SOUTH CAROLINA MILITARY MUSEUM 
- WORLD WAR II 1943-
Germany Losing Ground
1943
January 3, 1943 - Day raid on St. Nazaire. Beginning of series of raids on Ruhr.
January 6, 1943 - Opening of 4-day air attack on Japanese convoy off New Guinea.
January 10, 1943 - Russia requires surrender German 6th Army.
- Begin the liquidation of German troops in Stalingrad from Army Group "Don front", General Rokossowky.
- Fighting during the battle of Stalingrad was bitter and exhausting.
- The 25th Infantry Division begins the largest and final offensive on Guadalcanal; the Americans outnumber the Japanese by more than 3 to 1.
- Desperate attempts to resupply the Japanese by surface ships are hampered by US PT boats.
January 11, 1943 - America produces in 1942; more then 48.000 planes, 56.000 tanks and the American Army count more then 7.000.000 men.January 12, 1943 - A small U.S. Army force lands unopposed on Amchitka Island, the Aleutian Islands, Alaska.
January 14 - 24, 1943 - Allied leaders hold a Conference in Casablanca, Morocco
January 18, 1943 - The German Tiger tank makes its first appearance in Tunisia.
January 19, 1943 - Russia liberate Leningrad.
January 23, 1943 - Allies capture Tripoli.
January 27 1943 - First attack against a German target by US bombers, 64 B-17 and B-24, on Willemstad, which had also been the target for the first British daylight raid in 1939.
- Day raid on Copenhagen, night raid on Duesseldorf.
January 30, 1943 - General Vittorio Ambrosio named as Benito Mussolini's Chief of Staff.
- 8th American Army B-17 (55) bombers make their first day-light raid on Germany, Wilhelmshafen, without air support!.
February 1, 1943 - The Japanese begin to evacuate their troops from Guadalcanal, more then 5.000 Japanese are taken off the island.
February 2, 1943 - German force surrender at Stalingrad, Soviet Union.
February 3, 1943 - German radio announces three days of mourning for the German troops who died at Stalingrad.
February 1 - 9, 1943 - Japanese forces evacuate Guadalcanal, the Solomon Islands. Again 2.000 Japanese men leave Guadalcanal on 9 February, a total of more than 12.000. The loss of the island is a major blow to Japanese morale, they have lost about 10.000 men, but their fighting resistance has cost many US troops and much US strategic effort which, if repeated on every other Pacific island of this size, would prolong the war.
February 28, 1943 - Norsk Hydro 'heavy water' plant raid. Norwegian soldiers, trained in the UK and dropped by the RAF, inflicts damage to the 'heavy water' plant at the Norsk Hydro power station near Ryukan.
March 2, 1943 - Royal Air Force bomber heavily attack Berlin, Germany.
- RAF- planes (Wellingtons) on mine-laying trips.
March 2 - 4, 1943 - Japanese navy forces suffer heavy loses at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea off the coast of New Guinea.
General von Arnim Commander-in-chief in North-Africa instead of Rommel, he became ill.March 13, 1943 - Failure attempt murder on Hitler. Von Tresckow places a bomb in Hitler's plane flying from Smolensk to his headquarters; bomb did not explode!
March 16, 1943 - The Convoy SC-122 of 58 ships from Nova Scotia and the Convoy HX-229 of 40 ships from New York are attacked by 37 U-boats in 3 groups. 21 ships are lost in return for 1 U-boat. The first 3 weeks of March signal a turning-point: from now on carrier support groups and long-range reconnaissance aircraft will take their toll of the U-boats. There will no longer be substantial gaps in Allied coverage of the Atlantic, no areas where U-boats can operate freely.
April 7, 1943 - Bolivia declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan.
April 10, 1943 - The Italian heavy cruiser Trieste is sunk at La Maddalena, Sardinia, by attacks from 84 B-24 Liberators bombers. Other Allied aircraft continue to disrupt all attempts to fly in adequate supplies to Axis forces in Tunisia.
April 14, 1943 - Sauckel publish: at 31 march 1943 3.638.056 foreign workers working in the German industry, besides 1.622.829 prisoners of war engage.
April 17, 1943 - The aircraft factories at Bremen are bombed by 115 B-17 bombers of the US Eighth Army; most returned unscathed and German aviation suffers another blow.
April 18, 1943 - A convoy of aircraft leave Sicily to resupply the Axis forces in Tunisia. More than half of the aircrafts are shot down by Allied fighters and those who arrive are short of requirements. Hitler agrees to Mussolini's plea for Italian II Corps to returned from the Russian front.
- American P-38s from the 13th Air Force launched from Guadalcanal, flew to Bougainvillea and shot down Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto plane and killing him.
April 19 1943 - The second rising of the Jews in the Ghetto of Warsaw. SS-General Stroop choke the revolt in blood; 56.065 Jews killed. Illness and starvation were rife in the ghetto.
April 26, 1943 - Stalin breaks-off relations between the Soviet Union and the Polish Government-in-exile.
April 28 , 1943 - The Germans are fighting hard in Tunisia, with a counter-attack in responding to the loss of Djebel Bou Aoukaz.
April 30 , 1943 - Battle for Hill 609: The Germans retake Djebel Bou Aoukaz but lose much material. US forces, fighting for control of Hill 609, gain footholds.
- Operation Mincemeat was a highly successful Allied deception plan against Axis Forces when planning the invasion of Sicily. The operation involved releasing a dead man in a life jacket off the coast of Spain. A briefcase attached to the body contained fake documents identifying the man as a Major William Martin and copies of fake Allied war plans which stated that the Allies were planning an invasion of Sardinia, rather than Sicily. Local fishermen pulled out the corpse and intelligence materials. The documents were sent to Axis commanders and who were fooled by them. This information quickly reached Hitler who, on 12 May, demanded that "measures regarding Sardinia and the Peloponnesian take precedence over everything else". Operation Husky commenced on 9 July, with the Allies attacking the southern tip of Sicily. The island was taken by the Allies by 7 August. Mussolini had been stripped of his power on 25 July.
May 4, 1943 - East-bound Convoy ONS-5, protected by eighteen escorts, is threatened by 60 U-boats in four groups. During a battle which extended over 3 nights 13 merchantmen are lost and one is damaged, but the escorts sink 6 U-boats and badly damage 4 more. Another two collide are lost. This result is achieved without the normal level of air support.
May 5, 1943 - After another British attack on the Germans positions, Djebel Bou Aoukaz, in Tunisia, returns in Allied hands.
May 6, 1943 - Using their full advantage of air supremacy and artillery fire power, V Corps calls in a massive bombardment to decimate 15th Panzer Division formations and break through Axis defenses to move towards Tunis. The Americans are advancing on Bizerte in the north and the French are closing on Pont du Fahs in the south-west.
May 7 1943 - End of the war in North-Africa. Bizerta and Tunis capture by the Allied, all Germans dislogde or capture in North-Africa; 252.000 Germans and Italian prisoners of war.
- After the British victory at the battle of El Alamein in November 1942, General Rommel's army retreated across north Africa to a defensive position in Tunisia. The Allies brought in enormous new forces by landing on the coasts of Morocco and Algeria. Rommel's attempt at fresh offensives failed and General Montgomery broke through his positions in early April 1943.
- Forced to retreat again, Rommel's forces were deprived of food and supplies by the Allies. They surrendered on 13 May 1943.
May 11, 1943 - U.S Army invade at Attu, the Aleutian Islands.
May 12, 1943 - Axis forces are completed defeat in North Africa. Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel flees to Germany.
May 12 - 25, 1943 - "Trident Conference", Washington, D.C. Roosevelt and Churchill meet to discuss a cross-Channel invasion into France. British views differ from U.S. on timeframe and early commitment to invasion of France, and also on the strategic grounds for the invasion of Sicily. Differences threaten the agreement on Normandy because of Britain's insistence on its rights to exploit successes on Sicily and Italy, and also because it feels that the U.S. is more committed to the Pacific. Compromises are eventually reached on all issues. Target date for the invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord) is set for 1 May 1944, and British General Sir Frederick Morgan is appointed as chief planner, given the title Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSACK).
May 16, 1943 - The R.A.F destroys the Dams in the Möhnesee and Edersee.
May 19, 1943 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
May 21, 1943 - Joseph Stalin declares an end to the Communist International (Comintern).
May 21 - June 13, 1943 - Japan begin with the last stage of the expedition to Middle-China.
May 24, 1943 - Commander-in-chief of the U-boats decision to stop the attacks on convoys at the Atlantic, after heavy losses.
June 10, 1943 - This day sees the first of the combined bombing offensives agreed at the Casablanca Conference whereby the US deploy their aircraft on daylight precision raids (Wilhelmshaven and Cuxhaven) while the British stay with their night deployments (Dusseldorf and Munster).
June 11, 1943 - Operation "Husk"; the Italian islands Pantellaria and Lampedusa capture by Allied troops.
June 23, 1943 - British aerial reconnaissance has now secured photographs of Peenemunde research base showing rockets available for firing.
July 5 - 15, 1943 - "Unternehmen Zitadelle"; Germany started the last offensive in the East, the Tank offensive at Kursk.
July 9, 1943 - At Kursk, additional Soviet tank power arrives to bring setbacks to the Germans who have already committed most of their armour. They are spending much energy and ammunition in numerous attempts to break small pockets of resistance for little or no gain.
July 9 -August 7, 1943 - Operation "Husky": Allied forces invade Sicily, Italy.
July 12 - 13, 1943 - Rear Admiral Walden Ainsworth leads three cruisers and five destroyers on a combat mission up the Slot, the channel that divides the Solomon Islands in two.
July 17, 1943 - Begin of the American offensive at Bougainville, South-Pacific.
July 19, 1943 - American aircraft bomb Japanese bases on Paramushiru, the Kurile Islands.
- Allied bomb Rome.
July 22 - 28, 1943 - Operation 'Gomorrah'; the first of 4 major Allied air raids on Hamburg plan to destroy the city. The Allies began a intensified bombing (3.010 bombers, 87 of them didn't return) effort that resulted in the famous bombings of Hamburg, using millions strips of tinfoil to disturb the German radar system, to produce false echoes and confuse the de fences.
- The US Army Air Force makes 2 raids by day with 280 aircraft, losing 21 machines. Hamburg is devastated and some 40.000 civilians were killed, most of them from the firestorm that bas been created.
- Mussolini with disciples are outvoted at the Fascist Grand Council after a debate.
July 22 - 25, 1943 - The Italian Fascist Grand Council passes a vote of censure against Benito Mussolini. Field Marshall Pietro Badoglio is appointed the Prime Minister of Italy. Mussolini is imprisoned in the Grand Sasso Hotel on the Grand Sasso plateau in the Abruzzi mountains.
August 1, 1943 - Operation "Tidelwave"; U.S. air forces, 175 B-24's from Benghazi, bomb the oil fields of Ploesti, Romania, 92 B-24's returned.
August 13 - 24, 1943 - Roosevelt and Churchill meet in Quebec to discuss plans for the invasion of Normandy ( Operation Overlord ). Supreme Commander for the invasion is agreed to be an American. U.S. will remain in command of Pacific operations. Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten is chosen to serve as chief for the new Southeast Asia Command ( SEAC ).
- Attack by day by 61 B-24 'Liberators' of the 9th U.S.A.F at Vienna, Austria.
August 15, 1943 - American troops land on Kiska, Aleoeten.
August 17, 1943 - Allied troops reach Messina and occupy all of Sicily, Italy.
August 9, 1943 - Gandhi and his chief supporters of committee "Quit India" are jailed in India causing mass riots.
German troops reach Maikop oil-field in Russia.August 10 - 13, 1943 - Operation "Pedestal": British attempt to sail a supply convoy to Malta.
August 17, 1943 - Japanese begin operations to reinforce Guadalcanal.
The first serious Air attack from the USA with 12 B-17's (Flying Fortress), from Eighth Air Force, on shunting yards from Rouen, France, escort by British Spitfire. In September the first B-24's Liberators arrived.- Operation 'Double Strike': First U.S. daylight air raid, with 229 B17's (36 shot down), on Schweinfurt (and Regensburg) in Germany, 320 km; the Americans attempting a daylight raid without fighter escort.
Schweinfurt was the location of huge ball-bearing factories that supplied most of the ball-bearings for the entire German military.- T he second raid on 14 October, 291 B17's now with 60 loses.
- 597 RAF bombers bomb German Rocket Launching Site Peenemünde.
The production of the V1 Flying Bomb began in Germany in 1942, but the actual launch was delayed until 1944 because of successful Allied bombing of bomb sites.September 1, 1943 - Allied forces invade southern Italy.
September 6 - October 27, 1943 - American and Australia troops on Lae (NW-Guinea) and Mono-island (Salomon Islands).
September 8, 1943 - "Fall Achse": Disarming of the Italian Army.
- Italy surrenders to Allied forces, by Marshall Badoglio.
September 9, 1943 - Battleships Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio sail from Taranto.
- The American 5th Army land at the Gulf of Salerno.
- The Italian Fleet escape from La Spezia to Malta.
September 10, 1943 - German forces (Air-borne troops from Field-marshal Kesselring) seize Rome, Italy.
September 12, 1943 - Ninety Nazi German paratroopers lead by Lieutenant Colonel Otto Skorzeny "liberate" Benito Mussolini from the Grand Sass Hotel.
September 13 - 26, 1943 - Fight between German and Italian troops at Korpoe, the whole Italian Army 7.000 men killed by the Germans.
September 20, 1943 - Convoy ON-202 and ONS-18 in the North Atlantic was attacked by U-boats with new acoustic homing torpedoes and account for 3 escort vessels and 6 ships.
October 1, 1943 - The U.S. Fifth Army captures Naples, Italy.
October 4, 1943 - French troops captures Corsica with the help of local guerillas and the Germans evacuate Sardinia.
October 6, 1943 - Allies, US 5th Army takes Caserta and Capua and the British Army advance up the east coast of Italy. The German retreat continues and the Allies progress with little opposition.
For the island of Kos a German convoy is attacked by British cruisers and destroyers; 7 transports and an escort are sunk.October 11, 1943 - Admiral Andrew Cunningham his appointment to be Commander-in-chief of the British Fleet.
October 12, 1943 - A Coastal Command Liberator sinks U597 in the first success by a single aircraft from this RAF section.
October 13, 1943 - Marshal Badoglio announce: "Italy declares war on Germany" (in the presence of General Maxwell Taylor).
October 14, 1943 - "Black Thursday" for USA forces when, a 8th Army Air Force raid on Schweinfurt's ball-bearing works, 291 B-17's inflict much damage but 1 in 5 of their aircrafts lose. These losses caused end of unescorted daylight flights.
October 15, 1943 - Volturno in Italy line breached, and the Germans make a fighting withdrawal to the defensive lines, the Barbara Line and the Bernhard Line, while creating substantial defenses on the Gustav Line behind rivers Garigliano, Rapido and Sangro.
October19 - November 1, 1943 - The Conference of Moscow between Eden, Hull and Molotow.
November 1, 1943 - U.S. Marines land on Bougainville, the Solomon Islands.
November 6, 1943 - Soviet forces recapture Kiev from the Germans.
November 9, 1943 - 44 Nations sign in Washington the "United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Association".
November 20 - December 23, 1943 - U.S. Marines land on Tarawa (2th Marine Division.) and Makin (27th div.), the Gilbert Islands (Operation Galvanic). After 4 days Tarawa; 1.000 dead and 2.000 wounded.
November 23 - 26, 1943 - The first Cairo Conference held in Egypt.
November 28 - December 1, 1943 - The "Big Three," Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin meet in Teheran, Iran.
December 3 - 7, 1943 - Conference at Cairo between Roosevelt, Churchill and Tsijang-Kai sjek.
December 4 , 1943 - In the Pacific 6 US carriers and 9 cruisers attack Kwajalein, Marshall Islands. 6 Japanese transports are sunk and other vessels damaged, and 55 Japanese aircraft are shot down.
December 15, 1943 - Operation Dexterity, an American-Australian amphibious assault on the Japanese Army at Arawe, New-Brittania.
December 24, 1943 - The Battle of Ortana ended; After 8 days heavy fighting, Ortona is taken, it was an intense close quarters fight which claimed the lives of a 1400 Canadian troops.
- Eisenhower is appointed the Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces.
- Begriming of the Russian winter offensive.
Next Section: World War II 1944 - The Surrender in Europe.
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