Posted on 09/21/2013 4:26:44 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
The top part of this next image is continued from September 19.
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/sep1943/f21sep43.htm
Germans unable to stop Red Army advance
Tuesday, September 21, 1943 www.onwar.com
German rocket artillery loading another salvo [photo at link]
On the Eastern Front... Soviet forces capture Demidov, north of Smolensk. Forces of the Soviet Central Front take Chernigov and Sinelnikovo. Soviet forces also take Dnepropetrovsk, further east.
In Italy... The US 5th Army reorients to the left as the British 8th Army moves to east side of the front. German forces are withdrawing all along the front with the exception of the passes leading to Naples.
In the Mediterranean... Several transports engaged in the evacuation of the German garrison on the island of Corsica are sunk by Allied air and submarine attacks.
In Occupied Greece... At Cephalonia, the Italian “Acqui” Division resists German forces seeking to disarm it.
In the Solomon Islands... American forces on Arundel discover that the Japanese forces have been evacuated.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/21.htm
September 21st, 1943 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Frigate HMS Labuan launched.
HMS Polyanthus sunk by U-952.
NETHERLANDS: During the night of 21/22 September, 18 RAF Bomber Command aircraft laid mines in the Frisian Islands.
FRANCE: Corsica: Ajaccio: French troops, shipped across the Mediterranean from North Africa in the past nine nights, are advancing into the interior of Corsica. So far over 3,000 have come ashore. More are landing from the Free (Fighting) French cruisers JEANNE d’ARC and MONTCALM and the destroyers LE FANTASQUE and LE TERRIBLE every night.
The Free French commandos are supporting 20,000 mostly communist resistance fighters, who rose up after the Italian surrender, took to the Maquis (the Corsican interior, a traditional hiding place for outlaws), and are now fighting a garrison reinforced to 26,000 men after the German evacuation of Sardinia. This is the first wholly Free French operation on French home territory.
Though the transportation of the troops was a hasty improvisation - the British and Americans, who are committed to the Salerno operation, were unable to provide landing or transport vessels - the actual insurrection, led by the communist guerrilla leaders, Vittori and Giovoni, was well-planned. For three months the French submarine CASABLANCA has been bringing in arms, including 20,000 Sten guns. With the Italian surrender the insurrection broke out earlier than expected and Ajaccio was captured, providing General Henri Martin’s Free French force with the port it needed to bring its troops ashore.
During the night of 21/22 September, 75 RAF Liberators of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group bomb the Bastia port area.
The US Eighth Air Force’s VIII Air Support Command flies Mission 65: 44 B-26B Marauders hit the Tille Airfield at Beauvais at 0937-0938 hours; bad weather causes 20+ to abort; they claim 1-0-0 Luftwaffe aircraft; 1 B-26 is lost.
GERMANY: U-722 launched.
U.S.S.R.: A Soviet Army spearhead reaches the Dnieper River at Dnepropetrovsk,50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Kiev, and another force takes Chernigov-on-the-Desna, a provincial capital northeast of Kiev. Since the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet Army has liberated half the Soviet territory overrun by the Germans.
ITALY: In the British 15th Army Group area, General Sir Harold Alexander outlines plans for future operations in four phases: (1) consolidation of current positions on a line Salerno-Bari; (2) capture of Naples and Foggia; (3) seizure of Rome and neighboring airfields as well as the communications center of Terni; and (4) eventual capture of Leghorn, Florence, and Arezzo.
In the U.S. Fifth Army’s VI Corps area, the 3d and 45th Infantry Divisions continue north over the mountains from Salerno toward the east-west Highway 7, meeting delaying opposition just south of Acerno and west of Oliveto, respectively. The 34th Infantry Division, whose 133dd Infantry Regiment is to reinforce VI Corps for the drive on Avellino, begins landing at Paestum.
In the air, USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-17s hit a bridge and the town area at Benevento; B-25s and B-26s hit landing craft and a ferry near Elba Island and bridges at Cancello Arnone and Capua; B-24s on detached service from the Eighth Air Force in England, bomb Leghorn and Bastia; medium bombers and fighter-bombers hit town areas, troop concentrations, trucks and tanks, and targets of opportunity in the Solofra-Avellino-Benevento areas.
LEBANON: General elections are held for the Chamber of Deputies. The deputies elect Bishara al Khuri as President and he appoints Riyad as Sulh as prime minister asking him to form the first government of an independent Lebanon.
CHINA: 8 US Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and 8 P-40s attack railroad yards and warehouses at Chiuchiang, China, causing considerable destruction.
NEW GUINEA: The amphibious assault force (the Australian 20th Brigade Group, Australian 9th Division) sails from Lae for Finschhafen while the Australian 22d Brigade starts an overland drive from Lae toward Langemak Bay. The 21st and 25th Brigades, Australian 7th Division, are flown to Kaiapit from Nadzab to pursue the enemy up the Markham Valley to Dumpu.
In the air, USAAF Fifth Air Force A-20s, B-26s, and RAAF aircraft hit Tami Island and pound Finschhafen in preparation for the Allied amphibious assault tomorrow; B-25s bomb and strafe the Bogadjim area and Langgoer.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Arundel Island, the 27th Infantry Regiment, upon renewing their assault, finds that the Japanese have withdrawn from the mainland of Arundel as well as islands nearby. The enemy is estimated to have lost 600 dead on Arundel. By this time Japanese have decided to abandon the central Solomons entirely and want only to escape northward.
In the air, 20+ Thirteenth Air Force B-24s bomb the runway and revetment area at the airfield on Buka Island. About 20 Japanese fighters intercept the B-24s; two “Zekes” (Mitsubishi A6M, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter) are shot down.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24s hit Cape Gloucester, New Britain Island, and sink a transport near Talasea; A-20s and RAAF aircraft bomb Gasmata Island off New Britain Island.
PACIFIC OCEAN: USN submarines sink four Japanese ships: (1) USS Trigger (SS-237) sinks two fleet oilers and a merchant cargo ship north of Keelung, Formosa and (2) USS Wahoo (SS-238) sinks a merchant fishing vessel northeast of Hokkaido, Japan.
U.S.A.: The House of Representatives passes the Fulbright Resolution which reads, “Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That the Congress hereby expresses itself as favoring the creation of appropriate international machinery with power adequate to establish and to maintain a just and lasting peace, among the nations of the world, and as favoring participation by the United States therein through its constitutional processes.
Destroyer escort USS Enright commissioned.
Destroyer USS Picking commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-188 sank SS Cornelia P Spencer.
U-593 sank SS William W Gerhard in Convoy NSS-3.
Concerning the Free Germany signatories on P10: I found a Soviet era reference to Martin Latman but I find nothing about Walter Meyer. No reference for Walter Meyer seems strange since an SS officer turncoat at this stage of the war seems noteworthy.
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