Italian-American anarchist
Carlo Tresca is assassinated in New York City.
January 12 – WWII:
Landing at Amchitka: American forces make an unopposed landing on
Amchitka, an island of the
Aleutian Islands, southwest of
Alaska. The destroyer
USS Worden moves into
Constantine Harbor and disembarks a detachment of Alaska Scouts. During a maneuver, a strong current sweeps Worden onto a pinnacle rock that tears up the hull beneath the engine room – leaving the destroyer powerless. Later, Worden gets the order to abandon the ship and suffers the death of 14 Americans before the crew is rescued. After the island is cleared of Japanese, transports land some 2,100 men by the end of the day.[2]
January 13 – Anti-
Nazi protests in
Sofia result in 200 arrests and 36 executions.
American critic and commentator
Alexander Woollcott suffers an eventually fatal heart attack, during a regular broadcast of the
CBS Radio
round-table program People's Platform.
February 5 – Lt. General
Frank M. Andrews is selected to command the U.S. armies in Europe, while General
Dwight D. Eisenhower is assigned command in North Africa. Andrews will serve only 3 months, before dying in an airplane crash.
February 19–
24 – WWII:
Battle of Kasserine Pass: German General
Erwin Rommel's
Afrika Korps and other
Axis forces launch an offensive against
Allied defenses in
Tunisia; it is the United States' first major battle defeat of the war. On February 22, an Anglo-American force halts the German advance near
Thala, forcing the Germans to retreat; US bombers harass the retreating Panzers.
WWII:
Italian occupation of Greece: The Italian occupying forces abandon the town of
Karditsa to the partisans. On the same day, an Italian motorized column razes the village of
Tsaritsani, burning 360 of its 600 houses and shooting 40 civilians.
March 26 – WWII:
Battle of the Komandorski Islands: In the
Aleutian Islands, the battle begins when
United States Navy forces intercept Japanese troops attempting to reinforce a garrison at
Kiska. During the engagement, heavy cruiser
USS Salt Lake City is severely damaged by Japanese cruiser gunfire. Lasting for three and a half hours, it will be the longest continuous gunnery duel in modern naval history.
Operation Case Black: Axis forces begin a joint offensive, with the aim of destroying the
Yugoslav Partisans, in south-eastern
Bosnia. During the offensive, some 7,500 partisans are killed or wounded.[21]
The Memphis Belle's crew becomes the first aircrew in the
8th Air Force to complete its 25-mission tour of duty. The aircraft and crew are the first to return to the U.S. intact for a War Bond drive.
May 24 – WWII: Admiral
Karl Dönitz orders most of the U-boats to withdraw from the
Atlantic Sea. Allied anti-submarine tactics are causing huge losses. Only 41 U-boats are operational for duty, Dönitz orders the suspension of all Atlantic operations.[22]
May 27 – The port city of
Maizuru is founded in Japan.
Chinese 6th War Area commander
Chen Cheng orders a large counteroffensive in
Hubei Province and pushes the Japanese forces of the
11th Army back at multiple locations.[23]
June 20–
23 – The
Detroit race riot of 1943 in the United States kills 34 people (25 African Americans, 9 whites), wounds hundreds more and damages and destroys property worth millions.[25]
July 19 – WWII: Rome is bombed by the
Allies, for the first time in the war.
July 24 – WWII:
Operation Gomorrha: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb
Hamburg by night; American planes bomb the city by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 42,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
August 11–
17 – WWII:
Operation Lehrgang: German and Italian forces evacuate from Sicily to the Italian mainland. The evacuation includes some 40,000 Wehrmacht troops, 9,000 vehicles, 30 tanks, and 90 heavy guns. Also, a total of 62,000 Italian troops are successfully evacuated. Despite Allied air attacks, losses are very low due to sufficient Axis anti-aircraft coverage.[31]
WWII: Rome is declared an
open city by the Italian government, with Italy offering to demilitarize the capital, in return for an Allied agreement not to bomb the city further.[32]
August 29 – WWII:
Occupation of Denmark – Germany dissolves the Danish government, after it refuses to deal with a wave of strikes and disturbances to the satisfaction of the German authorities.
October 16 – The Holocaust:
Raid of the Ghetto of Rome – Over a thousand Jews are rounded up in Rome by the
Gestapo; only 16 will survive their deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp. The public silence of
Pope Pius XII on the raid becomes a matter of historical controversy.
WWII: Signing of
Moscow Declarations: the
Declaration of the Four Nations on general security, by the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union and Republic of China; and the Declarations on Italy, Austria and Atrocities by the first three governments.
November 18 – WWII:
Battle of Berlin – The British
Royal Air Force opens its bombing campaign against Berlin with 440 planes, causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF loses 9 aircraft and 53 aviators.
Martin Noth's groundbreaking work of
Old Testament scholarship, Überlieferungsgeschichtliche Studien: Die sammelnden und bearbeitenden Geschichtswerke im Alten Testament, is published.[45]
^Frank, Richard (1990). Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle, pp. 553–554. New York: Random House.
ISBN0-394-58875-4.
^Kohlhoff, Dean (2011). Amchitka and the bomb; nuclear testing in Alaska. University of Washington Press.
ISBN9780295800509.
^Glantz, David M. (1995). When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler, pp. 143–147. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
ISBN0-70060-899-0.
^Levine, Alan (2012). From Axis Victories to the Turn of the Tide: World War II, 1939-1943. Potomac Books. p. 188.
^Waters, John M. Jr., CAPT USCG (December 1966), Stay Tough, United States Naval Institute Proceedings
^Rooney, David (2000). Wingate and the Chindits, p. 81. London: Cassell Military Paperbacks.
ISBN0-304-35452-X.
^Rohwer, J.; Hummelchen, G. (1992). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945. Naval Institute Press. p. 194.
ISBN1-55750-105-X.
^Copeland, B. Jack, ed. (2006). Colossus: the Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers. Oxford University Press.
ISBN978-0-19-284055-4.
^Caidin, Martin (1978) [1966]. The Ragged, Rugged Warriors. Bantam. p. 37. The American and Australian planes swept up and down the Bismarck Sea, shooting at any sign of life. Cannon shells and streams of bullets tore into Japanese on life rafts.
^Mallison, Sally V.; Mallison, W. Thomas. Roberson, Horace B. Jr. (ed.).
"Chapter IX, Naval Targeting: Lawful Objects of Attack". International Law Studies. 64: 257. Once the ships were sunk, the U.S. Armed Forces followed practices, much criticized when the offenders were German or Japanese, of killing as many of the helpless survivors in the water as possible.
^Tomasevich, Jozo (1975). The Chetniks, p. 255. Stanford University Press.
ISBN978-0804708579.
^Syrett, David (1994). The Defeat of the German U-boats: The Battle of the Atlantic, p. 145. Columbia: university of South Carolina Press.
ISBN978-1-41022-139-1.
^Tuchman, Barbara W. (2001). Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45, p. 373.
ISBN9780802138521.
^Meyer, Hermann Frank (2009). Von Wien nach Kalavryta: Die blutige Spur der 117. Jäger-Division durch Serbien und Griechenland [From Vienna to Kalavryta: The Bloody Trail of the 117th Jäger Division Across Serbia and Greece] (in German). Mannheim: Bibliopolis. pp. 138–142.
ISBN978-3-941336-10-0.
^Glantz, David M. (1999). The Battle for Kursk 1943: The Soviet General Staff Study, p. 28. London: Frank Cass.
ISBN0-7146-4933-3.
^Fajkowski, Józef (1972). Wieś w ogniu. Eksterminacja wsi polskiej w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej [A countryside on fire. The extermination of the Polish villages during the Nazi occupation] (in Polish). Warszawa: Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza.
^Rohwer, Jürgen; Hümmelchen, Gerhard (1974). Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939–1945. Volume Two: 1943–1945. Arco Publishing.
ISBN9780711003682.
^"Badolgio Declares Rome An 'Open City', Pittsburgh Press, August 15, 1943, p. 1
^Muggenthaler, August Karl (1977). German Raiders of WWII. Prentice-Hall. p. 276.
ISBN0-13-354027-8.
^Pubantz, Jerry; Moore, John Allphin Jr. (2008). "Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers". Encyclopedia of the United Nations, Modern World History (Second ed.). New York: Facts On File.
^[Schriften der Königsberger Gelehrten-Gesellschaft: Geisteswissenschaftliche Klasse; 18,2 (trans: "Writings of the Königsberg Scholarly Society: Spiritual Scientific Class No. 18.2")]: (
Halle ["Halle an der Saale"]: M. Niemeyer, 1943.)
Italian-American anarchist
Carlo Tresca is assassinated in New York City.
January 12 – WWII:
Landing at Amchitka: American forces make an unopposed landing on
Amchitka, an island of the
Aleutian Islands, southwest of
Alaska. The destroyer
USS Worden moves into
Constantine Harbor and disembarks a detachment of Alaska Scouts. During a maneuver, a strong current sweeps Worden onto a pinnacle rock that tears up the hull beneath the engine room – leaving the destroyer powerless. Later, Worden gets the order to abandon the ship and suffers the death of 14 Americans before the crew is rescued. After the island is cleared of Japanese, transports land some 2,100 men by the end of the day.[2]
January 13 – Anti-
Nazi protests in
Sofia result in 200 arrests and 36 executions.
American critic and commentator
Alexander Woollcott suffers an eventually fatal heart attack, during a regular broadcast of the
CBS Radio
round-table program People's Platform.
February 5 – Lt. General
Frank M. Andrews is selected to command the U.S. armies in Europe, while General
Dwight D. Eisenhower is assigned command in North Africa. Andrews will serve only 3 months, before dying in an airplane crash.
February 19–
24 – WWII:
Battle of Kasserine Pass: German General
Erwin Rommel's
Afrika Korps and other
Axis forces launch an offensive against
Allied defenses in
Tunisia; it is the United States' first major battle defeat of the war. On February 22, an Anglo-American force halts the German advance near
Thala, forcing the Germans to retreat; US bombers harass the retreating Panzers.
WWII:
Italian occupation of Greece: The Italian occupying forces abandon the town of
Karditsa to the partisans. On the same day, an Italian motorized column razes the village of
Tsaritsani, burning 360 of its 600 houses and shooting 40 civilians.
March 26 – WWII:
Battle of the Komandorski Islands: In the
Aleutian Islands, the battle begins when
United States Navy forces intercept Japanese troops attempting to reinforce a garrison at
Kiska. During the engagement, heavy cruiser
USS Salt Lake City is severely damaged by Japanese cruiser gunfire. Lasting for three and a half hours, it will be the longest continuous gunnery duel in modern naval history.
Operation Case Black: Axis forces begin a joint offensive, with the aim of destroying the
Yugoslav Partisans, in south-eastern
Bosnia. During the offensive, some 7,500 partisans are killed or wounded.[21]
The Memphis Belle's crew becomes the first aircrew in the
8th Air Force to complete its 25-mission tour of duty. The aircraft and crew are the first to return to the U.S. intact for a War Bond drive.
May 24 – WWII: Admiral
Karl Dönitz orders most of the U-boats to withdraw from the
Atlantic Sea. Allied anti-submarine tactics are causing huge losses. Only 41 U-boats are operational for duty, Dönitz orders the suspension of all Atlantic operations.[22]
May 27 – The port city of
Maizuru is founded in Japan.
Chinese 6th War Area commander
Chen Cheng orders a large counteroffensive in
Hubei Province and pushes the Japanese forces of the
11th Army back at multiple locations.[23]
June 20–
23 – The
Detroit race riot of 1943 in the United States kills 34 people (25 African Americans, 9 whites), wounds hundreds more and damages and destroys property worth millions.[25]
July 19 – WWII: Rome is bombed by the
Allies, for the first time in the war.
July 24 – WWII:
Operation Gomorrha: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb
Hamburg by night; American planes bomb the city by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 42,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
August 11–
17 – WWII:
Operation Lehrgang: German and Italian forces evacuate from Sicily to the Italian mainland. The evacuation includes some 40,000 Wehrmacht troops, 9,000 vehicles, 30 tanks, and 90 heavy guns. Also, a total of 62,000 Italian troops are successfully evacuated. Despite Allied air attacks, losses are very low due to sufficient Axis anti-aircraft coverage.[31]
WWII: Rome is declared an
open city by the Italian government, with Italy offering to demilitarize the capital, in return for an Allied agreement not to bomb the city further.[32]
August 29 – WWII:
Occupation of Denmark – Germany dissolves the Danish government, after it refuses to deal with a wave of strikes and disturbances to the satisfaction of the German authorities.
October 16 – The Holocaust:
Raid of the Ghetto of Rome – Over a thousand Jews are rounded up in Rome by the
Gestapo; only 16 will survive their deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp. The public silence of
Pope Pius XII on the raid becomes a matter of historical controversy.
WWII: Signing of
Moscow Declarations: the
Declaration of the Four Nations on general security, by the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union and Republic of China; and the Declarations on Italy, Austria and Atrocities by the first three governments.
November 18 – WWII:
Battle of Berlin – The British
Royal Air Force opens its bombing campaign against Berlin with 440 planes, causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF loses 9 aircraft and 53 aviators.
Martin Noth's groundbreaking work of
Old Testament scholarship, Überlieferungsgeschichtliche Studien: Die sammelnden und bearbeitenden Geschichtswerke im Alten Testament, is published.[45]
^Frank, Richard (1990). Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle, pp. 553–554. New York: Random House.
ISBN0-394-58875-4.
^Kohlhoff, Dean (2011). Amchitka and the bomb; nuclear testing in Alaska. University of Washington Press.
ISBN9780295800509.
^Glantz, David M. (1995). When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler, pp. 143–147. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
ISBN0-70060-899-0.
^Levine, Alan (2012). From Axis Victories to the Turn of the Tide: World War II, 1939-1943. Potomac Books. p. 188.
^Waters, John M. Jr., CAPT USCG (December 1966), Stay Tough, United States Naval Institute Proceedings
^Rooney, David (2000). Wingate and the Chindits, p. 81. London: Cassell Military Paperbacks.
ISBN0-304-35452-X.
^Rohwer, J.; Hummelchen, G. (1992). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945. Naval Institute Press. p. 194.
ISBN1-55750-105-X.
^Copeland, B. Jack, ed. (2006). Colossus: the Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers. Oxford University Press.
ISBN978-0-19-284055-4.
^Caidin, Martin (1978) [1966]. The Ragged, Rugged Warriors. Bantam. p. 37. The American and Australian planes swept up and down the Bismarck Sea, shooting at any sign of life. Cannon shells and streams of bullets tore into Japanese on life rafts.
^Mallison, Sally V.; Mallison, W. Thomas. Roberson, Horace B. Jr. (ed.).
"Chapter IX, Naval Targeting: Lawful Objects of Attack". International Law Studies. 64: 257. Once the ships were sunk, the U.S. Armed Forces followed practices, much criticized when the offenders were German or Japanese, of killing as many of the helpless survivors in the water as possible.
^Tomasevich, Jozo (1975). The Chetniks, p. 255. Stanford University Press.
ISBN978-0804708579.
^Syrett, David (1994). The Defeat of the German U-boats: The Battle of the Atlantic, p. 145. Columbia: university of South Carolina Press.
ISBN978-1-41022-139-1.
^Tuchman, Barbara W. (2001). Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45, p. 373.
ISBN9780802138521.
^Meyer, Hermann Frank (2009). Von Wien nach Kalavryta: Die blutige Spur der 117. Jäger-Division durch Serbien und Griechenland [From Vienna to Kalavryta: The Bloody Trail of the 117th Jäger Division Across Serbia and Greece] (in German). Mannheim: Bibliopolis. pp. 138–142.
ISBN978-3-941336-10-0.
^Glantz, David M. (1999). The Battle for Kursk 1943: The Soviet General Staff Study, p. 28. London: Frank Cass.
ISBN0-7146-4933-3.
^Fajkowski, Józef (1972). Wieś w ogniu. Eksterminacja wsi polskiej w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej [A countryside on fire. The extermination of the Polish villages during the Nazi occupation] (in Polish). Warszawa: Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza.
^Rohwer, Jürgen; Hümmelchen, Gerhard (1974). Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939–1945. Volume Two: 1943–1945. Arco Publishing.
ISBN9780711003682.
^"Badolgio Declares Rome An 'Open City', Pittsburgh Press, August 15, 1943, p. 1
^Muggenthaler, August Karl (1977). German Raiders of WWII. Prentice-Hall. p. 276.
ISBN0-13-354027-8.
^Pubantz, Jerry; Moore, John Allphin Jr. (2008). "Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers". Encyclopedia of the United Nations, Modern World History (Second ed.). New York: Facts On File.
^[Schriften der Königsberger Gelehrten-Gesellschaft: Geisteswissenschaftliche Klasse; 18,2 (trans: "Writings of the Königsberg Scholarly Society: Spiritual Scientific Class No. 18.2")]: (
Halle ["Halle an der Saale"]: M. Niemeyer, 1943.)