Air Operations, CBI

• In the first mission of its kind in the theater, 2 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s based at the airfield at Nanning, China mount a low-altitude anti-shipping sweep over the Tonkin Gulf. 1 of the B-25s attacks a freighter, which the crew abandons. However, the second B-25 crashes into the sea with the loss of 2 crewmen.

Air Operations, Europe

The US 8th Air Force bombs Emden.

• 678 aircraft are sent to Hannover. In this total are 312 Lancasters, 231 Halifaxes, 111 Stirlings and 24 Wellingtons. 5 American B-17s also take part.
• Faulty forecast winds cause the Pathfinders to miss the center of Hannover again. The bombing is concentrated but falls on an area 5 miles north of the city center. One of the targets for this and other raids on the city is the Continental tire works, but these and other war-related industrial sites remain intact. There are no reports from the ground, but RAF photographic evidence indicates that most of the bombs fall in open country or in villages north of the city.
• 17 Halifaxes, 10 Lancasters, 10 Stirlings and 1 Wellington are lost.
• 21 Lancasters and 6 Mosquitos of No. 8 Group carry out a diversionary raid on Brunswick which is successful in attracting somt of the nightfighters. 218 people are killed in Brunswick.
• 1 Lancaster is lost.

• 9 Mosquitos carry out an additional diversionary raid on Emden, 5 Mosquitos on Oboe tests are sent to Aachen, 19 aircraft lay mines in the Kattegat and in the Frisians and there are 4 OTU sorties.
• There are no losses.

No 97 Squadron

• On a mission to bomb the Emden port facilities and industrial areas, 246 1st and 3rd Bomb Division B-17s make the first combat use of the British-build H2S airborne radar system, which will allow radar-equipped pathfinder bombers to 'see' targets through thick cloud cover. The radars are aboard 4 B-17s of the 482nd Heavy Pathfinder Bomb Group, which makes its combat debut leading various groupings of the heavy-bomber force. Unfortunatedly, three of the H2S sets fail before they arrive over the target, so the bulk of the bombing effore is scattered throughout the city. A total of 505 tons of bombs are dropped on what are hoped to be industrial targets in Emden between 0957 and 1008 hours, and 181 tons are dropped on various targets of opportunity.
• 8 B-17s are lost, 78 damaged; 1 crewman killed, 18 wounded, 71 missing
• For the first time, also, rotations of VIII Fighter Command P-47s with the new 108-gallon long-range drop tanks are able to provide escort all the way to the target and back, an event that results in the confirmed downin of 18 Luftwaffe fighters over the target area between 1005 and 1025 hours by P-47s of the 4th, 78th, and 353rd Fighter Groups as well as 4 over the Nether lands coast between 1030 and 1045 by 56th Fighter Group P-47s. Of 262 P-47 escort sorties, 1 P-47 and its pilot are lost in action, and 1 is lost in an operational accident.
• 65 3rd Medium Bomb Wing B-26s attack the Beauvais/Tille Airdrome at 1045 hours.
• 68 3rd Medium Bomb Win B-26 attack the Conches Airdrome at 1729 hours.
• 4 B-17s from the 8th Air Force's independent 422nd Heavy Bomb Squadron join the RAF attack on Hannover between 2208 and 2217 hours.
• 1 B-17 is lost

• XII Air Support Command fighters strafe the Viterbo Airdrome and the Bracciano seaplane base, and attack a number of rail and road targets in southern Italy.
• NATAF aircraft attack motor vehicles ner Benevento, and 86th Fighter-Bomber Group A-36s down 1 Ju-52 and 1 He-111 while conducting a morning mission near Rome.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command bombers attack Finschhafen twice during the day.
• 117 V Bomber Command B-24s and B-25s, escorted by 129 V Bomber Command P-38s and P-40s, attack airfields and shipping throughout the Wewak area with more than 160 tons of bombs. An estimated 40 Japanese aircraft are destroyed on the ground and 10 ships and 12 smaller vessels are claimed as sunk or severely damaged. 3 B-25s are lost to antiaircraft fire.
• A P-39 with the 35th Fighter Group’s 41st Fighter Squadron downs a Ki-21 'Sally' bomber over Finschhafen at 0835 hours. 8th and 475th Fighter group P-38s down 4 Ki-61 'Tony' fighters and 3 A6M Zeros over Wewak between 1000 and 1010 hours.

Air Operations, Solomons

• 27 XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack the Kahili area while XIII Bomber Command P-39s attack barges around Choiseul.
• VMF-213 and VMF-214 F4Us down 7 A6M Zeros over Kahili at 1230 hours.

Battle of the Atlantic

• During a series of attacks on 6 convoys by 21 U-boats over the next week and a half only 2 ships are sunk for the loss of 6 U-boats.
• U-161 is sunk by a Mariner of VP-74, a US Navy squadron operating out of Brazil.

U-161 Class Type IXC CO Kapitänleutnant Albrecht Achilles Location S Atlantic, NE of Bahia Cause Air attack Casualties 53 Survivors None

U-221 Class Type VIIC CO Kapitänleutnant Hans Trojer Location Atlantic, NW of Cape Finisterre Cause Air attack Casualties 50 Survivors None

• U-221 is sunk by Halifax 'B' of No 58 Sqadron RAF. Eight depth charges are dropped in a perfect straddle from port bow to starboard quarter. The U-boat's bows rose up to the vertical because of the explosions, the dropped back and sank.

Corfu

The Germans take full control of the island, having practically wiped out the Italian garrison.

Diplomatic Relations

At Brindisi the Allied Generals Bedell Smith, Macmillan and Murphy meet the Italian delegates, Badoglio, Ambrosio and Acquarone to make final arrangements for the meeting of Badoglio and Eisenhower at which the final text of the armistice will be signed.

Eastern Front

The Red Army moves into the suburbs of Dnepropetrovsk and in the Kuban the Germans enclave is further reduced as the Russians occupy the north bank of the Kuban River and capture of Temryuk the last port they have held.

The Soviet bridgehead at Bukrin comes under heavy attack from the XLVIII Panzer Corps but the German assault fails to destroy it.

The XLVIII Panzer Corps launches a ferocious counterattack at Bukrin. The Soviet forces in the bridgehead were not expecting an attack of this strength and in the subsequent fighting are almost wiped out. Only through sheer stubbornness do they maintain a small bridgeh3ead on the west bank. Farther southe the Southwest Front enters Dnepropetrovsk but becomes embroiled in bitter fighting with Fretter Pico's XXX Corps.

In the Kuban the Germans give up Temryuk.

Italy

Advance detachments of 8th Army enter Foggia and capture the airfields without a fight. Melfi is taken by Canadian units. The main body of 8th Army is still not ready to move.

The people of Naples rise against the Germans, who have made the city into one of their 'game preserves', plundering shops, requisitioning public transport and rounding up thousands of citizens to be sent to forced labor. The rising begins in the afternoon, when German soldiers try yet again to plunder a large shop in the main street in the city center, the Via Roma, and some men there are driven to resist, forming a line and shooting at the Germans. The Germans retreat and fire back, shooting at random and killing a youth walking by. The fighting quickly spreads through the whole city. Through the streets, from the windows, from the roofs of houses, hundreds of improvised resistance fighters start shooting at the Germans. The fighting goes on for 3 days with the people taking heavy losses. The battle only ends as the Allied armies approach.

New Guinea

There are heavy Allied air attacks on the Japanese airfields around Wewak.

Pacific

• The US submarine Bluefish (SS-222) sinks the Japanese torpedo boat Kasasagi 25 miles south of the Flores Sea, N. E. I.
• The US submarine Bonefish (SS-223) sinks the Japanese army transport Kishima Maru (9908t) and damages the cargo ship Chihaya Maru off the coast of French Indochina.
• Malayan saboteurs, promised a livelihood after the British reoccupy Malay, sink the Japanese cargo ship Hakusan Maru (2197t) and damage the cargo ship Kizan Maru (5507t) at Singapore.

United States, Planning

Maj-Gen Charles D. Barrett takes command of the I Marine Amphibious Corps from Lt-Gen Alexander A. Vandegrift. The I Marine Amphibious Corps issues orders for the 3rd Marine Divisin to land near Cape Torokina on Bougainville Island to 'seize, occupy and defend' a beachhead, then be prepared to expand the beachhead with the arrival of the 37th Infantry Division.

Pics from September 27, 1943

A B-25D-1 over Taisei Maru

US Aircraft Bomb the But Airfield

Parafrag Bomb Falls near Ki-48 Lily