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| TIMELINE 1943
Casablanca Conference Jan. 14-24 - From January 14 through January 24, 1943, the first war conference between the Allied powers, was held in Casablanca, Morocco. The purpose of this conference was vague. It took steps toward planning the Allied strategy and the end of the war. Initially it was to be a big three meeting between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. It became a big two meeting when Stalin declined the invitation. With his country besieged by Hitler and the harsh winter, Stalin didn't feel as though he could attend. Even without Stalin, or maybe because of his absence, the Casablanca Conference was successful. It set the basis and direction for the rest of the war. And most importantly, it established the terms of unconditional surrender. Conclusion of Operation TORCH As fighting ended in Morocco and Algeria at the conclusion of operation TORCH, the Eastern Task Force advanced eastward towards Tunisia, organized as the British 1st Army under Lt. General Kenneth Anderson. They were targeting the Tunis-Bizerte area, the two important seaports of Tunisia. Far to the east was the British 8th Army, commanded by Lt. Gen. Bernard L. Montgomery, moving westward after its important victory at El Alamein. As the Allies had planned, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps would be caught between the Allied armies coming from the east and the west. With the rapidly changing situation in North Africa, on November 11th the German and Italian forces moved into southern France. German Army units reached Toulon, on the Mediterranean coast, by November 27th. To counter the Allied advance into Tunisia, the German garrison there was massively reinforced and reorganized as XC Corps under the command of General Walther Nehring, the former commander of the Afrika Korps. The German buildup went unopposed by the French in Tunisia, whose government under General Henri Giraud was in political chaos, leaving airfields and ports open to German use. By November 16, 1942, the First Army had advanced 400 miles from Algiers, and was inside Tunisia approaching Tunis from the west, only 50 miles further on. But an Allied attack on November 24 was repulsed, and German counter offensives on November 27 and December 1 forced Anderson to withdraw. On Dec. 8 General Nehring was replaced by Generaloberst Juergen von Arnim, recalled from Stalingrad and given command of the 5th Panzer Army, expanded by the recent reinforcements. Anderson ordered the First Army into defensive positions, recognizing a stalemate. German air superiority in Tunisia was a major factor in their success. An unsuccessful attempt on the 22nd and 24th of December demonstrated that the First Army could hold their defensive position while building up its forces. During the last week of 1942 and the first weeks of 1943 the Allies and the Germans conducted limited attacks, trying to improve positions in Central Tunisia. German 5th Panzer Army air and ground forces hammered away at First Army. Most of the battles were centered on rail-road routes leading from eastern ports through mountain passes to the Algerian border on the west. January of 1943, the U.S. II Corp began reinforcing First Army with additional troops, moving into southern Tunisia, adding to the British V Corps in the north and the French XIX Corps in the center. After the fall of Tripoli to the British 8th Army on Jan. 23, 1943, Rommel retreated hastily across Libya to Tunisia, slowing Montgomery by bombing ports of entry, fighting rear-guard actions, and mining roads. By Feb. 6 all of Rommel's forces were in Tunisia and he had joined with von Arnim. Rommel took over the Mareth Line, a 22 mile long series of French Colonial fortifications in southern Tunisia, where the Germans prepared a defense against the approaching British 8th Army. Montgomery and the British 8th Army were delayed by lengthening supply lines while the inexperienced U.S. II Corps did not attack the Germans when they had the opportunity. Taking advantage of the pause, the German 5th Panzer Army and the Afrika Korps combined to launch a heavy armored assault against the inexperienced U.S. II Corps. Four days of fighting around Sidi Bou Zid and Sbeitla from the 14th of Feb. to the 17th of Feb., cost the U.S. II Corps 2,546 missing, 103 tanks, 280 vehicles 18 field guns, 3 anti-tank guns, and 1 anti-aircraft battery.
The humiliating losses at Sidi Bou Zid and Sbeitla were not the final blow. U.S. II Corps scrambled backward to establish a new defensive position, this time at Kasserine Pass, a two mile wide gap in the Dorsal Chain of the Atlas Mountains. For Rommel, Kasserine Pass was the gateway to Algeria. With a series of forceful attacks on Feb. 19th and 20th, the Germans massed armor and infantry against the ineffectively dispersed U.S. II Corps, pushing the Americans back, seizing huge stocks of abandoned equipment, and breaking through the mountains at the Kasserine Pass into the valley beyond, a spectacular success. The Germans hardly paused as they ran over the American defenses. With the British 8th Army rapidly approaching from Libya, Rommel could not afford to continue west. Rommel turned his forces around, back to the east. The disaster at Kasserina Pass confirmed to the Allied commanders that drastic changes were needed. Improvement in logistics, fresh troops, the new M-4 Sherman tank, and expanded air support increased the fighting power of Allied units. With the British 8th Army now closing in on the southern flank, the British, French and U.S. commands in Tunisia narrowed their battlefronts and shifted north. Finally, a decisive new commander was named for the U.S. II Corps: Major General George S. Patton Jr. The Axis kept up the pressure while the Allies regrouped. In the north, on Feb. 26th, von Arnim launched an offensive against the British in an effort to push his front west to give the Germans a larger secure zone around Tunis. The offensive failed after hard fighting. At the same time there was another thrust in the south, Rommel's last battle in Tunisia. On March 6 Rommel struck the British 8th Army at Medenine soon after its arrival from Libya. The British blunted the attack with a new Panzer-stopping tactic: massed artillery and anti-tank fire combined with air strikes. In mid March the Allies went back on the offensive. Montgomery's 8th Army hit the Axis southern flank around Mareth with a multi-division force, breaking the Mareth line on March 20th. In a month-long series of battles, the British, hampered by heavy rains, pushed Axis units over 150 miles north to within 47 miles of Tunis. While Montgomery rolled up the German southern flank, Patton's revitalized II Corps drove east into their flank, drawing enemy units from the south, thereby weakening the opposition to Montgomery's punch. By mid April Axis forces, increasingly hampered by growing Allied success interdicting their supply line from Sicily, had been pushed into a perimeter at the northeast corner of Tunisia. After much difficult fighting and slow progress in the last two weeks of April, on the morning of April 30th, Patton's II Corps began a general offensive that set in motion the collapse of the remaining German forces. As the British V Corps entered Tunis, the final American battle of the campaign began May 6 when two American divisions enveloped Bizerte, pushing the German's out of the city the next day. As II Corps units pushed on to cut the Bizerte-Tunis road, they found surrendering enemy troops clogging the roads and impeding further advance. Rommel had already been flown out, too ill to continue the battle, but other Axis generals began surrendering on May 9th. The six month Tunisia Campaign was over May 13, 1943 when the last resistance ended. March 2 - 4 Battle of The Bismarck Sea was a battle between planes of the U.S. 5th Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force, and a Japanese convoy carrying troops to Lae. The task force was destroyed in detail, and the Japanese troops losses were extremely high. Mar. 29 - The U.S. government requires Americans to ration fat, meat, and cheese. The military uses fat in the manufacture of explosives. It rations meat and cheese to guarantee the supply for soldiers and civilians. TRIDENT Conference May 12 - The President and the Prime Minister, with their chief military advisers, met at the White House for the first session of the TRIDENT conference. Churchill and his party of approximately 100 crossed over on the Queen Mary to attend the largest assembly of Anglo-American officialdom in the war thus far.
The conference opened with even greater optimism for the future than had been shown at Casablanca conference 4 months prior. Allied transition to the strategic initiative, which had begun in late 1942, was virtually complete. On the day after the conference assembled, news came of the end of organized resistance in North Africa. From May 12 through May 25th two delegations debated strategic issues. The President and the Prime Minister met six times with the CCS at the White House, and the CCS held additional sessions almost every day in the Board of Governors room in the Federal Reserve building. At the opening meeting with the Prime Minister and the CCS, the President declared that the question for immediate decision was how most profitably to employ in 1943 the large Allied forces in the Mediterranean. Beyond any doubt it would be desirable to knock Italy out of the war-after HUSKY-but, he added, he had "always shrunk from the thought of putting large armies in to Italy." Allied forces might thereby suffer attrition, German troops might be released from Italy, and no pressure would be taken off the Soviet Union. He wondered whether the same results might not be achieved at less costs by air offensives from Sicily or from the heel and toe of Italy. The President's position on Mediterranean operations had clearly become more cautious. At the same time he came out unequivocally in favor of a cross-Channel operation for the spring of 1944. Such an operation would, he maintained, be the most effective method of forcing Germany to fight and thereby relieving German pressure on the Soviet Union. Apr. 8 - President Roosevelt freezes wages and prices. He also orders workers in "essential" industries to keep their jobs. The President believes the freeze will control inflation. May 11 - U.S. forces invade the Japanese occupied island of Attu in the Aleutians. The Japanese had captured the island to act as an eastern line of homeland defense. May 22 - Germany slows its submarine attacks against Atlantic convoys. Germans had suffered heavy submarine losses because if Allied radar, air power, and code breaking. Operation Cartwheel June 30 - Operation Cartwheel was aimed at isolating the major Japanese base at Rabaul. The operaton was directed by the Supreme Allied Commander in the South West Pacific Area, Gen. MacArthur. It involved mainly U.S. and Australian forces. U.S. and New Zealand forces under the other Allied command in the Pacific were indirectly involved, in their ongoing thrust to the east. Japanese forces had captured Rabaul, on New Britain, in the Territory of New Guinea, from Australian forces in Feb. of 1942 and turned it into their major forward base in the South Pacific, and the main obstacle in the two Allied Theaters. In early 1943, MacArthur requested an additional five U.S. Army divisions to launch a direct attack on Rabaul, although he could have used Australian Army forces already at his disposal. The Joint Chief's of Staff on Mar. 28, issued a directive for MacArthur to instead isolate Rabaul by the means of three thrusts on mainland New Guinea and Bismarck Archipelago, the islands to the north-east. For this he was to receive reinforcements in the shape of the newly formed U.S. 6th Army.
On June 30, the Allies launched simultaneous attacks in New Guinea and on New Georgia in the Solomons. The landing on New Georgia, under Admiral William Halsey, proved troublesome, because of a large Japanese garrison and the rugged landscape. New Guinea force, under General Thomas Blamey, was assigned responsibility for the eastward thrusts on mainland New Guinea. The U.S. 6th Army, under General Walter Krueger was to take Kiriwina, Woodlark, and Cape Gloucester. The land forces would be supported by Allied air units under Lieutenant General George Kenney and naval units under Vice-Admiral Arthur S. Carpender. The campaign, which stretched into 1944, showed the effectiveness of a strategy which ignored major concentratons of of enemy forces and instead aimed at cutting the Japanese lines of communication.
July 1 - The Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) becomes the Women's Army Corps (WAC). Women of the Corps become full members of the Army for the first time. Over 1700 WACs serve in every combat zone overseas. They provide clerical support for Army headquarters and service organizations. July 5 - Germans attack Soviet forces in the largest tank battle in history, called the Battle of Kursk. The Soviets win the battle and gain the upper hand on the eastern front. Operation HUSKY July 10 - The Allies invade Sicily in "Operation HUSKY". The Allies attack Italy hoping to force the country's surrender before an invasion of Europe. Italy surrenders on Sept. 8, but German troops occupy Italy and fight the Allies. July 25 - Italian nationals arrest Mussolini. Most Italians had not supported Mussolini's alliance with Hitler. Aug. 5 - The Army forms the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs). Women train male pilots and ferry aircraft between the U.S. and Britain. Quebec Conference
Aug. 14-24 - The First Quebec Conference, code-named "Quadrant", was held from Aug. 14th through the 24th of Aug. at the Chateau Frontenac. The hotel, closed to the public, served as the offical headquarters and meeting place. Much of the conference focused on creating a military strategy for the remainder of the war but competing visions ensued. Churchill and Roosevelt discussed their visions while the military chiefs of staff met to put the plan into action. For three days the discussion centered around when and where the Allied invasion of Europe would occur. Germany's weak southern defense, Churchill urged FDR to attack Germany's "soft underbelly" through Italy and in the process gain the strength of Italian airfields. However, U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall opposed the British plan because it diverted attention from Operation "Overlord", the planned invasion of northern Europe through France. Since the start of the war, Italy was a sideshow to the U.S., but events leading up to the conference propelled Italy to the forefront causing the U.S. to soften its position. After days of debate, the two sides agreed that Allied forces would fight in Italy as long as resources would be distributed with the main object ensuring the success of "Overlord". Aug. 25 - Germany used the HS-293 glider bomber for the first time inthe Battle of the Atlantic against anti-sub ship Bay of Biscay, and succeeded Aug. 27 in using it to sink the HMS Egret. The glider bomb was one of Germany's secret weapons that included the V-1 being developed at Peenemunde. Aug. 26 - Roosevelt and Churchill granted limited recognition to DeGaulle's FCNL. Aug. 28 - German General von Hanneken dissolved the Danish government and occupied Denmark. Sept. 8 - Roosevelt announced Italian surrender in his fireside chat, including the Italian fleet with 3 battleships, 6 cruisers, 9 destroyers sailed for Malta. Operation Avalanche Sept. 9 - Operation Avalanche was the code name given for the plan to land Allied troops near Salerno as part of the invason of Italy. Montgomery's 8th Army crossed the straights of Messina and landed in the region of Calabria, meeting with little resistance from Axis forces. Six days later, additional elements of the 8th Army landed unopposed at Taranto in Operation "Slapstick". Although the Italians secretly surrendered to the Allies on Sept. 8, 1943, Operation "Avalanche" commenced and the main Allied force landed at Salerno. They met with stiff resistance from the German 10th Army. The 29th Panzergrenadier Division launched a series of devastating counterattacks which nearly succeeded in driving the Anglo-American force back to the sea. Fifth Army rear echelon forces were rushed to the front, while reinforcements from the 82nd Airborn Division were dropped behind enemy lines to shore up the defense. The determined resistance, along with intense naval bombardment and air support, prevented a disastrous defeat. This allowed the 5th Army to link up with Montgomery's units advancing from the south. The Allies began their push north and found a well-prepared and determined foe. The German 10th Army, under the leadership of Heinrich Vietinghoff, fought with great skill and slowed the Allied advance to a crawl. The rocky ravines and river valleys of the Apennine Mountains enhanced the German rear guard operations. The terrain offered plenty of naturally defensible positions covering choke points in the Allies' avenues of approach. Making use of the terrain, the Germans employed small units in counterattacks and other delaying actions. By hindering the Allied advance, the Germans bought much needed time for their comrads to strengthen the next defensive lines in the series. The final defensive line was to be the Gustav line, which was anchored at one end at Monte Cassino. Although viewed as secondary to the impending D-Day invasion, Allied operations in Italy served a vital role in keeping many German divisions out of the eastern front as well as tying up valuable resources that could have been used elsewhere. Sept. 12 - Germans rescue Mussolini. Hitler set up a puppet state for Mussolini in northern Italy in an attempt to establish a new Italian Fascist State.
Sept. 21 - The Italian Campaign placed Allied troops on the European mainland for the first time, but it was never intended as a substitute for an attack aimed on Germany by way of the more open route through northern France. The invasion of Italy had several lesser objectives:
A plan was hatched to fool the Germans into thinking that the next Allied move would be to invade Sardina and Corsica. It was hoped that an invasion would knock Italy completely out of the war. The elimination of Italy as an enemy would enable the Royal Navy to have control over the Mediteranean, thereby massivly improving communications with Egypt, the Far East, the Middle East, and India. Occupying Italy would also provide airfields close to Germany and the Balkans. Operation STRANGLE Oct. 1 - Operation STRANGLE was a series of air operations by the U.S. 15th and 21st Air Forces to interdict German supply routes in Italy north of Rome. By smashing Italian rail facilities near the battle front, the Allies forced the Germans to use trucks and horse-carts to bring forward supplies. These extended supply lines were subject to massive strikes by roving fighter-bombers. Oct. 2 - The German withdrawal comes to an end along a line running south of Rome. Meanwhile, the U.S. 5th Army completes the occupation of Naples, while the British 8th Army continues to advance north. Soviet forces establish several small bridgeheads over the Dnieper River. The Australian 20th Brigade, reinforced by the Australian 23rd Brigade takes Finschafen in New Ginea. In Italy, the U.S. 5th Army captures Benevento while the British 8th Army establishes a bridgehead over the Biferno River. The continuous manpower drain on the Germans forced them to reorganize their infantry divisions from a force of 9 infantry battalions to one of 6 thousand battalions. Oct. 12 - The U.S. 5th Army begins its assaults on the Volturno River line. The British 10th Corps operating along the coast makes little progress, being faced by determined German counterattacks. The U.S. 6th Corps makes more progress but poor weather and determined resistance limits advances. Oct. 20 - Soviet forces meet determined from von Manstein's Army Group south. The attacks are stopped cold with heavy losses. The Allies announce they will establish a war crimes tribunal under the auspices of the UN after hostilities are concluded. Some Japanese aircraft from the carriers Zuikaku, Zuiho, Shokaku, Junyo, and Ryuho are transferred to land bases around Rabaul in New Britain, the clearest sign yet that the Japanese have surrendered the initiative to the Allies and are in strategic defense.
Oct. 21 - SS troops surround the Minsk ghetto for one last time. 2000 Jews were loaded into trucks and taken away to be shot. The buildings were blown up, just in case someone was hiding in them. The last inhabitants of the ghetto perished on this day of tragedy. Only the ruins would bear witness to the horrible and inhumane crimes commited against the tens of thousands of Jews of the Minsk Ghetto. Oct. 21 - Subhas Chandra Bose announced the formation of the pro-Axis "free India" government. Bose, an ardent Nationalist would declare war on England two days later and ultimately raise a division of former Indian POWs to fight for the Japanese. Oct. 22 - Continuing with their near nightly terror bombing of German cities, RAF Bomber Command hits the city of Kessel in a particularly devastating raid. 569 bombers, all of them four engine heavy Lancasters or Halifax bombers. Despite initial errors in marking the center of town, the raid was remarkably concentrated and accurate. The combination of high explosives and incendiary bombs created a firestorm smaller but reminiscent of the one in Hamburg in July. Over 11,000 blocks of housing were destroyed or heavily damaged displacing over 100,000 people. 5,600 people were killed, and another 2,800 were missing and presumed dead. The three Henschel aircraft plants were seriously damaged and this set back the production of V-1 bombs.
Oct. 23 - The daily murder of people at Auschwitz was interrupted when one woman, among the 1,750 Polish Jews that arrived that day, rebelled. When ordered to strip. she threw her shoe at SS Sergeant Major Josep Shillinger. In the ensuing confusion, she took his pistol and shot him in the stomach, mortally wounding him, and wounded a second SS Sergeant. This set off a riot among the rest of the women in line outside the gas chamber. One SS Trooper had his nose ripped off and a second SS soldier was scalped. The women's victory was short lived. The camp commander, Rudolf Hess, organized a counterattack and sprayed the area down with pistols and machine gun fire. All survivors were shot. Nov. 1 - U.S. forces land on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. General MacArthur plans to eventually push the Japanese from the southwest Pacific by gaining a stronghold in the islands. Nov. 20 - U.S. Marines attack Japanese forces on Tarawa Atoll. Marines capture the Atoll three days later. Officials report 1,000 American deaths and 2,000 wounded. This battle begins the strategy of "island hopping". American strategists plan to capture island by island on its way to Japan. Nov. 20 - U.S. Army troops land on Makin island in the Gilberts. The next day Marines land on Tarawa. Within fours days both island are secure, but at the cost of thousands of casualties. Teheran Conference
Nov. 27 - Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin reunited again at the Teheran Conference. Ever since the Soviet Union had entered the war, Stalin had asked for a second front in Europe. Churchill and Roosevelt argued that any attempt to land troops in Western Europe would result in heavy casualties. But Stalin feared without a second front, he'd lose the Soviet Union to Germany. At Teheran, Stalin reminded Churchill and Roosevelt of their previous promise of a second western front in Europe which had been set for 1942, and later postponed until the spring of 1943. Stalin complained that it was now Novemeber and still there was no second front. After lengthy discussions it was agreed the Allies would mount a najor offensive in the spring of 1944. Dec. 1 - The Teheran Conference between the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union is successfully concluded. Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin agree that the western Allies will invade France in June of 1944, and when that happened the Soviet Union would launch a new offensive from the east. Dec. 24 - Dwight D. Eisenhower is named Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces.
Sub War The U.S. finally listened to their sub commanders and redesigned the torpedo. The new Mark 18 torpedo was a success. By now it was 1943, and the Americans had hampered their forces with bad torpedos for over a year. Now the fleet submarines took the war to the Japanese Merchant fleet operating around the home islands. Incredible numbers of kills immediately began to be reported. The Americans were sinking large numbers of marus (Japanese transports) and military ships as well. The USS Archerfish sank the IJN Shinano, the largest carrier built during the war. The submarines would go out and come back with 3 or 4 kills during a single patrol. Japan expected to lose some cargo tonnage, but not at the rate they were losing in 1943, 1944, and 1945. Not only could they not replace their losses, the unrestricted submarine warfare meant that even the fishing fleets were targets. Combined with mine laying aircraft, the submarines blocked every port, strangling an island nation in a way that the British feared in their worst nightmares. Very little surface traffic arrived or left in 1945.
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