January 10th, 1943 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeper HMS Gazelle launched.
The Fairey Barracuda Mk. II enters service with No. 827 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, based at Stretton, Cheshire, England.
U.S.S.R.: After a 55-minute bombardment by thousands of guns and rocket-launchers, and employing seven armies, the Red Army begins Operation RING, the final annihilation of the tattered remnants of the German 6.Armee defending themselves desperately against all odds in the ruins of Stalingrad. The main effort is by the 65th and 21st Army to the west of Stalingrad. After the initial heavy artillery barrage the attack begins and the Germans are soon in retreat.
FRENCH MOROCCO: The USAAF Twelfth Air Force's 308th Fighter Squadron, 31st Fighter Group, with Spitfire Mk Vs, begins operating from Casablanca instead of Tafaraoui, Algeria, to provide protection for the Casablanca Conference between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
LIBYA: General Bernard Montgomery, General Officer Commanding Eighth Army, briefs the assault forces of the army on a projected drive through the Buerat line to Tripoli, which must be accomplished within ten days, beginning on 15 January, to avoid supply difficulties.
During the night of 10/11 January, RAF (B-24) Liberators under operational control of the USAAF IX Bomber Command, Ninth Air Force, bomb a road junction at Tripoli.
NORTH AFRICA: The Italian Arditi Regiment, in teams of nine to ten men, parachute in various places in Algeria, Libya and Tunisia for covert warfare duties. Although not as successful as they had hoped to be, they managed to destroy or damage bridges in Algeria.
TUNISIA: Twelve USAAF Ninth Air Force B-24 Liberators forced by an overcast to divert from the primary target of Bizerte, strike La Goulette, the seaport of the city of Tunis. One aircraft is lost.
USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-26 Marauders, with P-38 Lightning escort, attack the marshaling yard and oil tanks at Gabes. B-26s, sent against Sousse, abort due to bad weather. A-20 Havocs with P-40 cover, hit the military camp at Kebili. Fighters escort C-47 Skytrain missions and fly reconnaissance and patrols. One P-40, flown by Major Philip Cochran, Commanding Officer, 58th Fighter Squadron, 33d Fighter Group, bombs and demolishes the Hotel Splendida, the German headquarters in Kairouan.
Seven Luftwaffe Bf 109s bomb and strafe Thelepte Airfield.
BURMA: Six USAAF Tenth Air Force B-24 Liberators and B-25 Mitchells jointly attack the Myitnge bridge, knocking out a span and causing considerable damage to the entire target.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: 2nd Btn 35th Infantry begins 5 days of patrolling the area of the Gifu on Mount Austen on Guadalcanal. Having relieved the 132nd Infantry yesterday, the plan by General Patch is that this one fresh battalion will be able to accomplish his goal of eliminating this Japanese position. The 25th Infantry Division, reinforced, begins the largest and final offensive to clear Guadalcanal, the immediate objectives being Galloping Horse, Sea Horse, and the Gifu strongpoint. After a 30-minute artillery preparation, the first divisional time on target concentration of the campaign, followed by twelve 500 pound (227 kilogram) bombs and thirty six 325 pound (147 kilogram) depth charges, courtesy of the Cactus Air Force, the attack steps off at 0730 hours. The 27th Infantry Regiment drives south through the 2d Marine Division against Galloping Horse and clears more than half of the objective. The 1st Battalion, on the west, attacks from Hill 66 to the objective, the northern part of Hill 57, and establishes patrol contact with the 3d Battalion to the east. From Hill 55, the 3d Battalion advances 1,600 yards (1 463 meters) toward Hill 53, but is halted by stubborn opposition on Hill 52, the intermediate position. Beginning at 0550 92.5 tons of artillery rounds are shot at a "waterhole" between the 1/27 and Hill 57. The 35th Infantry Regimen's 3d Battalion begins the envelopment of the southern flank of Sea Horse, omitting preparatory fire, and takes the preliminary objective, a small hill a short distance south of the Sea Horse, against scattered opposition. Combat patrols of the 2d Battalion move against the Gifu after preparatory fire but are unable to make any headway. (Unknown and Jack McKillop)
On Guadalcanal, USAAF P-39 Airacobras and USMC SBD Dauntlesses support ground forces in the battle area. A strongpoint and an ammunition dump are destroyed.
USAAF B-26 Marauders attack Munda, New Georgia Island with the loss of one aircraft.
NEW GUINEA: In Papua New Guinea, Companies A and C, U.S. 127th Infantry Regiment, 32d Infantry Division, establishes a bridgehead across Konombi Creek in the Tarakena area. Action is then suspended temporarily. The 1st Battalion, 163d Infantry Regiment, 41st Infantry Division, finds one of the two Japanese positions between Musket and Kano evacuated. Kano is renamed Fisk.
In Northeast New Guinea, RAAF and USAAF Fifth Air Force aircraft attack supply dumps and antiaircraft positions in the Lae area.
PORTUGESE TIMOR: The destroyer HMAS Arunta (I 30) crosses the Timor Sea to lift off the last 282 Australians of Sparrow Force, along with twenty Portugese and eleven women and children. (William L. Howard)(188, 189, 190, 191)
SOUTH PACIFIC: The USN transport submarine USS Argonaut (APS-1) is the largest submarine ever built in the U.S. up to this time. At 3,128 tons she was designed primarily as a minelayer but later, in 1942, was converted to a troop carrying submarine and based at Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Today, a five ship Japanese convoy is sailing in the Solomon Sea about 88 nautical miles (164 kilometers) south of Rabaul, New Britain Island, Bismarck Archipelago, in position 05.40S, 152.02E. A Japanese plane belonging to the 582nd Naval Air Group, flying antisubmarine patrols spots a submerged sub approaching the convoy. The plane drops three bombs then contacts destroyer HIJMS Maikaze which peels off to pursue the contact, leaving the escort to sister ships HIJMS Isokaze and Hamakaze. Maikaze's depth charge attack evidently is succesful, since a submarine's bow breaks the surface and is taken under fire by both Maikaze and Isokaze from short range. The sub sinks as a USAAF bomber re turning from a mission over New Guinea, therefore without bombs, is passing over the area. The pilot witnesses a sub forced to surface and is sunk by gunfire. There is no doubt this is USS Argonaut which was on her third patrol. There are no survivors from the 105 officers and men aboard. (Joe Sauder and Dave Shirlaw and Jack McKillop)
RAAF and USAAF Fifth Air Force aircraft operating over the Solomon Sea south of New Britain Island continue to attack vessels of the Japanese convoy that departed Lae, Northeast New Guinea, yesterday.
USN submarine USS Trigger (SS-237) torpedoes and sinks Japanese destroyer HIJMS Okikaze about 45 nautical miles (83 kilometers) south-southeast of Tokyo, Honshu, Japan, in position 35.02N, 140.12E.
CANADA: HMCS Surf paid off. Constructive total loss after grounding on Vancouver Island. Only Fisherman’s Reserve vessel lost in the war. Sold Sidney British Columbia.
U.S.A.:
Destroyer escort USS Pillsbury launched.
Submarine USS Pogy commissioned.