Air Operations, Bismarcks

V Bomber Command B-24s and B-25s attack the Cape Gloucester airfield on New Britain and RAAF P-40s attack Gasmata in support of the Finschafen landings.

Air Operations, CBI

• 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack a rail bridge at Monywa.

Air Operations, East Indies

One 380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24 attacks Amboina Island.

Air Operations, Europe

• 711 aircraft are sent to Hannover. Included in this total are 322 Lancasters, 226 Halifaxes, 137 Stirlings and 26 Wellingtons. 5 American B-17s also take part in their first night raid on Germany.
• This is the first major raid on Hannover in over 2 years and the first in a series of 4 heavy raids on this target. Visibilty in the target area is good but stronger winds that were forecasted are encountered causing the marking and bombing to be concentrated between 2 and 5 miles south-southeast of the city.
• More than 650 RAF bombers drop more than 2,300 tons of bombs on Hanover.
• 12 Halifaxes, 7 Lancasters, 5 Stirlings and 2 Wellingtons are lost.
• 21 Lancasters and 8 Mosquitos of No. 8 Group carry out a diversionary raid to Oldenburg, dropping much 'Window' and many flares and target indicators to simulate the arrival of a much larger force. The losses on the Hannover raid, lower than the recent average, may indicate that this tactic is partially successful. No aircraft are lost on this diversionary raid.

• 12 Mosquitos are sent on a further diversion to Emden, 4 Stirlings lay mines in the Frisians and there are 7 OTU sorties.
• There are no losses.

Air Operations, New Guinea

Beginning before dawn, Australian Army troops conduct a virtually unopposed landing north of Finschhafen. V Bomber Command B-25s and A-20s attack the Japanese Army defenses while more than 90 V Fighter Command fighters providing escort and cover for the invasion flotilla intercept incoming Japanese aircraft, whose attack is rendered ineffective. P-38s and P-40s down a total of 40 Rabaul-based Japanese bombers and fighters over Finschhafen and its approaches between 0945 and 1300 hours, and antiaircraft fire from destroyers downs 9 of 10 torpedo bombers over the invasion convoy. 3 P-38s and 2 pilots are lost in the action.

Arctic

6 British midget submarines are sent to attack Tirpitz in Altenfiord. Only 2 manage to place their charges but Tirpitz is put out of action until March 1944.

Balkans

In Cephalonia, Greece, troops of the Italian Acqui Div lay down their arms, and the Germans take revenge by killing 5,000 officers and men. Add these to the 1,200 men and 446 officers killed in action and 3,000 who died when the ships taking them to prisoner-of-war camps in Germany were sunk, this figure brought up to 9,646 the total number who died resisting the Germans. The Acqui Div has been literally wiped out.

Battle of the Atlantic

U-666 sinks the British frigate Itchen south-southwest of Greenland with the loss of 150 on board. 3 survivors are picked up by the American steamer James Smith.

Eastern Front

The Soviets take Anapa in the Kuban and Novomoskovosk, just north of Dnepropetrovsk. There is fierce fighting at Poltava as the Germans begin to pull out since it can no longer be defended against the advance of Konev's Steppe Front. Before leaving the Germans have laid much of the city to waste. The Russian 13th Army cross the Dnieper south of Kiev penetrating the so-called 'Eastern Rampart' defenses along the right bank.

The Soviet Central Front reaches the Dnieper River, and the 3rd Guards Army crosses the waterway at Veliki Bukrin. The cost of reaching the river line has been high: the Southwestern Front has lost 40,000 killed and missing and 117,000 wounded, the Southern Front losing 26,000 killed and missing and 90,000 wounded. Elsewhere, the 1st Panzer Army is hit hard inthe Dnepropetrovsk bridgehead and the German 17th Army continues with its skillful withdrawal from the Kuban.[MORE]

Italy

8th Army is reinforced by 78th Div and the 4th Arm Bde and 8th Indian Div who land at Bari and Brindisi but they cannot immediately advance up the coast in any great strength. 5th Army is preparing to advance also. The British X Corps has the task of clearing the way to Naples and the US VI Corps moving in the first instance toward the Avellino-Teoro line and Benevento.

New Guinea

An amphibious force of destroyers and landing craft under American Rear-Adm Barbey, lands the Australian 20th Bde at Katika, just north of Finschhafen. The landing is supported by a naval bombardment and a strong air group also provides cover. Japanese aircraft which tried to attack the convoy as it approached were driven off by Allied aircraft.

Pacific

Adm Halsey asks Read-Adm Wilkinson, who is to command the landing forces, to prepare detailed plans for the invasion of the northern Solomons. After that it will be decided to occupy the Treasury Islands and Empress Augusta Bay in Bougainville Island.

Southwest Pacific

From the headquarters of this sector, which is under MacArthur, comes instructions for Operation DEXTERITY, the landing at Cape Gloucester, at the western tip of New Britain. Rabaul, the highly important Japanese base, is at the other end of the island. Parachutists and airborne troops will take part in the operation, which is to start on November 20 but put off to December 26.

Pics from September 22, 1943

Men of the Queen's Regiment advance past a pair of burning German PzKpfw IV tanks

Salerno area, 22 September 1943.

Allied Troops Pass Burning Tanks

Australian soldiers and US Navy landing craft at Scarlet Beach on 22 September 1943.

Australians Landing at Scarlet Beach

Mess queue during the march from Maadi to Burg el Arab, September 1943 by the New Zealand 22nd Battalion.

New Zealanders Lining Up to Eat

War correspondent Peter Stursberg of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation recording a radio broadcast, Potenza, Italy, 22 September 1943. (Capt. Frank Royal, Canadian Dept. of National Defence, Library and Archives Canada)

CBC Correspondent Peter Stursberg

Men of 362 Field Company Royal Engineers stop for a smoke in Reggio, September 1943.

Engineers on Break in Reggio

An Italian L3/35 in Albania, September 1943

22 September 1943: Lt Conrad Ingold suffered an engine failure during take off, his Thunderbolt (VF-H, 41-6579) coming to rest near the end of the runway. Crash crews arrived and covered the aircraft in foam.

Failed Take Off

USS LST-204 beached at Finschhafen, New Guinea, 22 September 1943.

LST on the Beach in New Guinea

Russian troops crossing the river Dnieper on a simple footbridge and with dinghy soon before the Germans were able to deploy on the right bank.

Russian Troops Crossing the Dniepr River