Posted on 06/15/2013 6:01:08 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
* Excerpt: In the companion raid by other Fortresses on Kiel, 100 miles north of Bremen, headquarters said that crewmen were so busy using their guns against German fighters that cameras were largely unused and it was impossible to ascertain the results immediately.
22 of the 76 B-17s assigned to Kiel were shot down. No wonder they didn’t have time to take snapshots.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/jun1943/f15jun43.htm
German Jet Bomber Tested
Tuesday, June 15, 1943 www.onwar.com
In Germany... The world’s first jet bomber/reconnaissance aircraft — the Arado Ar234 — is flight-tested at Rheine, near Munster.
In the Indian Ocean... The disguised German raider Michel sinks a Norwegian ship west of Australia.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
June 15th, 1943 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Additional modifications of Boeing YB-40 Flying Fortress escort bombers are completed in the United Kingdom. It is now hoped that these B-17s converted to heavily armoured aircraft with great firepower will solve the problem of long-range escort for bombers. (Jack McKillop)
RAF Squadron 101, Radio Counter Measures (RCM), is based at Ludford Magna, near Louth in Lincolnshire, as part of No. 1 Group, Bomber Command. At Ludford a dangerous task is assigned the squadron. More details here.
Destroyer HMS Swift launched.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Probe commissioned.
Submarine HMS Stonehenge commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: Munster: The Arado Ar-234, the world’s first jet bomber aircraft, has its first test flight, piloted by Flugkapitän Selle. All went well with the flight but the five braking parachutes failed to open and the landing trolley was destroyed. (21)
U-674, U-852 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
POLAND: Janowska: Jewish forced labourers, supervised by SS Colonel Paul Blobel, start digging up the corpses of 1,200 Lwow Jews massacred in March. They extract gold teeth and rings from the bodies before cremating them.
U.S.S.R: Black Sea Fleet and Azov Flotilla: MS “T-411” - by U-boat, at Sukhumi area (Sergey Anisimov)(69)
At 1419, U-24 fired a spread of two torpedoes at the BTShCh-411 Zashchitnik (No 26), which had been spotted at 1354 and observed one hit in the stern after 1 minute 30 seconds. The vessel broke in two and sank about 20 miles west of Suchumi. The survivors were picked up by the Soviet patrol craft SKA-0101 and SKA-0138. (Dave Shirlaw)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Submarine HMS Umbra torpedoed and sank the Italian heavy cruiser Trento. Trento was already damaged by a torpedo from an RAF 217 Sqn Beaufort from Malta).
Submarine HMS Ultor sinks the Italian auxiliary minesweeper Tullio/No.92 (137 BRT).
At 1430, the Athelmonarch, escorted by the Greek destroyer Aetos, was torpedoed and sunk by U-97 NW of Jaffa, Palestine. Four crewmembers were lost. The master, 35 crewmembers and eleven gunners were picked up by the destroyer and landed at Beirut. (Dave Shirlaw)
TURKEY: The government makes an affirmation of continued neutrality. Reaffirming its separate friendship treaties with USSR and Germany. (Glenn Steinberg)
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: Kiska Island, Aleutian Islands, is bombed by six Lockheed PV-1 Venturas of Patrol Wing Four (PatWing 4) based on Adak Island. (Jack McKillop):
The resupply and evacuation of Japanese personnel from Kiska by submarine continues. HIJMS I-156 lands three tons of weapons and ammunition and two tons of food and takes out 58 civilians and two sailors.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Owen Sound launched Collingwood Ontario. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: President Roosevelt approves a ceiling of 31,447 useful aircraft for the USN. (Jack McKillop)
Destroyer escorts USS Menges and Sederstrom launched.
Destroyer escort USS Gary laid down.
Destroyer USS Hale commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Submarine HM S/M P512 arrived Bermuda for ASW training. (Dave Shirlaw)
"With a benevolent Winston Churchill in the foreground and tanks and planes in the background, this recruiting poster calls upon members of the Yishuv (Jewish community in Palestine) to join the British effort to defeat the Axis powers.
Although the British resisted creating a separate Jewish combat division, in 1940 they formed Jewish coastal artillery batteries and infantry companies as part of the British force in Palestine."
"Hans Frank (right), governor-general of Occupied Poland, hosts SS chief Heinrich Himmler at a dinner held at the Wewel castle in Kraków, Poland, in June 1943.
Frank objected to Himmler's complete control of the 'Jewish problem' in Poland and the decision to use the Generalgouvernement as a dumping ground for Jews.
His protests to Hitler were to no avail, as Himmler's SS retained supreme authority over the 'Final Solution.' "
You got to love it!
I read carefully to see if the article included those most famous words of all:
Would have thought that to be obligatory, but maybe not so much, at the time... ;-)
Most interesting to note that Brits in 1943 considered our boys to be better men than those of the First World War.
Who would of thought it?
The battle in the Aleutians discussed on page 5 is yet another example of the culture of cowardice (or at least excessive caution) shown by the Japanese navy which time after time allowed it to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I had never heard of this jet bomber!
Arado Ar 234
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_234
The most notable use of the Ar 234 in the bomber role was the attempt to destroy the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen.[7] Between 7 March, when it was captured by the Allies, and 17 March, when it finally collapsed, the bridge was continually attacked by Ar 234s of III/KG 76 carrying 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) bombs. The aircraft continued to fight in a scattered fashion until Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945. Some were shot down in air combat, destroyed by flak, or “bounced” by Allied fighters during takeoff or on the landing approach, as was already happening to Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighters. Most simply sat on the airfields awaiting fuel that never arrived.
Boeing YB-40 Flying Fortress
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YB-40_Flying_Fortress
“The Boeing YB-40 Flying Fortress was a modification of the United States B-17 Flying Fortress bomber aircraft, converted to act as a heavily armed escort for other bombers during World War II. At the time of its development, long-range fighter aircraft such as the North American P-51 Mustang were just entering quantity production, and thus were not yet available to accompany bombers all the way from England to Germany and back.”
“Altogether of the 59 aircraft dispatched, 48 sorties were credited. Five German fighter kills and two probables (likely kills) were claimed, and one YB-40 was lost, shot down on the 22 June mission to Hüls, Germany. Tactics were revised on the final five missions by placing a pair of YB-40s in the lead element of the strike to protect the mission commander.
“Overall the concept proved a failure because the YB-40 could not keep up with standard B-17Fs, particularly after they had dropped their bombs.[3][N 1] Despite the failure of the project as an operational aircraft, it led directly to modifications conspicuous on the final production variant of the B-17, the B-17G”
Nice find. First flew "today", June 15, 1943: 
Nice article on the toll our submarines are taking on Japanese shipping. While the article will always mention that loss of combat vessels to submarines, the loss of merchant shipping cannot be understated. Japan entered the war with a shortage of merchant shipping, and this year she will begin to feel the economic pinch as the shipping fleet will start to shrink.
For anyone interested in reading about the American submarine campaign in the Pacific, Clay Blair Jr.’s “Silent Victory” is a must read. I know I’ve plugged this book before, but it is THE reference work on this aspect of WW2.
In Captain Tameichi Hara’s post war memoir he told how he would bemoan the news of a destroyer being sunk by a submarine. He felt it was the mouse killing the cat.
Something I haven’t done in a while. I’ve updated my library on my profile. Added 38 books on WWII, 9 Civil War, 7 General History, 3 General Warfare, and 3 Korea. As much as I hat to admit it, I’ve read all but 6 of these new additions.
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