1943
JANUARY
1943
Casablanca
Conference,
Morocco - Prime Minister
Churchill and President
Roosevelt with their Chiefs of Staff met
for this
important conference. Major areas for
discussion included
the European invasion in 1944, landings
in Sicily and
Italy after the Tunisian campaign, the
bombing of Germany
and the continuation of the war in Burma
and the Pacific.
Losses due to U-boats and the shortage
of shipping would
prove to be significant constraints on
Allied plans. At
this time the two Western Allied leaders
announced a
policy of unconditional surrender of the
Axis powers.
Attacks off Algeria -
Axis attacks continued against Allied
ships in Algerian
ports and convoys off the coast. There
were losses on
both sides: 1st - Cruiser
"Ajax"
was
severely
damaged in Bone harbour by
Ju87s. 13th - Canadian corvettes
on convoy escort
accounted for two submarines. On the
13th, "Ville de
Quebec" sank "U-224" west of Algiers. 19th
- Canadian
corvette "Port Arthur" sank Italian
submarine "TRITONE" off Bougie by
gunfire.
30th
- As corvette "SAMPHIRE" escorted
Gibraltar/North African ports
convoy TE14 she was torpedoed by Italian
submarine
"Platino" near Bougie.
Axis
Supplies to
Tunisia - Attempts by the Italian
Navy to supply the
Axis armies in Tunisia led to heavy
losses, especially on
mines laid between Sicily and Tunis by
fast minelayers
"Abdiel" and "Welshman", and
submarine "Rorqual". 9th -
Destroyer "CORSARO" hit one of
"Abdiel's"
mines northeast of Bizerta. 17th
- Returning from
Tunisia, destroyer "BOMBARDIERE"
was
sunk
off western Sicily by submarine
"United". 31st - Torpedo boat
"PRESTINARI" and corvette "PROCELLARIA"
went down on mines laid by
"Welshman" in the Strait of Sicily.
Axis
Supplies to Libya
- Final supply trips to Tripoli by
Italian submarines led
to more losses north of the Libyan
capital. 14th -
"NARVALO"
was
attacked
by
a RAF Beaufort and finished off by
destroyers
"Pakenham" and "Hursley", escorts
with Malta/Alexandria convoy ME15. 20th
- "SANTAROSA"
was
torpedoed
off Tripoli by MTB-260,
one of the growing number of coastal
forces operating
along the North African coast.
Libya
- Gen
Montgomery resumed the advance on the
15th, and Bueret,
outflanked by British Armour and New
Zealand troops was
soon taken. The defences in front of
Tripoli were
similarly outflanked and on the 23rd the
victorious
Eighth Army entered the capital.
|
PROSPECTS
FOR ALLIED
VICTORY - The
Russians gained a famous
victory with the German
surrender at Stalingrad in
January 1943. Taken with the
October 1942 British Battle
of El Alamein and June 1942
American Battle of
Midway, the
three Allied successes are
usually considered as
marking the turning point in
the 40 month old war
against the Axis powers. The
Battle for
Guadalcanal,
ending as it did Japanese
hopes of controlling
the South West Pacific
should also be added to
this roll-call of victory.
However, more than 30
months of struggle and
bloodshed had to be
endured before victory was
certain.
|
FEBRUARY
1943
1st -
As
cruiser-minelayer "WELSHMAN" sailed from
Malta to Alexandria after
minelaying operations in the Strait of
Sicily, she was
sunk by "U-617" north of Bardia.
3rd -
Italian
destroyer "SAETTA" and destroyer escort
"URAGANO", supplying Axis forces in
Tunisia,
sank on cruiser-minelayer "Abdiel's"
mines
northeast of Bizerta.
North
Africa - As
Rommel prepared his Mareth line defences
in southern
Tunisia, Eighth Army units crossed the
border from Libya
on the 4th. All of Libya was now in
Allied hands and the
Italian North African Empire ceased to
exist. From
Mareth, Rommel could switch his forces
to the northwest
or east as he wished. His supply lines
were also much
shorter. The battle for the rest of
North Africa was not
yet over. Leaving much of his forces to
hold Mareth, in
mid-month he launched an attack against
the US Second
Corps to the northwest. The aim was to
break through the
Allied lines around Gafsa and reached
the sea near Bone.
Gafsa soon fell and the Allies were
pushed back in the
Battle of Kasserine Pass and
other passes. After a
week of struggle the Axis forces were
held. They withdrew
to concentrate on the Mareth defences as
the bulk of
Eighth Army approached.
Northern
Tunisia
Campaign - German and Italian
operations against
Allied shipping off Algeria led to
further losses: 6th
- Canadian corvette "LOUISBERG"
escorting UK/North Africa convoy KMS8
was
torpedoed by German aircraft off Oran. 8th
- The
Royal Canadian Navy took its revenge
when corvette
"Regina sank the Italian submarine
"AVORIO" off Philippeville. 17th
- A
patrol of escort destroyers "Bicester",
Easton", Lamerton" and Wheatland" shared
in the sinking of two Axis submarines.
The Italian "ASTERIA" went down off
Bougie on the 17th. 23rd
- Six days later the same escort
destroyer patrol
sank "U-443" to the northwest of
Algiers.
Southern
Tunisia
Campaign - As the Mediterranean
Fleet Inshore
Squadron continued to support the
advancing Eighth Army,
ships were lost on both sides: 9th
- Corvette "ERICA" on escort duty sank
on a British
mine off Benghazi. 17th -
"U-205" attacked Tripoli/Alexandria
convoy
TX1 northwest of Derna, and was then
sunk by South
African aircraft of No 15 Squadron and
destroyer
"Paladin". 19th - Combined air
and sea
attacks also accounted for "U-562"
northeast of Benghazi. This time
the convoy was Alexandria/Tripoli XT3,
the warships
destroyers "lsis" and "Hursley" with
aircraft from No 38 Squadron RAF.
MARCH
1943
Tunisia
- In the
south, before his final recall from
Africa, Field Marshal
Rommel attacked Eighth Army positions in
front of the
Mareth Line, but was easily held. On the
20th the main
Eighth Army offensive started with
British and Indian
forces going in near the sea, as the New
Zealanders once
again moved up to outflank. Meanwhile,
from the
northwest, the US Second Corps alongside
the British
First Army was attacking towards Gafsa
and Gabes,
endangering the Axis rear. By the 29th,
the Mareth Line
was broken and the Germans and Italians
had retreated to
a strong position north of Gabes at Wadi
Akarit. The
Inshore Squadron was still in attendance
on Eighth Army
in the south and the battles of the
supply routes in the
north and south continue: 8th -
Cruiser-minelayer
"Abdiel" laid more mines in the Axis
supply
routes to Tunisia. The field north of
Cape Bon sank three
destroyers in March, starting with
destroyer escort "CICIONE" on the 8th.12th
- In a
sortie against Axis shipping bound for
Tunisia, Force Q
destroyer "LIGHTNING"
was
torpedoed
and sunk off Bizerta by
German E-boat "S-55". 19th -
Attacks by
German aircraft on Tripoli harbour sank
two supply ships
and damaged escort destroyer "DERWENT"
so badly she was not fully
repaired. This was the first German
success using
circling torpedoes. 24th -
"Abdiel's"
Cape Bon minefield sank two more Italian
destroyers on
the 24th - "ASCARI" and "MALOCELLO".
APRIL
1943
Tunisia
- The
Battle of Gabes in southern
Tunisia started on the
5th when Eighth Army attacked the Wadi
Akarit defences.
Within two days the Axis was retreating.
The same day -
the 7th - US troops of Second Corps met
Eighth Army units
near Gafsa - the long awaited link-up.
By the 10th Sfax
had fallen to Eighth Army, but a British
First Army
breakthrough at Fondouk was too late to
cut off the
retreating Germans and Italians. The
14th saw the Axis
well established in the main defence
lines running around
Tunis and Bizerta from Enfidaville in
the south, through
Longstop Hill and to the sea west of
Bizerta. For the
rest of April heavy fighting took place
as the Allies
slowly closed in. Numerous Axis supply
ships on the
Tunisian route fell victim to Royal Navy
submarines.
16th -
Destroyers
"Pakenham" and "Paladin" out of Malta
encountered an Italian supply convoy
north of Pantelleria
island. In a running gun battle with the
four escorting
torpedo boats, Italian "CIGNO"
was
sunk
and another damaged, and "PAKENHAM"
disabled. She had to be scuttled.
'The Man
Who Never
Was'- Submarine "Seraph" released
the body
of a supposed Royal Marine officer into
the sea off
Spain. His false papers helped to
persuade the Germans
that the next Allied blows after North
Africa would fall
on Sardinia and Greece as well as
Sicily.
MAY
1943
North
Africa and Tunis:
The End for the Axis - The Allied
Armies continued to
push on, and on the 7th Tunis was taken
by the British
and Bizerta by the Americans. The Axis
surrender came on
the 12th and nearly 250,000 Germans and
Italians were
taken prisoner. All North Africa -
French and Italian -
was under Allied control after nearly
three years
struggle.
4th -
As the
Tunisian campaign ended, destroyers
"Nubian",
Paladin" and "Petard" sank Italian
torpedo
boat "PERSEO" and a supply ship near
Cape Bon. 25th
- Escorting corvette "Vetch" sank
"U-414" northeast of Oran.
Merchant
Shipping War -
In the first five months of 1942 Allied
forces had sunk
over 500
Axis merchantmen of 560,000 tons
throughout the Mediterranean. In
contrast,
the end of the Tunisian campaign marked
a major upturn in
the fortunes of Allied shipping. By
mid-month
minesweepers had cleared a channel
through the Strait of
Sicily, and the first regular
Mediterranean convoys since
1940 were able to sail from Gibraltar to
Alexandria
(GTX). Return XTG's start in June 1943.
The opening of
the Mediterranean was equivalent to
commissioning a large
amount of new Allied merchant ship
tonnage.
JULY
1943
Invasion
of Sicily: Operation 'Husky' -
Many of Gen Patton's US troops sailed
from Algeria and
Tunisia; all of Gen Montgomery's British
forces from
Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Malta. (A
Canadian division
sailed direct from Britain). Some of the
troops
made the
voyage in landing ships
and craft.
North
Africa played little further direct
role in the war
1944
1945
