August 14th, 1943 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Frigates HMS Hoste, Manners, Moorsom, Mounsey laid down.
Frigate HMS Byron launched. Frigate HMS Lossie commissioned. Destroyer HMS Hardy commissioned.
FRANCE: VICHY FRANCE: The premier, Pierre Laval, refuses to cooperate with German demands to deport all French Jews.
GERMANY: U-479 and U-480 are launched. U-242 is commissioned.
U.S.S.R.: Ukraine: Russian forces pushing on in ever increasing strength following the recapture of Bielgorod, have taken the southern outposts of the great Ukrainian city of Kharkov. The Germans defending the city are now in great danger of being cut off as Russian tanks work their way behind their lines.
The continuing Russian offensive, part of their master strategy after the great victory at Kursk, involves 120 Russian divisions. Many of these divisions are absolutely fresh and have been thrown against Field Marshal von Manstein's battered army of only 42 divisions. The Russian commanders, General Konev and Vatutin, thrusting hard at the join in the German line between the 4th Panzer Army and the Kampfgruppe, have split them apart and are pouring men through the gap.
The apparently inexhaustible supply of Russian divisions is being supported by equally strong aerial formations. There are now 100 Russian air divisions, with 10,000 aircraft patrolling the battlefield.
Faced by swarms of Russian planes, the Luftwaffe, forced to withdraw squadrons to defend Germany from Allied bombers, is finding it increasingly difficult to support the Wehrmacht. The question for the German high command now is where to find the reserves to stop the teeming Russians.
ITALY: US and British units capture Randazzo, Sicily.
SICILY: On orders from General Eisenhower, Lt-Gen Patton apologizes to
soldiers whom he had struck in a hospital.
SPAIN: Madrid: German agents watched with more than usual suspicion earlier this week as a senior Italian general flew here for secret talks with the British ambassador. The subject was the new Italian government's anxiety to declare Rome an open city after a second day of heavy bombing by Allied aircraft. Simultaneously, another Italian general was meeting Field Marshal Rommel on the Italian frontier, apparently with the same object in mind. Although the new prime minister, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, announced the news to delighted Romans tonight, Allied sources in Algiers said that they had received no official confirmation that Rome would be "open".
A spokesman said that a city could be regarded as "open" only when all ministries, government agencies, military organizations and war industries had gone. "As long as Rome continues to be a German military communications centre, it will constitute a legitimate objective of Allied bombings," he said. Many cynical observers believe that Badoglio's declaration should be interpreted as proof that Italy will continue to fight on and has no intention of seeking peace with the Allies.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The US Ninth Air Force dispatches 61
B-24s, on loan from the Eighth Air Force in England, to bomb the Bf 109 factory at
Wiener-Neustadt, Austria.
Submarine HMS Saracen suffers flooding after heavy depth charge attacks by Italian torpedo boats Euterpe and Minerva off Bastia. Unable to control buoyancy, the crew assemble in the control room to make their escape at the surface, and Saracen sinks after being abandoned. (Alex Gordon)(108)
SOLOMON ISLANDS: 9 US Thirteenth Air Force B-17s bomb the Rekata Bay area of Santa Isabel Island.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: In the Aleutian Islands, 2 US Eleventh Air Force B-24s fly a special radar ferret and reconnaissance mission; 1 B-25 Mitchell, 8 B-24s, and 10 P-38 Lightnings then fly 2 attack missions to Kiska Island, bombing with unobserved results. This is the last Eleventh Air Force mission against Kiska. The high-speed transport USS Kane (APD-18), lands elements of the US Army's 1st Special Service Force on Kiska.
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Rossland launched North Vancouver, British Columbia.
HMC ML 108 commissioned.
U.S.A.: Washington: Revisions in the US draft become effective. A revised list of important occupations as well as dependents will be the deciding factor in selection. The war manpower commission, in a move intended to prevent a national service act, has changed the rules for the draft, the lottery system of conscription. The list of important occupations deferring call up has been revised to keep men with skills needed by war industry at work. Another change announced by Paul McNutt, the manpower commissioner, is that fatherhood is no longer a reason for deferment. "Fatherhood", said McNutt, "does not excuse any man from making his contribution to victory."
Clyde Atwood is executed by electrocution at Tennessee State Penitentiary for murder of a Federal employee. (Russell Folsom)
The motion picture "This Is the Army" is released. This musical, based on Irving Berlin's play, is directed by Michael Curtiz and stars George Murphy, Joan Leslie, George Tobias, Alan Hale, Una Merkel, Rosemary DeCamp, Frances Langford, Kate Smith, Ronald Reagan, Joe Louis and Ezra Stone. Appearing in an uncredited roles are Irving Berlin and Richard Farnsworth. In World War I, dancer Jerry Jones (Murphy) produced an all soldier show on Broadway called "Yip Yip Yaphank." It is now World War II and his son (Reagan) gets orders to produce another all soldier show called "This Is The Army." The film is nominated for three Academy Awards and wins one.
The field forces in the Pacific were very upset with the
addition to the red outline for the same reason that the red
"meatball" had been removed in 1942. So Army-Navy Aeronautical
Specification AN-1-9b was issued on 14 August 1943 changing the red outline to
blue.
Destroyer escort USS Borum launched.
Destroyer escort USS Emery commissioned.