http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/jun1943/f17jun43.htm
Naval support sets sail for Sicily
Thursday, June 17, 1943 www.onwar.com
Allied convoys heading for Sicily [photo at link].
In Britain... Operation Husky. The first units of the naval support for the invasion of Sicily set sail from the British Home Fleet base at Scapa Flow.
In the Indian Ocean... The disguised German raider Michel sinks a Norwegian ship west of Australia.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
June 17th, 1943 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The first units of supporting naval forces sail for the invasion Sicily, Operation Husky.
The BBC warns civilians in occupied Europe to evacuate the vicinity of all factories working for the German war effort.
No. 186 Squadron RAF flying the Hawker Hurricane MK IID makes the first rocket attacks against targets at Flushing in the Netherlands. (22)
MAC ship SS Empire Mackay launched.
Escort carrier HMS Campania launched.
Minesweeping trawlers HMS Lindisfarne and Skomer launched.
Destroyer HMS Terpsichore launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY:
U-858 launched.
U-984 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
ITALY: The RAF bombs Naples.
PACIFIC OCEAN: During the night of 17/18 June, four B-24 Liberators of the USAAF’s Seventh Air Force take off from Funafuti Atoll, Ellice Islands at 2-hour intervals to bomb Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. One aborts and another fails to find the target. The two B-24s bombing the target hit runways, silence an AA battery, and blow up an ammunition dump. The raid is a diversion in support of the first night photo-reconnaissance mission by the VII Bomber Command, during which three B-24s photograph Mille Atoll in the Caroline Islands and nearby waters in the Marshall Islands. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: Minesweeper USS Dextrous launched.
Frigate USS Coronado launched.
Light fleet carrier USS Monterey commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: HMT Yoma sunk by U-81 at 33.03N, 22.04E.
An RAF 206 Sqn Fortress damaged U-338, killing one and wounding three. (Dave Shirlaw)