September 21st, 1943 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Frigate HMS Labuan launched.
HMS Polyanthus sunk by U-952.
NETHERLANDS: During the night of 21/22 September, 18 RAF Bomber Command aircraft laid mines in the Frisian Islands.
FRANCE: Corsica: Ajaccio: French troops, shipped across the Mediterranean from North Africa in the past nine nights, are advancing into the interior of Corsica. So far over 3,000 have come ashore. More are landing from the Free (Fighting) French cruisers JEANNE d'ARC and MONTCALM and the destroyers LE FANTASQUE and LE TERRIBLE every night.
The Free French commandos are supporting 20,000 mostly communist resistance fighters, who rose up after the Italian surrender, took to the Maquis (the Corsican interior, a traditional hiding place for outlaws), and are now fighting a garrison reinforced to 26,000 men after the German evacuation of Sardinia. This is the first wholly Free French operation on French home territory.
Though the transportation of the troops was a hasty improvisation - the British and Americans, who are committed to the Salerno operation, were unable to provide landing or transport vessels - the actual insurrection, led by the communist guerrilla leaders, Vittori and Giovoni, was well-planned. For three months the French submarine CASABLANCA has been bringing in arms, including 20,000 Sten guns. With the Italian surrender the insurrection broke out earlier than expected and Ajaccio was captured, providing General Henri Martin's Free French force with the port it needed to bring its troops ashore.
During the night of 21/22 September, 75 RAF Liberators of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group bomb the Bastia port area.
The US Eighth Air Force's VIII Air Support Command flies Mission 65: 44 B-26B Marauders hit the Tille Airfield at Beauvais at 0937-0938 hours; bad weather causes 20+ to abort; they claim 1-0-0 Luftwaffe aircraft; 1 B-26 is lost.
GERMANY: U-722 launched.
U.S.S.R.: A Soviet Army spearhead reaches the
Dnieper River at Dnepropetrovsk,50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Kiev, and
another force takes Chernigov-on-the-Desna, a provincial capital northeast of
Kiev. Since the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet Army has liberated half the
Soviet territory overrun by the Germans.
ITALY: In the British
15th Army Group area, General Sir Harold Alexander outlines plans for future
operations in four phases: (1) consolidation of current positions on a line
Salerno-Bari; (2) capture of Naples and Foggia; (3) seizure of Rome and
neighboring airfields as well as the communications center of Terni; and (4)
eventual capture of Leghorn, Florence, and Arezzo.
In the U.S. Fifth Army's VI Corps area, the 3d and 45th Infantry Divisions
continue north over the mountains from Salerno toward the east-west Highway 7,
meeting delaying opposition just south of Acerno and west of Oliveto,
respectively. The 34th Infantry Division, whose 133dd Infantry Regiment is to
reinforce VI Corps for the drive on Avellino, begins landing at Paestum.
In the air, USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-17s hit a bridge and the town area at
Benevento; B-25s and B-26s hit landing craft and a ferry near Elba Island and
bridges at Cancello Arnone and Capua; B-24s on detached service from the Eighth
Air Force in England, bomb Leghorn and Bastia; medium bombers and
fighter-bombers hit town areas, troop concentrations, trucks and tanks, and
targets of opportunity in the Solofra-Avellino-Benevento areas.
LEBANON: General elections are held for the Chamber of Deputies. The deputies elect Bishara al Khuri as President and he appoints Riyad as Sulh as prime minister asking him to form the first government of an independent Lebanon.
CHINA: 8 US Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and 8 P-40s attack railroad yards and warehouses at Chiuchiang, China, causing considerable destruction.
NEW GUINEA: The amphibious
assault force (the Australian 20th Brigade Group, Australian 9th Division) sails
from Lae for Finschhafen while the Australian 22d Brigade starts an overland
drive from Lae toward Langemak Bay. The 21st and 25th Brigades, Australian 7th
Division, are flown to Kaiapit from Nadzab to pursue the enemy up the Markham
Valley to Dumpu.
In the air, USAAF Fifth Air Force A-20s, B-26s, and RAAF aircraft hit Tami
Island and pound Finschhafen in preparation for the Allied amphibious assault
tomorrow; B-25s bomb and strafe the Bogadjim area and Langgoer.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On
Arundel Island, the 27th Infantry Regiment, upon renewing their assault, finds
that the Japanese have withdrawn from the mainland of Arundel as well as islands
nearby. The enemy is estimated to have lost 600 dead on Arundel. By this time
Japanese have decided to abandon the central Solomons entirely and want only to
escape northward.
In the air, 20+ Thirteenth Air Force B-24s bomb the runway and revetment
area at the airfield on Buka Island. About 20 Japanese fighters intercept the
B-24s; two “Zekes” (Mitsubishi A6M, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter) are shot down.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24s hit Cape Gloucester, New Britain Island, and sink a transport near Talasea; A-20s and RAAF aircraft bomb Gasmata Island off New Britain Island.
PACIFIC OCEAN: USN submarines sink four Japanese ships: (1) USS Trigger (SS-237) sinks two fleet oilers and a merchant cargo ship north of Keelung, Formosa and (2) USS Wahoo (SS-238) sinks a merchant fishing vessel northeast of Hokkaido, Japan.
U.S.A.: The House of Representatives passes the Fulbright Resolution which reads, "Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That the Congress hereby expresses itself as favoring the creation of appropriate international machinery with power adequate to establish and to maintain a just and lasting peace, among the nations of the world, and as favoring participation by the United States therein through its constitutional processes.
Destroyer escort USS Enright commissioned.
Destroyer USS Picking commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-188 sank SS Cornelia P
Spencer.
U-593 sank SS William W
Gerhard in Convoy NSS-3.