Air Operations, CBI

• 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack rail facilities at Naba and Sagaing.

• 27 Japanese bombers attacking the airfield at Kunming are intercepted by 24 23rd Fighter Group P-40s and 3 449th Fighter Squadron P-38s. The P-40s down 3 A6M Zeros and 16 twin-engine bombers in defensive actions over Kunming and Kunming Lake between 0850 and 0900 hours. 1 P-40 is also lost.

Air Operations, East Indies

V Bomber Command B-25s attack Penfoei, Timor.

Air Operations, Europe

• 8 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin, 20 Wellingtons lay mines off Brest, Lorient and St Nazaire, and there are 21 OTU sorties.
• There are no losses.

• XII Bomber Command B-17s and B-26s attack road and rail targets around the expanding beachhead area.
• XII Air Support Command A-36s and NATAF aircraft attack German Army forces concentrating in the Nocera area.
• In its last operational mission against targets in Italy, IX Bomber Command dispatches 98th and 376th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s against a marshalling yard at Castelfanco Veneto. Clouds obscure the target, but the 98th Group bombers release their bombs on the basis of a time-to-target estimate, and the 376th Group attacks the airdrome and marshalling yards on the return leg.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• 43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s and V Bomber Command B-25s attack roads and bridges between Madang and Kaiapit. V Bomber Command B-24s attack Boram and Wewak. V Fighter Command P-39 fighter-bombers attack targets around Bogadjim.
• P-38s of the 475th Fighter Group’s 432d Fighter Squadron down 2 Ki-61 'Tony' fighters and an A6M Zero over or near Marilinan between 1130 and 1230 hours.

Air Operations, Solomons

2 VMF-213 F4Us down a G4M 'Betty' bomber near Choiseul at 0620 hours.

Baltic Sea

U-346 is presumed lost in a diving accident, the exact circumstances of which are unknown.

U-346

Battle of the Atlantic

• The British frigate Lagan, escorting Convoy ON-202, is torpedoed by U-260 in the middle of the North Atlantic with the loss of 28 crewmen. Lagan is towed back to the UK by the British tug Destiny arriving on the 24th where she is declared a total loss. U-305 sinks the Canadian destroyer St Croix, also escorting Convoy ON-202, with the loss of 147 of her crew. 80 are rescued by the British frigate Itchen. The British corvette Polyanthus, ordered to join Itchen in searching for the responsible submarine and in rescuing survivors, is sunk by U-952 with the loss of 85 of her crew. 1 survivor is picked up by Itchen.
• U-238 also attacks the New York-bound Convoy ON-202 torpedoing the US freighters Frederick Douglass (7176t) and Theodore Dwight Weld (7176t). The British rescue ship Rathlin rescues all hands (40 crewmen and 29 Armed Guard sailors) from Frederick Douglass, but the other freighter sinks so quickly that 20 of her 42-man crew and 13 of the 28-man Armed Guard perish with the ship. Rathlin rescues the survivors.
• Liberator 'F; of No 120 Squadron RAF attacks U-338 but without result. The corvette HMCS Drumheller then engages to U-boat with gunfire until the submarine dived. The corvette is shaken by an underwater explosion of som violence, the cause of which is unknown. This is the last contack with U-338 and is presumed lost from this encounter.

U-338

Eastern Front

Yeremenko's troops re-take Velizh, northwest of Smolensk, and Kholm, farther north along with many other towns.

Velizh falls to the 4th Shock Army of the Kalinin Front.

Indian Ocean

The Italian submarine Cagni surrenders at Durban.

Italy

Canadian troops from 8th Army enter Potenza after being held up by a tiny German force. Gen Lucas takes over command of VI Corps from Dawley. British and US troops link up at Eboli.

New Guinea

The Australians advancing up the Markham Valley take Kaiapit after a hard struggle.

Pacific

The US submarine S-28 (SS-133) sinks the Japanes gunboat Katsura Maru (1368t) 165 miles southwest of Paramushiro, Kuriles.

Solomons

The units deployed on Sagekarasa, near Arundel, discover that the Japanese have abandoned their positions in the night. New Zealand troops finally clear the island of Vella Lavella of all remaining Japanese opposition. Japanese troops on Vella Lavella numbered about 600, but the greatest threat to the Allies came from air attacl.

United States, Home Front

In the continuing debate about the drafting of fathers of families, Gen Marshall and Adm King tell a Senate Committee that failure to do so will probably prolong the war.

Yugoslavia, Resistance

Very heavy fighting is taking place at Split, which is held by Mihailovic's patriot army. The Germans have made repeated attacks, using waves of dive-bombers, for the last 7 days.

Pics from September 20, 1943

Advancing from Salerno

Welders Working on the Liberty Ship Frederick Douglass

Sherman Tank of the 14th Canadian Armored Regiment