September 5th, 1943 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
USAAF OPERATIONS IN THE EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force):
VIII Air Support Command Mission 48: 3 marshalling yards are targeted. 72 B-26B Marauders are dispatched to 2 marshalling yards at Ghent, Belgium; 31 bomb one yard at 0827 hours; 32 bomb the second yard at 0831 hours; the 36 B-26s dispatched to the marshalling yard at Courtrai, France are recalled due to weather.
NETHERLANDS: During the night of 5/6 September, RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines off two locations, four off Texel and three in the Frisian Islands.
FRANCE: Thirty six USAAF VIII Air Support Command B-26B Marauders dispatched to bomb the marshalling yard at Courtrai are recalled due to weather.
During the night of 5/6 September, RAF Bomber Command drops mines on two targets; five aircraft off Brest and three off Lorient.
GERMANY: During the night of 5/6 September, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 605 aircraft, 299 Lancasters, 195 Halifaxes and 111 Stirlings, to carry out a second 'double' attack, this time against Mannheim and Ludwigshafen; 506 actually bombed. The target area for this double attack is clear of cloud and the Pathfinder marking plan worked perfectly. Ground-markers are placed on the eastern side of Mannheim so that the bombing of the Main Force, approaching from the west, could move back across Mannheim and then into Ludwigshafen on the western bank of the Rhine. The creepback did not become excessive and severe destruction is caused in both targets. Thirty four aircraft, 13 Halifaxes, 13 Lancasters and eight Stirlings, are lost, 5.6 per cent of the force. Three aircraft also dropped mines in the German Bight near Heligoland.
U-296 launched.
U.S.S.R.: The sectors of Bryansk and Donets find the Red Army making excellent advances against the defending Germans.
Soviet submarine K-1 lost for unknown reasons on her 16th patrol to Novaya Zemlia. All hands lost.
ITALY: Montgomery's Eighth Army
is taking its time liberating the peninsula's toe. In three days with no
opposition, the British have crawled 15 miles (24 kilometres) to Bagnara on
Calabria's north coast and Bova Marina on the east.
In the air during the day, USAAF
Twelfth Air Force B-17 Flying
Fortresses visually bomb two targets: 109 bomb Viterbo Airfield and five bomb
Cittavechia while 200+ B-25
Mitchells and
B-26 Marauders hit landing grounds at
Grazzanise. Weather hampers operations of the fighters and medium and light
bombers of the Twelfth Air Force and RAF,
and only a few targets (guns, roads, railroads, and troops) are attacked during
missions over the toe of Italy.
In the air during the night, 48 RAF Liberators of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group visually bomb the marshalling yard at Villa Literno while five others drop leaflets over northern Italy.
Sardinia: USAAF Twelfth Air Force medium bombers and fighters hit the Pula radar station and town of Pabillonis.
NORTH AFRICA: The Allies' main Italian invasion force sails from North African ports and heads for Salerno, 25 miles (40 kilometres) south of Naples. More than 450 ships are carrying 69,000 American and British troops commanded by General Mark Clark, Commanding General U.S. Fifth Army. The Allies will land at Salerno on 9 September, and Clark confidently expects to take Naples five days later.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: Fifteen USAAF Fourteenth Air Force P-38 Lightnings and P-40s attack the marshalling yard southeast of Lao Kay while 16 P-38s and P-40s hit barracks in the city.
NEW GUINEA: In the first airborne attack by the Allies in the Pacific War, American paratroopers of the 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment and 31 artillerymen of the Australian 2/4th Field Regiment parachute into the Markham Valley and take the disused airfield at Nadzab, northwest of Lae, without opposition.
This was the "left pincer" of Blamey's Operation Postern. Today we would call it a "Point of Entry" operation. The immediate object was to secure the Nadzab airstrip, potentially the largest in New Guinea. A further objective was to outflank the strategically vital town of Lae.
503rd US para regiment were accompanied by elements of a battery of 2/4 Australian Field Regiment equipped with "short" 25 pdr howitzers.
The operation begins at 1022 hours local, when 82 USAAF Fifth Air Force C-47 Skytrains, escorted by 146 P-38 Lightnings and P-47 Thunderbolts, drop paratroops of the U.S. 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment and 31-men of the Australian 2/4th Field Regiment equipped with "short" 25 pounder (87.6 mm) howitzers at Nadzab Airfield (first such landings in the Southwest Pacific Area) just west of Lae. The drop follows the bombardment of the drop zone by 52 USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and numerous fighter-bombers, the laying of a smoke screen over the landing area by A-20 Havocs and the bombing of Lae Airfield by 24 B-24 Liberators. Nadzab Airfield is quickly overrun and by 1840 hours, the site of the dirt strip has been cleared so that an Australian infantry division can be flown in. After landing, the paratroops link up with the Australian forces in the Bulolo Valley.
This was the first time Australian soldiers had parachuted into action. I believe it was also the first time that any force in the world had parachuted into action with artillery [perhaps someone can confirm this?]
Further Australian units arrive overland from the Bulolo Valley.
602 pioneers, (2/2 Pioneer Bn) 126 engineers (2/6 Fd Coy ) and 760 porters of the Australian 7th Division "hoofed it" from Tsili Tsili overland "using Maj Kidd's route". A second group improved the route while a third consisting of 90 engineers and 60 pioneers took the folding boats from the junction of the Watut and Markham Rivers to Kirkland's Dump (on the Markham), they had also floated their heavy equipment and plant down the Markham River on rafts the day before, then "laid up" in thick cover until the drop started. (Daniel Ross)(96)
The para drop was very well organised by US 5th Air Force - it is no easy task to plan and execute the drop of a complete regiment plus artillery. It was supported by copious fighter cover and smoke screens dropped by bombers. 5th Air Force also dropped dummy parachutists in other areas to confuse the Japanese.
No Japanese resistance was encountered (at this stage), tribute to Blamey's skill in convincing the Japanese that the true objective of the campaign was Salamaua, many miles to the south.
As a point of interest for those who like big guns: the "short" 25 pounder was developed at the Australian Army School of Ordnance in Victoria. Its ballistics were worse than a conventional 25 pdr (not surprising) but it packed a bigger punch than e.g. a US 75mm pack howitzer. The short 25 pdr could be broken down into section for transport by aircraft. This was done at Buna and at Wau where the gunners assembled their guns under fire on the airstrip. Now at Nadzab, Australian gunners had shown that it could be successfully dropped by parachute as well. (Michael Mitchell)
The airfield is made operational and the entire Australian 7th Division is flown in.
PACIFIC OCEAN: The USN submarine USS
Swordfish (SS-193) sinks a Japanese army transport north of New Guinea.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: Ten RAAF Beaufort Mk. IVs attack Gasmata Airfield on New Britain Island. Three aircraft are shot down over the target and a fourth crashes on landing.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Arundel Island, the U.S. 172d Infantry Regiment unsuccessfully attacks Japanese positions about 600 yards (549 meters) southeast of the base of Bomboe Peninsula.
USAAF OPERATIONS IN THE CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER OF OPERATIONS
* Fourteenth Air Force: In French Indochina, 15 P-38 Lightnings and P-40s attack the marshalling yard southeast of Lao Kay; 16 P-38s and P-40s hit barracks in the city.
U.S.A.: Destroyer escorts USS
Herzog, McAnn and Whitehurst launched.
Minesweeper USS Staunch laid down.
Destroyer escort USS William C Cole laid down.