Air Attack Steady – 2
British Bells Hail Victory in Tunisia (MacDonald) – 2
Soviet Fliers Pound 3 Rail Hubs while Red Army Gains on Donets – 3
War News Summarized – 3
Hard Fighting in Aleutians is Continuing, Says the Axis – 4
Tunisia Re-Forges Forces of France (Baldwin) – 5-6
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the Fighting in Various War Zones – 7-9
Proud Moment for Son of a Soldier Father (photo) – 9
Best Sellers of the Week, Here and Elsewhere * – 10
Books of the Times (Prescott) – 11
Books Published Today – 12
Notes on Books and Authors – 13
* Quarterly feature to follow evolution of American reading habits. “The Robe” is still on top in fiction, topping the lists everywhere but Chicago, Dallas and S.F. The new leader in the general category is “One World,” by Wendell Willkie
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http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/may1943/f17may43.htm
Yugoslav Partisans face German offensive
Monday, May 17, 1943 www.onwar.com
Wounded Yugoslavian partisans are evacuated after Axis attacksIn Occupied Yugoslavia... Operation Schwarz. The Germans launch their fifth major offensive against Tito’s partisans. German forces are commanded by General Luters. They include the SS Division Prinz Eugen, 1st Mountain Division and the 4th Brandenburg Regiment. The latter two units have been deployed in the area for this operation. Other Axis units hold an encircling ring. In total, there are about 120,000 Axis troops engaged against, at most, 20,000 partisans led by Tito.
On the Eastern Front... In the Caucasus, the German 17th Army continues to counterattack. Soviet forces continue to hold the offensive.
In Washington... The Trident Conference continues.
Patton’s son-in-law is a POW, as we see from the photograph of the Silver Star awarded to his grandson. Patton will later try to get an early repatriation of Major Winter with the ill-conceived and ill-fated “Hammelburg Raid” in early 1945. Patton will draw a good deal of much deserved flak for this decision, as he threw away his soldier’s lives on what amounted to a personal errand. Had he only waited a few weeks, his son-in-law would have been liberated as a matter of course.