Air Operations, Europe

• 6 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin and 8 Wellingtons lay mines off Brest.
• There are no losses.

5 B-17s from the 8th Air Force's 422nd Heavy Bomb Squadron join an RAF attack on the marshalling yards at Mondane between 0029 and 0044 hours.

• XII Bomber Command B-17s and B-26s attack the Ciampino and Patica di Mare Airdromes.
• XII Bomber Command B-25s attack barges and small craft around the mouth of the Tiber River.
• IX Bomber Command B-24s attack road and rail junctions at Pescara, in eastern Italy.
• 12th Air Force P-38 fighter-bombers mount 27 separate dive-bombing attacks against rail and road targets and targets of opportunity in the Salerno beachhead area.
• NATAF aircraft mount day-long sweeps over the beachhead area and attack numerous rail and road targets servicing German Army forces in southern Italy.
• 4 Luftwaffe fighters are downed by aircraft of the 33rd Fighter and 27th Fighter-Bomber Groups during two separate afternoon actions over the Salerno beachhead area.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-25s attack barges and coastal villages.
• 52nd Troop Carrier Wing C-47s airlift an Australian Army infantry company to a makeshift airfield, created by simply burning vegetation off a flat field. The company is to advance directly to the nearby Japanese-held airfield at Kaiapit, from which an offensive against the Japanese base at Wewak can be supported. Beginning late in the month, US Army aviation engineers will begin converting the makeshift airfield into a 6,000-foot runway.

Central Pacific

Tarawa is attacked by land-based Liberator bombers.

Eastern Front

The Soviets complete the capture of Bryansk overcoming ferocious German resistance. The OKW is already resigned to the loss of huge areas of ground, and considers it essential that the Wehrmacht should hold the line of the Dniepr. They also take Bezhitsa, a little to the north, and Trubchevsk, to the south, as they advance across the River Desna on a broad front. In the south on the Sea of Azov, Berdyansk is taken.

The 11th Guards Army enters Bryansk and, after a brisk battle with German rearguards, captures the city. Trubchevsk also falls to the 47th Army.

Berdyansk falls to the 44th Army as Hollidt's 6th Army pulls back to the Melitopol line.

Italy

5th Army is beginning to push out the boundaries of its beachhead once more. Altavilla and Battipaglia are attacked again by the Germans in order to cover their withdrawal which is now beginning. The British XIII Corps advances toward the Potenza-Auletta line. American units of the US VI Corps continue their attacks against Altavilla.

New Guinea

The Australian 9th Div is to be employed for a landing in force at Finschhafen on the 22nd, in accordance with decisions taken by the Southwest Pacific Area Headquarters. Finschhafen, at the tip of the peninsula that encloses the northern part of the Gulf of Huon, will be used as an advanced air base and for light naval units.

Solomons

Fighting continues on Arundel Island and the near-by islet of Sagekarasa, with intensive artillery activity. At a conference of Allied commanders at Port Moresby, New Guinea, Gen MacArthur maintains that it is necessary to establish a beachhead on Bougainville as quickly as possible and build up a big bas there which would give the Allies control over the whole Southwest Pacific and enable them to break out towards the Central Pacific.

Yugoslavia, Resistance

A senior British liaison mission arrives and is sent to visit Tito. It is led by Brig Fitzroy Maclean who is Churchill's personal representative. It is to follow up the reports of representatives sent in May and June and to confirm that Tito is doing more against the Germans than Mihailovic.

Pics from September 17, 1943

Eleanor Roosevelt and Soldier Guarding a Zero

Oberleutnant Alfred Grislawski with his Bf 109

British Patrol Enters Pugliano, Italy

New Zealand Soldiers Land at Vella Lavella