Air Operations, Aleutians

8 28th Composite Bomb Group B-24s, 12 B-25s, and 343rd Fighter Group P-38s are sent to attack targets on Attu, but all the bombers are redirected against Kiska because of bad weather over Attu. Nevertheless, the P-38s are able to strafe ground targets on Attu, and a B-24 drops supplies to US Army ground troops.

Air Operations, Bismarcks

90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s mount individual attacks against various coastal targets on New Britain and New Ireland.

Air Operations, East Indies

In their unit’s combat debut, 380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s based at the airfield in Fenton, Australia attack the Kendari airfield on Celebes.

Air Operations, Europe

Thousands of leaflets containing the names of 412 British ships claimed as sunk since June 1941 are dropped over northeast England.

• 12 Venturas bomb Morlaix airfield and 5 Mitchells bomb the Caen airfield. 7 additional Mitchells can not locate their airfield target. There are no losses.

• One of the most daring raids of the war, Operation CHASTISE or the Dambusters Raid, is undertaken by the newly-formed No. 617 Squadron under the leadership of Wing Commander Guy Gibson. The mission is to breach several dams in Germany in order to slow down industrial production. Of the 4 that are targeted, 2 are breaches, the Möhne and the Eder. 19 aircraft are sent on the raid, but only 12 make it. 4 more of the planes are lost on the return journey. 53 crew members are killed and 3 are taken prisoner.

One of the dams successfully breached was the Mohne. Water was still flowing through the broken dam wall some hours after the atack when a recce Spitfire took this picture.

Operation CHASTISE

The second dam to be destroyed was the Eder.

Operation CHASTISE

Almost 20 miles down river lies Kassel. This recce picture shows the extent of the flooding caused by the breaching of the dams.

Flooding Caused by the Attack on the Dams

• 9 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf and Münster. 54 aircraft lay mines off the Biscay ports and in the Frisians and there are 4 OTU sorties.
• 1 mine-laying Wellington is lost.

Air Operations, New Guinea

90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s mount individual attacks against various coastal targets.

Aleutians

The Americans continue their attacks near Holtz Bay on Attu. The Japanese, having only 2,380 men opposed by 11,000 Americans, are in danger of being taken in the rear if the Americans succeed in breaking through from Massacre Bay. The Japanese pull back during the night to Chicagof Harbor to put up their final resistance.

Battle of the Atlantic

• Over the next week 4 U-boat wolf packs attack 5 convoys but sink only 1 ship. 9 U-boats are sunk and 4 are damaged.
• The German submarine U-182 is sunk by the US destroyer MacKenzie (DD-614) west of the Madeira Islands.

The Dambusters Raid

During the night a specially trained RAF squadron, No 617, led by Wing Cmdr Guy Gibson, undertakes a precision attack on the dams on the Möhne and Eder Rivers in the Ruhr. They use specially designed bombs and unique techniques to attack targets which are reckoned to supply the majority of the electricity used in the Ruhr and a great deal of the water. A third target, the Sorpe dam, is not attacked. The operation, which is called Operation CHASTISE, has only been possible by training an elite squadron for this one mission and the losses, 8 of 19 planes, are too high to bear repetition. Both dams are damaged, causing many deaths and widespread flooding. The damage, however, is far slighter than has been hoped and both dams are fairly quickly repaired. The operation certainly does not prove that such precision attacks are either possible on a large scale, or likely to have the greatest effects.

The 'Dambusters' Raid

617 Squadron, RAF, 'The Dambusters' was a single squadron formed during the Second World War to carry out a single special and dangerous task. That operation “Chastise” has since become a legend in the annals of military history and it possess all the traditionally admired military attributes of originality, surprise and heroism coupled with a very dramatic outcome. Operation Chastise has in many ways overshadowed the later exploits of the men who formed the squadron.

Eastern Front

Over the next 10 days the Germans mount a series of counterattacks in the Kuban area but these are fairly comfortably held by the Soviet forces.

Operation 'Gypsy Baron' begins which is intended to capture Soviet partisans.

The German 17th Army begins a series of counterattacks in the Kuban.

North Africa

Gen Harold Alexander informs Churchill: 'Sir, it it my duty to report that the Tunisian campaign is over.'

Occupied Holland

The Germans confiscate all wireless sets in Holland.

Poland, Resistance

In the last act of the extermination of the Warsaw ghetto, the SS blow up the Tlomacki Synagogue. Only 8 buildings are left standing. Jürgen Stroop, the SS commander, boasts that since the rising began 14,000 Jews have been killed in the ghetto and a further 40,000 have been sent to Treblinka to be killed.(22,000 to concentration camps and 20,000 to labor camps?)

Ornganized resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto comes to an end. SS-Brigadeführer Jörgen Stroop, the SS commander during the rising, writes the following missive about the revolt in the battle diary: 'The resistance offered by the Jews and bandits could be broken only by the energetic, tireless deployment of storm patrols night and day. On April 23, 1943, the Reichsführer-SS, through the Higher SS and Police Führer for the East, in Kracow, issued the order that the Warsaw ghetto be combed out with maximum severity and ruthless determination. I therefore decided to carry out the total destruction of the Jewish quarter by burning down all residential blocks, including the blocks attached to the armament factories. One by one the factories were systematically cleared and then destroyed by fire. Almost always the Jews then emerged from their hiding places and bunkers. Not rarely, the Jews stayed in the burning houses until the head and fear of being burned to death caused them to jump from the upper floors after they had thrown mattresses and other upholstered objects from the burning houses to the street. With broken bones they would then try to crawl across the street into buildings which were not yet, or only partially, in flames. Often, too, Jews changed their hiding places during the night, by shifting into the ruins of buildings already burned out and taking refuge there until they were found by one of the shock troop units. Only as a result of the unceasing and untiring efforts of all forces did we succeed in capturing altogether 56,065 Jews.

Significant resistance ended on April 23, 1943, and the Nazi operation officially ended in mid-May, symbolically culminated with the demolition of the Great Synagogue of Warsaw on May 16, 1943. According to the official report, at least 56,065 people were killed on the spot or deported to German Nazi concentration and death camps, most to Treblinka.

End of Polish Resistance in Warsaw