September 24th, 1943 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Westminster: Britain has run out of manpower. Another 750,000 workers are needed next year, despite the mobilization of 22,750,000 already, said Ernest Bevin, the minister of labour, today. The recruiting of women into the services will virtually stop and they will be diverted into industry. Boys and girls aged 16 and 17 will be placed in aircraft factories. Surface coal workers are being sent below, and cotton operatives of up to 55 will return to work in the mills.
Destroyer HMS Urchin commissioned.
Frigates HMS Mounsey, Moorsom, Manners and Hoste launched.
FRANCE: The US Eighth Air Force's
VIII Air Support Command flies Missions 69 and 70 against 2 airfields without
loss.
(1) 71 B-26B Marauders hit Fauville Airfield at Evreux at 1150 hours; they
claim 0-1-0 Luftwaffe aircraft.
(2) 66 B-26Bs hit Tille Airfield at Beauvais at 1602-1603 hours; they claim 1-0-0 Luftwaffe aircraft.
GERMANY: Berlin announces evacuation of Smolensk and Roslavl in the Soviet Union.
During the night of 24/25 September, four RAF Bomber Command Mosquitos bomb Duisburg.
U-370 launched.
U.S.S.R..: Heavy fighting is in progress in the vicinity of Smolensk
and Roslavl. The Soviet Army captures Borispol, east of Kiev. (John
Nicholas and Jack McKillop)
Vilna: The Nazis have had plenty of practice in destroying Jewish ghettoes. In the second of two "special actions", the Jews here have been robbed, beaten and sent either to Majdanek for gassing or to Estonian labour camps for a slow death. The elderly were simply shot in the nearby Ponary woods. Of Vilna's pre-war population of 60,000 Jews, just two thousand Jews are left, living in prison camps, working for German fur factories.
ITALY: In
the British Eighth Army's 5 Corps area, 78th Division patrols reach the Ofanto
River.
In the air, the USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-25s and B-26s hit roads,
railways, bridges, and junctions at Grottaminarda, Maddaloni, Benevento,
Avellino, Capua, Cancello Arnone, Amorosi, Ponte, and Mignano, and attack a
destroyer between Corsica and Elba Island; B-24s on detached service from the
Eighth Air Force bomb the marshalling yard at Pisa; US and RAF planes attack
vehicles, roads, troop concentrations, and gun positions around Santa Lucia di
Serino, Serino, Caserta, Benevento, Camarella, Baronissi, Nocera, Montemarano,
and San Severo.
During the night of 24/25 September, 80 RAF aircraft of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group bomb North Basin at Leghorn.
NEW GUINEA:
In Northeast New Guinea, the 20th Brigade, Australian 9th Division, forces the Bumi River, north of
Finschhafen, against heavy opposition, capturing Finschhafen Airfield. In the
Markham River Valley, the 2/14th Battalion, with a battery from the 2/4th Field
Regiment, lands at Kaiapit. (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop)
In the air, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24s fly a small strike against Sorong
and Manokwari.
In the air, 9 Japanese bombers with a fighter escort bomb and strafe
Finschhafen Airdrome. A USAAF Fifth Air Force P-38 pilot shoots down one of the
escorting “Zekes” (Mitsubishi A6M, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighters).
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Barakoma Field on Vella Lavella Island becomes operational and the first Allied plane lands.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: ALAMO Scouts begin reconnaissance of the Cape Gloucester area on New Britain Island in preparation for the upcoming invasion. ALAMO is the code for the U.S. Sixth Army while operating as a special ground task force headquarters directly under General Headquarters, South West Pacific Area.
ARCTIC OCEAN:
U-387 put a weather reporting
unit ashore on Spitsbergen in the Arctic Sea.
U-711 used its deck gun to attack the Soviet radio station Blagopolucya on the island of Nova Zemlja in the Barents Sea.
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance recommends to Admiral Chester Nimitz that an amphibious operation against Makin Island be substituted for projected invasion of Nauru. This plan is subsequently accepted.
CANADA: Tug HMCS Norton launched Montreal, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.: The motion picture
"Sabotage Agent" is released. This war drama, directed by Harold S.
Bucquet, stars Robert Donat, Valerie Hobson and Glynis Johns. The plot has a
British soldier (Donat) sent to Czechoslovakia to blow up a German poison gas
factory.
In baseball, the Chicago Cubs play the Philadelphia Phillies before
314 fans in a game at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Andy Pafko, who played in the
major leagues for 17-years, makes his debut and drives in 4 runs with a double
and a single. The games is called in the 5th inning due to rain.