December 1943

December

• 02

  • Key eventThe air raid on BariOn 2 December 1943 German Ju 88s surprised the crowded port of Bari. More than a dozen ships sank, and mustard gas from the John Harvey poisoned hundreds.
• 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.
• 04

  • Tito proclaims a provisional governmentIn early December 1943 the world learned of Tito's government set up at Jajce. The royal government protested, while the British turned away from Mihailović.
• 12

  • Rommel and the Atlantic WallIn mid-December 1943 Rommel, appointed by Hitler to inspect the coastal defences, finished touring Denmark and began inspecting the Atlantic Wall in France.
• 13

  • Key eventThe Kalavryta massacreOn 13 December 1943 soldiers of the German 117th Jäger Division shot almost all the men of Kalavryta in the Peloponnese and burned the town down.
• 14

  • American corps in BritainIn December 1943 the headquarters of the US VIII and XV Corps arrived in Britain; in the summer of 1944 they were to fight in Normandy and Brittany.
• 16

  • The Eastern Front in mid-December 1943In mid-December 1943 the Red Army was eliminating the Gorodok salient, holding the Kiev bridgehead against Manstein and preparing a winter offensive in Ukraine.
• 24

  • Key eventEisenhower to command the invasionOn 24 December 1943 Roosevelt announced on the radio that General Dwight Eisenhower would command the invasion of France. Marshall stayed in Washington.
• 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.
• 28

  • The Chinese in the Hukawng ValleyOn 28 December 1943 three battalions of the Chinese 38th Division attacked the Japanese at Yupbang Ga in Burma's Hukawng Valley. Stilwell's offensive was on.
• 29

  • The Andamans for Azad HindOn 29 December 1943 Subhas Chandra Bose reached Port Blair in the Andamans, which Japan had handed to his Azad Hind government. Real power stayed Japanese.
• 30

  • The end of Japanese raids on CalcuttaWar chronologies end the Japanese raids on Calcutta on 30 December 1943. The last big one was the daylight attack on Kidderpore docks on 5 December.