September 17th, 1943 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Frigate HMS Affleck commissioned.
FRANCE: Nineteen French Resistance fighters (FTPF - Communists) are executed by the Germans in Brest.
Plans are discovered of a plot by French Resistance to assassinate Pierre Laval. (Glenn Steinberg)
During the night of 17/18 September, eight RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons laid mines off Brest.
GERMANY: During the night of 17/18 September, six RAF Bomber Command Mosquitos bombed Berlin.
U-720 commissioned
U-999 and
U-1000 launched.
U.S.S.R.: The Soviet Army captures Bryansk, Trubchevsk and Bezhitsa along the Desna River in their advance. Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov also falls.
Bryansk: The Red Army liberated this great industrial centre today, sweeping aside six German infantry divisions before entering the city. They found it devastated. Walter Model's men of 9 Armee have blown up virtually every factory before pulling out. The recapture of Bryansk, is, nevertheless, a major strategic victory, for it was the last German stronghold in Russia from which Moscow could be threatened. With six railway lines spreading from it, the city became the junction for the German occupation, feeding men and guns to the battlefields. Now the Russians will use the same tracks to push towards Smolensk, Gomel and Kiev. The Germans are now falling back towards the Dnieper, the next obvious defence line to counter the Russian advance.
ITALY: On the ground in Italy, US Fifth Army forces advancing on Altavila are pinned down however, the enemy retires to the north, completing a withdrawal from the battleline during the night. The British Eighth Army begins a general advance north toward Potenza and Auletta. US Ninth Air Force B-24s attack a marshalling yard, road junction, and rail junction at Pescara on the east coast while RAF heavy bombers again hit Potenza.
German forces start to withdraw from the west coast, attacking Altavilla and Battipaglia to cover their tracks.
US Twelfth Air Force B-17s and B-26 Marauders bomb airfields at Ciampino and Pratica di Mare; B-25 Mitchells attack small craft and barges off the mouth of the Tiber River;
P-38 Lightnings fly 27 dive-bombing missions against roads, junctions, railways, bridges, and targets of opportunity in the battle area and towns of Vallo della Lucania, Acerno, Nocera, Avellino, Gragnano Serre, Lioni, Fisciano, Monteforte Irpino, Cava de' Tirreni and Auletta;
XII Air Support Command, Northwest African Tactical Bomber Force, and other elements of the Northwest African Tactical Air Force escort naval vessels, and bomb rail and road junctions, motor transport, a marshalling yard, town areas, and various targets of opportunity in the Pompeii, Torre Annunziata, Salerno, Campagna, Sarno, Solofra, Montella, and Acerno areas.
The US 5th Army begins to push out of the beachhead at Salerno.
During the night of 17/18 September, 64 RAF heavy bombers of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group bomb Cerveteri Airfield.
YUGOSLAVIA: Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean, as Churchill's personal representative, heads a British liaison team sent to Tito. It is to follow up earlier reports that Tito is doing more against the Germans then Mihajlovic.
NORWAY:
Miniature
submarine X-8 is scuttled in the Norwegian Sea after it had been found necessary
to jettison both her explosive side cargoes. There are no casualties. The
X-craft are being towed from Shetland to Northern Norway to undertake attacks on
Scharnhorst , Lützow
and Tirpitz. (Alex
Gordon)(108)
GILBERT ISLANDS: Today and again on the 19th landbased B-24 Liberators strike Tarawa Atoll and Abemama Island and obtain photo coverage of Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll. A B-24 is lost to interceptors.
NEW GUINEA: US Fifth Air Force B-25s carry out a coastal sweep against barges and villages from Reiss Point to Langemak Bay.
U.S.A.: Washington: Roosevelt says that Fortress Europe can be broken as "Hitler forgot to put a roof over this fortress."
The USAAF First Air Force at Mitchel Field, Hempstead, Long Island, New York, and the Fourth Air Force at 180 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco, California, are reassigned from the Army's Eastern and Western Defense Commands repectively to HQ USAAF.
Frigate USS Gallup launched.
Destroyer escort USS Lovering commissioned.
CANADA: Tug HMCS Beaverton launched Montreal, Province of Quebec.