http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
June 13th, 1943 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: German raiders drop “butterfly” anti-personnel bombs for the first time, killing 74 people and injuring 130.
The USAAF’s VIII Bomber Command in England flies Mission Number 63 attacking two targets in Germany. The heaviest fighter attacks to date against the Eighth Air Force accounts for 26 B-17s, most in the force attacking Kiel.
151 B-17s are dispatched against the U-boat yards at Bremen; 122 hit the target claiming 2-2-1 Luftwaffe aircraft; four B-17s are lost. 76 B-17s are dispatched against the U-boat yards at Kiel; 60 hit the target and claim 39-5-14 Luftwaffe aircraft; 22 B-17s are lost. (Jack McKillop)
Patrol vessel HMS Kilchernan launched. , Province of Quebec.
GERMANY: The Third Gathering (German Resistance group) begins meeting at Kreisau yesterday. It will break up tomorrow. (Glenn Steinberg)
There is a stiff air battle over Kiel today. (Glenn Steinberg) Luftwaffe defenders shoot down 22 out of 60 US bombers attempting to bomb Kiel.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The Italian island of Linosa surrenders to the British.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: In the Aleutians, the destroyer USS Frazier (DD-607) sinks the IJN submarine HIJMS I-9 engaged in the KE GO Operation, the evacuation of personnel from Kiska Island. (Jack McKillop)
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Dundas arrived Montreal, Province of Quebec. for refit.
LCdr Edgar George Skinner RCNR awarded DSC.
Capt Ernest Reginald Brock RCNVR awarded Volunteer Reserve Decoration.
, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Preston laid down. , Province of Quebec.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_Bomb
Butterfly bombs were first used against Ipswich in 1940, but were also dropped on Grimsby and Cleethorpes in June 1943, amongst various other targets in the United Kingdom. They were subsequently used against Allied forces in the Middle East. The British Government deliberately suppressed news of the damage and disruption caused by butterfly bombs in order not to encourage the Germans to keep using them.
On October 28, 1940 some butterfly bombs that had incompletely armed themselves were discovered in Ipswich by British ordnance technicians Sergeant Cann and 2nd Lieutenant Taylor. By screwing the arming rods back into the fuzes (i.e. the unarmed position) the two men were able to recover safe examples to reverse engineer.
The SD2 saw use in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which began on 22 June 1941. Twenty to thirty aircrews had been picked to drop SD2s and SD10s (10 kg submunitions) on key Soviet airfields, a flight of three aircraft being assigned to each field. The purpose of these early attacks was to cause disruption and confusion as well as to preclude dispersion of Soviet planes until the main attack was launched.[2] It was reported that Kampfgeschwader 51 had lost 15 aircraft due to accidents with the SD2s, nearly half of the total Luftwaffe losses that day.[3]
The last recorded death from a German butterfly bomb in England occurred on November 27, 1956, over 11 years after the Second World War ended: Flight Lieutenant Herbert Denning of the RAF was examining an SD2 at the “Upminster bomb cemetery” (some remote sandpits situated East of RAF Hornchurch, where EOD experimental and research work took place) when it detonated. He died of shrapnel and blast injuries at Oldchurch Hospital the same day.[4]
Dumkopf! We have already decided Sardinia is the next target and my intuition is never wrong about these matters!