NAZIS WRECK NAPLES PORT, SINK SHIPS; ALLIES SWING THEIR LINE NORTHWARD (9/24/43)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 9/24/43 | Milton Bracker, Herbert L. Matthews, Frederick Graham, Frank L. Kluckhohn, Hanson W. Baldwin

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Soviet Summer and Fall Offensives: Operations, 17 July-1 December 1943
Allied Invasion of Italy and Operations to 25 September 1943, Planned German Delaying Positions
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941: Status of Forces and Allied Theater Boundaries, 2 July 1942
India-Burma, 1942: Allied Lines of Communication, 1942-1943
New Guinea and Alamo Force Operations: Clearing the Huon Peninsula and Securing the Straits, 19 September 1943-26 April 1944
Cartwheel, the Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls, and Concurrent Air and Naval Operations, 30 June 1943-26 April 1944

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from September 22.

Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring

[Homer_J_Simpson]

V-Mail from Camp Cable, Australia.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

This makes 1,500 consecutive days of news threads posted, going back to August 16, 1939/2009.

Retreat Reported (Bracker) – 2-3
Nazis Ask Air Aid to Quell Italians – 3
War News Summarized – 3
Germans in Italy are Using Tactics of Demolition Employed in Sicily (Matthews) – 4
On and Off the Beachhead Not Far from the Salerno Front (photos) – 5-6
Red Army Shells Smolensk; Drive Nears White Russia – 7-8
Nazi Europe Rocks in 24-Hour Bombing (Graham) – 8-9
Australians Gain Near Finschhafen (Kluckhohn) – 10
Sea Power-IV (Baldwin) – 11
Staged Roman Holiday at Expense of Nazis (photo) – 11
The Texts of the Day’s War Communiques – 12-14
An Open Italian Beach is Their Refuge (front page photo) – 14

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/sep1943/f24sep43.htm

Australians rupture Japanese line
Friday, September 24, 1943 www.onwar.com

In New Guinea... The Australian 20th Brigade breaks through the Japanese defenses along the Bumi River. Finschhafen airfield is captured. Offshore, Japanese aircraft attack Allied shipping convoys with little effect.

On the Eastern Front... Soviet forces capture Borispol, east of Kiev. Farther north, German Army Group Center begins to evacuate Smolensk and Roslavl under pressure from Soviet forces.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/24.htm

September 24th, 1943 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Westminster: Britain has run out of manpower. Another 750,000 workers are needed next year, despite the mobilization of 22,750,000 already, said Ernest Bevin, the minister of labour, today. The recruiting of women into the services will virtually stop and they will be diverted into industry. Boys and girls aged 16 and 17 will be placed in aircraft factories. Surface coal workers are being sent below, and cotton operatives of up to 55 will return to work in the mills.

Destroyer HMS Urchin commissioned.
Frigates HMS Mounsey, Moorsom, Manners and Hoste launched.

FRANCE: The US Eighth Air Force’s VIII Air Support Command flies Missions 69 and 70 against 2 airfields without loss.
(1) 71 B-26B Marauders hit Fauville Airfield at Evreux at 1150 hours; they claim 0-1-0 Luftwaffe aircraft.
(2) 66 B-26Bs hit Tille Airfield at Beauvais at 1602-1603 hours; they claim 1-0-0 Luftwaffe aircraft.

GERMANY: Berlin announces evacuation of Smolensk and Roslavl in the Soviet Union.

During the night of 24/25 September, four RAF Bomber Command Mosquitos bomb Duisburg.

U-370 launched.

U.S.S.R..: Heavy fighting is in progress in the vicinity of Smolensk and Roslavl. The Soviet Army captures Borispol, east of Kiev. (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop)

Vilna: The Nazis have had plenty of practice in destroying Jewish ghettoes. In the second of two “special actions”, the Jews here have been robbed, beaten and sent either to Majdanek for gassing or to Estonian labour camps for a slow death. The elderly were simply shot in the nearby Ponary woods. Of Vilna’s pre-war population of 60,000 Jews, just two thousand Jews are left, living in prison camps, working for German fur factories.

ITALY: In the British Eighth Army’s 5 Corps area, 78th Division patrols reach the Ofanto River.
In the air, the USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-25s and B-26s hit roads, railways, bridges, and junctions at Grottaminarda, Maddaloni, Benevento, Avellino, Capua, Cancello Arnone, Amorosi, Ponte, and Mignano, and attack a destroyer between Corsica and Elba Island; B-24s on detached service from the Eighth Air Force bomb the marshalling yard at Pisa; US and RAF planes attack vehicles, roads, troop concentrations, and gun positions around Santa Lucia di Serino, Serino, Caserta, Benevento, Camarella, Baronissi, Nocera, Montemarano, and San Severo.

During the night of 24/25 September, 80 RAF aircraft of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group bomb North Basin at Leghorn.

NEW GUINEA: In Northeast New Guinea, the 20th Brigade, Australian 9th Division, forces the Bumi River, north of Finschhafen, against heavy opposition, capturing Finschhafen Airfield. In the Markham River Valley, the 2/14th Battalion, with a battery from the 2/4th Field Regiment, lands at Kaiapit. (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop)
In the air, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24s fly a small strike against Sorong and Manokwari.
In the air, 9 Japanese bombers with a fighter escort bomb and strafe Finschhafen Airdrome. A USAAF Fifth Air Force P-38 pilot shoots down one of the escorting “Zekes” (Mitsubishi A6M, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighters).

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Barakoma Field on Vella Lavella Island becomes operational and the first Allied plane lands.

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: ALAMO Scouts begin reconnaissance of the Cape Gloucester area on New Britain Island in preparation for the upcoming invasion. ALAMO is the code for the U.S. Sixth Army while operating as a special ground task force headquarters directly under General Headquarters, South West Pacific Area.

ARCTIC OCEAN: U-387 put a weather reporting unit ashore on Spitsbergen in the Arctic Sea.

U-711 used its deck gun to attack the Soviet radio station Blagopolucya on the island of Nova Zemlja in the Barents Sea.

TERRITORY OF HAWAII: Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance recommends to Admiral Chester Nimitz that an amphibious operation against Makin Island be substituted for projected invasion of Nauru. This plan is subsequently accepted.

CANADA: Tug HMCS Norton launched Montreal, Province of Quebec.

U.S.A.: The motion picture “Sabotage Agent” is released. This war drama, directed by Harold S. Bucquet, stars Robert Donat, Valerie Hobson and Glynis Johns. The plot has a British soldier (Donat) sent to Czechoslovakia to blow up a German poison gas factory.
In baseball, the Chicago Cubs play the Philadelphia Phillies before 314 fans in a game at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Andy Pafko, who played in the major leagues for 17-years, makes his debut and drives in 4 runs with a double and a single. The games is called in the 5th inning due to rain.

[BroJoeK]

---

September 24, 1943:

• "Nazis complete the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto at Vilna."

"Riga was Latvia's largest Jewish center.
With the German occupation of Latvia in July 1941, thousands of Jews were murdered and 30,000 sealed off in the Riga Ghetto.
In late 1941 the eminent Jewish historian Simon Dubnow was murdered along with most of the city's surviving Jews.
Repopulated by German Jews, the Riga Ghetto was finally destroyed in November 1943."

---

[Mikey_1962]

Sulzberger proposing a permanent draft and occupation of Japan and Germany.

Shows how much the paper has changed in 70 years.

[Rebelbase]

“This makes 1,500 consecutive days of news threads posted, going back to August 16, 1939/2009.”

Prodigious!

[Homer_J_Simpson]

[colorado tanker]

Clark Gable and his crew:

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I attempted to identify the unit Gable flew with by the names in the article. Lt. Col. Robert Burns appears to be from 8th Air Force HQ, so that didn’t help. I did find an aircraft nicknamed “Duchess,” though. It was attached to the 359th squadron of the 303rd Bombardment Group. Is the unit identified at the source of the picture you posted?

[colorado tanker]

The photo didn’t say, but I found this war story site about two brothers who flew the Duchess and it says the 359th too. I also found a model for sale that said the 359th. I found another model that said 358th, but that’s probably a typo in light of the other evidence.

http://www.homeofheroes.com/wings/part2/05_mathis.html

It’s the story of the Mathis brothers, both bombardiers, and it’s a real tearjerker.

[PAR35]

I guess the Rockefeller Center folks will convert to automatic elevators as soon as they can. I doubt that they can get the priority to do it before the war ends, but I might be wrong.