World War II 1943 Chronology

Home   More Chronologies
1942
Feb 18Japanese troops land on Bali.Ref: 5
1943
Jan 02(and 2nd) Germans begin a withdrawal from the Caucasus.Ref: 36
Jan 02The Allies capture Buna in New Guinea.Ref: 2
Jan 03Canadian Army troops arrive in North Africa.Ref: 5
Jan 05William H Hastie, civilian aide to secretary of war, resigns to protest segregation in armed forces.Ref: 5
Jan 08The British hand Madagascar over to the Free French.Ref: 2
Jan 09Soviet planes drop leaflets on the surrounded Germans in Stalingrad requesting their surrender with humane terms. The Germans refuse.Ref: 2
Jan 09Japanese government in Java limits sale & use of motorcars.Ref: 5
Jan 10The Soviets begin an offensive against the German 6th/4th Armies in Stalingrad.Ref: 36
Jan 11The Soviet Red Army encircles Stalingrad.Ref: 2
Jan 12Soviet forces raise the siege of Leningrad.Ref: 2
Jan 13General Leclerc's Free French forces merge with the British under Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery in Libya.Ref: 2
Jan 13British premier Winston Churchill arrives in Casablanca.Ref: 5
Jan 13Russian offensive at Don under General Golikov.Ref: 5
Jan 13US infantry captures Galloping Horse-ridge Guadalcanal.Ref: 5
Jan 13Hitler declares "Total War".Ref: 5
Jan 14(through the 24th) The Casablanca conference between Churchill, DeGaul and Roosevelt. During the conference, Roosevelt announces the war can end only with an unconditional German surrender. The conference ends 10 days later.Ref: 36
Jan 14Heinrich Himmler views Warsaw.Ref: 5
Jan 15The American army agrees to co-fund an anthrax-producing site at Grosse Ili, Quebec, Canada. 
Jan 15Japanese driven off Guadalcanal.Ref: 5
Jan 16First US air raid on Ambon.Ref: 5
Jan 16German 2nd SS-Pantzer division evacuates Charkow.Ref: 5
Jan 16Red Army recaptures Pitomnik airport at Stalingrad.Ref: 5
Jan 17Tin Can Drive Day.Ref: 5
Jan 18U.S. commercial bakers stopped selling sliced bread. Only whole loaves were sold until the end of World War II. This action is aimed at reducing bakeries demand for metal replacement parts.Ref: 35
Jan 18The Soviets announced that they had broken the long Nazi siege of Leningrad.Ref: 70
Jan 19Joint Chiefs of Staff decide on invasion in Sicily.Ref: 5
Jan 20Operation-Weiss Assault of German, Italian, Bulgarian & Croatian.Ref: 5
Jan 21A Nazi daylight air raid kills 34 in a London school. A Nazi daylight air raid kills 34 in a London school.Ref: 2
Jan 21Soviet forces reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad.Ref: 5
Jan 21Soviet forces reconquer Worosjilowsk.Ref: 5
Jan 21Vice-Admiral Cunningham appointed British Admiral of fleet.Ref: 5
Jan 22Axis forces pull out of Tripoli for Tunisia, destroying bases as they leave.Ref: 2
Jan 22Joint Chiefs of Staff determine invasion in Sicily for July 10th.Ref: 5
Jan 22Allied forces take New Guinea in first win over Japanese in WWII; 3,000 allies die, 7,000 Japanese.Ref: 10
Jan 23Montgomery's Eighth Army takes Tripoli.Ref: 36
Jan 23Japanese Mount Austen on Guadalcanal captured.Ref: 5
Jan 24At the end of an Allied conference at Casablanca, Morocco, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt publicly announces his doctrine of "unconditional surrender" for Germany, Italy, and Japan, including "total and political capitulation."Ref: 3
Jan 24Hitler orders Nazi troops at Stalingrad to fight to death.Ref: 5
Jan 25The last German airfield in Stalingrad is captured by the Red Army.Ref: 2
Jan 26The first OSS (Office of Strategic Services) agent parachutes behind Japanese lines in Burma.Ref: 2
Jan 27The first all-U.S. raids on the Reich blast Wilhelmshaven base and Emden.Ref: 2
Jan 29Nazis order all Gypsies arrested and sent to extermination camps.Ref: 35
Jan 29New Zealand's Kiwi cruiser collides with Japanese sub I-1 at Guadalcanal.Ref: 5
Jan 30Ernst Kaltenbrunner succeeds Heydrich as head of RSHA.Ref: 35
Jan 30Fieldmarshal Friedrich von Paulus surrenders himself and his staff to Red Army troops in Stalingrad.Ref: 2
Jan 306 British Mosquito's daylight bomb Berlin.Ref: 5
Jan 30German assault on French in Tunisia.Ref: 5
Jan 30Hitler promotes Friedrich von Paulus to General field marshal.Ref: 5
Jan 30USS Chicago sinks in Pacific Ocean.Ref: 5
Jan 30German under officers shot down in Haarlem Netherlands.Ref: 5
Jan 30Illegal opposition newspaper Loyal begins publishing.Ref: 5
Jan 31The Battle of Stalingrad ends as small groups of German soldiers of the Sixth Army surrender to the victorious Red Army forces.Ref: 2
Jan 3139 U boats sunk this month (203,100 ton).Ref: 5
Jan 31Chile breaks contact with Germany & Japan.Ref: 5
Feb 01The Japanese begin the evacuation of Guadalcanal. 
Feb 01One of America's most highly decorated military units of World War Two, the 442d Regimental Combat Team, made up almost entirely of Japanese-Americans, was authorized.Ref: 6
Feb 01American tanks and infantry are battered at German positions at Fais pass in North Africa.Ref: 2
Feb 01Mussert forms pro Nazi shadow cabinet (Netherlands).Ref: 5
Feb 01German occupiers make Vidkun Quisling Norwegian premier.Ref: 5
Feb 02The remainder of Nazi forces from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered in a major victory for the Soviets in World War II. (Go to article.)Ref: 70
Feb 03Germany's U-223 sinks the troop transport Dorchester. The Dorchester goes down 27 minutes after the hit. 677 of 902 die. As it sank, four chaplains gave up their lifejackets to shipmates, thereby also perishing in the icy waters. The bravery of Rev. Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed), Rev. George Lansing Fox (Methodist), Father John Washington (a Catholic priest) and Alexander David Goode (a Jewish rabbi) led Congress afterward to mark February 3rd as "Four Chaplains Day." (The Colubmus Dispatch, 03/19/2000, p. 1H) 
Feb 03Finland begins talks with the Soviet Union.Ref: 2
Feb 04American P-40's strafed Japanese installations on the island of Kiska. Five enemy bombers attacked American positions on Amchitka.Ref: 37
Feb 05Wim Gertenbach Dutch resistance fighter (Slogan), shot by Nazis.Ref: 5
Feb 05Clandestine Radio Atlantiksender, Germany, first transmission.Ref: 5
Feb 05Amsterdam resistance group CS-6 shoots Nazi General Seyffardt.Ref: 5
Feb 06First Spitfire in action above Darwin, Australia, Mu Ki-46 shot down.Ref: 5
Feb 06Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower named commander of Allied expeditionary forces in North Africa.Ref: 17
Feb 07The government announced that shoe rationing would go into effect in two days, limiting consumers to buying three pairs per person for the remainder of the year.Ref: 6
Feb 08British General Orde Wingate leads a guerrilla force of "Chindits" against the Japanese in Burma.Ref: 2
Feb 08The Red Army takes back Kursk 15 months after it fell to the Germans.Ref: 36
Feb 09The Red Army takes back Kursk 15 months after it fell to the Germans.Ref: 2
Feb 09Japanese government in Java limits sale & use of motorcars.Ref: 5
Feb 09FDR orders minimal 48 hour work week in war industry.Ref: 5
Feb 09German riots at "plutocratenzoontjes", 1,200 in Vught Camp.Ref: 5
Feb 09Nazis arrest Dutch sons of rich parents.Ref: 5
Feb 09The World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an American victory over Japanese forces. (Go to article.)Ref: 70
Feb 10Soviet forces attack the Spanish Blue Division near Krasny Bor, below Leningrad. The Blue Division is forced to retreat for the first time in the war. 
Feb 108th Army sweeps through North Africa to Tunisia.Ref: 5
Feb 10Van der Veen Resistance starts fire in Amsterdam employment bureau.Ref: 5
Feb 11General Dwight David Eisenhower was selected to command the allied armies in Europe.Ref: 4
Feb 12General Eisenhower departs Algiers to Tebessa.Ref: 5
Feb 13German assault on Sidi Bou Zid Tunisia, General Eisenhower visits front.Ref: 5
Feb 13Women's Marine Corps created.Ref: 5
Feb 14(through the 25th) The Battle of Kasserine Pass between the U.S. 1st Armored Division and German Panzers in North Africa. The battle lasts 12 days.Ref: 36
Feb 14German offensive through de Faid-pass Tunisia.Ref: 5
Feb 14Soviets recapture Rostov.Ref: 5
Feb 15The Germans break the American Army's lines at the Fanid-Sened Sector in Tunisia, North Africa.Ref: 2
Feb 15Women's camp Tamtui on Ambon (Moluccas) hit by allied air raid.Ref: 5
Feb 15The British government protests to the Swedish government regarding Sweden building fishing boats for the Germans to use as minesweepers. 
Feb 16Soviets re-take Kharkov.Ref: 36
Feb 16British premier Winston Churchill gets pneumonia.Ref: 5
Feb 16Sign on Munich facade "Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!" done by "White Rose" student group, caught on 2/18, beheaded on 2/22.Ref: 5
Feb 16Withdrawing Africa Corps reaches Mareth-line in North-Africa.Ref: 5
Feb 17General-Major Bradley flies to Washington DC.Ref: 5
Feb 17Hitler visits field marshal von Mansteins headquarters in Zaporozje.Ref: 5
Feb 18Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders "White Rose" in Munich.Ref: 36
Feb 18German General Erwin Rommel takes three towns in Tunisia, North Africa.Ref: 2
Feb 18First edition of Dutch resistance newspaper "Trouw".Ref: 5
Feb 19German tanks under Brigadier General Buelowius attack Kasserine Pass Tunesia.Ref: 5
Feb 21German offensive at Western Dorsalgebergte Tunisia.Ref: 5
Feb 22Sign on Munich façade "Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!" done by "White Rose" student group on 2/16/1943, caught on 2/18, beheaded.Ref: 5
Feb 23German troops pull back through Kasserine-pass Tunisia.Ref: 5
Feb 23(Chairman, Joint Chiefs) Major General Omar Bradley arrives in Dakar & Marrakesh.Ref: 5
Feb 24(Chairman, Joint Chiefs) Major General Omar Bradley flies to Algiers.Ref: 5
Feb 25U.S. troops retake the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, where they had been defeated five days before.Ref: 2
Feb 26U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators pound German docks and U-boat lairs at Wilhelmshaven.Ref: 2
Feb 26German assault moves to Beja North Tunisia.Ref: 5
Feb 2863 U Boats (359,300 ton) sinks this month.Ref: 5
Mar 01The British RAF conducts strategic bombing raids on all European railway lines.Ref: 2
Mar 02The center of Berlin is bombed by the RAF. Some 900 tons of bombs are dropped in a half hour.Ref: 2
Mar 02The US & Australia are victorious over Japan in the 3-day Battle of Bismarck Sea.Ref: 5
Mar 02Germans begin a withdrawal from Tunisia, Africa. 
Mar 03US wins Battle of Bismarck Sea over Japan.Ref: 5
Mar 03Adm. Thomas C. Kincaid, commanding officer of the Alaska Defense Command, begins planning for the invasion of Attu.Ref: 37
Mar 03Bomb fleeing crowd falls into London shelter; 173 die.Ref: 5
Mar 05Anti fascist strikes in Italy.Ref: 5
Mar 05RAF bombs Essen Germany.Ref: 5
Mar 05In desperation due to war losses, fifteen and sixteen year olds are called up for military service in the German army.Ref: 2
Mar 06British RAF fliers bomb Essen and the Krupp arms works in the Ruhr, Germany.Ref: 2
Mar 06Battle at Medenine, North-Africa; Rommels assault attack.Ref: 5
Mar 06Sukarno asks for cooperation with Japanese occupiers.Ref: 5
Mar 07Major General Patton arrives in Djebel Kouif Tunisia.Ref: 5
Mar 08Japanese forces attack American troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville. The battle will last five days.Ref: 2
Mar 08335 allied bombers attack Neurenberg.Ref: 5
Mar 10Adolf Hitler calls Field Marshall Erwin Rommel back from Tunisia in North Africa.Ref: 2
Mar 11Nazi Militia forms in Netherlands.Ref: 5
Mar 12Soviet troops liberate Wjasma.Ref: 5
Mar 13Japanese forces end their attack on the American troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville.Ref: 2
Mar 13While escorting a convoy to Gibraltar, RMS corvette Prescott sinks U-boat U-163 in the Bay of Biscay. 
Mar 13Failed assassin attempt on Hitler during Smolensk-Rastenburg flight.Ref: 5
Mar 14The Germans reoccupy Kharkov in the Soviet Union.Ref: 2
Mar 15Germans re-capture Kharkov; Red army evacuates.Ref: 2
Mar 15Allied reconnaissance flight over Java.Ref: 5
Mar 16A 5-day Battle of Atlantic climaxes with 27 merchant ships sunk by German U-boats.Ref: 36
Mar 16Elin K (No) & Zaanland (Netherlands) torpedoed & sinks.Ref: 5
Mar 17Aldemarin (Ned) & Fort Cedar Lake (US) torpedoed & sinks.Ref: 5
Mar 18Adolf Hitler calls off the offensive in the Caucasus.Ref: 2
Mar 18American forces take Gafsa in Tunisia.Ref: 2
Mar 18James Oglethorpe (US) & Terkolei (Netherlands), torpedoed & sinks.Ref: 5
Mar 18Red Army evacuates Belgorod.Ref: 5
Mar 19Airship Canadian Star torpedoed & sinks.Ref: 5
Mar 20(through the 28th) Britain's Eighth Army under Montgomery breaks through the German Mareth Line in Tunisia.Ref: 36
Mar 20German U-384 bombed & sinks.Ref: 5
Mar 21Assassination attempt on Hitler fails.Ref: 5
Mar 21British 8th army opens assault on Mareth line, Tunisia.Ref: 5
Mar 23German counter attack on US lines in Tunisia.Ref: 5
Mar 2597% of all Dutch physicians strike againt Nazi registration.Ref: 5
Mar 27US begins assault on Fondouk-pass, TunisiaRef: 5
Mar 29Meat, butter & cheese rationed in US during WWII (784 gram/week, 2 kilogram for GI's).Ref: 5
Mar 30The British 1st army recaptures Sejenane.Ref: 5
Mar 31US errantly bombs Rotterdam, kills 326.Ref: 5
Apr 05The British 8th Army attacks the next blocking position of the retreating Axis forces at Wadi Akarit.Ref: 2
Apr 05Allies bomb Mortsel.Ref: 5
Apr 06(and 7th) Axis forces in Tunisia begin a withdrawal toward Enfidaville as American and British forces link.Ref: 36
Apr 06British & US offensive at Wadi Akarit, South-Tunisia.Ref: 5
Apr 06Lou Jansen, leader of illegal Dutch political party (CPN) arrested.Ref: 5
Apr 07British and American armies link up between Wadi Akarit and El Guettar in North Africa, forming a solid line against the German army.Ref: 2
Apr 07Adolf Hitler & Benito Mussolini meet for an Axis conference in Salzburg.Ref: 5
Apr 07Lieutenant Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg seriously wounded in allied air raid.Ref: 5
Apr 09Exterminations at Chelmno cease. The camp will be reactivated in the spring of 1944 to liquidate ghettos. In all, Chelmno will total 300,000 deaths.Ref: 35
Apr 10General Montgomery occupies Sfax Tunisia.Ref: 5
Apr 12Allies conquer Soussa, North-Africa.Ref: 5
Apr 13Nazi's discover mass grave of Polish officers near Katyn.Ref: 5
Apr 14Generals Alexander/Eisenhower/Anderson/Bradley discuss assault on Tunis.Ref: 5
Apr 15The first production B-29 rolls out of the Wichita plant. 
Apr 1640 New Zealand bombers attack Haarlem Netherlands (85 killed).Ref: 5
Apr 17Admiral Yamamoto flies from Truk to Rabaul.Ref: 5
Apr 17SS-Lieutenant-General Jürgen Stoop arrives in Warsaw.Ref: 5
Apr 18U.S. code breakers pinpoint the location of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto flying in a Japanese bomber near Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. Eighteen P-38 fighters then locate and shoot down Yamamoto.Ref: 2
Apr 19(thru the 30th) The Bermuda Conference occurs as representatives from the U.S. and Britain discuss the problem of refugees from Nazi-occupied countries, but results in inaction concerning the plight of the Jews.Ref: 35
Apr 19Alexander Schmorell German resistance fighter, beheaded.Ref: 5
Apr 19Kurt Huber German resistance fighter, beheaded.Ref: 5
Apr 19Willy Graf German resistance fighter, beheaded.Ref: 5
Apr 21President Roosevelt announces that several Doolittle pilots have been executed by Japanese.Ref: 2
Apr 22Japan announces captured Allied pilots will be given "one way tickets to hell." 
Apr 22German counter attack in North-Tunisia.Ref: 5
Apr 22RAF shoots down 14 German transport planes over Mediterranean Sea.Ref: 5
Apr 23British & US offensive directed at Tunis/Bizerta.Ref: 5
Apr 27Lou Jansen & Jan Dieters arrested, lead illegal CPN party in Holland.Ref: 5
Apr 27Soviet Union breaks contact with Polish government exiled in London.Ref: 5
Apr 28German-Italian counter offensive in North-Africa.Ref: 5
Apr 28US 34th Division occupies Djebel el Hara North Tunisia.Ref: 5
Apr 29Dietrich Bonhöffer arrested by Nazi's.Ref: 5
Apr 29US 34th Division occupies Hill 609, North Tunisia.Ref: 5
Apr 30The British submarine HMS Seraph drops 'the man who never was,' a dead man the British planted with false invasion plans, into the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain.Ref: 2
Apr 30Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp for Jews forms.Ref: 5
Apr 30Dutch strike against forced labor in Nazi Germany's war industry.Ref: 5
May 01German plane sinks boat loaded with Palestinian Jews bound for Malta.Ref: 5
May 01German Wehrmacht deployed in order to break Dutch strikes.Ref: 5
May 01First edition of illegal "The Free Artist" appears in Amsterdam.Ref: 5
May 02German troops vacate Jefna Tunisia.Ref: 5
May 03US first armour division occupies Mateur Tunisia.Ref: 5
May 03Strike against obligatory labor camps ends, after 200 killed.Ref: 5
May 06British first army opens assault on Tunis.Ref: 5
May 07The last major German strongholds in North Africa--Tunis and Bizerte--fall to Allied forces.Ref: 2
May 07Liberty Ship George Washington Carver, named after scientist, launched.Ref: 5
May 07Dutch men 18-35 obliged to report to labor camps.Ref: 5
May 07British 11th Huzaren occupies Tunis Tunisia.Ref: 5
May 07US first Armour division occupies Ferryville Tunisia.Ref: 5
May 07US 9th Infantry division occupies Bizerta/Bensert Tunisia.Ref: 5
May 08Admiral Cunningham of British fleet: "Sink, burn & destroy; let nothing pass"Ref: 2
May 095th German Pantser army surrenders in Tunisia.Ref: 5
May 10André Bertulot Belgian resistance fighter, hanged.Ref: 5
May 10Arnaud/Armand Fraiteur Belgian resistance fighter, hanged.Ref: 5
May 10Maurice-Albert Raskin Belgian resistance fighter, hanged.Ref: 5
May 11Hermann Goering-division in Tunisia surrenders.Ref: 5
May 12During World War Two, Axis forces in North Africa surrender.Ref: 5
May 12British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in US.Ref: 5
May 13German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa.Ref: 35
May 13German occupiers confiscate all radios.Ref: 5
May 14A Japanese submarine sinks the Australian hospital ship CENTAUR resulting in 299 dead. 
May 15Halifax bombers sink U-463.Ref: 5
May 16Barnes Wallis's "bouncing bombs" first dropped by Britain on Ruhr Valley dams at Mohne and Eder.Ref: 2
May 18Allied bombers attack Pantelleria in the Mediterranean Sea.Ref: 5
May 19In an address to the US Congress, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pledged his country's full support in the war against Japan. (XDG, p 4A, 5/19/2003)Ref: 83
May 20French, British & US victory parade in Tunis Tunisia.Ref: 5
May 22German Admiral Dönitz suspends U-boat operations in the North Atlantic.Ref: 36
May 22RAF scatters first copies of "The Flying Hollander".Ref: 5
May 23826 Allied bombers attack Dortmund.Ref: 5
May 24U-441 shoots Sunderland seaplane down over Gulf of Biskaje.Ref: 5
May 24Admiral Dönitz stops U-boat in Atlantic Ocean.Ref: 5
May 25Trident conference in Washington DC (operation plan '43 against Japan).Ref: 5
May 26Premier Churchill & General Marshall fly from US to North Africa.Ref: 5
May 26At Auschwitz Concentration Camp 1,042 Gypsies executed in gas chamber after typhoid breaks out.Ref: 10
May 27French defiance under Jean Moulin meets secretly in Paris.Ref: 5
May 27US forbids racial discrimination in war industry.Ref: 5
May 28British militia reaches Tito.Ref: 5
May 29Confederacy of Algiers (Churchill-Marshall-Eisenhower).Ref: 5
May 29Norman Rockwell's portrait of "Rosie the Riveter" appears on the front page of the Saturday Evening Post. (XDG, p.4A, 5/29/2003)Ref: 83
May 30French General De Gaulle arrives in Algiers.Ref: 5
Jun 01U.S. begins submarine warfare against Japanese shipping. 
Jun 01(about 12:30 PM) German Luftwaffe shoots down British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777 airliner en route from Lisbon, Portugal, to London, England, killing all aboard, including actor Leslie Howard. One explanation for the shooting is that the Germans thought British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was on board.Ref: 6
Jun 0299th Pursuit Squadron flies first combat mission (over Italy).Ref: 5
Jun 10The Allies begin bombing Germany around the clock.Ref: 2
Jun 11The Italian island of Pantelleria surrenders after a heavy air bombardment.Ref: 2
Jun 21Allies advance to New Georgia, Solomon Islands. 
Jun 24Royal Air Force Bombers hammer Muelheim, Germany, in a drive to cripple the Ruhr industrial base.Ref: 2
Jun 25Newly built gas chamber/crematory III opens at Auschwitz. With its completion, the four new crematories at Auschwitz have a daily capacity of 4,756 bodies.Ref: 35
Jun 29US troops enter New GuineaRef: 62
Jul 02Lt Charles Hall, becomes first black pilot to shoot down Nazi plane.Ref: 5
Jul 04The American Forces Network radio program begins airing from England. 
Jul 05Germans begin their last offensive against Kursk resulting in the largest tank battle in history.Ref: 36
Jul 07Adolf Hitler makes the V-2 missile program a top priority in armament planning.Ref: 2
Jul 08American B-24 bombers strike Japanese-held Wake Island from Midway for the first time.Ref: 2
Jul 09(and 10th) The Allies land in Sicily.Ref: 35
Jul 09England's 1st Air Landing (glider) Brigade takes off from airfields in Tunisia, bound for Sicily. This is the first use of American-built CG-4A gliders. The Canadian assault convoy joins the main invasion armada of almost 3000 Allied ships en route to Sicily. 
Jul 10Allied armada lands over 80 miles of shore line at Sicily. The attack is headed by Seventh United States Army under Lieut.-General George Patton, and the 8th British Army under General Sir Bernard Montgomery. The 1st Canadian Infantry Division and the 1st Canadian Army Tank Brigade are part of the British Army. (XDG, p 4A, 7/10/2000)Ref: 83
Jul 15The British war cabinet approves use of "Window" on bombing attacks. "Window" is the code name for using bundles of aluminum foil dropped from planes to confuse enemy radar. 
Jul 15In Italy, Canadian troops of the 1st Infantry Brigade and tanks of the Three Rivers Regiment take the village of Grammichele from Germans of the Hermann Goering Division. 
Jul 19US B-17s and B-24 Liberators carry out the first bombing raid on Rome.Ref: 36
Jul 22The American Seventh Army under General George Patton captures Palermo, Sicily.Ref: 2
Jul 24The first wave of British bombers arrive at Hamburg, Germany, dropping 1000- to 8000-pound bombs. Within minutes much of the city is a raging firestorm. 
Jul 25(and 26th) Mussolini is arrested and the Italian Fascist government falls; Marshal Pietro Badoglio takes over and negotiates with Allies.Ref: 36
Jul 26Regime of Benito Mussoloini collapses in Italy.Pietro Badoglio becomes PM.Ref: 10
Jul 27(and 28th) An Allied air raid causes a firestorm in Hamburg.Ref: 36
Jul 28A second British bomber force of 722 planes attacks Hamburg, Germany, creating nine square miles of firestorm, reaching 1800ºF with winds up to 150 MPH feeding the fire. 
Jul 28Canadian troops take Agira, Italy, after five days of hard fighting. 
Jul 28Italian Facist dictator Benito Mussolini resigns.Ref: 5
Jul 28Pres FDR announces end of coffee rationing in US.Ref: 5
Jul 29(morning) Hamburg, Germany, is evacuated of nearly one million non-essential civilian personnel. 
Jul 30British bombers attack Hamburg, Germany again. 
Aug 02U.S. General George Patton had a bad day. He slapped and kicked U.S. Army Private C.H. Kuhl.Ref: 4
Aug 02(night) British bombers attack Hamburg, Germany again. 
Aug 06Battle of Vella Gulf in the Solomon Islands. 
Aug 07Canadian forces in Sicily are put into reserves. 
Aug 12In Rawalpindi, India, the Chemical Warfare Research Establishment begins two weeks of testing troop exposure to mustard gas. 
Aug 16The Bialystok Ghetto is liquidated.Ref: 35
Aug 17Americans conduct daylight air raids on Regensburg and Schweinfurt in Germany.Ref: 36
Aug 17The Germans complete their evacuation of Sicily.Ref: 36
Aug 17The Allies reach Messina, Sicily, completing the Sicily conquest.Ref: 36
Aug 17Portuguese leader Salazar signs an accord with Britain, allowing British airbases on Azores in return for US$30 million, the promise of modern fighter planes, anti-aircraft guns, and British protection in the event of Axis or Spanish attack. 
Aug 17British planes attack a German experimental rocket base at Peenemonde. The attack is a success, delaying German deployment of V-1 rockets by a year. 
Aug 18The Royal Air Force Bomber Command completes the first major strike against the German missile development facility at Peenemunde.Ref: 2
Aug 23The Soviet troops recapture Kharkov.Ref: 36
Aug 25German warships attack and sink two Swedish trawlers in Danish waters. 
Aug 25U.S. forces overran New Georgia in the Solomon Islands during World War II.Ref: 70
Aug 26The United States recognizes the French Committee of National Liberation.Ref: 2
Aug 29Responding to a clampdown by Nazi occupiers, Denmark managed to scuttle most of its naval ships.Ref: 70
Sep 03During World War II, the British Eighth Army invade Italy landing at Calabria. The same day Italy signed a secret armistice with the allies. The 8th British Army begins an assault on Italy, from Sicily across the Strait of Messina. The 1st Canadian Division lands at Reggio Calabria at the toe of Italy. The 5th United States Army lands in Italy in the Gulf of Salerno. (XDG, p 4A, 9/3/2000)Ref: 83
Sep 04Allied troops capture Lae-Salamaua, in New Guinea.Ref: 2
Sep 05The United States 101st Airborne Division troops leave New York by ship for Britain. 
Sep 06The United States asks the Chinese Nationals to join with the Communists to present a common front to the Japanese.Ref: 2
Sep 08The Italian surrender is announced.Ref: 36
Sep 09The Allies land at Salerno and Taranto and encounter strong resistance from German troops.Ref: 36
Sep 11Germans occupy Rome, after occupying northern and central Italy, containing in all about 35,000 Jews.Ref: 35
Sep 11The Italian Navy surrenders their warships to the Allies at Malta. 
Sep 12German paratroopers took Benito Mussolini from the hotel where he was being held by the Italian government.Ref: 2
Sep 13Chiang Kai-shek became president of China.Ref: 70
Sep 14German troops abandon the Salerno front in Italy.Ref: 2
Sep 15The United States 101st Airborne Division troops arrive in England. 
Sep 17Load of "ammunition in transit" explodes at Norfolk Naval Air StationRef: 5
Sep 17The Allied conquest of Sicily was completed as US and British forces entered Messina.Ref: 6
Sep 20A Canadian brigade diverted from the main Canadian advance toward Catazaro, takes Potenza in southern Italy. 
Sep 22British Midget submarines X6 and X7 penetrate anti-submarine net defences at Kaafjord, northern Norway, and plant mines under the hull of German battleship Tirpitz. In the following explosions, the hull is severely damaged, the port engine destroyed, and the propeller shaft bent. 
Sep 22Singer Kate Smith finished her War Bond radio appeal. For 13 continuous hours Smith had stayed on the air, collecting a whopping $39 million dollars in bond pledges.Ref: 4
Sep 23Mussolini re-establishes a Fascist government.Ref: 36
Sep 25The Red Army retakes Smolensk from the Germans who are retreating to the Dnieper River in the Soviet Union.Ref: 2
Sep 27P-47s escorting B-17's on a raid on Germany set a distance record of over 600 miles.Ref: 50
Sep 29General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio signed an armistice aboard the British ship Nelson off Malta.Ref: 5
Sep 29Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf is published in the United States.Ref: 2
Sep 30The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps becomes the Women's Army Corps, a regular contingent of the U.S. Army with the same status as other army service corps.Ref: 2
Oct 01British troops in Italy enter Naples and occupy Foggia airfield.Ref: 2
Oct 07The Japanese execute approximately 100 American POWs on Wake Island. 
Oct 12The U.S. Fifth Army begins an assault crossing of the Volturno River in Italy.Ref: 2
Oct 12British forces begin landing on the Portuguese Azores islands, to establish airbases. 
Oct 13Italy declares war on Germany; Second American air raid on Schweinfurt.Ref: 36
Oct 14In Italy, the 1st Canadian Corps takes Campobasso. 
Oct 15In Italy, the 1st Canadian Corps takes Vinchiaturo. 
Oct 21Eight American and British officers land from a submarine on an Algerian beach to take measure of Vichy French to the Operation Torch landings.Ref: 2
Oct 24Anti-nazi Clandestine Radio Soldatsender Calais begins transmitting.Ref: 5
Oct 26Emperor Hirohito states his country's situation is now "truly grave." 
Nov 01U.S. Marines invade Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.Ref: 2
Nov 02The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay in Bougainville ends in U.S. Navy victory over Japan.Ref: 2
Nov 03Adolf Hitler issues Directive No. 51, in which he warns of an Allied landing in western Europe, by spring of 1944. [28] Air Chief Marshal Arthur Harris proposes to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that sustained aerial bombing of Berlin would cost 400-500 aircraft, and cost Germany the war. Churchill authorizes commencing the Battle of Berlin. 
Nov 05The Headquarters of the Canadian Corps and the 5th Canadian Armoured Division arrives at Italy. 
Nov 06Russians recapture Kiev in the Ukraine.Ref: 36
Nov 07British troops launch a limited offensive along the coast of Burma.Ref: 2
Nov 11Auschwitz Kommandant Höss is promoted to chief inspector of concentration camps. The new kommandant, Liebehenschel, then divides up the vast Auschwitz complex of over 30 sub-camps into three main sections.Ref: 35
Nov 14An American torpedo is mistakenly fired at the US battleship Iowa, which was carrying President Franklin Roosevelt and his joint chiefs to the Tehran Conference. The torpedo exploded harmlessly in the Iowa's wake. (XDG, p 4A, 11/14/2003)Ref: 83
Nov 18444 heavy British bombers attack Berlin, Germany, in the first attack of the Battle of Berlin. Nine British planes are lost. 
Nov 20The United States Marines land at the Makin Atoll and the Tarauna Islands (Tarawa) in the Gilbert Island chain in the Pacific Ocean.Ref: 5
Nov 22At the beginning of a five-day Allied conference in Cairo, Egypt, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet with General Chiang Kai-shek of China to discuss strategy in the war against Japan.Ref: 3
Nov 23Japanese end their resistance on Makin and Tarawa.Ref: 2
Nov 26During World War II, the HMS Rohna, a British transport ship carrying American soldiers, was hit by a German missile off Algeria; 1,138 men were killed, including 1,015 American troops.Ref: 70
Nov 27First US air attack on Germany (Wilhelmshafen).Ref: 5
Nov 28President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin met in Tehran during World War II. (XDG, p 4A, 11/28/2002)Ref: 83
Dec 01President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin concluded their Tehran conference. (XDG, p 4A, 12/01/2003)Ref: 83
Dec 01FDR, Churchill & Stalin agree to Operation Overlord (D-Day).Ref: 5
Dec 02Two battalions of the 2nd Regiment of the Special Service Force begin climbing Mount la Difensa in Italy. Their objective is to clear German positions there and on Mount Remetanea. 
Dec 02Several German JU-88 bombers attack the Italian seaport of Bari. After 20 minutes, four ships have been damaged. One, a gasoline ship, explodes. Then an ammunition ship explodes. Sixteen cargo ships sink, with 1000 men killed. One ship containing 100 tons of mustard gas in 100-pound bombs sinks. 559 men suffer greatly from the poisoning, with a further 69 dying within two weeks. 
Dec 03Battle of Monte Cassino, Italy begins.Ref: 5
Dec 03Three battalions of the Special Service Force clear Germans from positions on the summit of Mount la Difensa in Italy 
Dec 042nd conference of Caïro: FDR, Churchill & Turkish President Inönü.Ref: 5
Dec 04Yugoslavian resistance forms provisionary government under Dr Ribar.Ref: 5
Dec 05Yugoslavian resistance forms provisionary government under Dr Ribar.Ref: 5
Dec 06A British division takes Mount Camino in Italy. 
Dec 07Cairo: President Roosevelt travels back to the US from the Tehran Conference.Ref: 5
Dec 08U.S. carrier-based planes sink two cruisers and down 72 planes in the Marshall Islands.Ref: 2
Dec 08 (afternoon) Canadian artillery begin a barrage of the Moro Valley in Italy, in preparation for infantry of the 1st Division to assault it in the morning. 
Dec 09In Italy, the Canadian 1st Division infantry launches an attack on the Moro Valley, to clear out German forces while engineers build a bridge across the Moro River. 
Dec 10British 8th Army occupies Orsogna/Ortona Italy.Ref: 5
Dec 10Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill that postpones a draft of pre-Pearl Harbor fathers.Ref: 2
Dec 10Allied forces bomb Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.Ref: 2
Dec 11U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull demands that Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria withdraw from the war.Ref: 2
Dec 12The German Army launches Operation Winter Tempest, the relief of the Sixth Army trapped in Stalingrad.Ref: 2
Dec 12The exiled Czech government signs a treaty with the Soviet Union for postwar cooperation.Ref: 2
Dec 13150 US Marauders bomb Schiphol.Ref: 5
Dec 14(6 AM) In Italy, the Canadian Royal 22nd Regiment begins a one-hour artillery barrage of German positions, in preparation for an attack toward Casa Berardi. (about 2 PM) In Italy, C Company of the Canadian Royal 22nd Regiment reaches Casa Berardi. 
Dec 15U.S. troops land on the Arawe Peninsula of New Britain in the Solomon Islands. 
Dec 16The chief surgeon at Auschwitz reports that 106 castration operations have been performed.Ref: 35
Dec 17U.S. forces invade Japanese-held New Britain Island in New Guinea. U.S. forces invade Japanese-held New Britain Island in New Guinea.Ref: 2
Dec 19Military coup in Bolivia.Ref: 5
Dec 20Soviet forces halt a German army trying to relieved the besieged city of Stalingrad.Ref: 2
Dec 21The battle for Ortona, Italy, begins, the first big street-fighting battle of the war. 
Dec 22President Franlin Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchhill and General Chiang Kai-shek come to an agreement on measures to be taken to defeat Japan. (XDG, p 4A, 12/22/2000)Ref: 83
Dec 23Canadian troops capture Ortona from German occupation. 
Dec 23General Montgomery told he is appointed commandant for D-day.Ref: 5
Dec 24President Franklin Roosevelt appoints General Dwight D Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces as part of Operation Overlord. (XDC, p 4A, 12/24/2000)Ref: 83
Dec 24Soviets launch offensives on the Ukrainian front.Ref: 36
Dec 26The German battleship Scharnhorst is sunk by British ships in an Arctic fight.Ref: 2
Dec 26Full Allied assault on New Britain as 1st Division Marines invade Cape Gloucester. 
Dec 27German forces retreat from Ortona, Italy, as Canadian forces complete taking the town; Canadian General McNaughton is removed from command of the 1st Canadian Army in Europe. 
Dec 27German warship "Scharnhorst" sinks in Barents Sea.Ref: 5
Dec 27Montgomery discusses Overlord with Eisenhower & Bedell Smith.Ref: 5
Dec 28Montgomery discusses Overlord with Eisenhower & Bedell Smith.Ref: 5
Dec 28German warship "Scharnhorst" sinks in Barents Sea.Ref: 5
Dec 28All inhabitants of Kalmukkie deported, about 70,000 killed.Ref: 5
1944
Jan 02Battle of Anzio WWIIRef: 10
Jan 15The U.S. Fifth Army successfully breaks the German Winter Line in Italy with the capture of Mount Trocchio.Ref: 2
Jan 15European Advisory Commission decides to divide Germany.Ref: 5
Jan 15General Eisenhower arrives in England.Ref: 5
Mar 15Japanese begin offensive toward Imphal and Kohima. 
Mar 15Italian town of Cassino destroyed by Allied bombing.Ref: 5
Last Update: October 27th, 2005
© 2000-2005   Kenneth Fussichen