Accadeva 60 anni fa

[marcejap]

September 3, 1943

New Guinea: 1,000 Japanese landed the night before to reinforce Buna garrison.

Japan: The foreign minister, Shigenori Togo, the only civilian in the cabinet reassigns "for personal reasons"; the war minister and premier, Hideki Tojo, takes over his portfolio for the time being.

Eastern Front: German troops penetrate the city's western and northern suburbs, and Stalin orders an immediate attack to relieve pressure on the defenders.

Britain: A reciprocal lend-lease deal is signed by Britain, US, Australia, New Zealand and the Free French.

Channel Isles: British commandos captured 7 German soldiers
and seized codebooks during a raid on a lighthouse the night before.

Arctic: The German A/S trawler UJ1202 is sunk off Kongsfjord by the Soviet submarine L-20.

English Channel: The German 5th TB Flotilla consists of T25, Mowe, Kondor, T19 and T27 carries out the 'Taube' and 'Rebhuhn' mining operations in the Channel.

[marcejap]

September 4, 1943

Eastern Front: The last rail outlet out of Kharkov was blocked by the Russians who captured Merefa.

New Guinea: Australian and US forces begin attacking Lae, the main objective of the campaign. Other Australian units landed on the Huon Peninsula, near Lae.

Belfast: Police clash with IRA gunmen in street battles.

[marcejap]

September 5, 1943

New Guinea: The Japanese evacuate Milne Bay.

Eastern Front: Fighting is now taking place in the suburbs; yesterday the Germans reached the Volga, south of the city.

German troops lay siege to the Black Sea naval base of Novorossiisk.

Budapest: The blackout is introduced because of Soviet air raids.

[marcejap]

September 6, 1943

Italy: Allied shipping began operating in the Strait of Messina.

Germany: US bombers suffered heavy losses-45 out of 407 aircraft-in attacks on German cities.

China: General Stilwell proposed the use of both Chinese Nationalist and Communist troops to defend airfields to be used in attacking Japan's home islands. Stilwell's notion of employing Communist troops was heresy to Chiang Kai-shek, whose own units were largely employed in containing the Communists.

Arctic: Operation 'Sizilien': a German task force comprising the battleship Tirpitz, the battlecruiser Scharnhorst and the 4th, 5th and 6th DD Flotillas consisting of Z27, Z29, Z30, Z31, Z33, Erich, Steinbrinck, Karl Galster, Theodor Riedel, and Hans Lody, sets out to sea from Altafjord to attack Allied bases on Spitzbergen. A battalion of the 349th Grenadier Regt is embarked on the destroyers.

Britain: The Messerschmitt Me210 is 1st used over Britain; 2 are shot down by Hawker Typhoons over the north Yorkshire coast.

Black Sea: The key Soviet base at Novorossiisk falls to the Germans.

Egypt: The battle of Alam Halfa ends as German troops, having been forced back to their original positions, start to dig large-scale fortifications and antitank defenses.

[marcejap]

September 8, 1943

New Guinea: US destroyers shell Lae; the Japanese begins a retreat from Salamaua in the face of heavy Australian fire.

Eastern Front: Stalino, the vital industrial center of the Donets basin, falls to the Red Army.

Italy: The Italian surrender was made public. Eisenhower announced the capitulation at 60 P.M. Marshal Badoglio confirmed the action by broadcast an hour and fifteen minutes later. Italian ships and planes moved to predesignated points to surrender. An American airborne drop on Rome was canceled at the last minute since the Germans had concentrated troops there.

Germany: Berlin reported the Italian surrender as a treacherous and cowardly act. One official said, "Mussolini was too great a person for a nation like that."

Corsica Isle: An armed civilian uprising began with attacks on the 115,000 German and Italian garrison troops on the island.

Ionian Isles: The Italian Acqui Division disarmed German contingents. A call was made for Allied assistance and when none came the Germans sent in reinforcements and imprisoned the Italians.

Ukraine: Hitler belatedly approved a withdrawal from the country. The decimated German forces were permitted to fall back to the Dnieper River, the final natural buffer before the Carpathian Mountains.

[marcejap]

September 11, 1943

Italy: Brindisi fell to the British, completing occupation of the heel of Italy without any real opposition. Sardinia was evacuated by the Germans. The Salerno beachhead was expanded. The bulk of the Italian fleet which escaped to Malta surrendered to the British, although the Germans seized 10 cruisers, 10 destroyers, and several submarines. In all, the Italians surrendered 6 battleships, 8 cruisers, 28 destroyers, and 19 submarines.

Yugoslavia: Yugoslav Partisans occupied the port of Split.

US: A German submarine laid mines off Charleston, South Carolina, but no damage was ever reported.

Black Sea: The German E-boat S46 is lost ESE of Feodosiya in a fighter-bomber attack.

South West Pacific: The Japanese minesweeper W-16 sinks on a mine south of Makassar.

[marcejap]

September 13, 1943

China: Chiang Kai-shek was named president of China for a 3-year term, succeeding Lin Sen who died on Aug. 7. Chiang assumed even greater authority in Nationalist territory.

Greece: The Italian Acqui division resists a German attack in Cephalonia.

[marcejap]

September 15, 1943

Italy: Supporters of Mussolini form a Fascist republican rival government to the Badoglio administration.

China: Chiang Kai-shek demands the recall of General Stilwell, who asked Chiang to join the Communists against the Japanese, complaining that Stilwell does not understand the realities of China.

Eastern Front: The Soviets opened up a final offensive to retake Smolensk.

[marcejap]

September 20, 1943

Italy: The Allies launch an assault on Naples as British and US units link up at Eboli to form a solid line from Salerno to Bari.

North Atlantic: U270 reports ON.202 but is located by HF/DF and approached by the frigate Lagan. U270 hits Lagan with a T-5 in the stern but Gatineau forces the U-boat to submerge. Lagan is taken in tow. The Cdr U-boats deploys the 'Leuthen' group. The 2nd contact-keeper U238 is located by HF/DF and driven off by Polyanthus but she shadows the corvette and 3 hours later is able to torpedo in an underwater attack 2 Liberty ships: 1 sinks and the 2nd is sunk later by U645. T-5 torpedoes directed from U645 and U402 against Gatineau and Polyanthus, which are escorting the rescue ship Rathlin, miss. In the morning an air escort is provided by Liberators of No 120 Sqn RAF. Before sufficient U-boats are assembled in the area of the convoy, U338 gives the agreed signal 'Keep on the surface for defense' when the U-boats are meant to fight their way to the convoy with their AA fire against the air escort. The single U-boat is sunk by Liberator 'F' of No 120 Sqn RAF with an acoustic homing A/S torpedo. Contact is lost when U731 is driven off. The Admiralty orders the convoys to join up under the SOE, Cdr Evans, and this is done by the evening. U386 gains contact but is located by HF/DF and attacked with depth charges from Keppel and Roselys. A dusk attack by U260 on steamers fails because the torpedoes do not explode. St Croix is hit by a T-5 from U305 and finished off, while Itchen comes up and a T-5 explodes in her wash. During the night U-boats try to shoot their way through to the steamers. U229 misses Icarus with a T-5, the latter, in avoiding the torpedo, collides with Drumheller. U260 misses Narcissus; and Polyanthus is sunk by U952. More T-5 firings by U229, U641, U270, U377 and U584 fail or detonate in the wash of the escorts.

Baltic: The German U436 sinks off Hela in a diving accident

[marcejap]

September 22, 1943

New Guinea: Australian troops land 6 miles north of Finschhafen.

Eastern Front: The Red Army retakes the industrial center of Poltava, in the Ukraine.

Italy: Allied troops land at Bari and Brindisi.

Germany: Hitler rejects Goebbels's suggestion that he makes peace with either Churchill or Stalin, in order to avoid war on two fronts.

Greece: The Italian Acqui division surrenders to the Germans, having lost 1,500 men.