November 19th, 1943 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Fido, a secret device to clear fog from runways is used for the first time to help bombers returning from the Rühr to land.
The USAAF Eighth Air Force's VIII Bomber Command flies Mission 135: six B-17 Flying Fortresses drop 2.316 million leaflets on Amiens and Reims, France; Brussels and Ghent, Belgium; and Amsterdam and The Hague, The Netherlands at 1915-2011 hours.
Escort carrier HMS Thane commissioned.
FRANCE: Over 100 USAAF Ninth Air Force B-26 Marauders dispatched to attack airfields in France abort the mission when bad weather prevents rendezvous with the fighter escorts.
During the night of 19/20 November, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 25 aircraft to lay mines off coastal ports: four lay mines off St. Nazaire, three each lay mines off La Pallice and Lorient, and two each lay mines off Brest and Le Havre. Eleven other aircraft drop leaflets over northern France.
NETHERLANDS: Seven USAAF Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses flying Mission 134 to Gelsenkirchen, Germany, bomb Arnheim as a target of opportunity.
GERMANY: The Battle of Berlin has begun: 440 Lancasters and four Mosquitoes bombed the capital last night, dropping 2,300 tons of explosives in 30 minutes. Bad weather grounded Luftwaffe night fighters, and all but nine Lancasters returned. On the same night Mannheim was raided by 395 aircraft - making this Bomber Command's heaviest night of operations so far in the war.
In Berlin much of the fashionable Wilhelmstrasse was destroyed and 131 people died, but factories were undamaged. Sir Arthur Harris, the chief of Bomber Command, recently told Mr Churchill: "We can wreck Berlin from end to end ... It will cost between 400 and 500 aircraft. It will cost Germany the war." In the latest raid bombers followed pathfinders over cloud cover all the way. Most did not see the target, releasing their loads (often one big bomb of 4,000 pounds or more) at an aiming point marked by a burning flare. Hopes that the USAAF would join in the Berlin campaign are unfulfilled. American fighter escorts lack the range to reach Berlin.
The USAAF Eighth Air Force's VIII Bomber Command flies Mission 134: 110 B-17 Flying Fortresses and three B-17 pathfinder force aircraft are dispatched to Gelsenkirchen but the malfunction of blind-bombing equipment and the weather causes the force to attack targets of opportunity on the German-Dutch border at 1241-1251 hours.
During the night of 19/20 November, Leverkusen is bombed by 266 RAF Bomber Command aircraft, 70 Halifaxes, 86 Stirlings and ten Mosquitos; only four Halifaxes and one Stirling, 1.9 per cent of the force, are lost; very few German fighters are operating, probably because of bad weather at their airfields. The target is the I.G. Farben chemical plant but failures of equipment prevent most of the Oboe marking being carried out and other Pathfinder aircraft are unable to mark the target properly in difficult weather conditions, leading to bombs being scattered over a wide area. At least 27 towns, mostly well to the north of Leverkusen, record bombs. Leverkusen's own records show only one high-explosive bomb in the town! Mosquitos are also sent to bomb four cities: six hit Duisburg, two bomb Rheinhausen, and one each attack Bonn and Dusseldorf.
U-370 commissioned.
BALTIC SEA: Liaison vessel Pukkio is damaged by bomb off Suursaari.
U.S.S.R.: Red Army forces abandon Zhitomir to avoid being trapped there.
ITALY: In the British Eighth Army's V Corps area, Indian 8th Division sector, the Germans complete a withdrawal across the Sangro River.
The First Special Service Force, made up of American and Canadian troops, lands in Italy. The men of this crack unit have completed a rigorous training course in wilderness survival, skiing, mountain climbing, parachuting and hand-to-hand combat.
A-36 Apaches and P-40s of the USAAF Twelfth Air Force's XII Air Support Command bomb a bridge east of Cassino and the bridge and village of Pontecorvo, and, along with RAF Desert Air Force (DAF) fighter-bombers, hit strongpoints around the village of Barrea while supporting ground forces. Fighters (mostly RAF DAF) also strafe trucks and trains around Rieti.
YUGOSLAVIA: RAF Desert Air Force and USAAF Twelfth Air Force fighters strafe trucks and trains around Metkovic.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA:
S class
submarine HMS Simoom is lost in the Mediterranean with all 48 crew after leaving
Port Said on 2 November. She may have been the victim of a mine, or of an attack
by U-595 albeit in a position well
away from Simoom’s route. This was the last British submarine to be sunk in
the Mediterranean during WW2. (Alex Gordon)(108)
NEW GUINEA: In Northeast New Guinea, the Australian 2/48th Battalion, 26th Brigade, 9th Division, encounters Japanese positions dug in on the slope of a large feature in the Finschhafen area. The Australians advance and take the positions with and then beat off a counter attack with the help of tanks.
In Northeast New Guinea, 30 USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and B-26 Marauders bomb positions in the Sattelberg area while A-20 Havocs hit the Finschhafen area.
Captain John P. Cromwell, the commander of the USS Sculpin (SS-191), a USN submarine, goes down with his ship. The Sculpin was attacking a Japanese convoy when she was forced to the surface, fatally damaged in a gun battle with a Japanese destroyer and abandoned by her surviving crew members. Captain Cromwell, who knew secret details of the impending operation to capture the Gilbert Islands, deliberately remained on board as she sank. The Japanese destroyer Yamagumo saved 42 men but one injured man was thrown back into the sea because of his condition. The survivors were taken to Truk and questioned, then put on two carriers en-route to Japan. USS Sailfish ironically sank one of the carriers, Choyu, and only 1 American survived that sinking. The other 21 men were landed at Ofuna, Japan on 5 December. (MOH)
From Glen Boren's diary:
November 19 was about a repeat of the day before. Combat Air Patrol sighted a "Betty" and shot it down. It appeared that we were taking a heavy toll on the island, but as we all know, that was not the case. We had a "sand table" of the island (Tarawa) in the ready room. One of the pilots asked me if I had found a target that he could get for me. Knowing nothing about what was going on, I picked an outhouse built out over the water. I guess his gunnery film is still making the rounds of pilot's ready rooms. It shows the poor jap running back to land with his pants at about half mast. What we didn't do for a laugh!
USS Nautilus enters Tarawa lagoon in first submarine photograph reconnaissance mission. She also obtains last minute information on weather and surf conditions, landing hazards and the results of recent bombardments. At 2159 hours, mistaking her as a Japanese sub, the USN destroyer USS Ringgold (DD-500) fires at Nautilus, sending a 5-inch (12.7 centimeter) shell through the conning tower damaging the main induction drain. Diving as soon as the topography permitted, the boat is rigged for depth charges and the damage control party goes to work. Within two hours repairs are sufficient and Nautilus proceeds on her primary mission, landing a Marine reconnaissance unit on Abemama Island. (Jack McKillop & Dave Shirlaw)
In the South China Sea off China, USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells on shipping sweeps strafe two vessels off Hong Kong, score damaging hits on two vessels at Kiungshan, damage a freighter off Tsao Tao Island, and leave a gunboat and freighter sinking east of Swatow; warehouses and wharves at Swatow also are hit.
USN submarine USS Sculpin (SS-191), heavily damaged by Japanese destroyer HIJMS Yamagumo about 154 miles north of Truk Atoll, Caroline Islands, is scuttled. Captain John P. Cromwell, the embarked submarine squadron commander in Sculpin, familiar with secret details of upcoming operations, decides to go down with the ship rather than risk capture and inevitable interrogation. For his decision to accept certain death, Cromwell is awarded the Medal of Honor, posthumously.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Ten USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb the Matchin Bay area on Bougainville Island and the airfield on Ballale Airfield on Ballale Island located south of Bougainville.
NAURU ISLAND: Carrier-based USN carrier force (Task Group 50.4) attack the island in support of the unfolding operations to capture the Gilbert Islands. Nauru Island is a 21 square kilometer (8 square mile) island in the South Pacific Ocean, located about halfway between the Gilbert and Solomon Islands. The island is rich in phosphate deposits and was occupied by the Japanese on 25 August 1942. TG 50.4 is built around the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) with Carrier Air Group Twelve (CVG-12) and small aircraft carrier USS Princeton (CVL-23) with Light Carrier Air Group Twenty Two (CVLG-22).
GILBERT ISLANDS: Thirty one USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from Ellice Island bases bomb Makin Island and Tarawa Atoll.
Carrier-based aircraft of USN two task groups attack Makin Island and Tarawa Atoll. Aircraft from Task Group 50.2 attack Makin; this task group is built around the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) with Carrier Air Group six (CVG-6) and small aircraft carriers USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) with Light Carrier Air Group Twenty Four (CVLG-24) and USS Monterey (CVL-26) with CVLG-30. Tarawa Atoll is hit by aircraft from Task Group 50.3 which drop 69 tons (63 metric tonnes) of bombs; this TG is built around the aircraft carriers USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) with CVG-17 and USS Essex (CV-9) with CVG-9 and the small aircraft carrier USS Independence (CVL-22) with CVLG-22. USN pilots shoot down eight Japanese aircraft during the day
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells attack Kentengi Anchorage.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Dundas completed forecastle extension refit Montreal, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.: The battleship RICHELIEU is commissioned by the Free French. She was completed at the New York Navy Yard. (Marc James Small)
Coast Guard Air Station at Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York, designated as helicopter training base.
Destroyer escort
USS Whitehurst commissioned.
Destroyer escort USS Carter laid down.
Minesweeper USS Dipper laid down.
Frigate USS Pueblo laid down. The
escort aircraft carrier Sunset (CVE-48) is transferred to the British Navy
under Lend-Lease and is commissioned as HMS Thane (D 48). This is the 29th
escort aircraft carrier transferred to the Royal Navy. Thane was torpedoed
on 15 January 1945, examined and declared a constructive total loss. She is
returned to United States custody while in the U.K. on 12 May 1945.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-103 transferred a very ill crewmember to the Portuguese ship Angola in the mid-Atlantic.
U-211 sunk east of the Azores, in position 40.15N, 19.18W, by depth charges from a British Wellington Mk. XIV aircraft (Sqn 179/F). 54 dead (all hands lost).