August 20th, 1943 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeper HMS
Spanker commissioned.
Minesweepers HMS Chameleon, Cheerful and Squirrel laid down.
GERMANY: Peenemunde: The head of rocket research is found dead, shot by an unknown assassin.
U-1107 laid down.
NORWAY: Oslo: A state of siege has been proclaimed throughout Norway. Army officers have been rounded up for deportation to PoW camps in Germany, and the Oslo police commissioner has been shot dead. Gunnar Eilifsen, the police commissioner, repeatedly disobeyed an order to provide men to arrest Norwegian women for compulsory labour in war industries. There is now widespread defiance of German rule. Of the 35,000 new workers demanded by the Germans only 4,000 have been found.
BALTIC SEA:
- U-670 is sunk at 2230 hours local in the Gulf of Danzig, position unknown, after a
collision with the German target ship Bolkoburg. 22 of the 43 crewman on the U-boat
survive.
U.S.S.R.: A Soviet Army spearhead in northern Ukraine plunges 75 miles (120,7 kilometres) beyond Kharkov and threatens to trap German forces in the wrecked city. Hitler orders Kharkov to be held at all costs. Since losing 3,000 panzers and 1,200 planes during last month's disastrous Battle of Kursk, the outnumbered and outgunned Germans have been unable to contain Soviet offensives along a 600-mile (965,6 kilometer) front from central Russia to the Black Sea. (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop)
PORTUGAL: Peace talks between American,
British and Italian generals end in Lisbon with the Allies giving the Badoglio
government ten days to agree to unconditional surrender.
ITALY:
- US Ninth Air Force B-24's attack a railroad station, marshalling yard, and air depot at Cancello Arnone.
- US Northwest African Strategic Air Force (NASAF) B-26 Marauders and B-17s bomb marshalling yards at Villa Literno and Aversa; the P-38 escort also attacks Aversa; NASAF aircraft claim 20+ enemy fighters shot down.
Northwest African Strategic Air Force (NASAF) B-26 Marauders hit the Capua and Aversa marshalling yards, while B-25 Mitchells bomb the Benevento marshalling yard.
NEW GUINEA: Allied forces are fighting on Babdubi Ridge, SW of Salamaua. This is part of phased brigade attacks ordered by Maj-Gen Savige (GOC 3 Australian Division) to break the Japanese defensive lines centred on Mount Tambu. Mount Tambu was an immensely strong natural fortress improved with fortifications up to 12 feet thick.
The sequence was as follows: US 162nd Infantry Regiment (-) captured Roosevelt Ridge on 13 August; 15th Australian Militia Brigade attacked Bobdubi Ridge on 14 August; 17th Brigade AIF enveloped Mount Tambu on 16 August.
The capture of Mount Tambu was achieved by two companies of 2/6 Bbn AIF infiltrating across Buirali gorge to seize a position behind Mount Tambu, astride the Japanese supply line. At the same time frontal pressure was maintained by 2/5 Bn AIF and I/162 US Inf Bn. Japanese counter attacks on the 2/6 Bn infiltration force were broken up by long range sustained MG fire from 42 Aust militia Bn. After three days, the Japanese I/66 Bn abandoned Mt. Tambu on 19 August. Neighbouring defensive positions were also abandoned.
The Japanese had been evicted from a strong defensive position at minimal cost. (Michael Mitchell)
24 B-24s escorted by 46 P-38s bomb Boram Airfield, New Guinea
in the late morning.
PACIFIC OCEAN: The USN submarine USS Pompano (SS-181) departs Midway Island on her seventh war patrol. She is never heard from again.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA:
During the Aleutian Campaign, 3 June
42 to 21 August 43, the US Eleventh Air Force destroyed 69 aircraft, sank 21 and damaged
29 ships, and lost 29 of its own aircraft.
CANADA: Quebec: Britain and the
United States have agreed on how they will co-operate on a secret weapon, the
atomic bomb, known in code as "Tube Alloys". President Roosevelt and
Mr. Churchill today signed a simple agreement: never to use "this
agency" against each other, and not to use against third parties without
each other's consent.
The agreement caps several months of negotiations between British and American officials. The secret project will be placed under a joint committee in Washington. Mr. Roosevelt has also persuaded Mr. Churchill to accept the US chief of staff, General Marshall, as the senior Allied commander.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-596 sank SS Nonn El Sayeda.