Accadeva 60 anni fa

[marcejap]

August 13, 1943

India: Auchinleck proposes abandoning all offensive operations in Burma in order to concentrate on supplying China by air.

Morocco: Pierre Pucheu, the former Vichy minister of the interior, is arrested.

Europe: The Allies bomb Rome's railyards and, flying over Hungary to make their 1st raid on Austria, factories at Wiener Neustadt.

Mediterranean: German He 111 torpedo bombers of KG 26 are deployed following a reconnaissance report concerning convoy UGS.13. But they attack near Alboran the convoy MKS.21 which is proceeding in the opposite direction in the area to the north.
The German MMS R6 is sunk by bombs in Civitavecchia.

Indonesia: 1st attack by the 5th USAAF from Australia with 380 heavy B-24 bombers on the oilfields of Balikpapan.

Italy: Rome's rail yards were hit by 274 Allied aircraft which dropped about 500 tons of bombs. Heavy damage resulted. US 12th Air Force planes bombed Messershmitt factories near Vienna.

[marcejap]

August 16, 1943

Sicily: Only Axis rear guards remained on Sicily. More than 60,000 Germans had been evacuated to the Italian mainland. All organized resistance on the island ceased.

Bialystok: Germans enter the Jewish ghetto and start deporting its 25,000 inhabitants.

Eastern Front: Soviet forces take Zhidra, northeast of Bryansk.

[agaragar]

no,no,no.....dovresti almeno postare anke il testo in giapponese!

[marcejap]

[marcejap]

August 18, 1943

China: T V Soong, Chiang Kai-shek's foreign minister protests to Washington against China's exclusion from high level Allied conferences.

Poland: The death camp, Treblinka, receives its final consignment of Jews for extermination.

Mediterranean: The US cruisers Philadelphia and Boise and 4 destroyers shell Gioia-Taura and Palmi in Calabria.

Italy: Eisenhower was authorized to send representatives to Lisbon to discuss an armistice with Italy.

Germany: General Hans Jeschonnek, chief of the Luftwaffe General Staff, committed suicide, apparently because of blame and abuse heaped upon him by Hitler for increasingly intense Allied air campaigns against Germany, especially the raid on Peenemunde. Jeschonnek remained loyal to Hitler to the end, however, blaming Goring for the state of Luftwaffe. His suicide note read: "I can no longer work together with the Reichsmarschall. Long live the Fuhrer!" When the Germans announced his death, Jeschonnek was said to have died of a stomach hemorrhage lest the Allies and German people infer it was related to the growing inability of the Luftwaffe to defend Germany.

Eastern Front: Zmiev, south of Kharkov, was captured by the Russians.

[marcejap]

August 21, 1943

Australia: The Labor Party wins the general election, and John Curtin is returned as prime minister.

Eastern Front: Andrei Gromyko is appointed Soviet ambassador to the US.

[marcejap]

August 24, 1943

Denmark: Bomb incidents and strikes mark growing resistance to Nazi rule.

Germany: Hitler appoints Himmler Reich minister of the interior.

Mediterranean: The German escort vessel SG14 is sunk by bombing south of Capri.

[marcejap]

August 26, 1943

Eastern Front: A campaign to drive the Germans out of the eastern Ukraine was launched by the Russians.

Air War/East Asia: American bombers attack the harbor of Hong Kong from bases in China.

Canada: Churchill sets off on a 4-day fishing holiday in the Laurentian mountains.

US: Britain, the US and Canada give limited recognition to the French committee of National Liberation.

[marcejap]

August 29, 1943

US: Roosevelt warns Germany that its crimes against civilians in occupied Europe will be brought to account after the war.

Indian Ocean: In operations in the Malacca Straits, the British submarine Trident attacks the Japanese cruiser Kashii off Sabang with 8 torpedoes, all of which miss.

Bay of Biscay: The retreat of the British support groups to the west eases the transit of the German U-boats. The German torpedo boats T24, T22, and T25 bring the Japanese submarines I-8 into Lorient. The remaining U382, U618, U129, U262, U732 and U600 pass close to Cape Ortegal and avoid the 'Percussion' air patrols and the 1st EG, some of which continue for some days as group 'W' until relieved by the 5th EG, covered by the cruisers Bermuda and Sheffield relieving each other for refueling. Of the boats coming more from the west, U86, U406 and U760, the last is attacked by Wellington 'C' of No 179 Sqn RAF with Leigh Light and it is so heavily damaged that it has to enter El Ferrol, where the boat is interned. The outgoing boats for the 'Leuthen' group pass the Allied patrols almost unmolested: U305, U645, U260, U338, U731, U386, U341, U229, U758, U584, U666, U641, U402 and the tanker U460 which has to supply the 'Leuthen' boats. Only U669, sailing for a special operation, 'Kiebitz,' is sunk, by Wellington 'West' of No 407 Sqn RCAF with Leigh Light. The other boats proceed to their waiting areas and to the tanker.

Denmark: The Danish king was seized by the Germans. In retaliation for the German crackdown, the Danes scuttled their fleet. 29 ships were destroyed. Only 13 small craft were taken intact by the Germans.

[marcejap]

August 31, 1943

Sicily: General Castellano tells the Allies that if they want peace with Italy they must protect the Italians from German reprisals.

France: The Japanese submarine I-8 reaches Brest from Singapore.

Central Pacific: 1st carrier raid by the newly formed US 'Fast Carrier Task Force'. TF.15 comprising the carriers Yorktown, Essex and Independence, attacks Marcus Island with cover from the battleship Indiana, the cruisers Nashville and Mobile, the destroyers La Valette, Stevens, Ringgold, Schroeder, Sigsbee, Thatcher, Harrison, John Rodgers, McKee, Dashiell and Halford and the tanker Guadeloupe. In 275 sorties in 6 attacks, 4 aircraft are lost. Damage is done to shore installations but Japanese losses are slight.

Mediterranean: Operation 'Baytown': British landing in Calabria. The battleships Nelson and Rodney, the cruiser Orion and the destroyers Offa, Petard, Quail, Queenborough, Quilliam, Tartar, Troubridge, Tyrian and Piorun carry out the preparatory shelling of the coast between Reggio Calabria and Pessaro. The shelling is repeated by the battleships Valiant and Warspite, the cruisers Orion and Mauritius, Faulknor and Loyal and the monitors Erebus, Roberts and Abercrombie, as well as the gunboats Aphis and Scarab