Posted on 08/15/2013 4:21:12 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
I hope you will consider whether it is not possible to arrest the traffic in the Cape area by turning your ships into Simonstown and Kilindini until the anti-U-boat reinforcements now on the way have arrived. I have asked Lord Leathers to give me the proportion of ships sunk to the total sailed. Nineteen is however a very heavy loss on a small and severely rationed traffic.
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
The News of the Week in Review
Ten Focal Points in the War as Allied Leaders Meet (map) – 10
Days of Decision – 11-12
On the Fronts – 12-14
Quotations – 14
Twenty News Questions – 15
Slow Death of Luftwaffe Points to Defeat (Middleton) – 16-17
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 17
From Three Major Fronts the Allies Pound the Axis (map) – 18
Ring of Guns and Ships Tightens About Europe (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 19
Nazis Try to Use Italy (Brigham) – 20
Allies Find Lessons in Sicily (Bracker) – 21
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/aug1943/f15aug43.htm
Red Army victorious in heavy fighting
Sunday, August 15, 1943 www.onwar.com
Red Army soldiers celebrate their recent victories [photo at link]
On the Eastern Front... Karachev falls to elements of the Bryansk Front (Popov) after heavy fighting.
In Sicily... British forces enter Taormina. Further American amphibious operations on the north coast land after the Axis defenders have pulled back.
In New Guinea... Japanese aircraft attack the Allied air base at Tsili Tsili.
In the Aleutian Islands... An invasion of Kiska Island commences. Three American battleships provide support for the landing of 34,000 US and Canadian troops. The Japanese evacuated the island by the end of July but the Americans failed to take note of it.
In the Solomon Islands... Elements of the US 25th Division (General McLure) occupy Vella Lavella. About 4500 troops land. Admiral Wilkinson, commanding Task Force 31, provides naval support.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/15.htm
August 15th, 1943 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Uther commissioned.
The US Eighth Air Force’s VIII Air Support Command and VIII Bomber Command both fly missions.
- The VIII Air Support Command flies Missions 19A, 19B and 20 against targets in France and the Netherlands.
(1) 31 B-26B Marauders bomb Ft Rouge Airfield at St Omer France at 0959 hours.
(2) 36 B-26Bs are dispatched against Woensdrecht Airfield, The Netherlands; they turn back at the Dutch coast aborting the mission.
(3) 19 B-26Bs attack the marshalling yard at Abbeville, France at 1933 hours.
- The VIII Bomber Command flies Mission 82 against Luftwaffe airfields in France and the Netherlands.
(1) 147 B-17 Flying Fortresses attack Vlissingen Airfield in the Netherlands and Amiens and Poix Airfield in France at 1926-1931 hours.
(2) 143 B-17s bomb Merville, Lille/Vendeville and Vitry en Artois Airfields in France at 1925-1933 hours; 2 B-17’s are lost.
FRANCE: Annecy: An RAF Halifax crashes on a secret mission to supply the Maquis, killing crew and civilians and damaging property.
U.S.S.R.: Karachev, Russia falls to Popev’s forces.
Generalleutnant Heinrich Recke, commander of the German 161 Inf. D.is killed as he personally leads an assault to retake a small Russian village. (Jeff Chrisman)
ITALY: The British enter Taormina, Sicily. Another US amphibious flanking movement finds the Germans have evacuated once again.
US Seventh Army troops land on the Sicilian north coast northwest of Barcellona during the night of 15/16 August to block the enemy withdrawal. The US 3d Infantry Division heads along the north coast to Spadafora.
British Eighth Army troops complete a drive around Mount Etna as the Randazzo-Linguaglossa road is closed. Linguaglossa is taken.
SPAIN: Madrid: The Italian General Giuseppe Castellano meets Sir Samuel Hoare, the British ambassador, to ask for Allied assistance to help Italy shake off the German alliance.
CHINA: Fighting between Japanese and Kuomintang troops in the Shantung region ends, with heavy casualties on both sides.
JAPAN: 103 carrier-based aircraft of the USN’s Task Force 38 are launched at 0415 hours local and attack airfields in the Tokyo area. They encounter heavy aerial opposition and shoot down 32 Japanese aircraft. A second strike is cancelled while it is en route to objectives; pilots jettison their ordnance and return to their carriers. The last aircraft shot down by the USN in World War II occurs at 1400 hours when an F6F-5 Hellcat pilot of Fighting Squadron Thirty One (VF-31) in the light aircraft carrier USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) shoots down a “Judy” carrier bomber (Kugisho D4Y Navy Carrier Bomber Suisei) at sea.
NEW GUINEA: The Allied airfield at Tsili Tsili, is the target of a Japanese air strike.
Salamaua: Not only were the infantry in action against the raiders and the artillery ready for them, but the ubiquitous signallers were, as usual, playing their part. Accompanied by a linesman, Lieutenant Hodson was today restoring the telephone between Boisi and Nassau Bay where it had been cut by the Japanese, two miles north of Lake Salus. At 1 pm an enemy patrol fired on the two signallers, who jumped into prepared holes and returned the fire. The enemy soon withdrew and the signallers resumed their task. (Michael Alexander)(155)
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Elements of the 25th Division occupy Vella Lavella. Fighters are sent to cover amphibious landings at Vella Lavella Island where elements of the US 25th Infantry Division, and supporting units, go ashore in the Barakoma area and establish a beachhead at 0741 hours. Allied airplanes knock down about 25 Japanese aircraft. USMC F4U Corsairs also claim 10 Japanese shot down over Kahili, Bougainville Island. B-25 Mitchells bomb Papatura Fa and Ighiti Islands in the Rekata Bay area of Santa Isabel Island.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: 34,426 US and Canadian troops invade Kiska Island and discover that the Japanese, under the cover of fog, evacuated their garrison on 28 July. Troops landing are the US Army’s 17th, 53d and 184th Infantry Regiments, 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment and the 1st Special Service Force. Also landing is the Royal Canadian Army’s 13 Infantry Brigade Group. Allied HQ is justifying its continued bombardment of the last 18 days by claiming that its attacks had destroyed Japanese radio equipment so that there was no way of knowing if anyone was left.
U.S.A.: The US Army forms the 99th Infantry Battalion (Separate). It is formed with personnel of Norwegian ancestry, at Camp Ripley, Minn. (Nick Minecci)
- Gasoline [petrol] rationing is ended today.
- The top pop songs on this date are
(1) “Dream” by The Pied Pipers;
(2) “I Wish I Knew” by Dick Haymes;
(3) “If I Loved You” by Perry Como’; and
(4) “Oklahoma Hills” by Jack Guthrie.
The War Department awards Sergeant Edward Dzuba the Legion of Merit for his special talent to use food scraps in both unusual and appetizing recipes.
Large cruiser USS Alaska launched. Destroyer escort USS Kyne launched. Submarines USS Lancefish and Ling launched. Minesweeper USS Sentry launched. Destroyer escorts USS Ira Jeffery and Frament commissioned. Frigate USS Newport is launched.
During WW II, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) produced numerous documents, most commonly known are the Intelligence Bulletins. The Military Intelligence Special Series continues with “German Doctrine of the Stabilized Front.” (William L. Howard)
Nope. It is posted in 1945 as well as 1943. I alerted the webmaster and he will probably delete the duplicate shortly.
Good eye.
The report of Russian massed artillery in the battle for Orel presages what we called their “breakthrough” tactics. We were told in the 1970’s that if we were defending against a Soviet breakthrough attack in Germany we would face odds of 7-1 weapons systems against. They would mass artillery and tanks against us.
The Soviets specialized in massing their weaponry at the main point of attack. They also specialized in creating “breatkthough” units, specifically the artillery divisions, the penal battalions, and the heavy tank/assault gun regiments.
The tank and infantry units took heavy losses in these breakthrough attacks, even after intense artillery bombardment. The Germans were always quite adept at inflicting casualites, even up to May 1945. But from this point on they will rarely stop the Soviets cold.
The big issue for us in the Cold War is if we were faced by a Warsaw Pact conventional attack could we wear down the Sov’s enough to stop them before they got across West Germany or we were rendered combat ineffective ourselves. We knew we could kill a lot of them, but most people bet we’d either lose that race or have to go nuclear.
My brother tells me that the plan all along was to go first use tactical nuclear...
Agree, but a lot of us privately thought Carter wouldn’t have the balls to do it.
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