[Homer_J_Simpson]

Advance Reported (Bracker) – 2-3
Vital Route is Cut – 3
Big U.S. Land Blow at Italy Now Expected in Washington (Crider) – 4
Britons Confident of Result in Italy (Middleton) – 4-5
Berlin: Eight Hours After Blasting by RAF (photo) – 5
Soviet Drives Gain – 6
Berlin Rocks Anew under RAF’s Bombs (Graham) – 7
War News Summarized – 7
Third of Japan’s Shipping Sunk, Chiefly by Submarines, Says Knox (Trussell) – 8
Nazis Said to Hold Balkan Grip Vital (Sulzberger) – 9
French Plan Trial of Vichy Officials – 9
Nine Army Airmen Honored in Pacific – 10
Col. Netherwood Missing on Flight – 10
Facts About Income Tax: No. 2 – 12
The Italian Campaign (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 12
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the Fighting in Various Zones – 13-15

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/sep1943/f04sep43.htm

Australians land east of Lae
Saturday, September 4, 1943 www.onwar.com

Australian troops examine a captured Japanese naval gun [photo at link]

In New Guinea... Elements of the Australian 9th Division (20th and 26th Brigades) land on Huon Gulf, east of Lae. Naval support includes 10 US destroyers under Admiral Barbey.

In the Solomon Islands... On Arundel, American forces begin to advance out of their beachhead after a quiet period of consolidation.

[henkster]

A couple of thoughts today:

Wasn’t it only two months ago that the Germans launched Operation Citadelle? Things have certainly turned against them in the East. And the Soviets seem enamored with the concept of “body counts” in their press releases.

It’s good to see an article on the effects of America’s submarine campaign against Japan. The results have been exaggerated in tons of shipping sunk. But the effects are not. Japan entered the war with a shortage of merchant shipping, and even with faulty torpedoes, we are chipping into that resource. This year, Japan will suffer a significant net loss (sinking vs. production) and contraction of her merchant fleet. That shortage was exacerbated by the long transit times to her far-flung empire. But suffice to say, we are doing to Japan what the Germans could not do to Britain.