Chronology of World War II

August 1943

Monday, August 9


Air Operations, Bismarcks

V Bomber Command bombers attack Japanese Army troops at Borgen Bay and Unea Island.

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Air Operations, East Indies

V Bomber Command bombers attack targets of opportunity in the Molucca Islands.

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Air Operations, Europe

RAF BOMBER COMMAND
Evening Ops:
  • 286 Lancasters and 171 Halifaxes are sent to Mannheim.
  • The target is mainly cloud-covered and the Pathfinder plan does not work well. As a result the bombing is widely scattered.
    • 6 Halifaxes and 3 Lancasters are lost.
Evening Ops:
  • 6 Mosquitos are sent to Duisburg, 10 Stirlings lay mines in the Frisians and there are 14 OTU sorties. There are no losses.
  • There are RAF night raids on Mannheim and Ludwigshafen.
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Air Operations, New Guinea

  • 33 V Bomber Command B-24s and 7 43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack Salamaua with 140 tons of bombs.
  • V Bomber Command B-25s attack Lae and numerous other targets.
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Air Operations, Solomons

10 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s, followed by 22 XIII Bomber Command B-24s, attack Vila.

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Battle of the Atlantic

The German submarine U-664 is sunk by aircraft (VC-1) from the US escort carrier Card (CVE-11) in the North Atlantic area.

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Denmark, Resistance

Scavenius, the Danish prime minister, refuses to accept the German demand that saboteurs be tried in German courts.

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Diplomatic Relations

In Ankara a secret agreement is reached between Britain and Hungary. In exchange for the Allies not bombing Hungarian targets, the Hungarians will not fire on Allied aircraft flying to Italy.

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Eastern Front

The Russians continue to advance on the Bryansk and Kharkov fronts.

SOUTHERN SECTOR

Elements of 1st Tank Army, with 6th Guards Army protecting their right wing, take Murafa. The advancing Soviets then run into more newly arrived elements of the III Panzer Corps and heavy fighting erupts near Olshany. The LII Corps also begins to counterattack near Grayvoron.

The 5th Guards Tank Army begins a new attack toward Olshany but encounters fierce resistance from the III Panzer Corps.

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Sicily

Axis forces continue to withdraw along the whole front, making for Messina. The main effort during this phase of the campaign is make by the British XIII Corps, whose divisions are engaged south and east of Etna in particularly difficult country.

Private Roy Humphrey of Toledo, Ohio is being given blood plasma by Private First Class Harvey White of Minneapolis, Minnesota, after he was wounded by shrapnel on 9 August 1943 in Sicily.

Treating a Shrapnel Wound


Treating a Shrapnel Wound
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Solomons

In New Georgia the Americans are still mopping up Japanese troops hidden in the jungle. The 35th Infantry Regt is ordered to be ready to embark for Vella Lavella Island.

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[August 8th - August 10th]