May 26th, 1943 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Frigate HMS Shiel launched.
GERMANY:
POLAND: Auschwitz: 1,042 Gypsies
are executed in gas chamber after typhoid breaks out. (Gene Hanson)
U.S.S.R.: Volga Flotilla: GB "Krasnogvardeetz" - mined close to Besimyannii Is., in Stalingrad area (Sergey Anisimov)(69)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: During an air attack by an RAF 500 Sqn Hudson in the Mediterranean one man was killed and two men wounded on U-755. The boat was forced to return to port due to heavy damage but was sunk 2 days later.
EGYPT: Alexandria: The first through convoy to complete the Mediterranean passage since 1941 arrives without loss; it left Gibraltar on 17 May.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The submarine USS Trout (SS-202) lands a party of men and equipment on Basilan Island off the coast of Zamboanga, Mindanao Island, to set up an intelligence gathering facility. A second group of coastwatchers is landed near Zamboanga.
CANADA: Meat rationing begins.TERRITORY OF ALASKA: On Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands, the American troops of the 4th and 32d Infantry Regiments are able to crawl above a snow covered trench on Fishhook Ridge and attack the Japanese in the trench from the high ground. This results in the capture of most of the ridge.
The USAAF's Eleventh Air Force dispatches eight B-24 Liberators and eleven B-25 Mitchells to fly air-ground support and bomb enemy positions on Attu; two B-24s and 12 P-38 Lightnings fly air cover sorties and also patrol and strafe Japanese positions on the Island. On Kiska Island, three F-5A Lightnings fly a photographic reconnaissance mission while three attack missions are flown by nine B-25s and 16 P-40s; targets include gun emplacements on North Head and the eastern end of the runway.
The gunboat USS Charleston (PG-51) bombards the Japanese positions in the Chichagof Harbor area.
The Japanese begin Operation KE, the evacuation of personnel from Kiska Island. The submarine HIJMS I-7 lands two tons of weapons and ammunition and six tons of food and takes off 49 sailors, seven soldiers and four civilians.
U.S.A.: The 14th Antiaircraft Artillery Group is redesignated AAA Group. (Jean Beach)
Escort carrier USS Mission Bay launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-436 was sunk in the North Atlantic west of Cape Ortegal, Spain, in position 43.49N, 15.56W, by depth charges from frigate HMS Test and corvette HMS Hyderabad.