Invasion
of Sicily, Operation
'Husky' (see July 1943)
...1943
JUNE
1943
ATLANTIC
- JUNE 1943
1st
- After
supporting convoys ONS8 and HX240,
Capt Walker's 2nd EG
located "U-202" south of
Greenland. She was sunk by sloop
"Starling".
Bay
of Biscay Patrols
- Aircraft of Coastal Command
continued covering U-boat
exit routes from western France
and were joined by
surface escort groups covered by
cruisers. At the same
time U-boats were fitted with
heavy AA armament to enable
them to fight their way out on the
surface in groups.
U-boat sinkings went down as
Allied aircraft losses
mounted, but four U-boats were
destroyed: 1st - "U-418"
to a rocket-firing RAF
Beaufighter. 14th -
"U-564" to a RAF Whitley. 24th
-
The 2nd EG (Capt Walker)
accompanied by cruiser
Scylla
accounted for two submarines
northwest
of Cape Ortegal, NW Spain. Tanker
"U-119"
was
brought
to the surface and rammed
by "Starling". With her Asdic out
of action
from the ramming, "Starling" left
the sinking
of "U-449" to "Wren",
"Woodpecker", "Kite" and "Wild
Goose".
Northern
Transit Area -
In the waters through which
Norwegian-based U-boats had
to sail for their patrol areas,
two submarines were sunk:
4th - Submarine "Truculent"
on
anti-U-boat patrol between Norway
and Iceland sank "U-308" north of
the Faeroe Islands. 11th
- A RAF Fortress accounted for
"U-417" in the same northern
transit area.
14th
- In the North
Atlantic "U-334" and other U-boats
simulated the radio
transmissions of large wolf packs.
She was located and
sunk by frigate "Jed" and sloop
"Pelican" of the 1st EG.
Battle
of
the Atlantic - The
Royal Navy had finally changed the
convoy codes and made
them secure against the work of
the German B-Service. In
contrast, the British 'Ultra' work
was fully integrated
into the Admiralty U-boat Tracking
Room, and an almost
complete picture of German Navy
and U-boat operations was
available. Not one North Atlantic
convoy was attacked
during the month although U-boats
were operating around
the Azores. As Allied air and sea
forces grew in strength
and effectiveness, especially
through the use of 10cm
radar and 'Ultra', Adm Doenitz
sought other ways to
regain the initiative. This he was
never able to do,
although right through until the
last day of the war, the
Allies could not relax their
efforts, and continually
introduced new detection systems,
weapons and tactics.
Against numerous, well-trained and
effectively used
escorts, the day of the
conventional submarine was
drawing to a close. The Germans
placed much faith in the
Walther hydrogen peroxide boat
then under development,
which with its long underwater
endurance and high speed,
would haved proved a formidable
foe. It did not get
beyond the experimental stage by
war's end. An interim
step on the road towards the
'true' submarine started at
the end of 1943 with the design
and building of Type XXI
ocean and XXIII coastal boats.
Using the streamlined hull
of the Walther and high capacity
batteries, their
underwater speed made them faster
than most escorts.
Fortunately for the Allies they
did not enter service in
numbers until too late in 1945.
For now
the Germans had to
rely on the U-boats currently in
service and building.
Total numbers stayed at around the
400 mark for the
remainder of the war, in spite of
a 40 boat per month
construction programme. Various
steps were taken to
improve their offensive and
defensive capability. Apart
from extra AA armament, the Gnat
acoustic torpedo was
introduced specifically to combat
the convoy escorts. Its
first test came in September 1943.
Before then in July,
the schnorkel, a Dutch development
that allowed batteries
to be recharged at periscope
depth, started trials. It
did not enter general service
until mid-1944, but then
went quite some way to nullifying
the radar of the air
escorts and patrols. Even now the
German Navy was unaware
the Allies were using short
wavelength radar, but when
they did, early in 1944, an
effective detector was
shortly introduced.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 7 British,
Allied
and neutral ships of 30,000 tons
in the Atlantic from all
causes; 16 German and 1 Italian
U-boats including 4
by US and RAF aircraft off Iceland
and the Strait of
Gibraltar, and the Italian boat in
the North Atlantic, 3
by the US Navy, one off the east
coast of America and two
to escort carrier "Bogue" off the
Azores, 1 by
French aircraft off Dakar.
EUROPE
- JUNE 1943
Air
War - RAF
bombers flew on to North Africa
for the first time after
attacking German targets. On their
return they hit
northern Italy.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 1 ship of 150 tons
in UK waters.
MEDITERRANEAN
- JUNE 1943
2nd
- Destroyers
"Jervis" and Greek "Queen Olga"
sank
two merchantmen and Italian
torpedo boat "CASTORE" off Cape
Spartivento,
southwest Italy.
Pantelleria
&
Lampedusa - After heavy sea
and air bombardments
these two Italian islands to the
north-west and west of
Malta surrendered to the Allies on
the 11th and 12th June
respectively.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 7 British or Allied
merchant ships of 25,000 tons
INDIAN
& PACIFIC OCEANS - JUNE 1943
New
Georgia Islands,
Central Solomons - Apart
from unopposed landings on
islands to the north of
Guadalcanal in February 1943,
only now were US forces under Adm
Halsey ready to make
their next move up the Solomons
chain, starting with the
New Georgia group. On the 21st, US
Marines landed at the
southern end of the main island of
New Georgia and on the
30th Army troops on the nearby
island of Rendova. New
Georgia was not fully secured
until the end of August
1943, by which time other landings
had been made. Like
the Guadalcanal campaign, Japanese
attempts to bring in
reinforcements led to a series of
naval battles.
Monthly
Loss Summary: Indian Ocean - 12
merchant ships of 68,000 tons;
Pacific Ocean - 1 merchant
ship of 1,200 tons
JULY
1943
ATLANTIC
- JULY 1943
15th
- "U-135" attacked UK/West Africa
convoy OS51
off the Canary Islands, and was
depth-charged by the
escort including sloop "Rochester"
and corvette
"Balsam". She was sunk when
corvette
Mignonette
rammed.
24th
- After six
months effort the bombing campaign
against U-boat bases
claimed its first success on the
24th when "U-622"
was
badly
damaged in a USAAF raid on
Trondheim, Norway and paid off.
30th
- The Bay of
Biscay offensive by the RAF and
Australian, Canadian and
American aircraft reached a peak
and since March 1943, 10
U-boats had been sunk and many
others damaged. On the
30th, two 'milchcows', "U-461" and
"U-462" escorted by "U-504", were
located to the northwest of Cape
Ortegal, Spain. In a
running battle "U-461"
was
finally sunk by Sunderland U/461
of RAF No 461 Squadron. "U-462"
also went down in the fighting.
Capt Walker's 2nd EG was called to
the scene and
accounted for "U-504" with "Kite",
"Woodpecker", "Wren" and "Wild
Goose".
Monthly
Loss Summar: 29 ships British,
Allied and neutral ships of
188,000 tons in the Atlantic
from all causes; 34 U-boats
including 3 by RAF and US aircraft
off Portugal, 7 by US
escort carrier groups south and
west of the Azores (6 of
these by aircraft from "Core",
"Santee" or "Bogue"), 9 by US
aircraft in the Caribbean and off
Brazil.
EUROPE
- JULY 1943
Air
War - Following
the RAF's Battle of the Ruhr,
heavy attacks on Hamburg in
late July/early August started the
first firestorms. The
Battle of Hamburg continued
through until November.
Eastern
Front -
There was little activity in the
North and
Leningrad had to wait until early
1944 for the siege to
be fully lifted. It was a
different matter in the Centre/South
where the Battle of Kursk was
fought. The
Germans attacked the 100-mile wide
salient around Kursk
from the Orel in the north and
Kharkov in the south.
Total forces engaged on both sides
included 6,000 tanks
and 5,000 aircraft. Russian
defences were well prepared
and in depth and the Germans made
little progress. Within
a week they had ground to a halt.
Losses were heavy on
both sides. Now the Russian armies
launched the first of
numerous offensives in these
sectors, which by year's end
saw them reaching Byelorussia and
recapturing more than
half the Ukraine. The first
attacks were north of Kursk
against the German salient around
Orel. In early August
it was the turn of Kharkov to the
south.
Monthly
Loss Summary: Until November 1943
only two small ships were lost in
UK waters
MEDITERRANEAN
- JULY 1943
10th
- Invasion of
Sicily, Operation
'Husky'
(see
map above)
The
Americans
still wanted to
concentrate on the
cross-Channel
invasion of France,
but at the Casablanca
Conference somewhat
reluctantly agreed to
go
ahead with the Sicily
landings. Amongst the
benefits would be the
opening of the
Mediterranean to
Allied shipping. The
final plan
was approved in
mid-May and not much
more than a
month later the first
US troop convoys were
heading across the
Atlantic for an
operation even
greater than the
French North African
landings
the previous November.
Allied
Commander-in-Chief
- US Gen
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Allied
Naval
Commander
Expeditionary Force
- Adm Sir
Andrew Cunningham
|
Landing
Areas:
|
Gulf
of
Gela, S coast
|
South
of
Syracuse, SE coast
|
Forces
landing:
|
US
7th Army -
Gen Patton
66,000 troops
|
Eighth
Army -
Gen Montgomery
115,000 British &
Canadian troops
|
Departure
from:
|
United
States,
Algeria, Tunisia
|
Egypt,
Libya,
Tunisia, Malta;
Canadian division from
Britain
|
Naval
Task Forces:
Commanders:
|
Western
Rear-Adm H K
Hewitt USN
|
Eastern
Adm Sir B Ramsey
|
Naval
Forces
Battleships
Carriers
Cruisers
Destroyers
Submarines
Other warship
Troopships, supply
ships, LSIs etc
Landing Ships and Craft
(major)
|
U.S.A.
-
-
5
48
-
98
94
190
|
British
&
Allied
6
2
10
80
26
250
237
319
|
Totals
|
435
USN
|
930
RN
|
Plus
Landing Craft
(minor)
|
510
USN
|
715
RN
|
The
grand total of 2,590 US
and British warships
- major and minor, were
mostly allocated to
their
own landing sectors, but
the Royal Navy total
included the covering
force against any
interference by the
Italian fleet. The main
group
under Vice-Adm Sir A. U.
Willis of Force H
included battleships
Nelson,
Rodney,
Warspite
and
Valiant
and fleet carriers
Formidable
and
Indomitable.
Seven Royal Navy
submarines acted as
navigation
markers off the invasion
beaches. Many of the
troops coming from North
Africa and Malta made
the voyage in landing
ships and craft. As they
approached Sicily with
the other transports
late
on the 9th in stormy
weather, Allied airborne
landings took place.
Sadly, many of the
British
gliders crashed into the
sea, partly because of
the weather. However,
early next day, on the 10th,
the troops went ashore
under an umbrella of
aircraft. The new
amphibious DUKWS (or
"Ducks") developed by
the Americans
played an important part
in getting the men and
supplies across the
beaches
There
was little resistance
by the Italians and
few Germans, and the
counter-attacks that
were mounted were soon
driven off. Syracuse
was captured that day
and
within three days the
British Eighth Army
had
cleared the south east
corner of Sicily. The
Americans meanwhile
pushed north and
northwest
and captured Palermo
on the 22nd.
By then,
Eighth Army had been
checked south of
Catania.
Nevertheless, at
month's end the Allies
held the
entire island except
the north-eastern
part. As
the capture of Sicily
progressed, important
political developments
took place in Italy.
On
the 25th
Mussolini was arrested
and
stripped of all his
powers. Marshal
Badoglio
formed a new
government, which
immediately and in
secret sought ways to
end the war. By August
the
surrender of Italy was
being negotiated with
the
Allied powers. German
and Italian aircraft
sank
and damaged a number
of warships and
transports
in the invasion area
including a US
destroyer on
the 10th. On
the 16th
carrier "Indomitable"
was
damaged
by Italian torpedo
aircraft.
|
Axis
submarines had fewer successes
than the
attacking aircraft in and around
Sicily. Two British
cruisers were damaged, but in
return 12 of their number
were lost over the next four weeks
into early August: 11th
- "FLUTTO" off the southern
end of the Strait
of Messina in a running battle
with MTBs 640, 651 and
670. 12th - "U-561"
torpedoed in the Strait of Messina
by
MTB-81; Italian "BRONZO" captured
off Syracuse by minesweepers
"Boston", "Cromarty",
"Poole" and "Seaham"; "U-409" sunk
off Algeria by escorting
destroyer "Inconstant" as she
attacked a
returning empty convoy. 13th
- Italian "NEREIDE"
was
lost
off Augusta to destroyers
"Echo" and "llex"; north of the
Strait of Messina "ACCIAIO"
was
torpedoed
by patrolling submarine
"Unruly". 15th - Transport
submarine "REMO" on passage
through the Gulf of
Taranto during the invasion was
lost to submarine
"United". 16th - Cruiser
Cleopatra
was
torpedoed
and badly damaged off Sicily by
submarine "Dandolo". 18th
-
"Remo's" sister-boat "ROMOLO"
was
sunk off Augusta by the RAF. 23rd
- Cruiser
Newfoundland
(pictured - NavyPhotos)
was
damaged
off Syracuse by a torpedo
from "U-407", and as Italian
"ASCIANGHI" attacked a cruiser
force off the
south coast of Sicily she was sunk
by destroyers
"Eclipse" and "Laforey". 29th
- "PIETRO
MICCA" was
torpedoed
by submarine "Trooper" at the
entrance to the
Adriatic in the Strait of Otranto.
30th - "U-375" was
lost
off southern Sicily to an
American sub-chaser.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 14 British or
Allied merchant ships of 80,000
tons
INDIAN
& PACIFIC OCEANS - JULY 1943
New
Guinea - On
30th June, Allied forces landed
south of Salamaua. By
mid-July they linked up with the
Australians fighting
through from Wau, and prepared to
advance on Salamaua
itself. The struggle against the
usual fierce resistance
continued right through July and
August.
New
Georgia Islands,
Central Solomons - As the
fighting for New Georgia
Island continued, naval battles
and other actions led to
losses on both sides:
Battle
of Kula Gulf -
On the night of the 5th/6th, three
US cruisers and four destroyers
were in a fight with 10
'Tokyo Express' destroyers off the
north coast of New
Georgia. The Japanese lost two
destroyers, but another US
cruiser went down to Long Lance
torpedoes.
Battle
of
Kolombangara
- Four
destroyers covered by cruiser
"Jintsu" and five
more destroyers ran supplies into
Kula Gulf on the night
of the 12th/13th. Opposing them
were two American
cruisers and the New Zealand
"Leander" (Capt S.
W. Roskill) with ten US
destroyers. The Japanese cruiser
was shelled to pieces, but all
three Allied cruisers were
disabled by torpedo hits and a
destroyer sunk.
"Leander" was out of action for 25
months, the
last of the two New Zealand
cruisers serving with Adm
Halsey. 20th - Task Force
74 with cruisers
"Australia", "Hobart" and US
destroyers sailed from the New
Hebrides for the New
Georgia area of operations. In the
Coral Sea, "Hobart"
was
torpedoed and badly damaged by
submarine "I-11".
Monthly
Loss Summary: Indian Ocean only -
17 merchant ships of 97,000 tons
AUGUST
1943
ATLANTIC
- AUGUST 1943
Canada
- Prime Minister MacKenzie King of
Canada hosted the
Quebec Conference, the "Quadrant'
series of meetings
in the middle of the month to
discuss Allied strategy.
Winston Churchill and Franklin
Roosevelt agreed the
outline plans for 'Overlord' - the
main invasion of
Europe - including the use of
'Mulberry' harbours, and to
an American being the supreme
commander. In the Far East,
a South East Asia Command was to
be set up with Adm
Mountbatten as supreme commander
and a second Chindit
operation mounted in Burma.
Agreement was also reached on
the sharing of nuclear research.
Early
August - "U-647" on passage
out may have been lost on the
Iceland/ Faeroes mine barrage
around the 3rd of the
month. If so she was the only
casualty of this vast
minefield throughout the war. RCAF
aircraft sank "U-489" in the same
area. 11th - "U-468"
was
sunk
off Dakar, West Africa by a
RAF Liberator of No 200 Squadron.
The final attack was
carried out with the aircraft in
flames and just before
she crashed. + The Liberator's
commanding officer, Plt
Off Lloyd Trigg RNZAF, was
posthumously awarded the
Victoria
Cross, solely on the
evidence of the U-boat's
survivors. 25th - "U-523"
attacked UK/Gibraltar convoy OG92
to the far west of Cape
Finisterre, Spain and was sunk by
destroyer "Wanderer" and corvette
"Wallflower". 30th - In
attacks on
Sierra Leone/UK convoy SL135
northeast of the Azores, "U-634" was
sunk
by sloop "Stork" and
corvette "Stonecrop.
27th
-
Bay of Biscay air patrols sank
five U-boats in August and
continued to co-operate with
surface ships. On the 27th,
German Do217 aircraft launched
some of the first Hs293
glider bombs against ships of the
1st Escort Group. To
the south of Cape Finisterre,
sloop "EGRET"
was
hit and blew up and Canadian
destroyer "Athabaskan" damaged.
Monthly
Loss
Summary: 4 British, Allied and
neutral ships of
25,000 tons, 1 escort; 20 U-boats
including 6 by aircraft
of US escort carriers Card and
Core off the Azores and in
mid-Atlantic, 2 by US aircraft in
the Caribbean area, 1
by RAF and French aircraft off
Dakar, 1 by US forces in
the South Atlantic
EUROPE
- AUGUST 1943
Air
War
- On the 17th the USAAF lost 20
percent of attacking
aircraft in raids on ball-bearing
production facilities
at Schweinfurt and Regensburg - a
major setback to its
daylight bombing policy. That
night the RAF inflicted
damage on the German rocket
research establishment at
Peenemunde on the Baltic coast.
Denmark
- Disturbances in Denmark led the
German authorities to
declare martial law throughout the
country and take over
full control. As they did, most of
the ships of the small
Danish Navy were scuttled.
Eastern
Front - From east of
Smolensk south to the Sea of
Azov the Russians attacked and
pushed forward all along
the line: In the Centre
towards Smolensk itself;
in the Centre/South first
Orel and then Kharkov
were captured, followed by an
advance towards the
Ukrainian capital of Kiev; in the
South from the
Rostov-on-Don area towards Odessa,
threatening to trap
the Germans in the Crimea.
MEDITERRANEAN
- AUGUST 1943
Sicily
- As the Germans and Italians
prepared to evacuate Sicily
across the Strait of Messina, the
Allies started the
final push - US Seventh Army along
the north coast aided
by three small amphibious hops and
Eighth Army up the
east side from Catania with one
small landing. Gen
Patton's men entered Messina just
before Gen Montgomery's
on the 17th. Sicily was now in
Allied hands but 100,000
Axis troops managed to escape
without any serious
interference.
3rd
-
Following on from July, the
twelfth Axis submarine loss
in four weeks was the Italian
"ARGENTO" sunk off the island of
Pantelleria
by US destroyer "Buck".
4th
- Destroyer
"ARROW"
assisted with
unsuccessful fire-fighting
alongside the burning
merchantman "Fort La Montée" off
Algiers
harbour. She was badly damaged in
the resulting explosion
and never fully re-commissioned.
Royal
Navy
Submarine Operations -
Patrols in the Mediterranean
lea to the sinking of numerous
Axis ships including two
Italian warships, but two boats
were lost in August, the
first for over three months: 9th
-
"Simoom" sank destroyer GIOBERTI"
off Spezia, northwest Italy. 11th
-
"PARTHIAN"
was
overdue on this date. She left
Malta on 22nd July for the
southern Adriatic and failed
to return to Beirut. 14th
-
"SARACEN"
on patrol off Bastia, Corsica was
lost to Italian corvettes
"Minerva" and
"Euterpe". 28th - "Ultor"
torpedoed torpedo boat "LINCE" in
the Gulf of Taranto. 22nd
- Escort destroyers "Easton" and
Greek
"Pindos" sank "U-458" southeast of
Pantelleria.
Monthly
Loss
Summary: 11 British or Allied
merchant ships of
43,000 tons
INDIAN
& PACIFIC OCEANS - AUGUST
1943
Australia
- John Curtin was re-elected Prime
Minister and the
Labour Party returned to power.
Strategic
and Maritime
Situation
In
May 1943,
Allied agreement was
reached on an
offensive
towards the Marshall
and Caroline Islands
in the
Central Pacific to
parallel Gen
MacArthur's
advance along the
north coast of New
Guinea. At
the Quebec Conference,
the Gilbert Islands
were
chosen as the first
step in the
island-hopping
campaign under the
overall command of Adm
Nimitz,
C-in-C, Pacific Fleet.
|
New
Georgia Islands, Central
Solomons
- As the fighting on New Georgia
came to an end, the
Japanese evacuated Kolombangara,
the next island in the
group. Now the Americans started a
policy of bypassing
and sealing off heavily defended
areas whenever
strategically possible and leaving
them to 'wither on the
vine'. On the 15th they started
with landings on Vella
Lavella to the north of
Kolombangara. By early October,
by which time New Zealand troops
had joined the fighting
for Vella Lavella, the Japanese
had left both islands,
and the Central Solomons were
clear. In early August
another naval battle took place:
Battle
of Vella
Gulf -
Now the US
Navy well and truly defeated the
Japanese 'Tokyo
Expresses'. On the night of the
6th/7th, six US
destroyers sank three out of four
Japanese destroyers
with torpedoes in the waters
between Kolombangara and
Vella Lavella.
19th
-
In the New Caledonia area, New
Zealand trawler
"Tui" and USN aircraft sank
submarine "I-17".
Aleutians
-
In mid-month US and Canadian
troops landed on Kiska after
heavy preliminary bombardments to
find the Japanese had
quietly left. The Aleutian Island
chain was completely
back in US hands.
Merchant
Shipping War - As Axis
submarines continued to
take a toll of Indian Ocean
shipping, German "U-197"
was
sunk
by RAF aircraft off Madagascar
on the 20th, the first of two lost
in the Indian Ocean in
1943.
Monthly
Loss
Summary: Indian Ocean - 7 merchant
ships of 46,000
tons; Pacific Ocean - 2 merchant
ships of 4,000 tons
SEPTEMBER
1943
ATLANTIC
- SEPTEMBER 1943
19th-22nd,
Assault on the Escorts:
Convoys ONS18 and ON202 - The
German wolf-packs returned to the
North
Atlantic armed with Gnat acoustic
torpedoes to home on
and disable the escorts so they
could reach the
merchantmen. Adm Doenitz
established a patrol line of 19
U-boats southwest of Iceland ready
for UK-out convoys ONS18
(27 ships escorted by the British
B3 group) and ON202
(42 ships and Canadian C2 group),
which set out
separately. First blood went to
the RCAF on the 19th
when "U-347"
was
sent
to the bottom. Over the next
three days six merchant ships were
lost and the escorts
suffered badly in the Gnat
attacks. Two more U-boats were
also sunk: 19th -
Destroyer "Escapade" of B3 was
badly damaged by a
premature explosion of her
Hedgehog. 20th -
British frigate "Lagan" of C2 was
damaged by "U-270" or
"U-260", but shortly after "U-338"
was
sunk
by a VLR aircraft of RAF No 120
Squadron using the Allies' own
acoustic torpedo - 'Fido'. "LAGAN"
was towed home as a
constructive total loss. The two
convoys joined up
southeast of Greenland and the
escort reinforced by the
Canadian 9th EG. 20th -
Canadian destroyer "ST
CROIX"
(ex-US) of the 9th EG was
lost to an attack by "U-305" and
British
corvette "POLYANTHUS" of C2 was
hit by a Gnat, probably from
"U-952" or possibly "U-641". 22nd
- Destroyer "Keppel" of B3 sank
"U-229", by which time the convoys
were
south of Cape Farewell, Greenland.
By now frigate "ITCHEN" of the 9th
EG had on board most of
the survivors of "St Croix" and
"Polyanthus". Around midnight she
was hit, in
all likelihood by "U-666" and went
down taking
all but three men of the three
ships' companies with her.
(Note: "U-952" or "U-260" might
also
have been responsible for
"ltchen's" loss.)
Fortunately the Allies had
anticipated the introduction
of acoustic torpedoed and soon put
into service 'Foxer'
noisemakers, towed astern to
attract the Gnat away from
the vessel. The U-boats did not
repeat their successes.
22nd,
Midget
Submarine Attack on Tirpitz,
Operation 'Source'
- Battleship
"Tirpitz"
posed such a threat to Russian
convoys and held down so
much of Home Fleet's strength that
almost any measures to
immobilise her were justified. One
gallant attempt was
made in October 1942 when a small
Norwegian fishing
vessel "Arthur", penetrated to
within a few
miles of the battleship in
Trondheimfiord with
Chariot
human
torpedoes
slung underneath. Just short of
the
target they broke away and the
effort was in vain. Now it
was the turn of midget submarines
- the
X-craft
each with two 2-ton saddle
charges. Six left for northern
Norway towed by 'S' or 'T'
class submarines. Two were lost on
passage, but on the 20th
off Altenfiord, "X-5", "X-6" and
"X-7" set out to attack "Tirpitz"
and
"X-10" the Scharnhorst. "X-5"
was
lost
and "X-10" was unable to
attack, but "X-6" (Lt Cameron) and
"X-7" (Lt Place) penetrated all
the
defences to reach "Tirpitz" laying
in Kaafiord
at the far end of Altenfiord. Both
dropped their charges
under or near the battleship
before they sank and some of
their crews escaped. "Tirpitz"
managed to shift position
slightly, but not enough to avoid
damage when the charges
went up. She was out of action for
six months. Lt Donald
Cameron RNR and Lt Basil Place RN
were awarded the Victoria
Cross.
Monthly
Loss
Summary: 11 ships of
54,000 tons and 4 escorts; 6
U-boats including
one each by RAF and RCAF Bay of
Biscay patrols, and one
by US aircraft off Brazil
EUROPE
- SEPTEMBER 1943
Eastern
Front - The Russians
continued to push forward in the
Centre and South,
capturing Smolensk on the
25th September. Thereafter they
made little progress in
this area for the rest of 1943.
MEDITERRANEAN
- SEPTEMBER 1943
6th
-
On passage to Oran, escort
destroyer
"PUCKERIDGE"
was
sunk
just east of Gibraltar by
"U-617", herself lost six days
later. 12th
- "U-617"
was
now
damaged
by a RAF
Wellington of No 179 Squadron and
beached on the coast of
Spanish Morocco. She was destroyed
by gunfire from
trawler "Haarlem", supported by
corvette
Hyacinth
and Australian minesweeper
"Wollongong".
7th
-
Submarine "Shakespeare" on patrol
off the Gulf
of Salerno sank Italian submarine
"VELELLA".
Italy
- Surrender and
Invasion
The
Italian
surrender was signed
in Sicily on the 3rd,
but not announced
until the 8th to
coincide with
the main Allied
landing at Salerno,
and in the
forlorn hope of
preventing the Germans
from
taking over the
country. Before long
they
controlled north and
central Italy, were
fighting
a delaying action in
the south, had
occupied
Rome, regrouped their
main forces near
Naples,
and had disarmed -
often bloodily -
Italian
forces in the
Dodecanese islands and
Greece.
Meanwhile
the
invasion and
occupation of southern
Italy got
underway. A start was
made on the 3rd
when British and
Canadian troops of Gen
Montgomery's Eighth
Army crossed over the
Strait
of Messina from Sicily
in 300 ships and
landing
craft (Operation
'Baytown') and
pushed north through
Calabria, eventually
joining up with forces
landed at Salerno.
Early on the 9th,
in
conjunction with these
landings, the Eighth
Army's 1st Airborne
Division was carried
into
Taranto by mainly
British warships (Operation
'Slapstick').
Shortly afterwards the
Adriatic
ports of Brindisi and
Bari were in Allied
hands. 9th
- Around midnight in
Taranto harbour,
cruiser-minelayer
ABDIEL, loaded
with 1st Airborne
troops, detonated one
of the magnetic mines
dropped by E-boats
"S-54" and
"S-61" as they
escaped, and sank with
heavy loss of life.
Off
the west coast
of Italy, the Germans
decide to evacuate the
more
southerly island of
Sardinia by way of
Corsica
starting on the 10th.
French troops landed
in Corsica in
mid-month, but by
early October the
Germans had gone. Both
islands were now in
Allied
hands. Following the
announcement of the
Italian
surrender, the bulk of
the Italian fleet
sailed
for Malta - three
battleships, cruisers
and
destroyers from Spezia
and Genoa, and three
more
battleships and other
vessels from Taranto
and
the Adriatic. As the
first group came
south,
battleship "ROMA"
was
sunk
by a FX1400
radio-controlled bomb
(unpropelled unlike
the
Hs293 rocket-boosted,
glider-bomb), but next
day
the remaining ships
were escorted into
Malta by
battleships
Warspite
and
Valiant.
Over 30 submarines
headed
for Allied ports. On
the 11th, Adm
A B
Cunningham fittingly
had the honour of
signalling
to the Admiralty the
arrival of the Italian
battlefleet in Malta.
On the 12th
the
arrested Benito
Mussolini was rescued
from his
Italian captors in the
Abruzzi Mountains by
German Col Otto
Skorzeny's paratroops
and flown
to Germany. Later in
the month he
proclaimed the
establishment of the
Italian Social
Republic.
|
9th
September
- Salerno Landings,
Operation
'Avalanche'
|
Landing
Areas:
|
Gulf
of
Salerno, S of Naples
|
Forces
landing:
|
US
5th Army -
Gen Mark Clark
55,000 British
& US troops
with 115,000 follow-up
|
British
10th Corps
|
US
Sixth
Corps
|
Departure
from:
|
Tunis,
Libya
|
Algeria
|
Naval
Attack Forces
and Commanders:
|
Western
Vice-Adm H K Hewitt
USN
|
Northern
Cdre G N Oliver
|
Southern
Rear-Adm J L Hall USN
|
Naval
Assault &
Follow-up Forces
|
British
&
Allied
|
U.S.A.
|
Cruisers
|
4
|
4
|
Destroyers
|
8
|
18
|
Other
warships
|
77
|
90
|
Troopships,
supply
ships, LSIs etc
|
29
|
13
|
Totals
|
128
|
125
|
Landing
Ships and
Craft (major only)
|
333
|
In
addition to the
grand total of 586 Allied
naval units directly
engaged in the landings,
most of which were in
their respective British
or American sectors, Adm
Cunningham as C-in-C
provided a strong Royal
Navy
cover force and carrier
support group. The cover
force was again Force H
under Adm Willis with
battleships
Nelson,
Rodney,
Warspite,
Valiant
and carriers
Formidable
and
Illustrious.
Rear-Adm Vian commanded
the support carriers with
light carrier
Unicorn,
escort carriers
Attacker,
Battler,
Hunter
and
Stalker,
three
cruisers and destroyers.
Most
of the troops were
carried to
Salerno via Sicily in
the landing ships and
craft, and, early on the
9th, without any
preliminary air or naval
bombardment, landed in
the face of strong
German resistance. By
the end
of the day, with the
support of the covering
warships and carrier
aircraft, both the
British
and Americans had
established bridgeheads
but
with a gap in between.
Over the next few days
the
Germans counter-attacked
and on the 13th and 14th
came dangerously close
to breaking through the
Allied lines and
reaching the beaches.
They were
held, and much of the
credit went to the
supporting warships,
especially
"Warspite" and "Valiant"
which arrived on the
15th. On the 16th, the
threat of dislodgement
was over. 13th -
All this time German
Do127 aircraft using
both
types of guided bombs
were attacking Allied
shipping laying off the
beaches. On the 13th,
cruiser
Uganda
was
damaged
as she provided
supporting gunfire. 16th
- On the 16th,
after
Warspite
had done her most
valuable
work, she was hit and
near-missed by three or
four guided bombs.
Damaged, she had to be
towed
to Malta.
On
the 16th the
German troops started
pulling back from
Salerno
towards the line of the
Volturno River, north of
Naples. That same day,
units of Fifth Army from
Salerno and Eighth Army
coming up through
Calabria made contact to
the east of the landing
area. They both headed
slowly north - Fifth
Army
on the west side of
Italy and Eighth on the
east.
At the end of the month
the Allies approached
Naples.
|
British
Aegean Campaign - With the
surrender of Italy, Winston
Churchill wanted to seize the
Italian Dodecanese islands in the
southern Aegean before
the Germans could establish
themselves. From here the
Allies could threaten Greece and
support Turkey, but the
Americans and some British
commanders were lukewarm on
what they saw as a sideshow
compared with the battle for
Italy. Insufficient forces and
especially aircraft were
made available, and the Germans
soon took Rhodes from
where, together with other bases,
they maintained air
superiority throughout the coming
campaign. On the 15th
and 16th, British troops occupied
Kos, Leros, Samos and
other smaller islands. The Royal
Navy had the task of
supplying and reinforcing them, as
well as attacking
German supply routes. The
potential parallels with
Norway, Greece and Crete all those
many months back were
obvious, if only in hindsight.
26th
- After carrying troops to
Leros, destroyers "Intrepid" and
Greek
"Queen Olga" were attacked by
Ju88s while at
anchor in the harbour. "QUEEN
OLGA" soon went down and
"INTREPID"
capsized next day.
Monthly
Loss
Summary: 11 British or Allied
merchant ships of
52,000 tons
INDIAN
& PACIFIC OCEANS - SEPTEMBER
1943
SOE
Raid
on Singapore - Working for
Special Operations
Executive, a small group of
Australian and British
servicemen were carried from
Australia in an old fishing
vessel, and on the night of the
24th/25th penetrated
Singapore harbour in canoes.
Several ships were sunk. In
a similar raid in September 1944
the attackers were
captured and executed.
New
Guinea
- As the Allies fought towards
Salamaua, further north a
three-pronged attack was launched
on Lae by mainly
Australian troops - from landings
to the east, by men
airlifted inland to the northwest,
and from the direction
of Wau. As the Japanese withdrew
from both areas towards
the north coast of the Huon
Peninsular, Australians
entered Salamaua on the 11th and
Lae five days later. To
prevent the Japanese holding on to
the Peninsular,
Australian forces landed north of
Finschhafen on the 22nd
as others moved overland from Lae
in the direction of
Madang.
Monthly
Loss
Summary: Indian Ocean - 6 merchant
ships of 39,000
tons; Pacific Ocean - 1 merchant
ship of 10,000 tons