Posted on 10/16/2013 4:43:07 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
#1 - “Sunday Monday or Always” - Bing Crosby, with the Ken Darby Singers
#2 – “Paper Doll” - Mills Brothers
#3 - “Pistol Packin’ Mama” - Al Dexter
#4 - “I Heard You Cried Last Night” - Harry James, with Helen Forrest
#5 – “You’ll Never Know” - Dick Haymes, with the Song Spinners
#6 – “You’ll Never Know” - Frank Sinatra, with the Bobby Tucker Singers
#7 – “People Will Say We’re in Love” - Frank Sinatra, with the Bobby Tucker Singers
#8 - “All or Nothing At All” – Harry James, with Frank Sinatra
#9 - “In the Blue of the Evening” - Tommy Dorsey, with Frank Sinatra
#10 - “People Will Say We’re in Love” - Bing Crosby, with Trudy Erwin
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/oct1943/f16oct43.htm
Germans falling back in Italy
Saturday, October 16, 1943 www.onwar.com
In Italy... As the US 5th Army offensive continues, German forces conduct a fighting withdrawal to the Barbara Line, in accordance with Kesselring’s orders.
From Washington... General Brereton takes command of the US 9th Air Force in Britain.
In New Guinea... Japanese forces counterattack Australian forces around Finschafen without success.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/16.htm
October 16th, 1943 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Headquarters, 9th AF, is formally reactivated at Sunninghill Park, England, following its transfer from Egypt. Lt. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton resumes his duties as commanding general. IX Bomber Command is reactivated under the command of Maj. Gen. Samuel E. Anderson. IX Fighter command is reactivated under the temporary command of Lt. Col. Ray J. Stecker. IX Air Support Command is reactivated under the command of Maj. Gen. Henry J. Miller. A new IX Troop Carrier command is activated under the command of Brig. Gen. Benjamin F. Giles. All four B-26 groups are transferred to the 9th AF from the 3d Medium Bombardment Wing when it was disbanded. IX Troop Command assumes control of all 8th AF troop carrier units. (Skip Guidry)
The four B-26 groups transferred are:
322d Bombardment Group (Medium) [449th, 450th, 451st and 452d Bombardment Squadrons (Medium)]
323d Bombardment Group (Medium) [453d, 454th, 455th and 456th Bombardment Squadrons (Medium)]
387th Bombardment Group (Medium) [556th, 557th, 558th and 559th Bombardment Squadrons (Medium)]
388th Bombardment Group (Medium) [560th, 561st, 562d and 563d Bombardment Squadrons (Medium)]
The IX Troop Carrier Command is activated at Cottesmore with Brigadier General Benjamin F Giles as Commanding General; the 315th Troop Carrier Group (34th and 43d Troop Carrier Squadrons with C-47s) is transferred from the Eighth Air Force; and the 434th Troop Carrier Group and its 71st, 72d, 73d and 74th Troop Carrier Squadrons that arrived on 9 Oct are also assigned. The IX Air Service Command is re-formed under Major General Henry J Miller.
Frigates HMS Tortola and Waldegrave laid down.
Frigate HMS Spragge launched.
Frigate HMS Fitzroy commissioned.
FRANCE: During the night of 16/17 October, eight RAF Bomber Command aircraft drop leaflets over northern France without loss.
GERMANY: During the night of 16/17 October, RAF Bomber Command dispatches nine Mosquitos to Dortmund; all bomb the target without loss. One of the Mosquitos is carrying out a G-H trial but its equipment fails and it has to bomb by dead reckoning.
U-319 launched.
U-396 commissioned.
ITALY: German forces, in Italy, facing the US 5th Army finish their fighting retreat to the Barbara Line as scheduled by Kesselring.
Chief of the Rome SIPO office, SS-Obstbf., Herbert Kappler, organises an ‘Aktion’ against the Jewish community. 1,259 Italian Jews are arrested. (Russel Folsom)
At 0530 hours, a 44- man SS unit under the command of SS Captain Theodor Dannecker, rounds up 1,259 Jews in Rome. Many of these are baptized Christians and following a protest from Pope Pius X11 some 218 are released. The other 1,041 are put on a train to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, Poland, and at war’s end only 15 survive to return home to the Holy City. Others, around 4,238, are in hiding in hundreds of monasteries, convents, private homes and church institutions in and around Rome. To protect other Jews from the same fate, the Vatican opens its doors and gave shelter to 477 men, women and children.
USAAF XII Bomber Command B-25 Mitchells bomb the marshalling yard and rail lines, railroad tunnel, highway underpass, warehouses, industrial buildings, and gas works in or near Bologna; XII Air Support Command and other Northwest African Tactical Air Force elements provide close support to the US Fifth and British Eighth Armies; fighters and light and medium bombers hit communications centers of Venafro, Vairano, Sparanise, Latina, Alife, and the town of Pietravairano; roads, railroads, and junctions in the areas southeast of Rome to the bomb line, between Vasto and Pescara, and at Mondragone; gun positions, trucks, and military concentrations near Vinchiaturo, Boiano, and Termoli; landing ground of Cisterna di Latina; and several other targets in the area between Rome and Ancona.
U.S.S.R.: The Germans defeat Russian tanks and infantry trying to break out of a Dnieper bridgehead south of Kiev.
In the southern Ukraine, a group of Red armies led by General Ivan Konev crosses the Dnieper, bursts through German defenses and pushes toward Krivoi Rog, a steelmaking center.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Twelfth Air Force P-38s bomb a vessel in Leukas Channel off the west coast of Greece.
EGYPT: The 4th and 5th New Zealand Brigades begin a movement from Port Tewfik to Italy.
GULF OF OMAN: Doug Tidy flying in Bisley (aka a Blenheim V) O for Orange (serial BA 437, call sign LFBO) of 244 Squadron RAF from Sharjah sinks U-Boat U-533 in position 25.28N, 56.50E, by depth charges. 2 of 53 crew get to and spring after hatch while sinking to bottom, blow to surface, without gear, 1 survives 28 hours until rescue (the one with the red beard). (Doug Tidy and Jack McKillop)
CHINA: British Admiral Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command (SEAC), arrives in Chungking.
BURMA: Tenth Air Force fighter patrols are increased from 4 to 8 aircraft with little effect on enemy marauders over the Hump. Three A-36 Apaches fail to return from a mission over Sumprabum.
NEW GUINEA: A Japanese counter attack against Allied positions around Finschhafen today. Lasting 3 days, the Australian troops successfully defend their positions.
The Australian 9th Division uses captured documents to smash a Japanese attack near Finschafen, New Guinea.
60+ Fifth Air Force B-25s attack the Alexishafen area, hit coastal targets between Reiss Point and Sio, and bomb the airfield at Wewak, New Guinea.
NEW HEBRIDES ISLANDS: The U.S. 3d Marine Division, having trained at Guadalcanal for operations against Bougainville, conducts rehearsals in the New Hebrides, concluding them on 20 October.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: A-20s bomb and strafe Gasmata Island off New Britain Island. A lone B-24 sinks an IJA auxiliary submarine chaser between Hoskins and Rabaul on New Britain Island. (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop)
SOLOMON ISLANDS: 8 Thirteenth Air Force B-24s bomb Kara Airfield on Bougainville Island while 6 B-25s hit the airfield on Ballale Island.
CANADA: Gate vessels HMC GV 20, GV 22 and 2 other unknown numbers ordered.
Frigate HMCS Ste Therese launched.
Corvette HMCS Brandon completed forecastle extension refit Grimsby UK.
U.S.A.: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, accepting the plan presented by General Henry H. Arnold, Commanding General U.S. Army Air Forces, to divide Twelfth Air Force in Italy into two forces, propose to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in North Africa, that the USAAF Fifteenth Air Force be formed from XII Bomber Command. The Twelfth Air Force will become a tactical unit supporting ground units in Italy while the Fifteenth Air Force will be a strategic air force with the primary mission of increasing the weight of Combined Bomber Offensive against Germany.
The report titled “ Examination of Japanese Equipment. 37mm Anti-Tank Ammunition, 3-in. A. A. Ammunition, 75mm Howitzer Ammunition, 50mm Mortar Projectile, 50mm Mortar Grenade. was published. It is Rept. no. 57and was prepared by the NAVAL PROVING GROUND DAHLGREN VA Report Date : 24 MAR 1943. It has 46 pages. (Bill Howard)
Perry Como’s record of “Goodbye, Sue” makes it to the Billboard Pop Singles chart. This is his first single to make the charts and it stays there for 1 week reaching Number 20.
The USN accepts its first helicopter, a USAAF Sikorsky YR-4B-SI Hoverfly at Bridgeport, Connecticut. The USN receives three and designates them XH, Nova Scotia.-1s.
Escort carrier USS Kalinin Bay launched.
Frigate USS Annapolis launched.
Destroyer escort USS Gunason launched.
Submarine USS Picuda commissioned.
Destroyer escort USS Trumpeter commissioned.
Destroyer USS Marshall commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U.S.-built destroyer escorts transferred under Lend-Lease to Great Britain (HMS Byard, HMS Bentinck, HMS Berry, HMS Drury, and HMS Bazely) enter combat for the first time as escorts for convoy O, Nova Scotia. 20. Byard will sink U-841 on 17 October. The British classify the ships as “frigates.”
German U-boats have a bad day when they attack two Allied convoys in the North Atlantic. Eight U-boats are sunk or damaged by RAF patrol planes and RN warships while the Germans sink only one merchant ship. The three boats sunk are:
- U-470 sunk southwest of Iceland, in position 58.20N, 29.20W, by depth charges from an RAF Liberator Mk. V, aircraft “C” of No. 59 Squadron based at Ballykelly, Ireland, and Liberator and Liberator Mk. III, aircraft “E” of No. 120 Squadron based at Reykjavik, Iceland. Two of the 48 crewmen on the U-boat survive.
- U-844 is sunk southwest of Iceland, in position 58.30N, 27.16W, by depth charges from an RAF Liberator Mk. V, aircraft “S” of No. 59 Squadron and a Liberator, aircraft “L” of No. 86 Squadron; both squadrons are based at based at Ballykelly, Ireland. All 53 hands on the submarine are lost.
- U-964 is sunk southwest of Iceland, in position 57.27N, 27.17W, by depth charges from an RAF Liberator, aircraft “Y” of No. 86 Squadron based at Ballykelly, Ireland. Three of the 50 U-boat crewmen survive.
U-448 shot down RCAF Sunderland aircraft, Squadron 422/S near Convoy O, Nova Scotia.-20. U-448 and U-281 were both involved in the attack and the former was so damaged she had to abort her patrol. One man is killed and two wounded. [Oberbootsmaat Fritz Döhler]
U-844 shot down RAF Liberator aircraft, Squadron 59/S near Convoy O, Nova Scotia.-20. The aircraft was damaged and had to ditch near HMS Pink. U-844 was lost in this attack.
Two men were lost overboard in the North Atlantic from U-220. [Bootsmaat Georg Koerner, Matrosenobergefreiter Gerhard Lange]. Thus only 54 men were on board when the boat was sunk 12 days later.
U-231 pulled from the water five men from the just-sunk U-964. One of them, the commander ObltzS Hummerjohann, was already dead, and a second survivor died some minutes after his rescue, so only three men of U-964 survived.
Zaporozhye became an industrial center largely because of a hydroelectric dam built there. The Sov’s dynamited it when the Germans came through and the Germans dynamited it again when they withdrew. Still, the town survived, although the Russians will have to repair horrific damage.
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