16 December 1943

UNITED KINGDOM: London: For the second time this year Mr. Churchill, now 69, is ill with pneumonia. He is still in the Middle East following the Tehran conference with President Roosevelt and Marshal Stalin. Tonight a medical bulletin said: "His general condition is as satisfactory as can be expected." Prayers for the prime minister's recovery are being said throughout the Empire and in other lands. Anxious MPs were assured that the new drug penicillin is available for treating him. His doctors will insist on a lengthy convalescence.

A basic directive for the USAAF Ninth Air Force's IX Bomber Command training is issued on this date. Since most of IX Bomber Command's combat units have been operational for some time earlier under the Eighth Air Force's VIII Air Support Command, extensive training will not begin until after the first of the year when inexperienced units begin to arrive.

The USAAF Eighth Air Force's VIII Bomber Command flies Mission 157: four B-17 Flying Fortresses drop 1.952 million leaflets over Hannover, Germany; Brussels, Belgium; and Lille, France at 1903-1943 hours.

NETHERLANDS: During the night of 16/17 December, RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines: nine lay mines in the Frisian Islands and three lay mines off Texel Island.

FRANCE: During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 47 aircraft, 26 Stirlings, 12 Mosquitos and nine Lancasters, to attack two V-1 flying-bomb sites near Abbeville. Neither raid is successful. The larger raid, by 25 Stirlings on the Tilley-le-Haut site, fails because the Oboe Mosquito markers could not get any closer than 450 yards (411 meters) from the small target. The nine Lancasters of No. 617 Squadron which attack the second site, in a wood at Flixecourt, drop their 12,000 pound (5 443 kilogram) Tallboy bombs accurately on the markers placed by the only Oboe Mosquito operating at this target but the markers are 350 yards (320 meters) from the flying-bomb site and none of the 617 Squadron bombs are more than l00 yards (91 meters) from the markers. In other missions,

During the night of 16/17 December, RAF bombers lay mines in the Bay of Biscay off French ports: six lay mines off Bayonne, five off the River Grionde and four each off Brest, La Pallice and Lorient. One aircraft is lost.

GERMANY: RAF aircraft bomb Berlin tonight, killing 717 people on the ground but meeting a stiff defence. Nearly 300 British and Canadian airmen die the attack, including 148 lost when 29 Lancasters and a Stirling crash or are abandoned over Britain.

During the night of 16/17 December, RAF Bomber Command sends 483 Lancasters and ten Mosquitos on the main raid to Berlin and five other Mosquitos drop decoy fighter flares south of Berlin. The bomber route again leads directly to Berlin across the Netherlands and Northern Germany and there are no major diversions. The German controllers plot the course of the bombers with great accuracy; many German fighters are sent to the coast of the Netherlands and further fighters are guided on to the bomber stream throughout the approach to the target. More fighters are waiting at the target and there are many combats. The bombers shake off the opposition on the return flight by taking a northerly route over Denmark; 25 Lancasters, 5.2 per cent of the Lancaster force, are lost. Many further aircraft are lost on returning to England. Berlin is cloud-covered but the Pathfinder skymarking is reasonably accurate and much of the bombing by 450 aircraft falls in the city. In the city centre, the National Theatre and the building housing Germany's military and political archives are both destroyed. The damage to the Berlin railway system and to rolling stock, and the large numbers of people still leaving the city, are having a cumulative effect on the transportation of supplies to the Eastern Front; 1,000 wagon-loads of war material are held up for six days. German casualties are 717 people. The sustained bombing has now made more than a quarter of Berlin's total living accommodation unusable. On their return to England, many of the bombers encounter very low cloud at their bases; 29 Lancasters (and a Stirling from the minelaying operation) either crash or are abandoned when their crews parachuted. Two Beaufighters and two Mosquitos, recently transferred from Fighter Command, inaugurated Bomber Command's Serrate operations in patrols near the routes of the Berlin raid. (Serrate is a device which homes on to the radar emissions of a German night fighter.) A Mosquito made contact with an Me110 and damages it with cannon-fire. In other raids, Mosquitos bomb two cities: five bomb Duisburg and one hits Rostock.

The USAAF Eighth Air Force's VIII Bomber Command flies Mission 156: the port area at Bremen, Germany is the target. The target is bombed by 402 B-17 Flying Fortresses, 133 B-24 Liberators and ten PFF aircraft at 1309-1322 hours; ten B-17s are lost; ten other aircraft bomb targets of opportunity. The mission is escorted by 31 P-38 Lightnings, 131 P-47 Thunderbolts and 39 Ninth Air Force P-51s Mustangs with the loss of one P-47.

U-1003 had a collision with the German outpost boat VP 1909 near Kiel.

U-1004 commissioned.

U-1052 launched.

ITALY: In the U.S. Fifth Army's II Corps area, the 142d Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division finishes clearing Mt. Lungo by 1000 hours. The Italian 1st Motorized Group secures the ridge between Hills 253 and 343 in the afternoon. Further attacks on St. Pietro fail to gain ground but the position becomes untenable for the Germans after fall of Mt. Lungo. To cover their withdrawal, the Germans launch a strong counterattack that continues into the night of 16/17 December. The 1st Bn, 143d Infantry Regiment, repels the counterattack on the western slopes of Mt. Sammucro. In the VI Corps area, patrols of the 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, find that the Germans have withdrawn from Lagone. French troops clear the hill just north of Lagone and the second knob of Mt. Pantano.

USAAF Twelfth Air Force A-20 Havocs attack gun positions near Mignano. P-40s and A-36 Apaches hit gun batteries and strongpoints along the British Eighth Army front south and east of Chieti, gun emplacements and troop concentrations all along the U.S. Fifth Army front, especially northeast and south of Cassino, and also bomb Roccasecca and docks at Civitavecchia.

Thirty eight USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators attack a railroad bridge and tunnel at Dogna and the railroad between Dogna and Chiusaforte; escorting P-38 Lightnings strafe trains and oil tanks between Portogruaro and Latisana. Sixty nine B-17 Flying Fortresses, escorted by P-38s and P-47 Thunderbolts, bomb the Padua marshalling yard and rail junction; rail lines, rolling stock, and buildings are damaged extensively.

U.S.S.R.: Kharkov: Retribution for German atrocities in former occupied areas of Russia has begun. The first war crimes tribunal was at Krasnodar in July, where eight Germans were shot for a horrific catalogue of crimes. Today three Germans and a Russian who worked for them are facing a military tribunal in a theatre in this war-ravaged city.

Captain Wilhelm Langheld, Corporal Reinhardt Retelav, Hans Ritz of the Gestapo and their driver Mikhail Bulanov, allegedly took part in the killing of Soviet citizens by gassing them in sealed vans, shooting, hanging and burning. The indictment says that 30,000 were killed in the Kharkov area during the occupation.

YUGOSLAVIA: USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb shipping at Zara and the harbor and marshalling yard at Sibenik. P-40s and P-47 Thunderbolts hit a vessel south of Zara and strafe targets of opportunity on the Peljesac Peninsula.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: After having sunk a merchant ship from convoy GUS-24, near Oran, in position 36.07N, 00.50W, U-73 is sunk herself by depth charges and gunfire from destroyers USS Woolsey (DD-437, Gleaves class) and USS Trippe (DD-403, Benham class). There are 34 survivors from the crew of 50, including the commanding officer, Helmut Rosenbaum.

CHINA: Nine USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and 11 P-40s hit the northwest part of Owchihkow while four B-25s on sweeps over the South China Sea damage a freighter south of Nampang Island, bomb Tunguan docks, and shoot down a bomber. Fifteen P-40s on armed reconnaissance strafe Pailochi Airfield and 11 others strafe boats in channels north of Nanhsien. Six P-38 Lightnings strafe a troop train near Changanyi and attack 25 sampans (destroying most of them) on the Yangtze River just above Lake Huangtang.

EAST INDIES: Australian Beaufighters sink a Japanese cargo ship at Lautem, Portugese Timor.

NEW GUINEA: In the Ramu Valley, a patrol of the Australian 2/33rd Battalion, 25th Brigade, 7th Division, finds Japanese troops on the highest pinnacle of the 5800 Feature, 5 miles (8 kilometers) northeast of Kesawai, and withdraw as the artillery fires 120 rounds. By 1700 hours, the Japanese withdraw. In the Huon Peninsula, the Australian 29th/46th Battalion, 4th Brigade, reaches Lakona. The battalion advanced a little over 1 mile (1,6 kilometers) in the last six days.

In Northeast New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells attack Sio and Kelana Harbor and P-40s hit the Timoeka area.

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators hit Cape Gloucester Airfield on New Britain Island.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Fourteen USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb Monoitu on Bougainville Island. Smaller flights of B-24s bomb Poporang and Sohano Islands, and dispersal areas at Bonis Airfield on Bougainville. Five B-25 Mitchells, with fighter cover, hit Sankau Island. New Zealand (PV-1) Venturas attack targets on Green Island and in the Mawareka, Marveiropa, and Mamaregu areas. Fighter aircraft support USN SBD Dauntless strikes on Sohano Island and gun positions at Bonis and afterwards strafe targets of opportunity at several points on Bougainville.

Submarine USS Carbonero laid down.

Destroyer escorts USS Kendal C Campbell and Goss laid down.

Destroyer USS Haynsworth laid down.

Escort carrier USS Takanis Bay laid down.

Destroyer escorts USS Edward H Allen and Wilhoite commissioned.

Submarine USS Pilotfish commissioned.

Escort carrier USS Marcus Island launched.

Minesweeper USS Pirate launched.

Corvette HMCS Agassiz arrived New York NY for refit.

ATLANTIC OCEAN:

U-516 sank SS McDowell.

U-73 damaged SS John S Copley in Convoy GUS-24. After this action, U-73 was sunk in position 36.07N, 00.50W, by depth charges and gunfire from destroyers USS Woolsey and Trippe. 16 dead and 34 survivors.

On U-629 a lookout broke his arm during a strong storm.