Timeline
(1952)1943
The year in brief
1943 began with Germany's defeat on the Volga. On 18 January Soviet troops broke through to Leningrad along Lake Ladoga, and on 2 February the last units of the 6th Army surrendered at Stalingrad – for the first time an entire German army had ceased to exist. At Casablanca Roosevelt announced that the Allies would demand the unconditional surrender of Germany, Italy and Japan. In May the Axis forces in Tunisia laid down their arms, and the U-boats, having lost more than forty boats that month, withdrew from the North Atlantic. In July the German offensive at Kursk stalled and the initiative in the east passed to the Soviets; in the autumn the Red Army forced the Dnieper and on 6 November liberated Kiev. On 10 July the Allies landed on Sicily, on 25 July the king dismissed Mussolini, and on 8 September Italy's surrender was announced, though the Germans disarmed the Italian army and took Rome. In the Pacific the Americans took Guadalcanal and Tarawa.
For the Poles it was a year of heavy blows. On 13 April the Germans announced the discovery of the graves of Polish officers at Katyn; when the Polish government asked the Red Cross to investigate, Stalin broke off relations with it. On 30 June the Gestapo arrested the Home Army commander, General Stefan Rowecki “Grot”, and on 4 July General Władysław Sikorski was killed in a crash at Gibraltar. On 11 July UPA units attacked nearly a hundred Polish villages and settlements in Volhynia, on the bloodiest day of the Volhynia massacre. The Holocaust went on: on 19 April the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising broke out, and Stroop took almost four weeks to crush it, burning the ghetto house by house; in August the Białystok ghetto fought, in October the prisoners of Sobibór revolted, and in November, in Operation Harvest Festival, the Germans shot about 42,000 Jews in the Lublin region.
The year closed with the Tehran Conference, the first meeting of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill together. There the invasion of France was set for May 1944, and Poland's borders were discussed without its government, with the Curzon Line accepted as the basis of the eastern frontier.
January
- 16
- Iraq declares war on the AxisOn 16 January 1943 Nuri al-Said’s government declared Iraq at war with Germany, Italy and Japan from midnight, and Iraq joined the United Nations.
- RAF raids on Berlin in January 1943On the nights of 16/17 and 17/18 January 1943 RAF Lancasters and Halifaxes bombed Berlin after a 14-month gap. Damage was slight, second-night losses heavy.
- 18
- Key eventThe first armed resistance in the Warsaw GhettoOn 18 January 1943 the Germans resumed deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto. ŻOB fighters first resisted with arms; after four days the action was halted.
- Key eventThe siege of Leningrad brokenOn 18 January 1943 the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts met by Lake Ladoga. Operation Iskra cut a land corridor 8–11 km wide through to Leningrad.
- 23
- The capture of TripoliOn 23 January 1943 British patrols entered Tripoli. The Eighth Army took the capital of Italian Libya exactly three months after El Alamein began.
- The final offensive on GuadalcanalIn January 1943 Patch's XIV Corps took the Gifu on Mount Austen and, on 23 January, Kokumbona. The Japanese, already ordered to evacuate, covered their retreat.
- 24
- The demand for unconditional surrenderOn 24 January 1943, closing the Casablanca Conference, Roosevelt announced that the Allies would demand the unconditional surrender of Germany, Italy and Japan.
- The Stalingrad pocket splitIn late January 1943 Hitler rejected Paulus's requests to be allowed to surrender, and on 26 January Soviet troops split the Stalingrad pocket in two.
February
- 02
- Key eventThe end of the Battle of StalingradOn 2 February 1943 General Strecker's northern pocket surrendered and the Battle of Stalingrad ended. A day later the Reich announced the Sixth Army's defeat.
- Rommel on the Mareth LineIn early February 1943 Rommel's army fell back from Libya behind the old French Mareth Line in Tunisia. The Eighth Army entered Tunisia on 4 February.
- 09
- Key eventThe end of the fighting on GuadalcanalOn the nights of 1–8 February 1943 Japanese destroyers took some 10,600 soldiers off Guadalcanal. On 9 February the Americans declared the island secured.
- Bombing raids in February 1943In February 1943 the RAF razed Lorient, bombed blind with H2S radar successfully for the first time (Wilhelmshaven), and the Americans attacked Emden.
- 16
- The liberation of KharkivOn 16 February 1943 Voronezh Front troops entered Kharkiv, abandoned by an SS corps against Hitler's orders. A month later the Germans retook the city.
- The creation of the STO in FranceOn 16 February 1943 Laval's government set up the Service du travail obligatoire. Young Frenchmen born in 1920–1922 were to work in the Reich for two years.
March
- 02
- Key eventThe Battle of the Bismarck SeaOn 2–4 March 1943 Allied aircraft destroyed a convoy from Rabaul to Lae. Eight transports and four destroyers were sunk and nearly 3,000 Japanese killed.
- The Chindits cross the IrrawaddyIn early March 1943 Wingate’s Chindits blew up the railway in northern Burma and crossed the Irrawaddy. At the end of the month they were ordered back to India.
- 05
- Manstein's counter-offensiveIn early March 1943 Manstein’s counter-stroke shattered the armies of the South-Western Front and the 3rd Tank Army. The SS Panzer Corps advanced on Kharkiv.
- The Battle of the Ruhr beginsDuring the night of 5–6 March 1943 the RAF bombed Essen, opening the Battle of the Ruhr. On 8–9 and 9–10 March bombers struck Nuremberg and Munich.
- 16
- The discovery of the Katyn gravesIn March 1943 the German Secret Field Police examined mass graves of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest. The world learned of them only in April.
- Stalin demands a second frontIn March 1943 Congress extended Lend-Lease, and on 15–16 March Stalin warned Churchill and Roosevelt against further delay to an invasion of France.
- 26
- Breaking the Mareth LineOn 26 March 1943 the New Zealanders and 1st Armoured Division, backed by aircraft, broke through at the Tebaga Gap. Messe’s army had to quit the Mareth Line.
- The Battle of the Komandorski IslandsOff the Komandorski Islands a weaker US Navy force fought a 3.5-hour gunnery duel with the escort of a Japanese convoy. The Japanese turned back.
- Action at the ArsenalOn 26 March 1943 scouts of the Grey Ranks Assault Groups freed Jan Bytnar “Rudy” and 20 other prisoners from the Gestapo in Warsaw.
April
- 07
- The Hitler–Mussolini meeting at KlessheimOn 7–10 April 1943 Hitler hosted a sick and dispirited Mussolini at Klessheim Palace near Salzburg. The Duce failed to press through a peace with the USSR.
- The Battle of Wadi AkaritOn 6 April 1943 the Eighth Army broke the Axis position on the Wadi Akarit, and on 7 April its patrols met Americans of II Corps on the road to Gabès.
- Bolivia declares war on the AxisOn 7 April 1943 President Enrique Peñaranda decreed that Bolivia was at war with Germany, Italy and Japan. The country supplied the Allies with tin.
- 15
- Finland and peace with the USSRIn April 1943 Finland turned down an American offer to mediate peace talks with the USSR and announced it would continue its “defensive war”.
- The raids on Stuttgart and PilsenOn the night of 14–15 April 1943 the RAF bombed Stuttgart. Two nights later a raid on the Škoda works at Pilsen missed its target, and 36 bombers were lost.
- 18
- Key eventThe death of Admiral YamamotoOn 18 April 1943 American P-38 fighters shot down Admiral Yamamoto’s aircraft over Bougainville. The ambush was made possible by breaking a Japanese code.
- The Palm Sunday massacreOn 18 April 1943 US P-40s and British Spitfires shattered a Ju 52 formation off Cape Bon. The Axis air bridge to Tunisia began to collapse.
- 19
- The Bermuda ConferenceOn 19 April 1943 British and American diplomats met in Bermuda to discuss refugees from Europe. They had ruled out almost every means of rescue in advance.
- Key eventThe Warsaw Ghetto Uprising beginsOn 19 April 1943, the eve of Passover, ŻOB and ŻZW fighters drove back the Germans entering the Warsaw Ghetto. They soon returned under Jürgen Stroop.
- The attack on the Twentieth Convoy from MechelenOn 19 April 1943 three young Belgians with one pistol stopped a train taking Jews to Auschwitz near Boortmeerbeek. More than 230 people escaped.
May
- 15
- The founding of the National Council of the ResistanceOn 15 May 1943 London announced the National Council of the Resistance, in which Jean Moulin united underground movements, unions and parties under de Gaulle.
- Case BlackOn 15 May 1943 Germany and its allies launched Case Black, the fifth offensive against Tito's Partisans in Montenegro, also aimed at the Chetniks.
- 16
- Key eventThe end of the Warsaw Ghetto UprisingOn 16 May 1943 Stroop blew up the Great Synagogue on Tłomackie and declared the Warsaw Ghetto at an end. His report listed 56,065 Jews “caught”.
- Operation ChastiseOn the night of 16–17 May 1943 Lancasters of No. 617 Squadron breached the Möhne and Eder dams with “bouncing bombs”. The flood killed some 1,600 people.
- 24
- Key eventBlack MayIn May 1943 the U-boats lost 41–43 boats for meagre results. On 24 May Dönitz pulled them out of the North Atlantic – the turning point of the Atlantic battle.
- Mengele at AuschwitzOn 24 May 1943 Josef Mengele was posted to Auschwitz. From 30 May he was doctor of the Gypsy camp at Birkenau, conducting selections and criminal experiments.
June
- 30
- The landing on RendovaOn 30 June 1943 the Americans landed on Rendova opposite the Japanese airfield at Munda. Operation Cartwheel began; Turner’s flagship was sunk.
- Arrest of General RoweckiOn 30 June 1943 the Gestapo arrested Home Army commander Gen. Stefan Rowecki “Grot” at 14 Spiska Street in Warsaw. Gen. Komorowski took over.
July
- 05
- Key eventThe Battle of Kursk beginsOn 5 July 1943 the Germans launched Operation Citadel, attacking the Kursk salient from north and south, and ran into the Red Army’s strongest defences yet.
- The National Bands Agreement in GreeceOn 5 July 1943 ELAS joined an agreement with the British Military Mission that placed the Greek guerrillas under a joint headquarters.
- 12
- The Battle of KolombangaraOn the night of 12–13 July 1943 the Allies sank the cruiser Jintsū, but Japanese torpedoes damaged three Allied cruisers and sank the destroyer Gwin.
- The Battle of ProkhorovkaOn 12 July 1943 the 5th Guards Tank Army struck the SS Panzer Corps at Prokhorovka. It lost hundreds of tanks but halted the German advance.
August
- 01
- Key eventOperation Tidal WaveOn 1 August 1943 US Liberators attacked the Ploiești refineries at very low level. Nearly a third of the aircraft were lost; the damage was soon repaired.
- Japan proclaims Burmese independenceOn 1 August 1943 Ba Maw proclaimed the independence of the State of Burma in Rangoon. Japan recognised it the same day, and Burma declared war on the Allies.
- 02
- The Gypsy family camp at AuschwitzFrom February 1943 the Germans held whole Roma and Sinti families in section BIIe of Birkenau. About 23,000 people were sent there; most did not survive.
- The sinking of PT-109On 2 August 1943 the Japanese destroyer Amagiri cut PT-109 in two. Its commander, John F. Kennedy, and ten survivors were rescued after six days.
- 05
- Sweden ends the German transit trafficOn 5 August 1943 Sweden announced it had terminated the agreement allowing German troops and war material to travel by rail between Norway and the Reich.
- The liberation of Oryol and BelgorodOn 5 August 1943 the Red Army retook Oryol and Belgorod at opposite ends of the Kursk salient. That night Moscow fired its first victory salute of the war.
- 06
- The Germans move into ItalyFrom late July 1943 one Wehrmacht division after another crossed the Alps into Italy. At Tarvisio on 6 August both allies pledged loyalty – and both lied.
- The Battle of Vella GulfOn the night of 6/7 August 1943 six US destroyers ambushed four Japanese destroyers off Kolombangara and sank three of them without suffering a single hit.
- 15
- The landing on Vella LavellaOn 15 August 1943 the Americans bypassed strongly held Kolombangara and landed on weakly held Vella Lavella – the first deliberate “leapfrog” in the Solomons.
- The landing on an empty KiskaOn 15 August 1943 more than 34,000 Americans and Canadians landed on Kiska. The Japanese had gone, but fog, mines and booby traps still killed many men.
- 17
- The end of the fighting in SicilyOn the night of 16–17 August 1943 US patrols entered Messina, and Patton drove in that morning. After 38 days of fighting all of Sicily was in Allied hands.
- The Schweinfurt–Regensburg raidOn 17 August 1943 376 US B-17s attacked the Schweinfurt ball-bearing plants and the Messerschmitt works at Regensburg by day. Sixty bombers did not return.
- Key eventOperation HydraOn the night of 17–18 August 1943 nearly 600 RAF bombers attacked the rocket centre at Peenemünde. About 700 people died, most of them forced labourers.
- The Azores AgreementOn 17 August 1943 Salazar, invoking the alliance of 1373, gave Britain the use of ports and airfields in the Azores. Neutral Portugal leaned towards the Allies.
September
- 03
- The Armistice of CassibileOn 3 September 1943 Castellano and Bedell Smith signed a secret “short armistice” in Sicily. Italy surrendered, but this was announced only on 8 September.
- Operation BaytownOn 3 September 1943 the British Eighth Army's XIII Corps crossed the Strait of Messina to Calabria. The Allies were back on the mainland almost unopposed.
- The evacuation of BerlinAfter Hamburg, Goebbels urged Berliners without work in the city to leave. After raids around the turn of August and September the evacuation was accelerated.
- 04
- Bulgaria after the death of Tsar Boris IIIIn September 1943 Bulgaria buried Tsar Boris III, and a regency council took power for six-year-old Simeon II. There was not yet any war with the USSR.
- The landing at Lae and the drop on NadzabOn 4 September 1943 the Australian 9th Division landed east of Lae, and on 5 September American paratroopers seized Nadzab. Lae fell on 16 September.
- 08
- Key eventThe Italian surrender announcedOn 8 September 1943 Eisenhower announced Italy's surrender on the radio, and Badoglio had to confirm it. At noon B-17s bombed Kesselring's HQ at Frascati.
- Operation AchseOn the evening of 8 September 1943, minutes after Italy's surrender was announced, Germany launched Operation Achse and disarmed the Italian army within days.
- 09
- Key eventThe landing at SalernoOn 9 September 1943 Mark Clark's American-British Fifth Army landed in the Gulf of Salerno. Despite Italy's surrender, the Germans were waiting on the beaches.
- Iran declares war on GermanyOn 9 September 1943 Iran, occupied for two years by the British and Soviets, declared war on Germany, opening its way into the ranks of the United Nations.
- 10
- The Germans occupy RomeOn 10 September 1943, after two days of fighting by Italian troops and civilians left by their commanders, Rome capitulated to the Germans. Occupation began.
- The surrender of the Italian fleetOn 9–11 September 1943 the Italian fleet obeyed the armistice and sailed for Malta. En route German guided bombs sank the battleship Roma and Admiral Bergamini.
- 16
- The Dodecanese campaign beginsAfter Italy's surrender the British lost the race for Rhodes, but in mid-September 1943 they occupied Kos, Leros and Samos. The Dodecanese campaign had begun.
- The crisis at SalernoOn 13 and 14 September 1943 a German counter-attack nearly split the Salerno beachhead. On 16 September Eighth Army patrols met the Fifth Army.
- 21
- The end of the fighting on New GeorgiaOn the night of 20–21 September 1943 the Japanese abandoned Arundel Island. The fighting for the New Georgia group was ending, but not the Solomons campaign.
- Key eventThe massacre of the Acqui Division on KefaloniaOn 21 September 1943 the Germans on Kefalonia began shooting surrendering men of the Italian Acqui Division. Thousands died, General Antonio Gandin among them.
- 22
- The landing at FinschhafenOn 22 September 1943 the Australian 20th Brigade landed near Finschhafen on the Huon Peninsula. The town fell on 2 October, but fighting went on until December.
- Operation SourceOn 22 September 1943 British midget submarines laid charges under the Tirpitz in Kåfjord. The battleship was put out of action for half a year.
- 27
- The Germans take CorfuAfter two weeks of resistance the Italian garrison on Corfu gave in. On 27 September 1943 the Germans shot its commander, Colonel Lusignani, and many officers.
- The execution of Mao ZeminLate on 27 September 1943 in Ürümqi, on Sheng Shicai's orders, Mao Zemin, Mao Zedong's brother, and the communists Chen Tanqiu and Lin Jilu were killed.
October
- 01
- The Ruzagayura famineIn autumn 1943 the Ruzagayura famine broke out in Belgian Ruanda-Urundi. Drought, crop disease and wartime requisitions cost tens of thousands of lives.
- The Allies in NaplesOn 1 October 1943 Allied troops entered Naples, abandoned by the Germans after a four-day uprising. They found a city without water, power or a port.
- 03
- Mountbatten takes command in South-East AsiaIn early October 1943 Louis Mountbatten, appointed at Quebec in August, flew to India to take over the Allied South East Asia Command.
- The Germans take KosOn 3 October 1943 the Germans landed on Kos and next day took the island with the only Allied airfield in the Dodecanese. They shot about 100 Italian officers.
- 14
- Key eventBlack Thursday over SchweinfurtOn 14 October 1943, 291 American B-17s again struck the ball-bearing plants at Schweinfurt. Sixty bombers failed to return and some 600 airmen were missing.
- Key eventThe Sobibór uprisingOn 14 October 1943 prisoners of the Sobibór death camp killed a dozen or so SS men and guards. About 300 escaped to the forest; a few dozen survived the war.
November
- 09
- The attack on the Winter LineIn early November 1943 the Allies reached the Garigliano and attacked the Bernhardt Line, but on 15 November the exhausted Fifth Army had to halt.
- De Gaulle becomes sole President of the CFLNOn 9 November 1943 de Gaulle reshaped the Committee of National Liberation. Giraud left it, remaining only Commander-in-Chief of the French army.
- The fake Le SoirOn 9 November 1943 the Belgian underground distributed in Brussels a fake issue of the collaborationist Le Soir, mocking German defeats in the east.
- 15
- The Allied Expeditionary Air ForceOn 15 November 1943 the tactical air command for the invasion of France was set up under Leigh-Mallory. SHAEF followed in February 1944.
- Himmler's order on the RomaOn 15 November 1943 a circular for the occupied USSR equated “itinerant” Roma with Jews and sent them to camps. The Auschwitz decree dated from December 1942.
- 16
- The attacks in MilanIn mid-November 1943 attacks by communist GAP groups on Germans and Salò Fascists mounted in Milan and other cities of northern Italy.
- The raid on VemorkOn 16 November 1943 American bombers attacked the Vemork power station and heavy water plant and the works at Rjukan. More than 20 Norwegians were killed.
- The sinking of USS CorvinaOn the night of 16–17 November 1943 the Japanese submarine I-176 sank the surfaced American submarine USS Corvina south of Truk. 82 men were lost.
- 20
- Key eventThe landing on TarawaOn 20 November 1943 Marines landed on Betio in Tarawa atoll and Army infantry on Makin. The reef, low tide and bunkers turned the first day into a slaughter.
- The Eighth Army on the SangroOn 20 November 1943 the British 78th Division seized a bridgehead over the Sangro, but downpours and floods again halted Montgomery's Eighth Army.
- 25
- The Battle of Cape St. GeorgeOn the night of 25 November 1943 Captain Arleigh Burke's destroyers sank three of five Japanese destroyers returning from Buka, without loss to themselves.
- The raid on RangoonOn 25 November 1943 the Americans and the RAF opened a joint air offensive against Rangoon. On day one cloud stopped the Liberators; only B-25s hit a target.
December
- 03
- Operation KugelblitzIn December 1943 the Germans tried to encircle and destroy two of Tito's partisan corps in eastern Bosnia and the Sandžak, inflicting heavy losses but failing.
- Murrow's "orchestrated hell"On 3 December 1943 Edward R. Murrow told CBS listeners about an RAF raid on Berlin he had flown in a Lancaster. It became a classic of war reporting.
- 26
- Key eventThe sinking of the ScharnhorstOn 26 December 1943 ships of Admiral Fraser's Home Fleet sank the Scharnhorst in the Barents Sea. Of a crew of almost two thousand, only 36 survived.
- The landing at Cape GloucesterOn 26 December 1943 the US 1st Marine Division landed at Cape Gloucester on New Britain. On 30 December the Marines took the Japanese airfield.