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May 17th, 1943 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The amazing “bouncing bombs” used to breach the Mohne and Eder dams last night were designed by Dr. Barnes Wallis, already famous for his Wellington bomber. Wallis made his bombs act like “ducks and drakes” stone, skipping along the surface of the water and then sinking to explode at the base of the dams. The first test was a disaster. The bomb broke up when it hit the water. The “super-boffin” solved that problem by making the bomb spin as it left the aircraft. Wallis is delighted by the success of his bomb, but devastated by 617 Squadron’s losses.

Nearly two years of clothes rationing has reduced the money spent on clothing by the average family of four by three-quarters, from £30 per head before the war to £7/10/- per head this year. This has saved around £600,000 worth of material, with the ban on turn-ups alone saving five million yards of cloth. Coupons for clothes will have to stretch further from next September. Last year men had a quota of 46 coupons and women 50. But the biggest demands for coupons are made by children aged between 14 and 16.

Britain and America today came to an agreement to share the work and the results of a joint attack on the codes and ciphers of the Axis powers. Britain is to concentrate its efforts on the German and Italian ciphers while the US war department devotes its attention to the Japanese army ciphers.

Experts from both sides will work on each other’s cryptanalytic programmes, and there will be a full exchange of information and “decrypts”. It was also agreed to adopt the Bletchley Park codename of “Ultra”, derived from Ultra-Secret, for all information gleaned from breaking the German Enigma, the Japanese “Purple” and the Italian C38M enciphering machines. Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, 40 miles north of London, is the wartime home of the vastly expanded government code and cipher school whose name gives little hint of the extraordinary work it is doing in allowing Allied commanders to read enemy secrets.

A brilliant collection of men and women is housed there in the mansion and its overflow huts. Dons, mechanical engineers and chess-players are all pitting their wits against the Enigma machine which is constantly being upgraded by the Germans. Their work is so secret that people working in one hut do not know what goes on next door; the enemy must get no hint that its codes are being read.

This secrecy extends to the distribution of the material. It is done through liaison units reporting on a “need to know” basis to commanders who have been cleared to receive Ultra intelligence. None may risk capture.

Churchill has no doubts about the war-winning importance of the work being done at Bletchley. Every morning at breakfast he demands “his eggs” from the goose whose eggs are golden.

The USAAF’s VIII Bomber Command in England flies Mission Number 58: 159 B-17 Flying Fortresses are dispatched to hit the port area and U-boat base at Lorient, France; 118 bomb the target at 1213-1217 hours local and claim 47-8-29 Luftwaffe aircraft; six B-17s are lost. An additional 39 B-17s are dispatched to hit the docks and sub pens at Bordeaux, France; 34 bomb at 1238-1244 hours local and claim 0-1-0 Luftwaffe aircraft; one B-17 is lost. In a third strike, 11 B-26 Marauders are dispatched on a low-level mission to bomb power stations at Haarlem and Ijmuiden, The Netherlands; one B-26 aborts, the other ten are all shot down before they reach the target. This action prompts the Eighth Air Force to abandon low-level medium bomber attacks. (Jack McKillop)

Frigate HMS Bullen laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

NETHERLANDS: A B-26 Marauder of the USAAF is one of a flight of ten that encounters heavy AAA fire while en-route to bomb a power plant near Amsterdam. It is shot down and forced to ditch in a canal. On-board is navigator Jim Hoel, of Evanston, Illinois, USA, one of three survivors of the aircraft’s six man crew. During the crash Jim loses his elaborate Gallet Chronometer. 60 years later in 2003, Peter Cooper of England returns the watch to Jim. More...

GERMANY: Ruhr: Taking off from the grass runways of Scampton in Lincolnshire, 19 Lancasters of 617 Squadron last night headed for Germany’s industrial heartland, the Ruhr, loaded with top-secret bombs being used for the first time.

Flying below 200 feet to evade enemy defences, the aircraft followed a zigzag course across the Netherlands and Germany. The first wave of bombers went for the huge Mohne and Eder dams. On each plane, the radio operator started the motor that set the five-ton, drum-shaped bombs spinning; the the navigator signalled that the aircraft was at the correct altitude - 60 feet - and the bomb-aimer released the bomb.

Travelling along a narrow-angle of descent, the bombs rebounded from the surface of the water, bouncing along until they came to the dams and sank. The water pressure set off the fuses. The bombs tore gigantic gaps in first the Mohne dam and then the Eder, releasing millions of gallons of water. Hydroelectric turbines were ruptured, severing power to the Ruhr’s industries. A separate wave of bombers approached the Sorpe, Ennepe, Lister and Diemel dams, but only attacked the first two. The Sorpe was hit, but the breach was above water-level.

Eight of the specially designed Lancasters were lost; four were downed by anti-aircraft fire, one crashed after being damaged by its own bomb, two hit electricity cables, and one crashed into a tree after the pilot was dazzled by a searchlight. 53 of the 133 crew were killed. The operation was led by Wing-Commander Guy Gibson; he is to be recommended for the VC.

U-1304 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
YUGOSLAVIA: The German occupation forces begin their 5th major offensive against Tito’s partisans. Operation Schwartz is commanded by General Lüters with 120,000 Germans while Tito fields about 20,000 partisans.

INDIAN OCEAN: At 1412, U-198 fired two spreads of two torpedoes at Convoy LMD-17 north of Durban, heard four detonations and sinking noises and reported one ship sunk and another probably sunk. However, only Northmoor was hit and sunk. Eleven crewmembers and one gunner were lost. The master, 20 crewmembers, four gunners and two passengers (DBS) were picked up by trawler HMS St Loman and landed at Durban. (Dave Shirlaw)

NEW GUINEA: Admiral Crutchley (Australia) and Admiral Berkey, USN lead the cover force of cruisers and destroyers for the landings of US forces on Insumarai Island, New Guinea. Landings also occur on the mainland of New Guinea. Rear Admiral Russell S. Berkey, USN, was commanding Task Force 74. This was Operation STRAIGHTLINE where Task Force 77 landed the US Army’s 163d Regimental Combat Team (Reinforced), 41st Infantry Division, landed unopposed in Maffin Bay near Sarmi and prepared to take Wakde, New Guinea. The covering force, Task Force 74, provides fire support. USAAF B-24s and B-25 hit targets in the general vicinity at Sawar, Sarmi and the mouth of the Orai River in support of the landings. (Dave Shirlaw)

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: HMS Illustrious and USS Saratoga send raids against the oil installations at Surabaya on Java. Admiral Sommerville’s British Eastern Fleet performs escort duty. (Dave Shirlaw)

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: On Attu Island in the Aleutians, the Northern Landing Force moves forward on Moore Ridge and discovers that the Japanese had abandoned the ridge during the night and patrols report that the east arm of Holtz Bay is free of Japanese. The Southern Landing Force attacks Jarmin Pass and finds that the enemy has also abandoned this previously defended area.

Two attempted ground support missions by the USAAF’s Eleventh Air Force, a B-24 Liberator, five B-25 Mitchells, and six P-38 Lightnings, are recalled due to weather. (Jack McKillop)
CANADA: HMC ML 091 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: Washington: Britain and the US agree on a free exchange of deciphered signals intelligence, for which the codename “Ultra” is adopted.

Destroyer escorts USS Haines, Herzog and McAnn laid down.

Destroyer escort USS Stadtfield launched.

Destroyer escorts USS Hammann and Dobler commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0237, the Aymeric in Convoy ONS-7 was torpedoed and sunk by U-657 east of Cape Farewell. 52 crewmembers and one gunner were lost. The master, 18 crewmembers and six gunners were picked up by British rescue ship Copeland and trawler HMS Northern Wave and landed at Halifax on 25 May.

U-648 shot down an RAF 10 OTU Sqn Whitley. The entire aircrew was lost.
U-229 was attacked by a Catalina with four bombs. The boat was damaged so badly that it returned to base.

Due to serious technical problems U-448 had to return to base from the North Atlantic.

U-128 sunk in the South Atlantic south of Pernambuco, in approximate position 10.00S, 35.35W, by gunfire from destroyers USS Moffett and Jouett, and depth charges from two USN VP-74 Mariners. 7 dead and 47 survivors.
U-646 sunk SE of Iceland, in position 62.10N, 14.37W, by depth charges from an RAF 269 Sqn Hudson. 46 dead (all hands lost).

U-657 sunk east of Cape Farewell, Greenland, in position 58.54N, 42.33W, by depth charges from corvette HMS Swale. 47 dead (all hands lost).

(Dave Shirlaw)