September 11th, 1943 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Vigo laid down.
Frigates HMS Cubitt and Taff launched.
FRANCE: The US Eighth Air Force's VIII Air Support Command flies Mission 56 against 2 locations without loss. (1) 19 B-26Bs bomb the shipyard at Le Trait at 1704 hours, when the primary target is obscured by clouds and (2) 32 B-26Bs attack Beaumont le Roger Airfield at 1756 hours.
GERMANY: U-767 commissioned.
U.S.S.R.: German officers imprisoned in a PoW camp at Lunyovo set up the anti-Nazi League of German Officers.
ITALY: The fighting at Salerno
becomes more chaotic and piecemeal. Typical is the fight on the British 56
Division's front, where 167 Brigade and 201 Guards Brigade are subjected to
sudden sharp attacks by infiltrating German units at the 'Tobacco Factory'
between Battipaglia and Bellizzi. These attacks are beaten off, but neither
British nor German troops are really sure of the situation. In 46 Division's
sector, the fighting is also scrappy and disjointed. 139 Brigade is able to
gradually relieve the Commando forces at Vietri sul Mare and on the left the US
Rangers are reinforced and continue to hold their positions. A three-pronged
push in the US VI Corps' sector by the 36th and 45th Infantry Divisions is held
up in the left and center as troops of the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division filter
into the fighting on the plain.
In southern Italy, British 1 Airborne Division enters
Bari and then Brindisi. General Bernard Montgomery, Commanding General Eighth
Army, pushes forward units of the British 5 Division towards Castrovillari and
Belvedere and the Canadian 1 Division towards Crotone. General Harold
Alexander's Chief-of-Staff, Major General Alexander Richardson, arrives at
Montgomery's headquarters to explain the crisis at Salerno and to offer men and
equipment to threaten the South flank of the Germans facing Fifth Army.
Shortly after 0000 hours local, German E-boats attack
the USN destroyer USS Rowan (DD-405) in the Gulf of Salerno. Rowan pursued and
fired on the enemy, then, as her quarry pulled away, ceased firing and changed
course to rejoin the convoy she was escorting back to Oran, French Morocco.
Within 5 minutes a new contact was made, range less than 3,000 yards (2.7
kilometres). Again she changed course, to avoid torpedoes and bring her guns
into position. As the range decreased to 2,000 yards (1.8 kilometres), Rowan was
hit by a torpedo. She sank in less than a minute, taking 202 of her 273 officers
and men with her.
Off the coast of Salerno in the morning, the USN light
cruiser USS Savannah (CL-42) is struck by a remote controlled Ruhrstahl/Kramer
X-1 (Fritz X) glide bomb launched by a Do-217K-2 of III/KG 100. It pierces
through the armored turret roof of the Number 3 Gun Turret, passes through three
decks into the lower handling room where it explodes causing a gaping hole in
the bottom, and tears open a seam in the ship's port side. For 30-minutes,
secondary explosions in the gun room hamper firefighting efforts; 197 crewmen
are killed and 15 seriously wounded. The ship arrives at Malta on 12 September
and then departed for the U.S. in December.
In the air, the USAAF Twelfth Air Force's XII Bomber
Command sends B-17s to bomb the Benevento marshalling yard and bridge and
highway junction nearby; B-25s and B-26s hit highways and junctions at
Castelnuovo, Ariano, Mignano, and Isernia; P-40s fly an uneventful sweep over
southern Sardinia; and USAAF and RAF aircraft of the Northwest African Tactical
Air Force continue to provide beachhead cover in the Salerno area, hit road
communications throughout the day, and attack road and rail bridges, junctions,
airfield, and town areas at Saptri, Corleto, Perticara, Auletta, and Gioia del
Colle.
During the night of 11/12 September, 96 RAF Liberators of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group visually bomb Frosinone Airfield.
YUGOSLAVIA: The partisans occupy
Split.
CHINA: 10 US Fourteenth Air Force B-25s and 11 P-40s attack the Hankow docks and Wuchang cotton mills.
NEW GUINEA: The Australian attack against the Japanese at Salamaua takes the airfield and the Australians enter the town itself as the Japanese pull out.
The advance on Salamaua was held up for two weeks while the Australian 7th and 9th Divisions completed preparations for converging attacks on Lae by land and sea.
PACIFIC OCEAN: USN submarines sink two Japanese ships: (1) USS Harder (SS-257) sinks a transport south of Mikura Island, located off Honshu, Japan; and (2) USS Narwhal (SS-167) sinks a transport (hit earlier by dud torpedoes) five miles northwest of Nauru Island.
JAPAN: KURILE ISLANDS: the US Eleventh Air Force dispatches 12 B-25 Mitchells and 8 B-24 Liberators to attack Paramushiru Island for the third and last time this year. 6 B-24s bomb the Kashiwabara staging area; shipping is bombed and strafed in Kashiwabara harbor and Paramushiru Straits; 1 freighter and 1 large transport are sunk while 1 transport and 2 cargo ships are damaged; 2 other cargo vessels sustain possible hits; targets hit on land include 2 buildings and an AA battery on Shimushu Island. Of 40 fighters giving battle, 13 are shot down and 3 more are probables. 2 B-24s force-land in the USSR, one with a mechanical defect, the other after being hit; 1 B-24 is downed by AA fire; losses are 7 B-25s and 2 B-24s in this most disastrous day for the Eleventh Air Force.
It will be another 5 months before it is able to strike at the Kuriles again.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: A regiment of the U.S. 25th Infantry Division lands on the western end of Bomboe Peninsula on Arundel Island and starts moving east. Artillery and, for the first time in the South Pacific, 4.2 inch (10,7 centimeter) mortars support the attack.
18 US Thirteenth Air Force B-25s pound the area west of Vila airfield on Kolombangara Island and west of Disappointment Cove on New Georgia Island. The airfield is hit again in the evening by 3 B-24s. 25 B-24s, with fighter escort, bomb Kahili airfield on Bougainville Island; B-24s and fighters claim 7 aircraft shot down. P-40s and P-39Airacobras support SBD Dauntlesses in striking gun positions at Hamberi on New Georgia Island.
EAST INDIES: US Fifth Air Force B-24s bomb Makassar on Celebes Island and in New Guinea, Australian forces cross the Francisco River to Salamaua airfield as Japanese forces draw toward Lae.
CANADA: Frigate HMCS Waskesiu arrived Halifax from workups in Bermuda.
Frigate HMCS Runnymede laid down Montreal, Province of Quebec.
Frigate HMCS Dunver commissioned.
HMC ML 107 commissioned.
Off the U.S.A. coast, the German submarine U-107 lays mines off Charleston, South Carolina.
U-107 damaged oiler USS Rapidan in Convoy NG-385.
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Lyman K Swenson laid down.
Frigate USS Bayonne launched
Destroyer escorts USS Hollis, Jenks and Loeser launched'
Destroyer USS Mertz launched.
Minesweepers USS Penetrate and Pinnacle launched.
Destroyer escort USS Sederstrom commissioned.