August 5th, 1943(THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeping trawler
HMS Gulland launched.
Submarine HMS Turpin launched.
EIRE: An RAF Beaufort crashes at Falcaragh, County Donegal.
GERMANY:
U-1193,
U-1194 launched.
U-316 commissioned.
SWEDEN: Stockholm: In a move which betrayed Germany's
weakened position, the Swedish government announced tonight that it would no longer allow
the Swedish railways to be used to transport German troops and war material to Norway. The
Swedes were forced to concede transit rights to the Germans in 1940 when the Nazi armies
were sweeping to victory over most of Europe.
Stockholm newspapers say that the government has acted because a virtual state of war
exists in Norway today, with British commandos mounting raids and uniformed Allied
guerrillas active.
U.S.S.R.: Bielgorad falls to General Konev's troops.
Orel: Russia is celebrating the recapture of Orel, which has been in German hands since
1941. In Moscow a 120-gun salute was given at Midnight. The Russians, who fought hard all
the way to the approaches to the city, expected a bloody street battle, but when their
patrols moved cautiously in they found the suburbs deserted. The Germans, fearing being
cut off, had fled. The fall of this German bastion removes the last threat to Moscow and
opens the way for the next stage in the Russian advance. The tide of battle is now rolling
towards Bryansk.
MV Majakovski (approx. 80 tons) was sunk by a mine laid on 31 July by U-212 SE of Koglujew in the Kara.
LITHUANIA: The Germans start the final deportation of Jews from the Vilna ghetto with a transport to the Vaivara labour camp in Estonia.
LATVIA:
The German submarine U-34
sinks at 2155 hours local at
Memel in position 55.42N, 21.09E after a collision
with the German U-boat submarine tender Lech. 39 of the 43 crewmen survive.
ITALY: SICILY: The race for Messina and victory in Sicily is reaching the final stage. The British have fought their way around Mount Etna on both sides with the Highlanders fighting hard for Biancavilla as the XIII Corps advanced to take Catania, Misterbianco and Paterno, and XXX Corps advances towards Adrano. The Germans are leaving strong rearguards as they retreat northwards to Messina. The British have been aided by forward landings by airborne forces fighting to save bridges from demolition.
The American Seventh Army has used seaborne landings to bypass the Axis defenders along the north coast of the island. They open an assault on the San Fratello ridge, and further inland gain positions overlooking Troina. The enemy withdraws from the town during the night.
In the air, USAAF Ninth Air Force B-25 Mitchells
bomb the town, roads, and road junctions of Francavilla and shipping in the
Straits of Messina. Northwest African Tactical Air Force fighters and light and
medium bombers attack troops, roads, and gun positions at Adrano and Troina and
surrounding areas in support of Allied ground forces, hit motor transport behind
enemy lines in Sicily and on the toe of Italy, and sink or damage over 20 small
vessels and barges at Milazzo and in the Straits of Messina; and Northwest
African Strategic Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses, operating in 2 forces, hit
the docks and railroad yards at Messina. B-25s bomb a switching station at
Guspini, Sardinia.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Munda Airfield on New Georgia Island, principal objective of the central Solomons campaign, is taken by US Army XIV Corps forces after 12 continuous days of fierce fighting in the jungle area.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: A USN submarine sinks a Japanese transport west of Marcus Island.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The US Navy drops over 150 tons of bombs on the deserted island of Kiska.
CANADA: Minesweeper HMS Mary Rose launched Toronto, Ontario.
U.S.A.:
Destroyer USS Moale laid down.
Destroyer escorts USS Duffy, Farguhar commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS Efthalia Mari sunk by
U-177 at 24.21S, 48.55E.
At 2137, USS Plymouth was hit by one torpedo from
U-566 about 120 miles SE of
Cape Henry, Virginia. The gunboat had made a underwater sound contact while
escorting a coastal convoy, just as the ship swung
left to bear on the target she was struck just abaft the bridge. The ship rolled
first to starboard, then took a heavy list to port with the entire port side
forward of amidships in flames and sank within two minutes. The survivors were
picked up by the US Coast Guard cutter USS Calypso in heavy seas and arrived in
Norfolk on 6 August. Built as American motor yacht Alva for W.K. Vanderbilt, New
York. On 4 Nov 1941, given to the USN and placed in reduced commission under Cdr
F.W. Schmidt at Jacksonville on 29 December. On 22 Jan 1942, the ship entered
the Norfolk Navy yard to be converted to the patrol gunboat USS Plymouth, armed
with one 4in and four 3in guns. On 20 April, she was fully commissioned, based
in Norfolk and assigned to the Inshore Patrol Squadron in the 5th Naval
District. She made several convoy escort voyages between New York, Key West and
Guantanamo during 1942/43
Minesweeping trawler HMS Red Gauntlet torpedoed and sunk by E-boat S-86 off Felixstowe.