September 28th, 1943 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Corvette HMS Candytuft launched.
Corvette HMCS Long Branch (ex HMS Candytuft) launched Glasgow, Scotland. Log: Built by A. and J. Inglis, Glasgow, Scotland. Revised Flower Class (Increased Endurance) 970 tons, 208.3x33x11ft 16kts, crew 6/79, 1-4in, 1-2pdr, 2-20mm, hedgehog, renamed Sep 43. Long Branch named for a village absorbed by Toronto. Post WW.II, sold 1947, renamed SS Rexton Kent II, later renamed SS Rexton Kent. scuttled 1966 east coast. 28.09.43 Monnow's Log: Built by Charles Hill and Sons Ltd. 1,445 tons, 301.5x36.7x9ft, 19kts, crew 8/133, 2-4in(1xII) 4-20mm, hedgehog. Post WW II returned to RN; to Denmark renamed Holger Dansk C/S "OUGH" broken up Odense, Denmark 1959.
Submarines HMS Vox and Totem launched.
Frigates HMS Gardiner and Goodson commissioned.
Frigate HMCS (ex-HMS) Monnow laid down Bristol.
GERMANY: A prototype high-speed U-boat, U-792, is launched; this is the first of four experimental submarines of this type. These boats are powered by a Walter gas turbine using hydrogen peroxide in a stabilized form called Perhydrol. The boats are used for training and reach a speed of 25 knots submerged. The Walter boats are extremely complex to build and maintain; also, they rely on an uncertain supply of Perhydrol, a fuel that was highly flammable.
Perhydrol is stabilized [they hope] 95% hydrogen peroxide. It broke down into steam, which ran the turbine, and oxygen, which was used with additional fuel. I believe the problem was the Walther turbine used a hell of a lot of it making its use impractical. (Tom Hickcox)
U.S.S.R.: A Soviet army spearhead reaches the Dnepr River at Dnepropetrovsk, 240 miles southeast of Kiev. (Jeff Chrisman)
ITALY: The people of Naples rise
against the Germans. This fight will last 3 days and will end only with the
advance of the Allied Armies.
The British X Corps arrive on the plain of Naples at Nocera and continue their
advance. The US VI Corps advances near Avellino and captures Teora, Italy.
The US Fifth Army is ready for an assault on Naples and Avellino while Caistellamare di Stabia, Nocera, and Sala Consilina are taken.
Weather prevents completion of US Twelfth Air Force B-17 missions against the Bologna marshalling yard and the Bolzano railroad bridge, except for a B-17 which bombs Bolzano. Tactical aircraft operations are also severely curtailed by weather but fighter-bombers bomb and strafe motor transport in the Benevento-Caserta area.
AUSTRALIA: The Allied Air Forces, Southwest Pacific Area was activated 18 April 1942 at Brisbane, Queensland, assigned to Southwest Pacific Area, U.S. Army.
This unit retained operational control over the Fifth Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Command, attached Netherlands East Indies units and Aircraft, Seventh Fleet. Effective 15 June 1944, this unit also gained operational control of the Far East Air Forces (FEAF) and all U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviation units located west of 159E longitude
PACIFIC
NEW GUINEA: The Wewak area is again hit by the US Fifth Air Force; 40 B-24s, escorted by 29 P-38 Lightnings, claim 8 fighters shot down; A-20 Havocs and RAAF Vengeances attack the Finschhafen and Lae area; and B-24s and P-39s hit a road near Bogadjim.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: 5 US Thirteenth Air Force B-24 snoopers attack a convoy in northern Solomon waters and claim several damaging hits causing the convoy to reverse its course.
During the night, the IJA garrison on Kolombangara Island begins withdrawing.
SULU SEA: The USN submarine USS Cisco (SS-290) is sunk in the Sulu Sea off Panay Island, the Philippines by the gunboat HIJMS Karatsu [ex-river gunboat USS Panay (PR-7)] and a Mitsubishi F1M, Navy Type 0 Observation Seaplane, Allied Code Name "Pete" at position 9.47N 121.44E. She was spotted after being located through her leaking oil tanks. (Jack McKillop and Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Glen Boren notes in his
journal:
Loaded up on the USS BUNKER HILL and we left San Diego, underway for Pearl
Harbor.
I was looking forward to a couple months in Pearl for the Squadron to finish the training program. We were less than half way thru it.
That feeling lasted just two days. Our lead chief came up to us on the hanger deck and said that he wanted to move four fighters to the flight deck and to set Fox-1 up on the catapult. We asked him what was going on and he said we were the new fighter squadron for the Bunker Hill. He said that VF-17 with the F4U's were being pulled off at Pearl and going to be land based somewhere and we were " IT" from then on. When we were near Pearl, all our fighters were flown off and we did get two weeks for training but that was it.
Oh well, the best layed plans, and so forth.
Regards,
Glen
Submarine USS Robalo commissioned.