Yeremenko deals with threats to the north. 4th Panzers aim to cut a wedge into 64th Army, turn right, and cut off the 64th.

The tanks blast their way through the defenses with help from Stukas and it is suddenly possible to bag the right wing of 64th Army and the whole of the 62nd as well....if 4th Panzer Army keeps driving north, and 6th Army drives south. Army Group B cuts orders to do so at noon, telling Gen. Friedrich Paulus, boss of 6th Army to concentrate "strongest forces possible...to destroy the enemy force west of Stalingrad."

Paulus doesn't move. he believes that if he detaches his fast forces, his northern front might collapse under the with of Soviet counterattack.

"Rock wastes, arid, barren, desolate terrain, interspersed with patches of sand, where the African sun burns down mercilessly in July -- that was the Alamein Front," writes Gen. Fritz Bayerlein, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's chief of staff. Rommel's forces are getting only 6,000 tons a month, one-fifth of what they need. RAF planes and Royal Navy submarines from Malta are sending three-quarters of all convoys to the bottom.

The Axis decision to postpone and later cancel the invasion of Malta is coming home to haunt them.

Now Rommel must attack, relying on his traditional move, the brilliant flanking maneuver.

Against this, the British 8th Army, under Lt. Gen. Bernard Montgomery, is dug in. There will be no retreat. 8th Army will stand and fight where it is. Monty will permit no bellyaching, no arguments. His forces will fight in divisions, and in depth. His intelligence has anticipated Rommel's "right hook."

That evening, Rommel's forces assemble for the offensive. Before long, the RAF sweeps in with bombs and parachute flares. British artillery joins in with high explosive shells. The German attack is slowed down.

During the night, 21st Panzer Division's CO, Gen. von Bismarck, is killed when his motorcycle and sidecar hit a British mine. Gen. Nehring, boss of Deutsches Afrika Korps, is wounded by strafing. Bayerlein takes over.

August 31st, 1942...USS Enterprise, her starboard gun gallery ripped open, heads back to Hawaii, leaving behind her air group to fight at Guadalcanal. Sailors go to the wrecked area, staring at blackened, twisted metal, which still smells of blood and oil.

At Adak, RO-61's batteries are nearly out. The skipper, Cdr. Tokutomi, decides to sink the seaplane tender Casco and the destroyer Reid in the bay, then high-tail it. His first Long Lance slips past Casco and zooms up onto the beach in best comic- book style, without exploding. The second fish hits Casco's main engine room, killing five men, injuring 20, and wrecking the engine room. Sheets of fuel oil and gasoline splash overboard. AO1 J. Cobean sees a burning phosphorescent flare bob on a buoy in the oil. He dives overboard and swims over to the flare, and holds it underwater until it goes out, preventing a worse fire.

A passing storm breaks up the oilslick, while a demolition team removes the unexploded Long Lance on the beach. Casco is temporarily out of the game, but PBYs roar out of Dutch Harbor to seek the retreating RO-61. They find her heading home on the surface (while recharging her batteries) and attack, joined by destroyer Reid. A few depth charges, and RO-61 bobs to the surface for the last time. Reid pulls out five survivors and signals Casco: "Got sub that got you. Have five prisoners for proof."

At Hitler's headquarters in Vinnitsa, all hands battle muggy heat and mosquitoes. The Fuhrer orders that, "upon penetration into the city (of Stalingrad), the entire male population be eliminated, since Stalingrad with its one million uniformly Communist inhabitants is extremely dangerous." The female population must be shipped off, but Hitler does not specify where.

Army Group B orders Paulus to head south and cut off the Russian defenders at Stalingrad.

Paulus doesn't move. Soviet pressure on his north is too great. Soviet 76 mm guns, across the Volga, hammer his men.

Yeremenko does move though, and pulls his 62nd Army out of the closing gap, while 64th pushes to a small bridgehead on the Volga. Ferryboats evacuate the civilian population to the east bank of the river, while carrying guns, ammunition and troops the other way. The Luftwaffe hammers the long Soviet trans-Volga tail, while Soviet AA gunners and fighters strike back.

Wilhelm Hoffmann, of the 267th Regiment of the German 94th Division, diaries: "Are the Russians really going to fight on the very bank of the Volga? It's madness."

Australian troops counterattack at Milne Bay in New Guinea, relying on machine guns and booby traps to defeat the Japanese. The Australian militiamen and the Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces are both ground down, but the Australians gain ascendancy.

At 3 a.m., the Japanese form for an approach when flares fired by Australians outline the enemy for rapid and accurate rifle and machine gun fire. Before dawn the Japanese flee. 2/12th Battalion moves in to mop up. As they inspect dead Japanese, one sits up and opens fire with his pistol. The Australians shoot every prone Japanese they find. They also find a native boy and woman, both horribly mutilated, and two bound and bayoneted Australians. This infuriates the Australians.

That night militiamen kill 90 of about 300 Japanese who come charging out of the jungle.

That evening, Japanese destroyers sail in and shell the Australians. A wandering cow hits a mine, which frightens the RAAF orderly manning the nearby canteen. He destroys the stocks of beer, and is lucky to evade court-martial.

Gen Nishino is awakened by a chilly breeze at sea, and his convoy sails at 8:25 am at a bugle's order. The suffocating heat drives Nishino onto the open deck, amid lashing spray. Officers tell their men to avenge comrades trapped on Guadalcanal by the invasion. The soldiers promise to "wipe out every Yankee" and are given beer, cider, tobacco, and candy. "We're responsible for the sea, and you're responsible for the land," says a Sailor. "Okay? So good luck!"

Japanese troops give each other fingernail clippings to send home to relatives in case they are killed.

Guadalcanal is shielded that day from Japanese bombs by heavy weather. Some pilots fly to answer false alarms, and one, Lt. Richard Amerine, disappears. He returns seven days later, having crash-landed 30 miles behind enemy lines. Amerine journeys back over days, killing four enemy soldiers enroute. His college study of entomology enables him to survive the ordeal by munching on coconuts, red ants, and snails.

The Americans set up a radar set. The book says its range is 120 miles. It's actually 80.

At dawn, USS Saratoga is steaming to the south of Guadalcanal, at an area US carriers frequent in order to cover the supply routes to the island. At 7:06, the ship secures from dawn battle stations, unaware that their profile has been sighted by Cdr. Minoru Yokota of I-26. He looses a fish at 7:48, which hits the starboard side abreast of the island, which floods one boiler room (mercifully unoccupied), but brings the carrier's turbo-electric machinery to a halt by 7:53. I-26 evades the Americans, but Saratoga requires a tow home. She has to sail back to the West Coast for repair. Saratoga is out of the game.

So is Vice Adm. Frank Jack Fletcher, who is one of 12 men wounded (all the casualties), from a forehead laceration. Nimitz is furious that Saratoga is at the time loafing along in an area heavily frequented by Japanese submarines, and frustrated by Fletcher's inactivity, timidity, and obsession with fuelling. He has drifted from prudence to paralysis. Fletcher is out of the game. Unlike Saratoga, he is gone for good.

The same day, Rear Adm. Raizo "Tenacious" Tanaka relinquishes command of his ships at Rabaul to Rear Adm. Shintaro Hashimoto. Tanaka is also exhausted, but he will return.

Late that evening, Kawaguchi's troops go ashore, launches, cutters, and rowboats moving the men onto Guadalcanal. The water is full of luminescent creatures which cling to the Japanese troops. Kawaguchi salutes the destroyers as he goes ashore.

As Gen Nishino staggers ashore, he runs into two survivors of Ichiki's force. They say, "Glad to see you. Shake those damn worms off you. It's suicide to leave footprints in the sand. We're always being attacked by US planes." The Ichiki men bow and vanish.

Nishino struggles through a river, and nearly loses his 70- lb. pack (in it is a movie camera, two still cameras, film equipment, clothing, food, and five books -- a selection of Chinese poems, a geography of the Solomons, two volumes of French poetry, and an English copy of The Good Earth). He manages to keep his pack and struggles into a trail blocked with thick tangles of vines studded with long sharp thorns and huge trees with knobby roots. It starts to rain. Kawaguchi and his men curl up and try to sleep. Nishino starts to shiver, sits down, and becomes a target for mosquitoes.

"Rommel has begun the attack for which we have been preparing," Churchill telegraphs Roosevelt and Stalin.

Rommel gets bad news at 8 a.m., his tanks have been unable to reach objectives, due to heavy British minefields. Troops have advanced a bare 8 or 10 miles. British troops have defended positions with extraordinary stubbornness, and British armour of 10th and 7th Armoured divisions are assembling for counterattack.

Rommel orders his men to move up the line of telegraph poles to the center of Alam Halfa ridge, which will be the key to the battle.

Rommel theorizes that the battle will be tough, but his 88mm guns will defeat British Grant tanks in the usual manner, and the defenders, identified as the green 44th Division, will crumple. Rommel orders his tanks to refuel at noon, as a massive sandstorm blows up, choking everyone, including RAF aircraft.

By 1 p.m., Rommel's tanks are on the move again, Germans in the lead, Italian tanks behind, still clearing mines. They are late taking up Rommel's right flank, and do not do so until 3 p.m.

Rommel's tanks rumble on through the sandstorm, crews wrapped up to protect themselves. The intense sand wears down the Afrika Korps' fuel and tempers, and the attack on Hill 132 is called off.

At Point 102, 22nd Armoured Brigade's Grants and Crusaders run into Rommel's Panzer IIIs. The Germans destroy 12 Grants of the County of London Yeomanry. Brigadier Pip Roberts, commanding, sees this debacle, and orders the Greys and the Rifle Brigade to move in position and be ready with their 6-lbr. anti-tank guns. The Germans charge. As they batter through the forward defenses, 5th Royal Tank Regiment shows up. The panzers turn and speed for the protection of their 88s. But instead of charging after them, the British tanks feed the Germans' location to their 25-lbr. artillery, which opens fire. The German trap has failed, and British artillery has located the German leaguer area. All night long the British shell and bomb the German position.

The Germans dig in, wait out the shelling, and wait for re- supply. Very little comes, as the supply teams must fight their way through mines, bombs, and shellfire.

September 1st, 1942...Fierce winds continue to make things miserable at Adak as storm wind piles barges on the beach, smashes lighters on the water, and sends cargo to the bottom. Even so, Gen. Landrum gets his 807th Aviation Engineer Battalion ashore and to work building "Squeakyville," the main base. Then the engineers set out to drain the lagoon, bulldozing an airstrip of hard-packed sand. The steel mats are at the harbor's bottom.

The Japanese government creates the "Greater East Asia Ministry," to run its empire. The boss is Kazuo Aoki. His job is to exploit the labor and resources of the conquered territories as much as possible.

At Stalingrad, the fighting grows more intense. Soviet counterattacks pin down 6th Army and prevent it from moving south to cut off 62nd Army. The city itself is all but obliterated by the Luftwaffe, and tanks soon get stuck in the rubble. The city is under constant bombardment by air and artillery, adding to the damage and the din. Fires can be seen many miles away over the steppe.

Before dawn on Guadalcanal, Kawaguchi rouses his men, and they grope through the jungle to Tasimboko, three miles west of Taivu Point. The men eat breakfast, prepared by the Navy and packed in each man's "hango," a covered metal mess kit. Inside are white rice, dried fish, fish paste and cooked beef. In thanks each soldier raises his hango to his forehead and bows.

Breakfast is interrupted by Lt. Ueno's faithful dog barking. Moments later, all hands hear US Army P-400s sweeping in. They fly by.

Ueno's dog provides the Japanese with warning of a second American attack, whose bombs shake the earth and kill a dozen men.

Meanwhile, Marine SBDs damage the tincan Shikinami at 1:30 a.m., as it heads home.

At 11:35 a.m., 18 Bettys and 20 Zeroes bomb Henderson Field. The Americans damage three Bettys and splash two Zeros, to no loss.

That night, Nishino goes to sleep in an abandoned hut, but is awakened by shouting. Nishino and his fellow reporters are summoned to the beach where motors have been heard at sea. The Japanese open fire. They shoot their own men. The motors are barges bringing the second echelon of Ichiki Detachment, reinforcements for Kawaguchi. The Japanese come ashore, having lost two dead and eight wounded. The fusillade also awakes the Americans, who spend the night hurling flares, bombs, and shrapnel at the Japanese.

At dawn at El Alamein, only 15th Panzer has sufficient petrol to mount an attack. It hits the western end of Alam Halfa Ridge, moving at first light, getting caught in heavy shellfire. Once again British tanks attack. Once again the Germans try their usual tactic of fleeing to within range of their 88s, but the British do not follow. The British lose seven tanks for two German, but the Germans gain no ground.

That evening, the RAF returns, even bringing in elderly Albacore biplanes, to hammer the Afrika Korps by night, exhausting everyone from privates to Rommel.

Japan's Foreign Minister, Shigenori Togo, taking the blame for Japan's failure to conclude a quick end to the war, resigns.

September 2nd, 1942..."Held quarters for reception of Davy Jones, USN, and Royal Party," logs USS Washington as she steams along at 12 knots across the Equator. "How all us pollywogs were scared to death," writes SN hunter Cronin in a letter home. Johnny Brown watches the shellbacks fashion their shillelaghs, canvas tubes full of salt, sand, and sugar. "Anything they could put in, then they threw them over the fantail to harden them up." Hands who have not "crossed the line" face the traditional rigors, ranging from junior seamen to Lt. Cdr. Ray Hunter and Marine Capt. Jonas Platt. Ens. Hal Berc is offered a fine and instead chooses "the works," as do the other officers.

17 Field Artillery Regiment is formed at Papakura Camp for 3 NZ Division, which will fight in the Solomons.

By dawn, Rommel begins to realize that his drive on Alam Halfa is failing at a high rate of speed. He himself suffers stomach trouble, nausea, and blocked nasal passages, adding to his misery. As he drives to the front, he sees tanks unable to move from lack of fuel and men unwilling to leave foxholes for fear of air attack. At one point, Rommel has to dive into a foxhole and a shell splinter rips through the blade of a shovel lying on the lip of a trench, and a piece of red hot metal falls beside him.

All day long the RAF, joined by squadrons of American B-25 Mitchells and B-24 Liberators, hammer the Germans.

Rommel needs more supplies to advance. A 300-truck convoy is sent to him. It gets caught by 7th Armoured Division's light tanks, which destroy 57. He is down to one day's petrol ration for his vehicles, perhaps not enough to retreat.

Glum, Rommel returns to his HQ, to discuss things with Kesselring. The latter promises more airstrikes, but says the 500 tons of petrol promised per day is "consuming itself" on the way up in the tanks of vehicles bringing it up over the appalling roads and tracks.

Of the 5,000 tons of petrol Marshal Cavallero has promised, 2,600 tons has been sunk, 1,500 tons is stuck in Italy, and the prospect of the remaining 1,000 tons arriving is slim.

Axis casualties are 570 dead, 1,800 wounded, and 570 PoWs. Rommel reports losing 50 tanks, 15 field guns, 35 anti-tank guns, and 400 trucks.

The British report 1,640 casualties, 68 tanks lost and 18 anti-tank guns. They claim capturing 51 tanks (42 of them German), 30 field guns, and 40 anti-tank guns.

That night, Rommel scratches out a report to Berlin saying that he has decided to call off the offensive and retreat to his start line. As soon as Rommel's radiomen begin to send the message, the RAF arrives to hammer the place. The desert floor shakes from 4,000-lb. bombs that fling lumps of stone into the air, adding to the death and destruction.

It is the bitterest night of Rommel's career. He attributes the defeat to enemy air superiority, his own poor reconnaissance (which did not reveal strong British positions), and his lack of fuel.

While Rommel's offensive sputters out at Alam Halfa, the German drive into the Caucasus is also slowing down as Stalingrad takes priority. German troops get to 100 miles of Grozny and its critical oilfields. Nor do they reach Baku, a city floating on 20 million tons of oil, three times Germany's yearly consumption.

German troops have reached Maikop's oilwells, which supplies light sweet crude. However, the Germans find the wells and refineries burning and demolished. The Germans set to work rebuilding the refineries, and find that Nazi economic bungling has denied the Reich drills and oil-producing equipment, which is a massive irony, considering the campaign's objectives. However, the Nazis have plenty of technical minds, and 40 experts are sent to Maikop to sort the situation out.

They are housed in a large barrack block with German guards, but during one night, Soviet partisans break in and sort out the technicians by slitting their throats. When the drilling equipment is finally ready, it is held up in the overtaxed rail network and never reaches Maikop before Soviet forces recapture the town.

A city that produces 2 million tons of oil annually only generates 70 barrels a day for the Germans.

At Stalingrad, 6th Army still can't break out. Soviet 62nd Army evades the closing trap. The Germans send in self-propelled guns, which add more firepower to the assault. Yeremenko says the German guns don't work well, but asks Stalin to send him some anyway. The Germans push on, a building at a time.

Josef Stalin fires a message at Zhukov at Ivanovka, planning the counteroffensive. "The situation at Stalingrad is getting worse. The enemy is two miles from Stalingrad. Stalingrad may be taken today or tomorrow if the northern group of forces does not give immediate help. Require the commanders of the forces deployed north and northwest of Stalingrad to strike at the enemy at once, and go to help the Stalingraders. No procrastination is permitted. Procrastination now equals crime. Throw all aviation in to help Stalingrad. In Stalingrad there are very few aircraft left. Report receipt and measures taken without delay."

Zhukov hurls the 24th and 66th Armies, neither fully- trained, all older reservists into action three days later.

German troops launch Operation North Sea around Mogilev, to once again eliminate Soviet partisans operating against the German army's principal lines of communication. Every partisan operation ties down German troops who could otherwise be used for more major battles.

In Singapore, Japanese troops recapture two Australian and two British PoWs who have escaped captivity. Maj. Gen. Shempei Fukuei orders the PoWs shot, a violation of the Hague and Geneva Conventions. Further, the shooters will be Indian Sikh PoWs.

The execution takes place, and all four are killed: Cpl. Rodney Breavington and Pvt. Victor Gale of Australia, and Pvts. Harold Waters and Eric Fletcher from Britain.

While these PoWs face their deaths in Malaya, German and Italian PoWs held captive in Canada (and soon, in the United States) face nothing harsher than bully beef rations, clothing stamped "PW," and lectures on democracy. None will be shot for escape attempts, but 14 German PoWs held at the US Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, are shot in 1945, for killing fellow PoWs who had turned informer. These 14 are buried in the US Disciplinary Barracks cemetery.

September 3rd, 1942...At 0830, longitude 100 degrees, 00' west, latitude 00 degrees, 00', Washington crosses the line. CWT R.M. Miller, suitably disguised as Neptunus Rex, assembles his robed and painted retainers, including the Royal Supreme Juge, Royal Executioner, Royal Pallbearers and Undertakers, and Royal Sea Lawyer. They clank up to the bridge to meet Capt. Davis, where only the helmsman is oblivious to events.

"I am glad to be with you again," says Neptunus Rex, "and have prepared for a busy day in order to make you landlubbers fit subjects for my great sea domain." Davis pleads for leniency for his pollywogs, but Neptunus says, "Ah! Captain, I will be as severe as I can!" Neptunus takes command. The Jolly Roger is hoisted at the foretruck.

On the main deck, a screen is rigged at turret 3. Sailors crawl into a canvas tank full of garbage from the ship's slop chutes. Royal barbers shave pollywogs' heads, and they run through garbage while being hit by shillelaghs. It is all done by 1053, and each new shellback receives a certificate, which reads, "There appeared the USS Washington bound southward from the equator in search of Japs," copies to each Sailor's Enlisted Service Record. At 1100, the 1MC pipes sweepers to clean up the mess, and the battleship goes back to work, main battery tracking drills.

In Stalingrad, Gen. Alexander Lopatin, commanding 62nd Army, tells his boss, Yeremenko, that 62nd can't hold. Yeremenko fires Lopatin.

His replacement is Vasili Ivanovich Chuikov, son of a peasant, who has been until recently military advisor to Chiang Kai-Shek and 64th Army's Chief of Staff. Supposed to take over an army in July, on the way to the front, his drunken driver crashed the car, leaving Chuikov in hospital for a week. A few weeks later, Chuikov's light plane was forced to crash by enemy aircraft. On hitting the ground it split in two, throwing Chuikov out. He suffered nothing more than a bump on the head.

Chuikov is a master of improvisation and surprise. Told he must hold Stalingrad, he says he will do so. He becomes Paulus's chief enemy.

Chuikov heads into Stalingrad to find the Germans two miles from the river, and the city unrecognizable. To get to 62nd Army's command post, he has to cross the Volga by boat, take a nightmare jeep journey to the left bank to report to Khrushchev an Yeremenko at front HQ, then back on the ferry, and into the burning city.

He writes, "The streets of the city are dead. There is not a single green twig left on the streets; everything has perished in the flames. All that is left of the wooden houses is a pile of ashes and a stove chimney sticking up out of them..." Only the concrete and iron structures of factories, and stone buildings in the city's center, remain standing above ground, roofless, interior walls crushed away.

Chuikov admires how the Germans use combined arms in battle, but considers them sluggish and irresolute. Their combined forces are powerful, he says, but the elements themselves are not of outstanding quality. He notes that the panzers do not attack until the Luftwaffe is over Soviet positions, and until the tanks reach their objectives, infantry will not go in. Therefore, the key is to break the German chain, by whatever means. Chuikov also notes that the German infantry has no love of close combat, preferring to use firepower at range.

Chuikov's solution is to fight battles as close as possible, so that the Luftwaffe cannot attack without putting its own forces in danger. The chain will be broken at its first link, and German infantry will fight in their least favorite tactical environment. Chuikov explains it to his troops later, "Every German soldier must be made to feel he lives under the muzzle of a Russian gun."

A Navy R4D (C-47) unloads Brig. Gen. Roy Geiger at Henderson Field. He takes over the Marine airbase on Guadalcanal in a one-story building called the Pagoda. He assesses the situation. Japanese tactics are predictable, their planes are picked off early by Paul Read and Jack Mason on Guadalcanal, and the Americans have sufficient time to vector out fighters. More importantly, Japanese bombs bury themselves so deeply, the only damage done is from clods of earth. Despite Henderson Field being mostly glue and goo during frequent rain, Marine aviators are doing the job of standing off the Japanese. New tactics of "vertical interception" also help.

But the Marine aviators are exhausted from combat flying and living on matting on dirt floors of tents. They have no changes of clothes, and are drained from their menu of rice, potatoes, Spam, hash, and sausage. This combination causes abdominal pains at high altitudes. Nerves are frayed from "Washing Machine Charlie"'s nightly runs. Geiger orders more offensive operations to try and shut down "Charlie" and personally flies an SBD on a raid to set an example -- and shame the younger men.

Guadalcanal is now in a state of mutual siege. The Americans own the area by day with their airpower. At dusk, US ships flee Ironbottom Sound "like frightened children running from a graveyard," as Samuel Eliot Morison observes.

By night, the Japanese Navy takes over, supplying their forces with food and bullets, and the Americans with a bombardment. The Japanese Navy missions achieve the regularity of a railroad run, and the Americans call it the "Rat Express" or the "Cactus Express." American newsmen, forbidden to use the "Cactus" codename for Guadalcanal, call it the "Tokyo Express," which is how it is remembered.

Col. Oka's force heads south to Guadalcanal, too, getting strafed and bombed by SBDs enroute.

12 British commandos attack a lighthouse in the German- occupied Channel Islands which is also being used as a radio station. The British captured all seven Germans manning it, smash the radio gear, and take home the code books. Four weeks later, in a conference with his senior officers, Hitler mentions this incident, saying, "Above all, I am grateful to the English for proving me right by their various landing attempts. It shows up those who think I am always seeing phantoms, who say 'Well, when are the English coming? There is absolutely nothing happening on the coast -- we swim every day, and we haven't seen a single Englishman!'"

At El Alamein, Lt. Gen. Bernard Montgomery sends in his first team, the 2nd New Zealand Division, in Operation Beresford, joined by British 132 Brigade. Their objective is Rommel's weakest point, Munassib. 132 Brigade runs into the determined paratroopers of the German Ramcke Brigade and the Italian Folgore Division, both eager to prove their abilities. The advance turns into a mess of confused communications, burning trucks, and disintegration when brigade CO Brig. C.B. Robertson is wounded.

The New Zealanders, 21st and 28th Battalions, do better, with the force charging through the valley. The Maoris take 50 PoWs, both take their objectives, but run into heavy German resistance.

September 4th, 1942...Capt. Fred Smith, flying the weather plane to Kiska, spots a Japanese destroyer-minelayer. Lacking bombs, he swoops down and strafes it. Smith signals base: "Saw steamer, strafed same, sank same, some sight, signed Smith."

32 British and Australian Hampden bombers fly from Britain to North Russia to take part, from Soviet airbases, in the protection of Arctic convoys. Nine of the Hampdens never make it, either running out of fuel and being forced to crash land in Sweden, or, in one case, being accidentally shot down by Russian aircraft as they approach the Soviet coast. Even in the water, the Soviets keep firing on the crew, until their shouts of "Angliski!" (and doubtless more colorful invective from the Australians) are recognized.

However, one bomber on this flight is damaged by German patrol ship flak, and is forced to land in Norway. The crew is captured before they can burn the plane's secret documents about the imminent convoy PQ 18.

Australian Corporal French, a Queenslander, orders his section into cover when under fire at Milne Bay. He rushes with grenades the first of a group of machine gun posts, and silences the first gun. He returns for more grenades, and silences the second gun. Then, firing a tommy gun from the hip, he rushes the third gun, kills its crew, and dies from his wounds. He receives a posthumous Victoria Cross.

The Germans attack again at Stalingrad, splitting 64th Army and driving to the Volga at Krasnoarmeisk. The city has been under continuous bombardment for 24 hours. "Anyone without experience of war would think that in the blazing city there is no longer anywhere left to live, that everything has been destroyed and burned out...But I know that on the other side of the river a battle is being fought, a titanic struggle is taking place."

Operation Beresford ends with the New Zealanders withdrawing, being overextended. 132 Brigade has lost 700 men, 5 NZ has lost 700. 6 Brigade, in a diversionary attack, has lost 159 men, including Brigadier George Clifton, who is taken PoW. He makes nine escape attempts, succeeding the final time.

That evening, the "Cactus," or "Rat," or "Tokyo Express" makes a run to Guadalcanal, to bring in 2nd battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment and Ichiki's Second Echelon to Taivu Point. Cruiser Sendai leads 11 destroyers. After unloading Oka's forces to the west of Henderson Field and Ichiki to the east, three destroyers steam up to bombard Henderson Field.

There they meet the destroyer transports Little and Gregory, which have dropped off parts of the 1st Raider Battalion to Savo Island to check on false reports of Japanese presence. The two ships see gun flashes, and think it's an enemy submarine. They go to GQ at 1 a.m., and their radar picks up the Japanese at 1:02. Armed with 4-inchers, the two four-piper destroyer-transports are no match for the sleek Japanese tincans. The Japanese shred the Americans, hurling 500 shells at both ships. Both are turned to blazing hulks, and both skippers killed. 12 officers and 226 men are saved. Little loses 22 dead and 44 wounded, while Gregory loses 11 dead and 26 wounded.

"The officers and men serving in these ships have shown great courage and have performed outstanding service. They entered this dangerous area time after time, knowing that their ships stood little or no chance if they should be opposed by any surface or air force the enemy would send into those waters. On the occasion of their last trip in they remained for six days, subjected to daily air attack and anticipating nightly surface attack," writes Rear Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner.

Oka's force continues to head south, still being strafed and bombarded.

September 5th, 1942...Vichy police round up the last of 9,872 Jews for loading on trains to Auschwitz.

In New Guinea, the Australian 2/9th Battalion attacks behind an artillery barrage and P-40 fighter strafing. The Japanese are forced to retreat and give up their main supply base. The myth of Japanese invincibility is being destroyed, along with scores of Japanese lives.

The Russian 24th and 66th Armies attack, and fail to gain ground at Stalingrad. But they take pressure off 62nd and 64th Armies, giving them time to lay barbed wire, dig trenches, plant mines, and infuse manpower. 87th Division is down to 180 men, 112th has 150, and 99th Tank Brigade has 120 men and now tanks.

Chuikov's opponent, Paulus, plans his next move too, yet another assault on the blasted city. Paulus, suffering dysentery, is tired and listless, but he starts each morning with bright white collar and highly polished boots. As the battle goes on, he becomes increasingly depressed about his casualty bill.

Paulus plans to concentrate two shock forces against the southern half of the town, to grab the "Central landing stage" opposite Krasnaya Sloboda. Three divisions will charge from Gumrak railway station. Another force, including the 29th Motorized Division, will attack from the northeast.

The Germans and Italians complete their withdrawal from Alam Halfa, and dig in. Montgomery issues an Order of the Day, congratulating 8th Army on its "devotion to duty and good fighting qualities which have resulted in such a heavy defeat of the enemy and which will have far-reaching results."

Monty is also forced to write-off 67 wrecked tanks. Aircraft losses are 41 Axis and 68 British. Rommel has not been "hit for six," but he has been completely stonewalled. Montgomery now has the initiative.