http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/jul1943/f03jul43.htm
American and Australian forces link up
Saturday, July 3, 1943 www.onwar.com
In New Guinea... Australian forces, advancing from Wau, are heavily engaged by Japanese forces around Mubo. During the day, the Australians link up with the Americans from the Nassau Bay landing force in the Bitoi River region.
In the Solomon Islands... On New Georgia, American forces land at Zanana, about 8 miles east of Munda. There is no Japanese resistance and the beachhead is quickly consolidated.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/03.htm
July 3rd, 1943 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Rescue tug HMS Earner launched.
Escort carrier HMS Atheling (ex-USS Glacier) commissioned.
Frigate HMS Tavy commissioned.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Minalto launched.
GERMANY: Cologne: Tonight Luftwaffe night-fighters use “Wild Sow” tactic, a fighter in a flak-free zone guided by a ground controller, for the first time in an Allied raid on Germany tonight.
U-778 laid down.
U-477, U-1164 launched.
U-393 commissioned.
ITALY: Tonight three Wellingtons of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group drop 1.1 tons of bombs on the Lido di Roma airfield with the loss of one aircraft.
SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC: Most of the Army’s 172d Infantry Regiment moves from Rendova Island to New Georgia Island and begins operations to capture Munda Airfield. Japanese aircraft continue to attack Allied forces; at approximately 1445 hours, 40 “Zekes” attack the area and 5 are shot down by P-38 Lightnings near Rendova.
US forces land unopposed at Zanana, eight miles east of Munda.
NEW GUINEA: Seven Japanese bombers escorted by Mitsubishi A6M Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighters, Allied Code Name “Zeke,” attack the Allied beachhead at Nassau Bay, New Guinea around 1600 hours. Fourteen P-40s returning from a mission intercept the enemy and shoot down 5 Zekes and a Mitsubishi Ki 46 Army Type 100 Command Reconnaissance Plane, Allied Code Name “Dinah.”
CANADA: Frigate HMCS New Waterford launched Esquimalt.
Frigate HMCS Outremont launched Quebec City.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Six Eleventh Air Force B-24s bomb Main Camp on Kiska Island and take photos of Segula Island.
U.S.A.: “Comin’ In On A Wing And A Prayer” by The Song Spinners reaches Number 1 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the U.S. This song, which debuted on the charts on 19 June 1943, was charted for 11 weeks, was Number 1 for 3 weeks and was ranked Number 7 for the year 1943. Also on this date, Dick Haymes’ record of “It Can’t Be Wrong” makes it to the Billboard Pop Singles chart. The song is from the motion picture “Now, Voyager” starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid and Claude Rains. This is his first single to make the charts and it stays there for 11 weeks rising to Number 2 for 4 weeks.
Minesweeper USS Incessant is laid down.
Destroyer escort USS Fowler, Pride and Spangenberg launched.
Frigates USS Allentown and Huron launched.
Destroyer escort USS Whitman commissioned.
ATLANTIC: Two German submarines are sunk by RAF aircraft:
- Type IXC submarine U-126 is sunk about 385 nm (713 km) west of the German submarine base at Saint-Nazaire, France, at position 46.02N, 11.23W, by depth charges from a Wellington Mk. XII, aircraft “R” of No. 172 Squadron, based at RAF Limavady, County Derry, Northern Ireland. All hands (55 men) in the U-boat are lost. (Alex Gordon)
- Type VIIC submarine U-628 is sunk about 331 nm (613 km) west-southwest of the German submarine base at Saint-Nazaire, France, at position 44.11N, 08.45W, by depth charges from a Liberator Mk. IIIA, aircraft “J” of No. 224 Squadron, based at RAF St. Eval, Cornwall, England. All hands (49 men) in the U-boat are lost. (Alex Gordon)
U-199 shot down a USN VP-74 Mariner. No survivors from the aircraft.
U-359 and U-466 shot down a USAAC Liberator, whose entire crew of 10 perished.
U-420 was attacked by an RCAF 10 Sqn Liberator and two men were killed (Bootsmann Heinz Grosser, Matrosengefreiter Willi Noeske) with one more wounded when the boat was hit with a Fido homing torpedo. She was severely damaged and arrived at Lorient on 16 July.
My father was there in New Guinea during this campaign with Dug Out Doug(McCarthur). He told me may stories about going into Wee Wack and seeing a Japanese ship that had hit the reef and was sticking straight up out of the water.
He also told us kids about when they found a Japanese battleship way up a river several miles inland. The Japs had sailed it up there until it went aground, because if it had stayed out on the water the US Navy would have sunk it.
They were using it as a base of operations up in the jungle.
He and another guy salvaged a Chris Craft motor yacht that was sunk in about 8’ of water with just a small hole in it. They brought it up and got it running. That lasted for two days until McCarthur saw it and confiscated it for his personal use.
He was also there when Dug out Doug walked across the water on to the beach on Luzon and said that: “ I have returned”. That was on the fourth day of the invasion. On the third day my dad came ashore. He had to walk on the dead bodies of the US and Australian Marines that had come ashore on the first two days of the invasion. May dad was in the Army Air Corp. He was a heavy equipment mechanic and operator. He would regrade the air strips that they had bombed a few days earlier.