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1943 in the Second World War
← 1942 1944 →
Clockwise from top left:Battle of the Bismarck Sea, graves of U.S. Marines killed in theBattle of Tarawa, burning Allied ships after theair raid on Bari in Italy, Jews of theWarsaw Ghetto
Location Global
Belligerents
Allies  Soviet Union  United States  United Kingdom  China Free France  Poland Canada  Australia  New Zealand  South Africa  Norway  Netherlands  Belgium  Luxembourg  Czechoslovakia  Greece  Italy  Yugoslavia  Philippines  Ethiopia Mexico Brazil	Axis  Germany  Japan  Italy   Italian Social Republic  Slovakia  Romania  Hungary  Bulgaria  Croatia Thailand  Finland Vichy France

This is atimeline of events that occurred duringWorld War II in 1943.

1:German1st Panzer Division withdraws from theTerek River area in southern Russia to prevent encirclement.^[1]

2: Americans and Australians recaptureBuna,New Guinea.^[1]

5: Eighteen countries issue a declaration in London stating their determination to "combat and defeat theplundering by the enemy Powers of the territories which have been overrun or brought under enemy control" and to take measures to restore property after the war.^[2]

7: Japanese land more troops atLae, New Guinea.

9:United States Western Task Force redesignatedI Armored Corps.

10: Soviet troops launchan all-out offensive attack onStalingrad; they also renew attacks in the north (Leningrad) and in theCaucasus.

14: TheCasablanca Conference of Allied leaders begins.Winston Churchill andFranklin D. Roosevelt discuss the eventual invasion of mainland Europe, the impending invasion of Sicily and Italy, and the wisdom of the principle of "unconditional surrender".

15: TheBritish start an offensive aimed at taking far-offTripoli, Libya.

16:Iraq declares war on the Axis powers.^[1]
: TheRoyal Air Force begins a two-night bombing ofBerlin.

18: TheJews in theWarsaw Ghetto rise up for the first time, starting theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising.
: Besieged defenders of Leningrad link up with relieving forces.

19: GeneralGeorgy Zhukov is promoted to Marshal as the Stalingrad struggle grinds to a close.

20:USS Silversides attacks a Japanese convoy 286 miles fromTruk, Caroline Islands en route to the Solomon Islands, sinking transport Meiu Maru and damaging Surabaya Maru.^[1]

21: Last airfield at Stalingrad is taken by Red Army forces, ensuring that theLuftwaffe will be unable to supply German troops any further; Hitler demands thatFriedrich Paulus continue fighting and promotes Paulus to Field Marshal in order to bolster morale.
: Red Army armies have more victories in the Caucasus.

22: Allies liberateSanananda, New Guinea.^[1]

23: British capture Tripoli, Libya.^[1]
: Japanese continue their fight in westernGuadalcanal; they now seem to have given up completely on theNew Guinea campaign.

24: The Casablanca Conference ends; Allies insist on unconditional surrender from Germany.^[1]
: German forces in Stalingrad are in the last phases of collapse.

25:United StatesXIV Corps arrives in Pacific Theater.

26: Soviet troops retakeVoronezh.^[1]

27: 50 bombers mount the first all Americanair raid againstGermany.Wilhelmshaven, the large naval base, is the primary target.

28: A new conscription law in Germany: men between 16 and 65 and women between 17 and 50 are open to mobilization.^[1]
: Georgy Zhukov awarded the firstOrder of Suvorov 1st Class.

29: The navalbattle of Rennell Island, near Guadalcanal, begins. The Japanese beat the Americans and theUSS Chicago is lost.

30: The last Japanese have cleared out of Guadalcanal undetected by U.S. forces.
: On the tenth anniversary of his rise to power, Hitler makes a speech in which he promotes General Paulus to Field Marshal. This includes a reminder that no German field marshal has ever surrendered or been captured.

31: Friedrich Paulus (Generalfeldmarschall in command of the German6th Army) and his staff surrender to Soviet troops in Stalingrad, the first time a German Field Marshal is lost to surrender and thus captured by the enemy.^[3][4]

2: In theSoviet Union, theBattle of Stalingrad comes to an end with the official surrender of the German 6th Army. The German public is informed of this disaster, marking the first time the Nazi government has acknowledged a failure in the war effort.
:Rommel retreats farther intoTunisia, establishing his troops at theMareth Line. Within two days, Allied troops move into Tunisia for the first time from the South.

5: The Allies now have all of Libya under their control.

7: In the United States, it is announced that shoe rationing will go into effect in two days.

8: TheChindits (a "long range penetration group") under British GeneralOrde Wingate begin an incursion into Burma.
: United States'VI Corps arrives in North Africa.

9:Guadalcanal is finally secured; it is the first major achievement of the American offensive in the Pacific war.
: Munich and Vienna are heavily bombed, along with Berlin.

11: U.S. GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower is selected to command the Allied armies in Europe.

13: Rommel launches a counter-attack against the Americans in western Tunisia; he takesSidi Bouzid andGafsa. TheBattle of the Kasserine Pass begins: inexperienced American troops are soon forced to retreat.

14:Rostov-on-Don is liberated by the Red Army.

16:Soviet Union reconquersKharkov, but is later driven out in theThird Battle of Kharkov.
:Prime Minister ofVichy FrancePierre Laval andMinister of JusticeJoseph Barthélemy formally create theService du travail obligatoire (STO)

18: In aspeech at the Berlin Sportpalast German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels declares a "Total War" against the Allies; the Nazis arrest the members of theWhite Rose movement, an anti-Nazi youth group.
: Chindits under Wingate cut the railway line betweenMandalay andMyitkyina.

21: Americans take the Russell Islands, part of the Solomons chain.

22:Hans andSophie Scholl of the White Rose movement are executed.

22: Japanese POWs refuse to work atFeatherston prisoner of war camp; this escalates into a deadly clash between the inmates and the guards.

28:Operation Gunnerside: six Norwegians led byJoachim Rønneberg successfully attack the heavy water plantVemork.

1:Heinz Guderian becomes the Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops for the German Army.

2:Battle of the Bismarck Sea. U.S. and Australian naval forces, over the course of three days, sink eight Japanese troop transports near New Guinea.
: Wingate's Chindits continue their localised strikes in Burma.

5: German advances around Kharkov threaten earlier Red Army gains.
: Essen is bombed, marking the beginning of a four-month attack on theRuhr industrial area, theBattle of the Ruhr.

6:Battle of Medenine, Tunisia. It is Rommel's last battle in Africa as he is forced to retreat.

8: Continuing German counter-attacks around Kharkov.
: Nuremberg is heavily bombed.

9: Members of theCalcutta Light Horse carry out a covert attack against a German merchantship, which had been transmitting Allied positions toU-boats from theMormugao Harbour in neutral Portugal's protectorate, the Indian territory ofGoa.
: Munich is heavily bombed.

10: The USAAF14th Air Force is formed in China, under GeneralClaire Lee Chennault, former head of the "Flying Tigers".
: The US House of Representatives votes to extend theLend-Lease plan.

11: The Germans enter Kharkov and the fierce struggle with the Red Army continues.

12Karditsa in Greece becomes the first city in Europe to be liberated fromNazi occupation, after a campaign fought byELAS, the Greek People's Liberation Army.

13: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto inKraków.

14: Germans recapture Kharkov.

16: The first reports of theKatyn massacre in Poland seep to the West; reports say that more than 22,000 prisoners of war were killed by theNKVD, who eventually blame the massacre on the Germans.
: Stalin for the ninth time demands a "Second Front," accusing his allies of treachery.

17: Devastating convoy losses in the Atlantic due to increased U-boat activity; the middle of the Atlantic is apparently not sufficiently covered by planes or ships.

18: GeneralGeorge S. Patton leads his tanks ofII Corps intoGafsa, Tunisia.

20:Montgomery's forces begin a breakthrough in Tunisia, striking at the Mareth line.

23: American tanks defeat the Germans at theBattle of El Guettar in Tunisia.

26: The British break through the Mareth line in southern Tunisia, threatening the whole German army. The Germans move north.
:Battle of the Komandorski Islands. In theAleutian IslandsUnited States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison atKiska. Poor leadership on both sides leads to a stalemate of sorts, and the Japanese withdraw without achieving their goal.

1: Allies continue to squeeze the Germans into the corner of Tunisia.

3: Racial tensions between American Marines and New Zealand troops ofMāori origin result in theBattle of Manners Street, a small-scale riot in which there were no deaths.

4: The only large-scale escape of Allied prisoners-of-war from the Japanese in the Pacific takes place when ten American POWs and two Filipino convicts break out of theDavao Penal Colony on the island ofMindanao in the southern Philippines. The escaped POWs were the first to break the news of the infamousBataan Death March and other atrocities committed by the Japanese to the world.^[5]

7: Hitler and Mussolini come together atSalzburg, mostly for the purpose of propping up Mussolini's fading morale.^[1][4][6]
: Allied forces–the Americans from the West, the British from the East–link up near Gafsa in Tunisia.
:Bolivia declares war on Germany, Japan, and Italy.^[1]

10: The British 8th Army entersSfax, Tunisia.^[1][4]

13: Radio Berlin announces the discovery byWehrmacht of mass graves of Poles purportedly killed by Soviets in theKatyn massacre.

15:Finland officially rejects Soviet terms for peace.^[4]
: Heavy RAF raid on Stuttgart.

18: AdmiralIsoroku Yamamoto, chief architect of Japanese naval strategy, is killed when his plane is shot down by AmericanP38's over Bougainville. He was on an inspection tour.^[1]
: The"Palm Sunday massacre": large numbers of German troop-transport aircraft are shot down before reaching Tunisia, where they were to pick up the isolated German troops.

19-30: TheBermuda Conference takes place inHamilton, Bermuda. U.K. and U.S. leaders discuss the plight of the European Jews.^[1]

19: TheWarsaw Ghetto uprising: On the Eve of Passover, Jews resist German attempts to deport the Jewish community. The Germans retrat, but come back with reinforcements.^[1][4]

19: In occupiedBelgium, partisans attacka railway convoy transporting Belgian Jews to Auschwitz. It is the largest attack on aHolocaust train of the war and 236 Jews escape.

22: The Germans brutally crush the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, burning every building and shooting anyone who tried to escape. The flames force people into the street where German soldiers are. Most of the Jewish resistance group ZZW are killed, and its remnants escape. Very few Jewish resistance fighters continue fighting.

26: The British finally take "Longstop Hill" in Tunisia, a key position on the breakout road to Tunis.

28: Allies attempt to close the mid-Atlantic gap in the war against the U-boats with long-range bombers.

30:Operation Mincemeat: Lt. Jewell's crew release a body bearing false documents near the Spanish coast. Later, the body washes up on the Spanish coast and is discovered by a local fisherman. They will go on to mislead the Germans about the site and timing of the Allied invasion of Sicily.

1: Allies close in on the cornered Germans in the Tunis area.

2: Japanese aircraft again bombDarwin, Australia.

7:Tunis captured by British First Army. Meanwhile, the Americans take Bizerte.

9: The Japanese begin a three-day massacre of civilians; about 30,000 Chinese are killed in theChangjiao massacre.^[1]

11: American and Canadian troopsinvade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.^[1][4]

12: TheTrident Conference begins inWashington, D.C. with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill taking part. The discussions are mostly on future strategy.^[1][4]

13: Remaining GermanAfrika Korps and Italian troops inNorth Africa surrender toAllied forces. The Allies take over 250,000 prisoners.^[1][4]

15: The French form a "Resistance Movement".

16: TheWarsaw Ghetto Uprising ends. The ghetto has been destroyed, with about 14,000 Jews killed and about another 40,000 sent to thedeath camps atMajdanek andTreblinka.^[1][4][7]
: TheDambuster Raids are carried out by RAF 617 Squadron on three German dams, the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe. The Ruhr war industries lose electrical power.^[1][4]

17: The Germans launch theirfifth major offensive againstTito's partisans inYugoslavia.^[1][4]

19: Winston Churchilladdresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress. He praises the partnership of the two Allies.^[4]

22: Allies bomb Sicily and Sardinia, both possible landing sites.

24: AdmiralKarl Dönitz orders the majority of U-boats to withdraw from the Atlantic because of heavy losses to new Alliedanti-submarine tactics. By the end of the month, 43 U-boats are lost, compared to 34 Allied ships sunk. This is referred to as "Black May".^[1][4]
:Josef Mengele becomes Chief Medical Officer inAuschwitz.^[1]

29:RAF bombs Wuppertal, causing heavy civilian losses.

30:Attu Island is again under American control as theBattle of Attu concludes.^[4]

31: AmericanB-17's bomb Naples.

4: GeneralHenri Giraud becomes Commander-in-Chief of theFree French forces.^[4]

8: Japanese forces begin to evacuate Kiska Island in the Aleutians, their last foothold in the Western hemisphere. The event is almost to the year of their landing.^[4]

11: British 1st Division takes the Italian island ofPantelleria, between Tunisia and Sicily, capturing 11,000 Italian troops.^[4]

12: The Italian island ofLampedusa, between Tunisia and Sicily, surrenders to the Allies.^[4]

13: Heavy US aircraft losses overKiel.^[4]

17: Allies bomb Sicily and the Italian mainland, as signs increase of a forthcoming invasion.

21:Operation Cartwheel opens with landings by the United States4th Marine Raider Battalion at Segi Point onNew Georgia in the Solomon Islands, beginning theNew Georgia Campaign. It will not be secured until August.^[1][4]

23: American troops land in theTrobriand Islands, close to New Guinea. The American strategy of driving up the Southwest Pacific by "Island Hopping" continues.

24: Continuing attacks against the Ruhr industrial valley. One result is the evacuation of large numbers of German civilians from the area.

30: American troops land onRendova Island, New Georgia, another part of Operation Cartwheel.^[1][4]

July 1943

1st

15th

4:Exiled Polish leaderGeneral Władysław Sikorski dies in an air crash in Gibraltar.^[1][4]

5: Operation Citadel (theBattle of Kursk) begins.^[4][8]
: Conclusion of theNational Bands Agreement inoccupied Greece, which is to coordinate the actions of the Resistance movement in Greece.

6: U.S. and Japanese ships fight theBattle of Kula Gulf in the Solomons.^[1][4]

7:Walter Dornberger briefs theV-2 rocket to Hitler, who approves the project for top priority.^[1]

10: Operation Husky (theAllied invasion of Sicily) begins.^[1][4]

11:Ukrainian Insurgent Army massacres Poles atDominopol.

12:/:13: Off the Solomon Islands, the Japanese win a tactical victory at theBattle of Kolombangara.^[1][4]

12: TheBattle of Prokhorovka begins;^[1][4] the largest tank battle in human history and part of the Battle of Kursk, it is the pivotal battle of Operation Citadel.

13: Hitler calls off the Kursk offensive, but the Soviets continue the battle.^[1][4]

19: The Alliesbomb Rome for the first time.^[1]

21: TheOperation Bellicose targeting of FriedrichshafenWürzburg radars is the first bombing of aV-2 rocket facility.

22: U.S. forces under Patton capturePalermo, Sicily.^[1][4]

23: The USAAF orders the first 100 examples of the plannedConvair B-36 six-engined intercontinental strategic bomber.^[9]

24: Hamburg, Germany, isheavily bombed in Operation Gomorrah,^[1][4] which at the time is the heaviest assault in thehistory of aviation.

25: Mussolini is arrested and relieved of his offices after a meeting with Italian KingVictor Emmanuel III, who chooses MarshalPietro Badoglio to form a new government.^[1][4]

August 1943

1st

15th

1:Operation Tidal Wave: Oil refineries atPloiești,Romania, are bombed byU.S. IX Bomber Command.^[1][4]
: Japan declares independence for theState of Burma underBa Maw.^[4]

2: 2,897Romani are gassed when their camp atAuschwitz is liquidated.^[1]
:John F. Kennedy'sPT-109 is rammed in two and sunk off theSolomon Islands.^[1][4]

3: The first of two "George S. Patton slapping incidents" occurs in Sicily.^[1][4]

5: Swedish government announces it will no longer allow German troops and war material totransit Swedish railways.^[4]
: Russians recaptureOrel^[4] andBelgorod.^[1][4]

6/7: The U.S. wins theBattle of Vella Gulf offKolombangara in the Solomons.^[1][4]

6: German troops start pouring in to take over Italy's defences.^[4]

11: German and Italian forces begin to evacuate Sicily.^[4]

15: TheLand Battle of Vella Lavella island in the Solomons begins.^[1][4]
: US and Canadian troops invade Kiska Island in the Aleutians, not knowing the Japanese have already evacuated.^[1][4][10]

16: Polish Jews begin a resistance with scant weaponry inBiałystok.^[1] The leaders commitsuicide when they run out of ammunition.
: U.S. troops enterMessina, Sicily.^[1][4]

17: All of Sicily now controlled by the Allies.^[4]
: Heavy loss of Allied bombers in theSchweinfurt–Regensburg mission.^[1][4]
:Operation Crossbow begins withOperation Hydra when the RAF bombs thePeenemünde V-2 rocket facility.^[1][4]

17/18:Portugal, referencing theAnglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373, allows the Allies to use theAzores Islands for air and naval bases.^[1][4]

19: Roosevelt and Churchill signed theQuebec Agreement during theQuebec Conference.^[11]

23:Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev liberatesKharkov, Ukraine.^[1][4] The Battle of Kursk has become the first successful major Soviet summer offensive of the war.

29: During theOccupation of Denmark by Nazi Germany, martial law replaced the Danish government.^[1][4]

31: TheNorthwest African Air Forces conducts an air raid against the Italian city ofPisa.

September 1943

1st

15th

1: 22,750,000 British men and women are either in the services or Civil Defence or doing essential war work, according to the U.K. Ministry of Labour.^[4]

3: A secret Italian Armistice is signed and Italy drops out of the war. MainlandItaly isinvaded when theBritish XXIII Corps lands atReggio Calabria.^[1][4]
: Nazi Germany begins the evacuation of civilians from Berlin.

4: Soviet Union declares war on Bulgaria.^{[citation needed][dubious –discuss]}
: The503rd Parachute Regiment under American GeneralDouglas MacArthur lands and occupiesNadzab, just west of the port city ofLae in northeastern New Guinea. Lae falls into Australian hands and Australian troops takeSalamaua.^[1][4]

8: Eisenhower publicly announces thesurrender of Italy to the Allies. The Germans enactOperation Achse, the disarmament of Italian armed forces.^[1][4]
:The USAAF bombs the German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone atFrascati.

9: The Allies land at Salerno, Italy; meanwhile the British troops takeTaranto in the heel of the Italian "boot".^[1][4] Allied strategy aims at a "drive" up the "boot".
:Iran declares war on Germany.^[4]

10: German troops occupyRome.^[1][4] The Italian fleet meanwhile surrenders at Malta and other Mediterranean ports.

11: British troops enterBari in southeastern Italy.^[1][4]

12: Mussolini is rescued by aircraft from mountaintop captivity by German SS troops led byOtto Skorzeny.^[4] Mussolini is then set up by Hitler, who remains loyal to his old friend, as the head of the puppet "Italian Social Republic".

13: The Salerno beachhead is in jeopardy, as German counterattacks increase.

14: German troops commence theHolocaust of Viannos in Crete that will continue for two more days.

15:Chiang Kai-shek asks that General Stilwell, American military advisor/commander, be recalled for suggesting an alliance with the Communists.^[4]

16: British forces land on various Italian-held Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, beginning theDodecanese Campaign.
: British and American troops link up near the Salerno beachhead.^[4]

19: German troops evacuateSardinia.^[1][4]

21: The battle of the Solomons can now be considered at an unofficial end.
: TheMassacre of the Acqui Division begins: After resisting for a week, the ItalianAcqui division on the Greek island of Cephallonia surrenders to the Germans. During the next days, over 4,500 Italians are executed and a further 3,000 are lost during transport at sea.

22: Australian forces land atFinschhafen, a small port in New Guinea.^[4] The Japanese continue the battle well into October.
:British midget submarines attack the German battleship Tirpitz, at anchor in a Norwegian fjord, crippling her for six months.^[1][4]

25: The Red Army retakesSmolensk.^[1][4]

26: Germans assault the island of Leros, beginning theBattle of Leros.

27: The Germans take over the island ofCorfu from the Italians, the previous occupiers.^[4]
:Sheng Shicai hasMao Zedong's brotherMao Zemin andChen Tanqiu, a founder of theChinese Communist Party, executed.^[12]

28: The people ofNaples, sensing the approach of the Allies,rise up against the German occupiers.^[4]

30: With the Gestapo starting to round up Danish Jews, certain Danes are secretly sending their Jewish countrymen to Sweden by means of dangerous boat crossings.^[1][4]

October 1943

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15th

This month:Ruzagayura famine starts (until December 1944) in the Belgian African colony ofRuanda-Urundi.

1:Neapolitans complete their uprising and free Naples from German military occupation.

3: Churchill appointsLord Louis Mountbatten the commander ofSouth East Asia Command.

3: The Germansconquer the island of Kos.

4:Corsica is liberated by Free French forces.^{[citation needed]}

5: The Allies cross Italy'sVolturno Line.

6: TheNaval Battle of Vella Lavella completes the second phase ofOperation Cartwheel.

7:The Japanese execute 98 American civilians onWake Island.

9:United StatesVII Corps arrives in European Theater.

10:Chiang Kai-shek takes the oath of office as chairman ofNationalist Government (China).^[13]

12:Operation Cartwheel begins a bombing campaign againstRabaul.

13:Italy declares war onGermany.

14: 229 of 292B-17s reached the target in theSecond Raid on Schweinfurt. Losses are so heavy that the long range daylight bombing campaign is suspended until the bombers can be escorted by P-51 fighters.
:Members of theSobibor extermination camp underground, led by Polish-Jewish prisonerLeon Feldhendler and Soviet-Jewish POWAlexander Pechersky, succeeded in covertly killing eleven German SS officers and a number of camp guards. Although their plan was to kill all the SS and walk out of the main gate of the camp, the killings were discovered and the inmates ran for their lives under fire. About 300 out of the 600 prisoners in the camp escaped into the forests.

18: TheThird Moscow Conference convened.

19: The German War Office contracts theMittelwerk to produce 12,000V-2 rockets.

22/23: Anair raid on Kassel causes a seven-dayfirestorm.

23: CruiserHMS Charybdis sunk, and destroyer HMSLimbourne damaged, by German torpedo boats off the North coast ofBrittany with large loss of life. Bodies of 21 sailors and marines washed up on the Island of Guernsey. Buried with full military honours by the German Occupation authorities, allowing around 5,000 Islanders to attend and lay some 900 wreaths.

25: The Red Army takesDnipropetrovsk.^{[citation needed]}

29: Troops replace striking London dockworkers.^{[citation needed]}

31: Heavy rains in Italy slow the Allied advance south of Rome.^{[citation needed]}

November 1943

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15th

1: InOperation Goodtime,United States Marines land on Bougainville in theSolomon Islands. The fighting on this island will continue to the end of the war.

2: In the early morning hours,American andJapanese ships fight the inconclusiveBattle of Empress Augusta Bay off Bougainville, but the Japanese are unable to land reinforcements.
: British troops, in Italy, reach theGarigliano River.

3: Some 43,000 Jews were shot by Germans at three camps in German-occupied Poland inAktion Erntefest in a two-day "Harvest Festival".

5: The Italiansbomb the Vatican in a failed attempt to knock out the Vatican radio.

6: TheRed Army liberates the city ofKiev. This is an anniversary of the Russian Revolution in 1917.

9: Allies take Castiglione, Italy.
: General De Gaulle becomes President of theFrench Committee of National Liberation.
: Members of theBelgian Resistance publisha fake issue of the collaborationist newspaperLe Soir, mocking the German strategic situation.

11: American air power continues to hit Rabaul.

12: Germans overrun British forces on the Dodecanese islands, off Turkey.

14: Heavy bombers hit Tarawa, in the Gilbert Islands in the Pacific.

15:Allied Expeditionary Force for the invasion of Europe is officially formed.
:GermanSS leaderHeinrich Himmler orders thatGypsies and "part-Gypsies" are to be put "on the same level asJews and placed inconcentration camps."

16: Anti-German resistance in Italy increases; there are explosions in Milan.
: TheBattle of Leros ends with the surrender of the British and Italian forces to the Germans.
: 160American bombers strike ahydro-electric power facility andheavy water factory inGerman-controlledVemork,Norway.
: Japanesesubmarine sinks surfaced submarineUSS Corvina nearTruk.

18: 440Royal Air Force planes bombBerlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF lose nine aircraft and 53 aviators.

19: Prisoners of theJanowska concentration camp stage a mass escape/uprising when they are ordered to cover up evidence of a mass-murder. Most are rounded up and killed.

20:Operation Galvanic begins -United States Marines land onTarawa andUnited States Army forces assaultMakin atoll in theGilbert Islands and take heavy fire fromJapanese shore guns. The American public is shocked by the heavy losses of life on Tarawa.
: British troops under Montgomery continue their slow advances on the eastern side of Italy.

22: TheCairo Conference: US PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill, and ROC leaderChiang Kai-shek meet inCairo,Egypt, to discuss ways to defeatJapan.

23: Heavy damage from Allied bombing of Berlin. Notably, theDeutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in theBerlin district ofCharlottenburg is destroyed.

24: Heavy bombing of Berlin continues.

25:Americans andJapanese fight the navalBattle of Cape St. George betweenBuka andNew Ireland. Admiral Arleigh Burke's destroyers distinguish themselves.
: Rangoon is bombed by American heavy bombers.

26: The Red Army offensive in the Ukraine continues.
: The Cairo Conference ("Sextant") ends; Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek complete theCairo Declaration, which deals with the overall strategic plan against Japan.

27: Huge civilian losses in Berlin as heavy bombing raids continue.

28: TheTehran Conference. US PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill and Soviet LeaderJoseph Stalin meet inTehran to discuss war strategy; (on 30 November they establish an agreement concerning a planned June 1944 invasion of Europe codenamedOperation Overlord). Stalin at last has the promise he has been waiting for.

29: Second session ofAVNOJ, the Anti-fascist council of national liberation ofYugoslavia, is held inJajce,Bosnia and Herzegovina, determining the post-war order of the country.

30: In Malaya, Japanese introduce Government Notification No. 41, encouraging families to grow their own food crops and vegetables. Families who were successful would be awarded prizes, while families failed to comply with this notification or left their vacant lands unplanted would be punished. This notification was written by Itami Masakichi (Penang Shu Chokan) on 25 November 2603/1943.

December 1943

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15th

2: The Germans conduct a highly successfulAir Raid on Bari, Italy. One of the German bombs hits an Allied cargo ship carryingmustard gas, releasing the chemical which killed 83 Allied soldiers. Over 1000 other soldiers died in the raid.

3: In eastern Bosnia, the German2nd Panzer Army launches thecounter-insurgency operationOperation Kugelblitz. :Edward R. Murrow delivers his classic "Orchestrated Hell" broadcast overCBS Radio describing aRoyal Air Force nighttime bombing raid onBerlin.

4: InYugoslavia, resistance leader MarshalJosip Broz Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in-exile.

12: Rommel is appointed head of "Fortress Europa", chief planner against the expected Allied offensive.

13: German soldiers carry out theMassacre of Kalavryta in southern Greece.

TheUnited StatesVIII Corps arrives in European Theater.

14: The United StatesXV Corps arrives in the European Theater.

16:Kalinin is retaken in a large Red Army offensive.

24: The US GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

26: German battleshipScharnhorst is sunk off North Cape (in the Arctic) by a British force led by the battleshipHMS Duke of York.

26: American Marines land on Cape Gloucester, New Britain.

27: General Eisenhower is officially named head of Overlord, the invasion of Normandy.

28: In Burma, Chinese troops have some success against the Japanese.

29: Control of theAndaman Islands is handed over toAzad Hind by the Japanese

30: Japanese air force attacks on Calcutta end.

• Strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II
• Timeline of World War II (1944)

• Timeline For World War 2
• Timeline of WWII
• Documents of World War II
• World War II Timeline

• Chronology of World War II
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