Air Operations, Bismarcks

V Fighter Command P-40 fighter-bombers attack Gasmata. This is the first appearance of US Army Air Force fighters over New Britain.

Air Operations, Europe

• 628 aircraft are sent to Mannheim. Included in the total are 312 Lancasters, 193 Halifaxes, 115 Stirlings and 8 Mosquitos. 5 American B-17s also participate.
• The Pathfinder plan works well and concentrated bombing does fall on the intended area. The later stages of the raid, however, 'creeps back' across the northern edge of Ludwigshafen and out into open country.
• 18 Lancasters, 7 Halifaxes and 7 Stirlings are lost.
• 21 Lancasters and 8 Mosquitos of No. 8 Group carry out a diversioary raid on Darmstadt. The diversionary purpose of this raid is not successful because Darmstadt is too close to Mannheim and the German nightfighters could clearly see the main effort only 20 miles away. This small bombing force does a lot of damage to this university town which had not been bombed before.
• There are no losses.

• 6 Mosquitos are sent to Aachen and there are 28 OTU sorties.
• 1 Wellington is lost.

• 46 of 117 1st Bomb Division B-17s disptached attack the Nantes port area with 134 tons of bombs about 0815 hours. While escorting the B-17s over the target and during the withdrawal, 353rd Figher Group P-47s down 5 Luftwaffe fighters near Nantes and Chateaubriant between 0815 and 0845 hours.
• 53 3rd Bomb Division B-17s attack the Kerlin/Bastard Airdrome with 155 tons of bombs about 0815 hours.
• 55 3rd Bomb Division B-17s attack the Vannes/Meucon Airdrome with 165 tons of bombs at 0825 hours.
• 70 3rd Medium Bomb Wind B-26s attack the Conches Airdrome at 0907 hours, and 69 B-26s attack the Beauvais/Tille Airdrome at 1545 hours.
• 61 1st Bomb Division B-17s attack the Nantes port area with 174 tons of bombs about 1810 hours.
• 19 1st Bomb Disision B-17s attach the secondary target, the Rennes/St.-Jacques Airdrome, with 57 tons of bombs at 1834 hours.

4 B-17s from the 9th Air Force's independent 422nd Heavy Bomb Squadron join an RAF attack against Mannheim between 2211 and 2222 hours.

• XII Bomber Command B-26s attack bridges at Cancello Arnone and near Capua.
• NATAF aircraft attack numerous towns, roads, railroads, and motor vehicles in and around the battle area.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command B-25s attack Japanese-held villages in the Markham Valley.

Air Operations, Solomons

• 23 AirSols B-24s, more than 60 SBDs, 16 P-38s, and RNZAF P-40s attack the airfield at Kahili.
• 21 XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack Kolombangara.
• XIII Fighter Command P-39s attack barges.
• VMF-213 and VMF-214 F4Us down 9 A6M Zeros over the Shortlands and southern Bougainville at 0930 hours.
• 1 347th Fighter Group P-39 downs 1 A6M Zero over Kahili at 0930 hours.

Battle of the Atlantic

The US freigher Steel Voyager (6198t), in Convoy ONS-202, is torpedoed by U-952 and abandoned. She is reboarded when two corvettes arrive to provide assistance. She is abandoned a second time when it becomes obvious the ship cannot be gotten underway. All hands (the 39-man crew and the 27-man Armed Guard) are taken aboard the two corvettes, The Canadian Morden and the French Renoncule.

Britain, Home Front

Elinor Glyn, Anglo-Canadian author of 'scandalous' romances including 'Three Weeks', dies at age 78.

Corsica

Free French forces occupy Bonifacio. They now control more than half of the island.

Diplomatic Relations

The 'pocket' republic of San Marino declares war on Germany in retaliation for the capture and deportation of its 300-strong 'Army'.

Eastern Front

The Soviets of Konev's Front take Poltava and to the north, between Bryansk and Gomel, they enter Unecha east of Klintsy.

Fighting in the Smolensk sector intensifies as the Germans are pressed back around the city. Both the Kalinin and West Fronts approach from the north, east and south, hemming in the German 4th Army. Farther south, the 9th Army loses Unecha to the Bryansk Front.

Poltava falls to the Steppe Front. At Veliki Bukrin there is heavy fighting as the 3rd Guards Tank and 27th Armies extend their bridgehead.

Italy

The British X Corps begins formal attacks to clear the passes toward Naples as they move toward the Nocera-Pagani Pass and on the road between Salerno and San Severino. Although more than 3 divs are employed against little more that a regt, the terrain and tenacious German defense prevent very much progress. The attacks continue. The troops of Montgomery's 8th Army occupy Altamura and driver out the Germans.

5th Army launches an offensive north of Salerno.

Italy, Politics

Mussolini proclaims the foundation of the 'Italian Social Republic', and he forms a new government with authority over the part of the peninsula occupied by the Germans. However, Italy has to yield Trieste, Istria and the Trentino-Alto Adige to direct administration by Germany.

Mediterranean

The destroyer Eclipse sinks a German torpedo boat and the prison ship Donizetti carrying 1,576 Italians, south of Rhodes.

New Guinea

The Australian 20th Bde advances south toward Finschhafen taking an airfield and reaching the Bumi River where there is a powerful Japanese defense position.

Pacific

A Japanese tanker convoy is destroyed by the US submarine Trigger (SS-202) off Formosa. She sinks the transport Ryotoku Maru (3483t) and the cargo ship Yamashiro Maru (3429t) and eludes a counterattack by the escorting minesweeper Keinan Maru.

Pics from September 23, 1943

'Polly Ann', a B-17F Lost in Air Collision

Arab German Soldiers

Sturmgeschütz III

A Sd.Kfz. 250/11 (Armored Half-Track)