Winter, 1943
Chapter 22
Totaler Krieg
January-March
The start of 1943 was not auspicious for the Axis Powers. As the Germans were defeated at Stalingrad in the east, the North African front was in danger of collapse. In the Far East, the British Indian Army was launching a counterattack into Burma, and the Emperor’s forces were withdrawing from Guadalcanal after months of brutal jungle warfare.
Europe: The Eastern Front
Soviet ski troopers pass under the portico of the famous Hermitage museum in Leningrad
As the disaster unfolded at Stalingrad, the repercussions could be felt across the Eastern Front. In the north, the German siege of Leningrad dragged on as it had for fifteen months, as the desperate, starving populace held out against the Wehrmacht. Attempts by the Red Army to break the siege late in 1942 had come to naught, but an new drive was launched as Operation Iskra on 12 January of the new year, with the Soviets attacking the entrenched German forces along the shores of Lake Lagoda. Fighting was fierce, by by 18 January the Soviets had linked the two Fronts (Army Groups) in the area, stranding German General Werner Huhner’s forces and compelling them to abandon all of their heavy equipment as they made a desperate breakout before Soviet reinforcements could arrive.
Even though the Germans were able to bringup reinforcements and save their positions from complete collapse, the Red Army had successfully opened a land corridor to resupply the beleaguered city, and by early February a railway was operational into the city. Additional Soviet attacks would follow, with Operation Polar Star being launched in the aftermath of the victory on Volga as Stalingrad fell. This attack was blunted, however, as the Germans as well as Spanish Volunteer Legion managed to halt the advance, allowing the siege to continue despite the advances of the Soviets.
A Panzer III leads a column of German troops through the snowy Russian countryside
German Federal Archives
The defeats at Stalingrad and Leningrad forced the OKW to redeploy its forces along the entire front. The salient around Demyansk just sough of Leningrad was hit by a Soviet offensive in mid February, with the goal to accomplish the same envelopment maneuver that had occured at Stalingrad. This time, however, the Germans were more willing to concede ground, and the German 16th Army was able to withdraw from the salient before the Soviets could seal it.
The withdrawal under fire from Demyansk was followed in March by the Germans’ abandonment of the Rzhev Salient as a component of a tactical withdrawal intended to shorten the front by some 230 miles. As they withdrew they enacted a scorched earth policy, leaving utter devastation in their wake. The ensuing reserves created by the shortening of the line allowed the Eastern Front to stabilize, saving the Axis from general collapse in the spring.
Waffen SS panzergrenadiers move through Kharkov
German Federal Archives
As the Germans withdrew, plans were already afoot for a counteroffensive in the south, with the Germans marshalling their forces in the Ukraine to strike back at the Soviets along the Donets Sector. This attack commenced on 19 February, with the II SS Panzer Corps spearheading a drive toward the city of Kharkhov. Later in the month the exhausted Red Army forces were forces to end their attempts to counterattack the Germans, being badly mauled by Luftwaffe attacks as the panzers pressed them on the ground.
German spearheads entered Kharkov in early March, and by the middle of the month the city wass secure after heavy urban fighting. The Kharkov Operation had seen the Germans taking advantage of the Soviet’s overextension following Stalingrad with good results, but Hitler remained dead set on not giving up any ground. The Fuhrer vetoed further such operations, instead ordering that all efforts be concentrated on a new offensive for the summer.
Europe: North Africa
Wrecked Regia Aeronautica fighters strewn inside their ruined hangar at an Italian airfield after the Fall of Tripoli
In the aftermath of the Battle of El Alamein and Operation Torch, the Axis’ situation in the deserts of North Africa was becoming increasingly desperate. The campaign for the desert was moving toward its conclusion, as the British were poised to complete their conquest of Italian Libya. Tripoli, the capitol and largest port left to the Axis forces, fell to Montgomery’s 8th Army on 23 January, depriving them of the administrative center of the territory. This left Rommel and his German-Italian forces to pull back toward the border of French Tunisia, which remained at least partly under their control, with the Desert Fox having already switched his primary supply base from the Libyan city to Tunis.
Rommel converses with some German soldiers riding in a captured US Army M3 halftrack after Kasserine Pass
German Federal Archives
Advancing through French Tunisia following the success of the Operation Torch landings late the previous year, the Americans were by now poised to finally engage the vaunted German Wehrmacht for the first time in this war. Freshly placed under the command of General Frank Andrews, the US Army troops were advancing through Tunisia, posing a serious threat to the rear of the Axis following the collapse of the Vichy French forces stationed there.
The Americans had been driving as fast as they could for Tunis, but the difficult terrain had been slowing this advance, allowing the Germans to increase their forces in the region to meet this threat. Hoping to secure American supplies before the 8th Army attacked again in Libya, Rommel struck at the US forces through the Kasserine Pass in a battle that became the first major engagement between American and German forces since the end of the Great War in 1918. The inexperienced Americans suffered heavy casualties as the Germans struck on 19 February, resulting in a defeat for the US. Despite this, the Germans were unable to maintain their advance, and were soon forced to withdraw.
A British 17 pounder antitank gun fires
Back in Libya, the British were advancing as well, toward the pre-war French defensive line at Mareth. An outdated string of fortifications, the Germans and Italians had been feverishly refurbishing them in anticipation of Montgomery’s attack. On 23 February the Italians had launched an attack on the British at Medenine, hoping to disrupt the British 8th Army’s regrouping before attacking the line. Despite support by everything the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica could muster, the attack failed, leaving nothing but a sea of wrecked Italian tanks strewn across the sand. Around this time Rommel was recalled by Hitler, leaving General Hans-Jurgen von Arnim in command as the British attack loomed.
British Crusader tanks roll past a German sign in El Hamma, Tunisia, as the Mareth Line is broken
The hammer fell on the Mareth Line on 19 March, with the 8th Army striking with everything they had. Despite initial penetrations being repelled, eventually the line was broken on 27 March, forcing the Italo-German forces to abandon what remained of the Mareth Line to prevent envelopment. A flanking maneuver, with Montgomery’s men bypassing the line to the south in order to get into the Axis rear, was particularly effective as the operation, designated Supercharge II, met with success. They retreated almost forty miles northward, digging in again at Wadi Akarit.
Europe: The War at Sea
Grand Admiral Karl Donitz, the new head of the Kriegsmarine, inspects cadets aboard the training barque Horst Wessel
German Federal Archives
On the frigid waters of the Atlantic, a major change was afoot. The defeat of the Kriegsmarine at the very end of the last year in the Barents Sea had led Hitler to rage against the leadership of the navy, summoning its chief, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, to report personally to his headquarters in East Prussia. The Fuhrer angrily declared that the capital ships of the fleet were useless, and that he intended to order their scrapping, with the crews either reassigned to U-boats or deployed on the Eastern Front as infantry. Raeder was crushed by this order, and offered his resignation, leading to Karl Donitz, the head of the submarine arm, being promoted to Grand Admiral to succeed him.
As the U-boat war continued, one particular incident would go down in history on 3 February when the German submarine U-223 torpedoed the American transport ship SS Dorchester off of Newfoundland. As the ship was hit she immediately lost power, and a severe list made it difficult o even impossible to launch some lifeboats. As the supply of life jackets ran out, four US Army Chaplains, one Catholic, one Methodist, one Reformist and one Rabbi, gave theirs up to save four others. The heroic actions of these ministers as they went down with the ship was widely spread in the United States, making them martyrs for the cause and representatives of the unity of the American people.
Europe: The Air War
Armourers load ordinance onto an RAF Short Sterling heavy bomber in anticipation of a night raid
Original Color
In the skies over Europe the USAAF continued to build a massive force in Britain and Africa. As 1943 began the Americans made their first strike against Germany proper, with a raid on the U-boat bases at Wilhelmshaven. Soon, a new strategy was agreed between the American and British commands, with a decision that the USAAF would take over daylight raids on Germany, while the RAF mounted a night campaign. The Luftwaffe, for its part was continuing to launch sporadic raids on London and other targets in Britain, but with its resources increasingly needed elsewhere in locations such as the Mediterranean as well as in the East.
Europe: Occupied Europe
SS Police and Vichy Milice load Jews onto cattle cars in Marseilles for deportation
German Federal Archives
Across the vast expanse of Europe under occupation by the Axis, a sinister development was afoot. Displeased with a sluggish start to the program, SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler ordered an acceleration to the now ongoing Final Solution. As a result, the SS began to round up ever larger numbers of Jewish citizens, with efforts in the rump of Vichy France, The Netherlands and Yugoslavia seeing thousands sent to their deaths. Meanwhile, in the East, SS security troops began to liquidate the sealed Ghettos set up in various cities. In general, the populations in these squalid areas were massacred, with any survivors sent to camps for extermination. Some would survive, however, as Hitler issued an order for able bodied prisoners to be used as slave labor in German war industry. Uprisings took place in Ghettos in Slovakia and Poland, but faced rapid and brutal suppression by the Nazis.
In the far north, however, another Nazi plan was seriously hampered, as British trained Norwegian commandos raided the Norsk Hydroelectric plant, where was the only major source the Germans had of Deuterium Oxide, a compound known as heavy water which was essential to nuclear weapons research. After infiltrating the facility they were able to destroy the electrolysis tanks needed to produce the water, as well as the existing stocks. All escaped, while the German atomic weapons program suffered extensive damage.
The Pacific: Pacific Islands
Medics aid wounded US soldiers on Guadalcanal
Far away, in the sweltering jungles of the Pacific Islands, the campaign for Guadalcanal was nearing its end. Operation Ko, the evacuation of the remaining Japanese forces on the island, was initiated by the personal order of Tojo on 14 January. Fighting continued on the island, mostly fought by US Army troops brought in to replace the Marines, who were now readying for the next island assault. The last major Japanese positions, a defensive line at Gifu, was overrun by the Americans on 23 January, and the last Japanese forces were extracted on 7 February, leaving their enemies surprised to find their last positions abandoned. Guadalcanal was declared secure on 9 February, comprising the first major land victory of the United States in this war.
Australian soldiers in New Guinea near Wau
On New Guinea, the war continued unabated, even as British Papua on the eastern half of the island was secured. Australian and US troops continued to press into the jungles against the determined Japanese, and a major battle took place at an Australian airfield at Wau in late January. Japanese forces, landed nearby and marching through the jungle, attacked the critical base from whence the RAAF could strike at the IJN shipping in the vicinity as well ass major bases on nearby islands. The Australians were able to hold the base, sending their enemies back into the overgrowth, leaving them to prepare for a counteroffensive.
Elsewhere, the Australians were forced to evacuate Timor, abandoning their slim hold on the Portuguese island as Allied command ruled the island of little strategic importance relavant to the commitment needed to liberate it from the superior numbers of Japanese forces. Meanwhile, the US Marines landed on the Russel Islands in the Solomons, finding the Japanese had already abandoned them before they arrived. An American base was soon under construction, as the Allies looked to make their next move in the region. Lastly, in the far north, the island of Amchitka in the Alaskan Aleutian chain was liberated by the Americans as they pushed the Japanese invaders ever further away from the mainland.
The Pacific: Southeast Asia
Indian troops cross the Kaladan River aboard landing craft
The counteroffensive into Burma launched by the Indians into Burma in late December continued in the new year. Encountering stiff resistance, the attackers were repeatedly thrown back by the Japanese in January, with the outnumbered defenders making good use of prepared defenses in a line along the Mayu Range. A lack of armor further complicated the Indian forces’ attacks, as the British commanders refused to allocate more than a handful. Japanese counterattacks would subsequently force the Indians to retreat from the Mayu Line, even after a well equipped British unit was brought up to reinforce them. Near the end of March the British leadership was changed, as the Japanese prepared for their own counterattack on the exhausted Indian and British troops, by now simply under orders to hold until the arrival of the monsoon season.
The Pacific: The War at Sea
The cruiser USS Salt Lake City takes Japanese fire off the Komandorski Islands
Out on the high seas of the Pacific, the war continued as well, as US and Japanese fleets clashed from Guadalcanal to the edges of the Bering Strait. Skirmishes continued around Guadalcanal as the IJN screened the evacuation of the ground troops there, and by the end of January the IJN had succeeded in forcing the USN from the operational area. Thus covered, the evacuation proceeded, allowing the Japanese to extract most of their men from the island for use in future campaigns.
Meanwhile, in late March, the two fleets clashed off the Komandorski Islands near the Soviet coast. The Japanese, looking to build an airbase on the Alaskan island of Attu, had dispatched a small group of merchantmen with a powerful escort, and they were encountered off the Russian coast by an American picket force. Requests for air support by the Americans failed when the bombers got lost, leaving the ensuing battle one of the last pure naval gunnery battles in history. Despite outnumbering and outgunning the American force the Japanese disengaged and retreated, misjudging the severity of the damage they had inflicted and fearing US air power, leaving the Americans with a victory snatched from the jaws of defeat.
The Pacific: The Air War
The damaged USS Chicago low in the water after the Battle of Rennell Island
In the skies over the South Pacific the both sides had been busy as well. IJN land based bombers had lashed out at the US fleet near Guadalcanal, forcing them to withdraw from the area and clearing it for the evacuation of the island. The cruiser USS Chicago was sunk in the Battle of Rennell Island.
USAAF B25 Mitchells attack a Japanese transport in the Bismarck Sea
Further action took place in the Bismarck Sea, with USAAF and RAAF aircraft attacking and destroying a Japanese convoy in early March, as they headed for New Guinea. The force was all but annihilated, with almost 3,000 Japanese soldiers being killed as all eight transports were sunk, along with half of the escorting destroyers.
The Homefront
As the war entered its fourth year all sides were by now preparing for a long war. Rationing restrictions tightened in the United States, with bans of pleasure driving and controls on basic foodstuffs being enacted. In Germany, Hitler ordered mandatory factory work for women as ever larger numbers of the male workforce were needed on the various warfronts. In Italy, as Libya fell and the threat of the war coming home loomed ever larger, Mussolini dismissed most of his ministers, including his son in law Foreign Minister Ciano. He filled most of these positions himself, a move that would allow the Duce to have even more control over the war effort, but also ensure that blame for future failure would be directly placed upon his shoulders.
As the air war continued a tragedy occurred in London in March, as a crush occured as throngs of people sought shelter in the Bethnal Green Underground Station. Almost two hundred people were killed after one evacuee tripped near the bottom of the entrance stairs, causing increasing numbers to pile up on top of them. Wartime press censors blocked most reports of the disaster from getting out, fearing that it might lead to similar panicked events in future raids.
On 18 February, 1943, after the German media had begun to for the first time make pessimistic reports about the situation on the front in the wake of Stalingrad, Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels staged a large rally at the Sportpalast in Berlin where he asked a question that would have dire implications for his country:
“Ich frage euch: Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg?!”
“I ask you: do you want total War?!”
The response to this question was a roof-raising cheer in the affirmative. Germany would soon get precisely what she asked for.
Political Developments
Western Allied leaders meet at Casablanca
A major political development was also underway in early 1943. At Casablanca, recently captured from Vichy French forces during Operation Torch, the leaders of the Western Allies met to discuss the direction of the war and its conclusion. Stalin, citing the ongoing offensives across the Eastern Front, declined to attend. In this meeting Churchill and Roosevelt, along with their resective staffs, discussed new moves for after the end of the campaign in North Africa, with Churchill being a proponent of a strike at Sicily and then Italy as a method of penetratingly Fortress Europe through what was hoped to be its “soft underbelly”. Also deceided upon here was a commitment that none of the Allied nations would accept anything less than a total and complete capitulation from their enemies.
Just as Goebbels had asked, the Allies were now committed to a total war, with the infant “United Nations” dedicated to seeing it through to the bitter end.
Timeline
1-1-1943
The Soviets announce the surrounding of the 6th Army at Stalingrad
Albanian Resistance fighters defeat the Regio Esercito around Gjorm in open battle
1-2-1942
US and Australian troops capture Buna from the Japanese in New Guinea
1-3-1943
British frogmen sink the cruiser Ulpio Traiano at Palermo
1-4-1943
An uprising begins in the Czestochowa Ghetto in Poland, which is put down. The SS massacre 250 children and elderly the following day, beginning the liquidation of the Ghetto
Tojo orders that Guadalcanal be evacuated by 28 February
1-5-1943
USS Helena fires the first proximity fused shell, succeeding in destroying attacking Japanese aircraft.
USAAF bombers attack the Japanese base at Rabaul, damaging several ships but also resulting in the death of Brigadier General Kenneth Walker when his plane is shot down.
The USDA orders 30% of butter production be reserved for military use
1-6-1943
Grand Admiral Erich Raeder resigns from command of the Kriegsmarine after an argument with Hitler
Seventeen US states ban pleasure driving to conserve fuel for the war effort
1-7-1943
Roosevelt announces in his State of the Union Address that the bombing campaigns against Germany and Italy will escalate this year
1-8-1943
The Red Army gives an ultimatum for the 6th Army at Stalingrad to surrender, which General Paulus refuses
1-9-1943
SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that the Warsaw Ghetto be liquidated by 15 February
1-10-1943
The Red Army commences its operation to eliminate the 6th Army at Stalingrad
1-11-1943
The Gestapo begins an operation to relocate Polish Jews to serve as forced labor in German factories
US and British representatives sign treaties with China renouncing their territorial claims in the country, reestablishing Chinese sovereignty over the entire country after the war
1-12-1943
The Soviets launch an offensive to break the siege of Leningrad
Vichy Minister Pierre Laval signs an agreement with the Germans, formally forfeiting almost all remaining authority of the Petain Regime to the Germans in exchange for his personal control over the police.
US troops retake the Alaskan island of Amchitka from the Japanese
1-13-1943
Hitler orders mandatory factory work by women in German factories, with all non-essential men to be drafted into the military
1-14-1943
The Japanese formally commence Operation Ko: the withdrawal from Guadalcanal
A conference occurs at Casablanca between Roosevelt, Churchill and De Gaulle, with the Western Allies deciding that only unconditional surrender would be accepted from the Axis Powers.
1-15-1943
The US War Department formally moves into the new Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia
1-16-1943
Velikiye Luki falls to the Red Army
The RAF bombs Berlin, dropping 1,000 tons of ordinance on the German capitol
1-17-1943
The Luftwaffe raids London for the first time in almost a year
1-18-1943
The Soviets manage to force open and hold a corridor into Leningrad, easing the now 515 day long Siege
An uprising begins in the Warsaw Ghetto as armed prisoners attack the SS units sent to deport the Ghetto’s population to concentration camps
1-19-1943
The Royal Navy engages and destroys an Italian flotilla off Zuwahra, Libya
1-21-1943
Rear Admiral Robert English, commander of the US Submarine Fleet, is killed in a plane crash
1-22-1943
The 6th Army loses its last airfield at Stalingrad to the advancing Soviets
The SS begins to round up Jews in Marseilles for deportation to extermination camps
Allied forces complete the liberation of Papua from Japanese forces, representing the first major territory liberated from Japanese occupation
1-23-1943
Tripoli falls to Montgomery’s 8th Army, with the Italian governor formally surrendering Libya to the British
US forces overrun the Japanese defensive lines at Gifu on Guadalcanal
1-24-1943
The Unconditional Surrender Doctrine is announced after the conclusion of the Casablanca Conference
German media begins to prime the public for news of disaster in the east, for the first time taking a pessimistic tone
1-25-1943
The Red Army cuts the Germans in Stalingrad into two separate pockets
1-26-1943
The Germans begin to round up Jews in The Netherlands for deportation to extermination camps
1-27-1943
The USAAF makes its first air raid on Germany itself, as 91 bombers attack the submarine base at Wilhelmshaven
Meat rationing begins in the US
1-28-1943
A Japanese sub shells Port Gregory in Australia
Despite ongoing internment of Japanese-American citizens, the US Army announces the formation of a unit of such men
Glyndwr Michael, a Welsh vagrant, accidentally consumes poisoned food left out for rats and dies, his body later being requisitioned quietly by the British government.
1-29-1943
Japanese troops launch an attack on the Australian base at Wau in New Guinea
IJN ships attack the US fleet off Guadalcanal to screen the withdrawal of troops from the island
1-30-1943
General Paulus at Stalingrad is promoted to Field Marshal by Hitler in the hopes that this will entice him to commit suicide or go down fighting rather than surrender
Karl Donitz is promoted to Grand Admiral and takes command of the Kriegsmarine, formally being the head of its U-Boat arm
The RAF mounts raids on Berlin in the daylight, hoping to disrupt the various festivities in honor of the 10th anniversary of Hitler taking power
The IJN succeeds in forcing a US Navy withdrawal around Guadalcanal, ensuring the safety of their evacuation convoys
1-31-1943
When the Red Army overruns his headquarters, Field Marshal Paulus surrenders the 6th Army, although pockets of resistance will remain in Stalingrad for several days
The Japanese are defeated at Wau
2-1-1943
The first Japanese troops are evacuated from Guadalcanal
2-2-1943
The last pockets of German resistance in Stalingrad are cleared
2-3-1943
The US troop transport ship Dorchester is torpedoed in the Atlantic, with the actions of four chaplains from different faiths who went down in the sinking becoming martyrs to the US cause
2-4-1943
The remnants of the Italo-German forces in Libya withdraw into Tunisia
2-5-1943
Mussolini dismisses most of his cabinet, replacing many of the ministers with himself
Lt. General Frank Andrews replaces Dwight D. Eisenhower as commander of all US forces in Europe
2-6-1943
Hitler authorizes a tactical withdrawal on the Eastern Front in the wake of the disaster at Stalingrad
The SS begins the arrest of 1,800 students in the Netherlands, after one of them was accused of shooting an SS officer. All would be sent to concentration camps
2-7-1943
The last Japanese troops are evacuated from Guadalcanal, leaving the US troops on the island surprised to find their enemies all gone
Commander Howard Gilmore wins the Medal of Honor for ordering his submarine, the USS Growler, to submerge without him when he is too badly wounded to enter it
2-8-1943
As the Germans retreat from the city of Slutsk in Belorussia they massacre 4,000 Jewish residents
Kursk is retaken by the Red Army
Martial law begins to lift in Hawaii
2-9-1943
The Americans declare Guadalcanal secure
2-10-1943
The last Australian troops are pulled out of Timor, leaving the Japanese in control of the island after more than a year of fighting
The SS begins to raise a division composed of Bosnian Muslims
2-13-1943
The US Navy debuts its new F4U Corsair fighter
2-14-1943
Rommel launches an offensive against the Americans in Tunisia, with the first major engagement between German and American forces in the war taking place at Kasserine Pass
2-15-1943
The Soviets launch an offensive against the Demyansk Salient
2-16-1943
Norwegian Commandos are landed by the British in occupied Norway to commence Operation Gunnerside
Italian troops massacre civilians at Domenikon in Greece
2-17-1943
Hitler flies to von Manstein’s headquarters on the Eastern Front
German forces defeat the Americans at Sidi Bou Zid near the Kasserine Pass
The Slovakian government begins the deportation of its remaining Jewish population to Germany for extermination
2-18-1943
The Japanese, looking to appease their German allies, begin rounding up Jews in Occupied China
German Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels announces “Total War” to a massive crowd in Berlin, meeting with cheers
Three German students are arrested by the Gestapo for spreading anti-Nazi propaganda. They will later be executed
Madame Chiang-Kai-Shek, wife of the Chinese leader, gives a speech to the US Congress
2-19-1943
The Germans launch a counteroffensive against the Soviets around Kharkov
2-21-1943
US Marines seize the Russel Islands, finding the Japanese had evacuated them beforehand
2-22-1943
Bulgaria signs an agreement with the Germans regarding the deportation of the country’s Jewish population
A riot occurs at the Featherston POW camp in New Zealand, resulting in the deaths of numerous Japanese prisoners and one guard
2-23-1943
Soviet ace Grigory Kravchenko is shot down and killed near Stalingrad
2-24-1943
The Germans defeat the Americans at Kasserine Pass, but withdraw as they find themselves overextended
2-25-1943
A new strategy for bombing Germany is adopted by the British and Americans, with the USAAF taking over daylight raids while the RAF takes over night operations
2-26-1943
The Germans launch another offensive against the Allies in Tunisia
2-27-1943
The Gestapo begins to round up the last remaining Jews in Berlin
2-28-1943
The Soviets destroy the Demyansk Salient
The USAAF and RAF launch a massive joint raid on the U-Boat base at St. Nazaire
Operation Gunnerside ends in success as Norwegian commandos destroy the German heavy water plant at the Norsk Hydro Pant in Vermok
3-1-1943
The Germans withdraw from the Rzhev Salient, freeing up considerable forces with which to shore up the entire Eastern Front
The Germans slaughter almost the entire population of Koriukivka in Soviet Ukraine, burning the town to the ground in the process
A massive air raid is launched by USAAF and RAF bombers on Berlin
3-2-1943
US and Australian aircraft attack a large Japanese troop convoy approaching New Guinea from the Bismarck Sea, destroying it almost entirely
3-3-1943
The German submarine U-43 torpedoes the German minelayer Doggerbank, mistaking it for an enemy ship. Only one man survives from a crew of 365
The Luftwaffe raids London. During the raid a crush occurs at Bethnal Green Underground Station, with almost 170 civilians trampled to death, with 62 children were among the dead
3-4-1943
The German offensive in Tunisia, Operation Oxhead, ends in failure
3-5-1943
The Allies begin a major bombing offensive aimed at the Ruhr Valley in Germany
3-6-1943
The Germans launch an attack on the British in Tunisia, hoping to delay their upcoming attack on the Mareth Line
Major General George S. Patton takes command of the US II Corps in Tunisia
US ships defeat a Japanese force in the Blackett Strait
3-7-1943
The Polish Exile Government reports publicly about the Nazis’ murder of prisoners in the concentration camp at Auschwitz
3-9-1943
Free Czech forces enter the line with the Red Army on the Eastern Front
Rommel is ordered by Hitler to return to Germany, leaving the German forces in Africa under the command of Hans-Jurgen von Arnim
3-10-1943
The Soviets establish a facility for nuclear weapons research
3-11-1943
Over 7,000 Jews are deported from southern Yugoslavia for extermination as three cities are emptied of their Jewish citizens
3-12-1943
Vyazma is liberated by Soviet forces
Italian forces are forced from one town in Greece to partisans as they torch another
3-13-1943
The Germans complete the liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto
Generalmajor Henning von Treskow attempts to assassinate Hitler with a bomb disguised as a bottle of liquor, but a faulty fuse results in failure
3-15-1943
The German counteroffensive around Kharkov ends with the city retaken by their forces and the Red Army retreating from both Kharkov and Belgorod
3-16-1943
The British launch an attack against the Germans’ Mareth Line in Tunisia
In a massive attack with a three wolfpacks totaling 39 U-Boats, the Kriegsmarine decimates two Allied convoys
3-17-1943
The Japanese execute 39 German Catholic missionaries captured in New Guinea
The Bulgarian Parliament voids the earlier agreement signed by a minister regarding the deportation of Jews to Germany
3-18-1943
Fritz Kuhn, the leader of the American Nazi movement known as the German American Bund, is stripped of his US citizenship while in prison for embezzlement
3-20-1943
The Japanese order their submarines to kill any survivors of sunken ships they encounter
3-21-1943
Another bomb plot by a German officer fails to kill Hitler, this time while the Fuhrer is inspecting captured Soviet equipment
3-22-1943
The SS Dirlewanger Divison, a special force comprising criminals and the violently insane, destroys the village of Khatyn in Belorussia, killing all but three of its inhabitants in the process
The Nazis begin to murder gypsies at their concentration camps
3-24-1943
US WWI fighter ace Col. Harvey Cook is killed when his P39 fighter crashes in New Caledonia
3-26-1943
Operation Supercharge II commences, with New Zealand and British forces pressing their attack on the Mareth Line
In a unique all-gun naval engagement off Alaska, the US Navy manages to turn back a Japanese convoy bringing reinforcements to occupied Kiska
A proposal was submitted for a charter for a new “United Nations” to be formed after the war
3-27-1943
The Germans begin to retreat from the Mareth Line
The escort carrier HMS Dasher explodes in the Firth of Clyde, the cause being a careless smoker near the aviation fuel tanks
300 RAF bombers raid Berlin
3-29-1943
New Zealand troops capture the city of Gabes in Tunisia
Food rationing begins in the US
3-31-1943
Axis forces continue to withdraw as the British and Americans press them in North Africa