November 23rd, 1943 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: HMC ML 114 commissioned.
Frigate HMS Dakins commissioned.
Submarine HNLMS Zwaardvis commissioned.
NETHERLANDS: Seven RAF Bomber Command Mosquitos bomb Texel Island.
FRANCE: Paris: The resistance have now killed 25 miliciens and wounded 27 more. The attacks for the most part occur in the open, in places like restaurants or in the victims' houses.Eighty three USAAF Ninth Air Force B-26 Marauders bomb Berck-sur-Mer and Longuenesse Airfields at Saint-Omer.
GERMANY: Insterburg, East Prussia: Hitler watches a demonstration flight of the ME-262 prototype jet airplane. He predicts it will be an ideal light bomber. This aircraft was first flown in July and will take until June of 1944 until it becomes operational.
Berlin: Tonight RAF bombers return to the city, killing 1,315 people in a raid in which the Germans tried to confuse the RAF by using a woman's voice to direct their fighters; the RAF responded by using a woman's voice to direct the bombers.
383 aircraft, 365 Lancasters, ten Halifaxes and eight Mosquitos, to continue the attack on Berlin; 322 bomb the target. The bombing force uses the same direct route as had been employed yesterday. The German controllers make an early identification of Berlin as the probable target; their single-engined fighters are gathered over the city before the arrival of the bombers and other fighters arrive a few minutes later. Fake instructions broadcast from England cause much annoyance to the German who is giving the "running commentary;" the Germans start using a female commentator but this is promptly countered by a female voice from England ordering the German pilots to land because of fog at their bases. "Spoof" fighter flares dropped by Mosquitos north of the bomber stream also cause some diversion of German effort. Bomber crews notice that flak over the target is unusually restrained, with the German fighters obviously being given priority. Twenty aircraft, all Lancasters, are lost, 5.2 per cent of the bomber force. The target is again cloud-covered and the Pathfinders carry out skymarking, but many of the Main Force crews aim their bombs through the cloud at the glow of 11 major fires still burning from yesterday. Much further destruction is caused in Berlin. In other raids, sour Oboe Mosquitos attack Cologne while one each attack the Knapsack power-station near Cologne and the city of Emden without loss.
ITALY: In the U.S. Fifth Army's II Corps area, the 1st Special Service Force, a highly trained group of Canadians and Americans under Colonel Robert T. Frederick, is attached to the 36th Infantry Division.
Weather limits USAAF Twelfth Air Force operations to fighter patrols of the battle area.
BURMA: In northern Burma, the Japanese overrun the command post of the 112th Regiment, Chinese 38th Infantry Division.
CHINA: The USAAF"> USAAF Fourteenth Air Force dispatches 13 B-25 Mitchells, 24 P-40s, and seven P-51 Mustangs attack the Yoyang railroad yards and warehouse area. Eight other P-40s, on armed reconnaissance over the Hanshow area, strafe barges, boats, supplies, and cavalry forces.
NEW GUINEA: In Northeast New Guinea, the Japanese counterattack on the Australian 24th Brigade, 9th Division, is stopped. The 26th Brigade continues advancing on Sattelberg, with bulldozers clearing the way for tanks.
In Northeast New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and A-20 Havocs hit villages around Finschhafen.
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators attack a convoy near Halmahera Island in the Moluccas Islands and sink one vessel.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Bougainville, the 3d Marine Division, still strongly opposed in the Piva forks area, begins regrouping. The 1st Marine Parachute Battalion arrives.
USN Task Force 39, consisting of four light cruisers and eight destroyers, bombards the Buka Island-Bonis area of northern Bougainville.
On Bougainville Island, Chabai Airfield is attacked by 23 B-25 Mitchells, six RNZAF Venturas, and 24 USN F4U Corsairs; two B-24 Liberators bomb the same targets later in the day. Nineteen B-24 Liberators hit Bonis airfield and Buka airfield on Buka Island while four B-25 Mitchells on a shipping sweep bomb and strafe villages along the coast between Mabiri and Luluai.
GILBERT and ELLICE ISLANDS,TARAWA: With this US troops have seized control of the Gilbert Islands, in the central Pacific, after three days of fighting and appalling casualties on both sides.
The fighting was heaviest at the island air base of Betio, on Tarawa, where 1,009 US Marines died and 2,101 were wounded. Of Betio's 4,836-strong Japanese and Korean garrison only 146 survived (all but 17 of them Korean labourers), with many of the dead having committed seppuku. Among the dead is Tarawa's last Japanese commander, Rear-Admiral Keiji Shibasaki. He was responsible for fortifying Betio, which measures only 3,800 yards long by 300 yards wide, with scores of concrete bunkers, 20 coastal defence guns and 25 artillery pieces. Before the attack he had exhorted his men to "make sure than a million men in a hundred years cannot take it".
The turning point came on day two after Major-General Julian Smith managed to get two more 8th Marines battalions ashore to rout a counter-attack and reinforce the costly attacks on Tarawa's 500 beach-head concrete and coconut-log pillboxes.
The US has also taken Japan's two other Gilbert Island bases. On Makin only one of the 800-strong Japanese garrison survived; US losses were 66 dead. At Apamama the garrison of 22 committed suicide rather than surrender.
The US escort carrier Liscombe Bay is sunk supporting these operations in the Gilberts with an additional loss of 600 sailors.
From Glen Boren's diary:
23 November 1943. We moved out to about 200 miles to refuel. Later, the USS KIDD came along side for gedunk and turkey for the 25th. Next, the USS CHANCHEY came along side for the same and to give us mail and put a pilot on board that they had picked up the day before after he had made a bad landing and gone over the side.
In Makin Atoll, organized resistance on Butaritari Island ends at 1030 hours when advance elements of 3d Battalion, 165th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division, reach the tip of the island. Re-embarkation of the assault forces begins. U.S. casualties are 66 killed and 152 wounded; the Japanese lose 395 men.
In Tarawa Atoll, the 3d Battalion of the 6th Marine Regiment, attacking through the 1st Battalion, reaches the end of Betio Island shortly after 1300 hours, and Major General Julian C. Smith, Commanding General 2d Marine Division, reports the end of organized resistance on Betio at 1330 hours. The 8th Marine Regiment, less the 1st Battalion, moves to Bairiki Island. The 2d Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, moves from Bairiki to Betio and is given the task of securing the rest of islands in Tarawa Atoll. The 3d Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, moves to the village of Eita Island, where the 3d Platoon of Company D, 2d Tank Battalion, is attached to it. U.S. casualties are 961 killed, 2,296 wounded and 27 missing; of the original 4,836 Japanese on the island, all but 17 wounded POWs and 129 Korean laborers are killed.
USN F6F-3 Hellcat fighter pilots of Fighting Squadron Sixteen (VF-16) in the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-16) shoot down 17 Japanese "Zeke" fighters (Mitsubishi A6M, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighters) near Makin Atoll at about 1005 hours.
MARSHALL ISLANDS: Six USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators based in the Ellice Islands bomb Emidj and Jabor Islands, Jaluit Atoll.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Submarine USS Capelin sunk by the Japanese off Kaoe Bay, Halmahera.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Merrittonia (ex-HMCS Pointe Claire) laid down Quebec City, Province of Quebec.
Tug HMCS Glenada commissioned and assigned to Liverpool, Nova Scotia.
Trawler HMS Ironbound arrived Halifax as escort for Quebec-Sydney, Nova Scotia. convoys.
Heavy casualties at Normandy, were incurred.
U.S.A.: Northern New Hampshire is in the grip of a record snowstorm which leaves a total of 55 inches (140 centimeters) at Berlin, and 56 inches (142 centimeters) at Randolph. The 56 inch (142 centimeter) total at Randolph establishes a 24 hour snowfall record for the state. In Maine, Middle Dam receives a record 35 inches (89 centimeters) of snow in 24 hours.
Destroyer escorts USS Lloyd and De Long launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: