Yesterday           Tomorrow

1937   (THURSDAY)

 

SWITZERLAND: The League of Nations Council refers the Chinese plea for assistance in the war against Japan to the Far Eastern Committee.

 

1938   (FRIDAY)

 

POLAND: The Polish press demands the return of Teschen, a duchy centered on the town of Teschen that is contested and then divided by Poland and Czechoslovakia after World War I.

 

UNITED KINGDOM: Lord Runciman, who accompanied British lle Chamberlain for a meeting with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler yesterday, presents his report on Czechoslovakia to the British Cabinet. There is a sharp division in the British and French cabinets as to yielding to Hitler.

 

U.S.S.R.: A Soviet troop concentration is reported in the Ukraine.

September 16th, 1939 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The Duke of Windsor is appointed a liaison officer with the French Army.
Len Hutton, the great Yorkshire and England batsman, marries Dorothy Mary Dennis. The marriage has been brought forward due to the outbreak of war, from October. Movietone and Pathe news are in attendance.

Some 31 first class football matches are held as friendlies, on an amateur basis. Peterborough pulled off the upset of the day beating Nottingham Forest 4-3, the Halifax - Leeds game though, was described as at a level 'usually associated with the village green.'


The US freighter SS Shickshinny is detained by British authorities at Glasgow.

Submarine HMS Triad commissioned.

EIRE:  The Ministry of Supplies is established under Sean Lemass. Rationing of foodstuffs and essential raw materials is introduced a shortly thereafter. The supplies of petroleum products, coal and gas averaged less than 20% of normal, textiles 22%, and tea 25%. The British restrict shipping as part of a campaign to persuade Eire to support the Allies throughout the war. The restrictions tighten under British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who was enraged by Irish Prime Minister Eamon de Valera’s refusal to return the Treaty Ports to British control, i.e., the three Irish ports that the British had returned to Irish control in 1938 . 

GERMANY: The US Naval Attache in Berlin advises Washington that Admiral Erich Raeder, Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, states that all German U-boat commanders deny sinking the British passenger liner RMS Athenia on 4 September.

U-95 and U-96 laid down.

POLAND: Warsaw: On the eve of the Jewish New Year, Luftwaffe aircraft dive-bomb the Jewish quarter. The besieged defenders today spurned a German demand for their surrunder. Well positioned in powerful fortifications, Major-General Czuma's men have already fought off one determined attack by General Reinhardt's tanks. In a battle lasting three hours the Poles inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans, knocking out 60 tanks and forcing Reinhardt to report that if ordered to continue the attack his 4th Panzer Division will not remain operational. Reinhardt then withdrew to his original positions. When ordered to attack again, replied that it was impossible. The German's though are concentrating on the Battle of the Bzura on their right flank.

Brest: Today's attack on the citadel by the German 20th motorized and 10th Panzer Divisions falters after they storm the encircling wall, but the infantry regiment of the 10th Pz. div fails to advance, as ordered, immediately behind the creeping barrage that the artillery was putting down. When the regiment did at last attack it was too late and without orders, it suffered heavy casualties without reaching its objective. (95)(Russ Folsom)

INTERNATIONAL: The Soviet and Japanese governments agreed to an armistice, which ends the fighting on the Mongolian-Manchukuo frontier, which began in May. Soviet attention is now focused on Eastern Europe.

CANADA:  The Foreign Exchange Control Board pegs the value of the Canadian Dollar at 90 cents US and a Pound Sterling at $4.34 Canadian. 

Destroyers HMCS St Laurent and Saguenay departed Halifax as escort for Convoy HX-1, the first escorted ship convoy in formation to protect against German U-boat attacks..

U.S.A.: An order for 300 Vultee Model 54 aircraft powered by an R-985-25 engine is placed.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarine U-31 inaugurates the U-boat campaign against convoys when she attacks Convoy OB-4 (Liverpool, England, to North America). At 0837 hours GMT, a torpedo strikes 4,060 ton British merchant steamer SS Aviemore and the ship sinks about 255 nautical miles (472 kilometers) southwest of Cork, County Cork, Éire, in position 49.11N, 13.38W. This is the only ship lost in that convoy.

U-13 damages the SS City of Paris.

U-27 sinks the SS Rudyard Kipling.

U-33 sinks SS Arkleside.

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16 September 1940

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September 16th, 1940 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:
Battle of Britain:
RAF Fighter Command: Slight enemy activity, mainly in south-east and East Anglia. At night London, the Midlands and Merseyside are bombed.

During the early morning London is bombed, wrecking the Strand Shell Mex building and damaging the Gaiety Theatre, St. Thomas's, Guys and Lambeth hospitals.

During the following night bombers caused seven huge fires in the East End and also hit parts of Birmingham and Wakefield Prison.
 

The weather is rainy and cloudy. Luftwaffe head Hermann Göring held a conference following yesterday's losses and it is decided that the German effort to be switched against RAF Fighter Command. During the day, an attack by some 350 Luftwaffe aircraft developed in Kent at about 0800 hours and formations flew in the direction of London, but the attack is not pressed home. Other activity consisted of a large number of reconnaissances flown off and over the Coast mostly by single aircraft, but one raid totaling 30 aircraft approached Dover. No attack, however, developed. The weather largely hindered RAF fighter action. In the North and North-East, one raid appeared off Fifeness in the early afternoon, turned South and crossed the Coast at Amble, flying to Carlisle and Cockermouth. It returned by the same route. In the East, reconnaissances are made from Whitby to the Wash and off Cromer, where a Ju 88 is intercepted with inconclusive results.

 One convoy is approached on two occasions and an aerodrome is attacked. In the South-East, a mass raid by 350 German aircraft crossed the Kentish Coast in waves between 0735 and 0805 hours. Formations spread out from Dover to Rye and to the Isle of Sheppey. One raid crossed the Estuary into Essex and towards London but soon turned back. By 0832 hours all the aircraft had re-crossed the Coast. No interception is made. Twenty one RAF fighter squadrons are in the air, and it may have been on this account that the Luftwaffe turned away so soon. Throughout the day German aircraft are actively engaged on reconnaissances, especially towards London and the Estuary. In the South and West, one aircraft crossed the Coast near the Needles and flew North-easterly to Northolt, Duxford and Debden, while a second crossing at the same place flew North-westerly to Middle Wallop and Cheltenham. Other reconnaissances are made in the Bristol Channel. Between 1700 and 2000 hours some 15 raids are plotted in the Isle of Wight area, some of which flew inland. Some of these are the leading aircraft of the night operations.

     During the night of 16/17 September, there are continuous attacks against London and smaller raids on Merseyside and the Midlands. Luftwaffe, activity is of greater intensity than on recent nights and is of two distinct phases. At 1940 hours raids are plotted out of Cherbourg and Le Havre, France, areas followed by a steady stream from the Dieppe, France, area. Raids crossed the Coast between the Isle of Wight and Dover, some flying North west to Bristol channel whence they spread out and penetrated to North Wales, Midlands and up to Liverpool. Other raids flew over South-eastern Counties to London and North of the Estuary. From 2350 hours raids concentrated on London, East Anglia and the South-eastern Counties. At 0020 hours fresh raids originating from the Dutch Islands approached East Anglia and the Thames Estuary, some of them penetrating to London. At about 0242 hours all raids had withdrawn and the Country is clear. The second phase commenced at 0330 hours, aircraft being plotted out of the Dieppe area towards London and out of the Ostend area towards the East Coast. The latter are probably mostly minelaying. This second phase continued until 0530 hours.

     RAF Fighter Command claimed 0-1-0 aircraft, barrage balloons accounted for 1-0-0 aircraft and one Luftwaffe aircraft crashed; the RAF lost one Spitfire of which the pilot is safe.


Losses: Luftwaffe, 9; RAF, 1.

In the morning six shells land on Dover.

Corvette HMS Campion laid down.

GERMANY: U-135 laid down.

MEDITERRANEAN: During the night of 16/17 September, units of the British Mediterranean Fleet including the battleship HMS Valiant (02) sail with the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (87) for a raid on Benghazi, Libya. Swordfish Mk. I aircraft sink the Italian destroyer Borea, and mines laid by them off the port sink the Italian destroyer, Aquilone. While returning to Alexandria, Egypt, heavy cruiser HMS Kent (54) and two destroyers are detached to bombard Bardia, Libya.

EGYPT: Sidi Barrani: Italian troops have managed to fight their way to this Egyptian coastal outpost as Lieutenant-General Maitland Wilson, GOC Egypt, and his heavily outnumbered force of British and Indian troops are withdrawing to a prepared defence line at Mersa Matruh.

Although the next battle could be decisive - with an Italian victory leaving Egypt open to Marshal Graziani's army - the Italians are fortifying Sidi Barrani, with the marshal ignoring furious orders from the Duce to attack, preferring to put up monuments to his "victorious advance". While Mussolini fumes, Churchill in beleaguered Britain has taken the "awful and right" decision to despatch 150 tanks and other desperately-needed weapons to General Wavell, Britain's C-in-C Middle East.

Although small in number - with fewer than 30,000 men facing 250,000 Italians - the hard core of Wavell's army is professional, tough and confident. The question now is whether the British line can hold until the tanks are unloaded in Alexandria.

LIBYA:  The Italian destroyers Aquilone and Borea are sunk off Bengasi by British bombers. 

U.S.A.:  The Congress passes the Burke-Wadsworth Bill (the Selective Training and Service Act) by wide margins in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. This bill provides for the first peacetime draft (conscription) in the history of the United States but also provides that not more than 900,000 men are to be in training at any one time and it limits military service to 12 months. It also provides for the establishment of the Selective Service System as an independent Federal agency. President Franklin D. Roosevelt immediately signs the bill into law. The first draftees will be selected next month.  

     The first call up of National Guard units occurs. Called into Federal service are 4 divisions, 12 brigades, 50 regiments and 4 observation squadrons from 26 states. The divisions are New Jersey's 44th, Oklahoma's 45th, Oregon's 41st, and South Carolina's 30th. Eighteen of the 50 regiments are coast artillery regiments.  Here for more detailed unit information.

     The keel of the Iowa-class battleship New Jersey (BB-62) is laid at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Pennsylvania. The "Big J," as she will be nicknamed, becomes the most decorated battleship in the history of the USN

     Representative Samuel T Rayburn of Texas is elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a post he will hold for 17-years.

     In baseball, a rhubarb erupts at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York, during a game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The fight results in a suspension and fine for Dodgers' manager Leo Durocher for "inciting a riot." Perhaps better known from the game is the photo showing an obese Brooklyn fan astride George Magerkurth, pummeling the veteran umpire. 
 

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-99 sank SS Lotos in Convoy SC-3.

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16 September 1941

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September 16th, 1941 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Corvette FS Commandant Detroyat (ex HMS Coriander) commissioned.

FRANCE: Paris: Hauptmann (Captain) Scheben is shot dead on the boulevard de Strasbourg, 12 hostages are shot in consequence.
Attacks on German military property result in another ten French hostages being executed.

GERMANY: Hamburg: The city suffered a heavy RAF attack last night.

U-306, U-417 and U-666 laid down.

U.S.S.R.: The Kiev pocket begins to collapse as Soviet forces begin to withdraw. General Semen Timoshenko, commander of the Soviet High Command (STAVKA), authorizes the withdrawal. However, Premier Joseph Stalin would not confirm the orders for 48 critical hours.

     German forces capture the town of Pushkin, a suburb of Leningrad. The Germans capture several trams filled with workers returning home from factories in Leningrad before the service is shut down. This would mark the “high water” mark for German advances toward Leningrad. They would get no closer.

     General Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the Armed Forces High Command, in response to the growing threat of partisan bands attacking his lines of communications establishes standing orders that for every German soldier killed by "bandits", 100 civilians are to be executed.

     During the month of September, 1941, German Action Group A, consisting of around 800 men, and commanded by SS General Otto Ohlendorf, is operating on the Russian southern front. In the period, 16 to 30 September, in the area around Nikolaev, and including the town of Cherson , they rounded up and massacred 35,782 Soviet citizens, mostly Jews. This is the figure reported to Hitler from the SD office, dated 2 October 1942.

IRAN: The Allies decide to occupy Teheran. This comes after the current Shah of Iran, Reza Khan Pahlevi,  has not done enough to expel Axis nationals from the country. The Shah will abdicate in favor of the Crown Prince, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, his pliable 22 year old son, who will flee his country in 1979. With Soviet and British armies threatening Tehran, he has little choice.
For two weeks since the armistice following the Anglo-Russian invasion, the shah had refused Allied demands to expel Germany's legation, to hand over Iran's German community for internment, and to facilitate Allied rail links from the Persian Gulf to the USSR. 

The government breaks diplomatic relations with Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy and Romania.

SYRIA: Damascus: Free French forces, with British backing, terminate the French mandate and agree to guarantee Syria's independence.

THE NEW YORK TIMES states that "Free France acting in agreement with her ally, Great Britain, has undertaken to terminate the mandate and grant Syria the status of an independent sovereign State and to guarantee the new State by treaty."

CANADA: Nova Scotia: Convoy HX-150, the first to be escorted by the US Navy, leaves for Europe.
Leaving Halifax the convoy will be escorted by the Canadian Navy up to a point south of Newfoundland, where US navy destroyers will take over, giving formal protection. They will take the convoy to a mid-ocean meeting point where the escort will be handed over to the British Western Approaches Command. This is intended to be the pattern for all fast convoys of the HX type in future. The Canadians will continue to escort the slower SC convoys all the way to the mid-ocean meeting point.

The east bound convoys are bringing war supplies and many foodstuffs which the British are beginning to accept as their daily diet, such as condensed milk, powdered egg, spam and baked beans.

The escort support from the US will mean that the Royal Navy will be able to divert three escort groups from the North Atlantic to cover Gibraltar and Sierra Leone convoys, US Navy Catalinas, operating, from bases in Iceland, and US Army Flying Fortresses, based in Argenta, are also expected to take on convoy duties.

July and August have already seen a dramatic decrease in the number of merchant ships sunk in the Atlantic. During the first half of the year monthly losses averaged 400,000 tons; it has now dropped to little over 100,000 tons per month. There are several reasons for this. For a start, Bletchley Park is now able to read a significant part of the U-boat Enigma traffic.

The information from this is passed to the Admiralty's submarine tracking room which can then identify U-boat concentrations. It passes details of these to HQ Western Approaches, the naval command responsible for the BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC, which can then re-route convoys.

Located with the Western Approaches HQ, and under its operational control, is No. 15 Group RAF Coastal Command. Its aircraft range far and wide over the north-east Atlantic from their bases in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Iceland. The north-west Atlantic is covered by the Royal Canadian Air Force. Both forces still suffer from a lack of very long-range aircraft, which means that the mid-Atlantic, south of Greenland, does not have air cover. Known as the "Black Pit" or "Black Gap", it presents the most dangerous area for convoys. Despite this, improved methods of detecting U-boats, with more and better-trained escort vessels, are helping to reduce losses.

Convoy SC-42 makes harbour having lost 15 ships for a total of 65,776 tons out of a 65-ship convoy.

U-98 sank SS Jedmoor in Convoy SC-42.

Corvettes HMCS Dunvegan and Morden arrived Halifax from builders in Sorel and Montreal, Province of Quebec respectively

U.S.A.: CBS radio debuted "The Arkansas Traveler." The program is later renamed "The Bob Burns Show." Burns played a very strange musical instrument called the "bazooka". The U.S. Army chose the name to identify its rocket launcher, because it looked so much like Burns' bazooka, believe it or not...

Destroyers USS Butler and Gherardi laid down.

ICELAND: A Danish first officer, Henrik Bjerregaard of the Sessa, has recently recovered sufficiently from an ordeal of 19 days adrift in Artic waters to tell his story.

The Sessa, a former Danish ship flying the Panamanian flag, was transporting provisions from New York to the American ships in Iceland when she was torpedoed by a U-boat. She sank in two minutes. Bjerregaard remembers: "I had no lifebelt, but I grabbed a pole as I was thrown into the water. A seaman joined me, and we hung on for two hours. Then we floated to a lifeboat which was upside down.... we stayed on the lifeboat all night ... Next day a raft from the ship drifted alongside, and as we could not right the boat we jumped on the raft ... After seeing we had a drum of water and tin of biscuits, I cut a sliver off the raft and started to keep a log."

"Every day at sunrise I made  a notch to mark another day. After the tenth day one man died, and on the 13th two more died ...On the 17th day all our water went ...on the 19th day, as I lay utterly exhausted, I heard a ship's siren and raised myself to see the Stars and Stripes of an American destroyer."

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The 24th Pursuit Group (Interceptor) is formed, effective October 1, 1941, the Bombers remained within the 4th Composite Group. (Marc Small)

 

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16 September 1942

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September 16th, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Three Eagle Squadrons, consisting of American volunteers to the RAF, are to be transferred to USAAF command.

Frigate HMS Waveney commissioned.

NETHERLANDS: During the day, nine RAF Bomber Command Bostons are dispatched to Den Helder but are turned back. Two of them bomb Bergen Airfield at Alkmaar.

GERMANY: During the day, RAF Bomber Command sent six Mosquitos to Wiesbaden to bomb the Biebrich chemical factory. Five bombed the target without loss.

     During the night of 16/17 September, RAF Bomber Command dispatched 369 aircraft to bomb Essen; 244 aircraft bombed the target and 39 are lost, 21 Wellingtons, nine Lancasters, five Stirlings, three Halifaxes and a Whitley, 10.6 per cent of the force. Although much of the bombing is scattered, this is probably the most successful attack on this difficult target. There are 33 large and 80 "medium" fires. Eight industrial and six transport premises are hit. The Krupps works are hit by 15 high-explosive bombs and by a crashing bomber loaded with incendiaries. There is much housing damage. In Essen and its immediate surroundings, 47 people are killed and 92 injured. Other town hit are Duisburg by two aircraft and individual aircraft bombed Hamborn, Kempin and Oberhausen without loss.

U-647 and U-648 launched.

U-528 commissioned.
 

U.S.S.R.: At dawn in Stalingrad, the Soviet 42nd Regiment attacks into a hurricane of mortar fire, seeking the top of Mamayev Kurgan. A short and vicious hand-to-hand battle settles the issue, and Soviet troops gain the summit.As soon as they dig in, the Germans counterattack, but the Soviets hold on. 
 

EGYPT: US Major General Lewis H Brereton, Commanding General US Army Middle East Air Force in Egypt, is officially assigned to the Middle East as a result of pressure from Major General Clayton L Bissell, new Commanding General Tenth Air Force in India, for clarification of the status of Brereton and other key staff officers and combat crews who had gone from India to the Middle East in June and July 1942. 

LIBYA: During the night of 16/17 September, US Army, Middle East Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb Bengasi, Libya, harbor.

SUDAN: Sgt. Graham Leslie Parish (b.1912), RAFVR, tried to help an injured passenger from his crashed and blazing bomber. Unfortunately, both men died. (George Cross)

NEW GUINEA: In Papua New Guinea, the Japanese ground offensive toward Port Moresby comes to a halt at Ioribaiwa; Australian troops are entrenched on Imita Range where they are preparing a counteroffensive. The Japanese are too ill-equipped and their supply lines too extended over forbidding terrain to enable them to reach their objective, Port Moresby.

A lone US 5th Air Force B-17 attacks landing barges in the Sanananda area while a single A-20 Havoc bombs and strafes positions at Nauro and Menari in the Efogi area. 

BISMARK ARCHIPELAGO: On New Britain Island, US 5th Air Force B-17s bomb the wharf and airfield at Rabaul and airfield on Gasmata Island off the south coast of New Britain Island.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIANS: The Japanese complete transfer of the Attu garrison to Kiska, begun on 27 August; all defensive positions on Attu were destroyed by the Japanese. A US 11th Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress and a B-24 Liberator fly photographic and reconnaissance runs over Adak.

CANADA: Corvettes HMCS Weyburn and Lunenburg departed St. John's for UK with Convoy SC-100 and support of Operation Torch, North African Landings.

Corvette HMCS Oakville arrived Halifax for repairs to damage.

U.S.A.: A training program for the Women's Auxiliary Flying Squadron (WAFS), under Jacqueline Cochran's direction, is approved as the 319th Army Air Forces Flying Training Detachment (Women), or more simply Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD), at Howard Hughes Field, Houston, Texas.

   The motion picture "The Major and the Minor" is released today. This romantic comedy, directed by Billy Wilder (his directorial debut), stars Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Rita Johnson, Robert Benchley and Diana Lynn. The plot has Rogers posing as a 12-year-old to get a cheap rail fare home from New York City. She runs into Milland who is an Army major at a military school and ends up spending some time at the school being pursued by the cadets.

Lloyds Register of Shipping did a survey and issued a certificate, dated 16 Sep 1942, giving permission for the tugs North Shore and North Lake to be sailed from New Orleans to Norfolk, Va, via inland waters, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast. Apparently when the civilian crew was sailing North Lake by this route they grounded that tug which  resulted in some damage to her steering gear.

Minesweeper USS Nuthatch launched. 

BARENTS SEA: While tracking convoy PQ-18 (Iceland to Northern U.S.S.R.), German submarine U-457 is sunk in the Barents Sea northeast of Murmansk, USSR, in position 75.05N, 43.15E, by depth charges from the RN destroyer HMS Impulsive (D 11). All 45 hands on the U-boat are lost. This is the boats third patrol and she had been credited with sinking an American freighter and a British tanker in July 1942 for a total of 15.593 tons and damaging another for a total of 8.939 tons.

SOUTH ATLANTIC: The German submarines U-156, U-506 and U-507 and the Italian submarine Capellini are engaged in rescuing survivors of the sinking of the British transport Lanconia on 12 September, when they are attacked by a USAAF B-24.

U-558 sank SS Commercial Trader.

U-165 sank SS Joannis and damaged SS Essex Lance and SS Pan York in Convoy SQ-36.


 

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16 September 1943

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September 16th, 1943 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Caprice launched.

FRANCE: The US Eighth Air Force's VIII Air Support Command and the VIII Bomber Command fly missions.

- VIII Air Support Command Mission 59: 67 B-26B Marauders hit Beaumont le Roger Airfield at 1735 hours and Tricoueville Airfield at 1735 hours without loss.

- VIII Bomber Command flies to mission.

- - Mission 97: 224 B-17s in 2 forces hit 5 targets with the loss of 11aircraft. 
(1) 131 B-17s bomb 2 targets in Nantes; 79 hit Nantes harbor installations at 1502-1512 hours and 52 hit Chateau-Bougon Airfield at 1509-1512 hours; they claim 22-2-5 Luftwaffe aircraft; 7 B-17s are lost; escort is provided by 79 P-47 Thunderbolts which claim 2-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft. 
(2) 93 B-17s hit La Pallice harbor installations at 1755-1758 hours, Larochelle/Laleau Airfield at 1755-1758 and Cognac/Chateaubernard Airfield at 1731 hours; they claim 22-3-8 Luftwaffe aircraft; 4 B-17s are lost.

- - Mission 98: 5 B-17s of the 422d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) join theRAF in a night attack on the marshalling yard at Modane, France without loss.

     During the night of 16/17 September, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 340 aircraft, 170 Halifaxes, 127 Stirlings and 43 Lancasters and five USAAF Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses, to attack the important railway yards at Modane on the main railway route from France to Italy; 295 aircraft bombed the target. The marking of the target, situated in a steep valley, is not successful and the bombing is not accurate. No report is available from France. Two Halifaxes and a Stirling are lost. In another raid, 12 Lancasters attempted to bomb the railway viaduct at Anthéor Cannes on the coastal railway line leading to Italy, but no direct hits are scored. A Lancaster is lost; it came down in the sea off Portugal, possibly while trying to reach Gibraltar.

GERMANY: Five RAF Bomber Command Mosquitos are sent to bomb Berlin; four bomb the target without loss.

U-857 and U-995 commissioned.

U-511 sold to Japan and became the RO 500. Surrendered at Maizuru in August 1945. Scuttled in the Gulf of Maizuru by the US Navy on 30 April, 1946.

U.S.S.R.: Novgorod Seversky and Romny, near Konotop, are liberated by Soviet forces during their advance on Kiev. Novorossiysk, in the Kuban, falls after fierce fighting.

NORWAY: Miniature submarine X-9 is lost while on tow behind HMS Syrtis in the Norwegian Sea. She is believed to have foundered due to a broken 600-foot towrope which would have  caused her to plunge to the bottom. There were no survivors from the 3-man crew. X-9 was one of 6 X-craft being towed to the north of Norway to conduct attacks against Scharnorst, Lützow and Tirpitz. (Alex Gordon)(108)  

GREECE: British forces occupy the islands of Leros and Samos in the Aegean Sea. 

ITALY: Another German attack, by the 10th Army, under General Heinrich von Vietinghoff, between Salerno and Battipaglia is driven off.

HMS Warspite, providing gunnery support, is struck by two German X-1 (Fritz) glider bombs and sustains serious damage. The ship has to be towed to Malta escorted by the light cruiser HMS Delhi (D 47).

Forward units of the US 5th and British 8th Armies link up. The main bodies of these armies are still well behind. 

Salerno: As advance units of the British Eighth Army linked up with the beleaguered US Fifth Army near the Salerno beach-head today, the German commander of the Tenth Army, General Heinrich von Vietinghoff, ordered his Panzers to withdraw northwards. The beach-head is secure, but it has been touch-and-go until the very end.

Artillery and infantry of the British 201 Guards Brigade defeat German attacks against Bellizzi and Fosso, whilst attacks on the 23 Armored Brigade's positions are defeated by counter-attacks in the early afternoon.

At one point, the US Fifth Army commander, General Mark Clark, had to order cooks, clerks, drivers and bandsmen to grab the nearest rifles and form a defensive line as German troops threatened to drive the Americans off the beach-head. When German reinforcements arrived from the south, Clark even contemplated withdrawing his armies from Salerno, but, instead, pulled back two miles while reinforcements were rushed in. The Germans were making effective use of their radio-controlled glider bombs; the British battleship HMS Warspite and the cruiser HMS UGANDA were badly damaged.

Clark's main hope was parachute reinforcement by the 82nd Airborne Division. "This is a must," he ordered its commander, General Matthew B. Ridgeway, and by mid-night on 13 September 1,300 men had landed in Salerno. With a further 2,100 landing on the following day and the arrival of the British 7th Armoured Brigade, evacuation plans were abandoned. German counter-attacks, though fierce, were repelled. A further 600 men of the US 509th Parachute Infantry Brigade were dropped behind the enemy lines to hold off German reinforcements from the north.

There is every indication that the Germans have used up their energy and their units are battle weary. General Clark gives orders for the Allies to prepare for immediate pursuit if the enemy begin to withdraw.

On the British Eighth Army's front, 5 Division reaches Sapri and 1 Canadian Division near Spezzano. Units from these two divisions meet at Castrovillari, whilst Canadian and 1 Airborne Division troops make contact 40 miles (64.4 km) south-west of Taranto. The Allied armies are at last in touch across the Italian peninsula from the Tyrrhenian coast to the Adriatic.

US and British ground troops make patrol contact near Vallo della Lucania. The US Fifth Army ties in with the Taranto invasion force to form an Allied line across southern Italy. US Ninth Air Force B-24s hit road junctions and a supply dump at Potenza, following a RAF raid of the previous night. US Twelfth Air Force B-17s hit bridges, rail line, marshalling yard, trains, and a railroad-highway intersection in the Benevento area, and roads and railway facilities in the Caserta area; medium bombers hit roads, railroads, junctions, and bridges at Isernia, Formia, Mignano, and Capua; XII Air Support Command fighter-bombers maintain continuous sweeps over the Salerno beachhead and surrounding battle zone while other US and RAF elements of the Northwest African Tactical Air Force (fighters, light and medium bombers) blast enemy aircraft, motor transport, troop concentrations and communications targets in the Contursi and Eboli areas.

CHINA: The US Fourteenth Air Force dispatches 8 B-25 Mitchells and 12 P-40s to hit warehouses, barracks, ammunition dumps, and HQ at Liujenpa.

NEW GUINEA: US Fifth Air Force B-17s, B-26s, B-25s, and A-20s pound enemy positions at Lae after which the airfield is captured and town (evacuated by Japanese) are occupied by Australian forces of the 9th and 7th Divisions; B-24s carry out a light strike on Sorong. Many of the escaping Japanese slip through the jungle and go to the north coast of the Huon Peninsula. Lae is the focus of a major land, sea and air operation by Australian and American forces. Fighting lasted until today when the encircled Japanese garrison are either killed, captured or escaped.

A major airstrike at Wewak, New Guinea destroys many Japanese aircraft.

PACIFIC: Two Japanese ships are sunk: (1) a gunboat is sunk by mine (laid by submarine USS Silversides on 4 June) off Kavieng, New Ireland, Bismarck Archipelago; and (2) a PBY Catalina sinks a small Japanese cargo vessel en route to Hansa Bay, New Guinea. 

Enemy Boston-type plane sinks Japanese escort vessel Uisko by torpedo. 19 men are lost, only one survives.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: US Thirteenth Air Force P-40s join USN fighters in covering an SBD Dauntless strike on Ballale Island Airfield.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Vancouver completed foc'sle extension refit Vancouver, British Columbia.

Destroyer HMCS Crescent laid down John Brown and Co Glasgow. Canada was originally to receive all eight ships of the CR program. However only Crescent and Crusader had been delivered by the end of hostilities and the remainder were not taken over. For some unknown reason, these ships retained their UK names in Canadian service.

Frigate HMCS Charlottetown launched Lauzon, Province of Quebec. Retained same hull number as lost corvette of the same name.

Glen Class tugs ordered for RCN: HMCS Glenfield, Glenvalley, Glenella, Glenkeen, Gleneagle, Glencove and Glenlivet.

U.S.A.: Submarine USS Chub laid down.

Destroyer escort USS Underhill laid down.

Destroyers USS Knapp and Haraden commissioned.

Destroyer escort USS Camp commissioned. Former Combat Fleets of the World editor AD Baker III served on this ship in the Vietnam War.

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16 September 1944

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September 16th, 1944 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Cadiz launched.

The US Eighth Air Force in England flies 2 missions:

- Mission 635: 178 P-47 Thunderbolts and 149 P-51s are dispatched to bomb and strafe the Hannover-Bremen-Osnabruck areas and bomb Ahlhorn Airfield and the Mannheim-Kaiserslautern area, all in Germany; they claim 6-0-1 aircraft on the ground; 1 P-51 is lost.

- Mission 636: 7 B-17s drop leaflets in France, Germany and the Netherlands during the night.

- 32 B-24s and C-47 Skytrains are dispatched on CARPETBAGGER missions; 1 B-24 is lost.

US Ninth Air Force tactical operations in Europe: In the Netherlands, 150+ B-26s and A-20s, escorted by fighters, attack the Bath dike and Arnemuiden road and rail embankment. In France, fighters fly sweeps, and armed reconnaissance over Rastatt, Germany and Haguenau, and support the US Third Army's XII and XV Corps in repelling counterattacks in northeastern France.

NETHERLANDS: The USAAF Ninth Air Force dispatches 150+ B-26 Marauders and A-20 Havocs, escorted by fighters, to attack the Bath dike and Arnemuiden road and rail embankment.

     During the night of 16/17 September, RAF Bomber Command's main operations are in support of the landings by British and American airborne troops at Arnhem and Nijmegen which took place the following morning. Two hundred Lancasters and 23 Mosquitos bombed three airfields: 54 hit Havelte Airfield at Steenwijk, 51 bombed Hopsten Airfield and 50 attacked Leeuwarden Airfield. A second mission 54 Lancasters and five Mosquitos are sent to bomb a flak position at Moerdlik Bridge; 54 aircraft bombed . The runways of all the airfields are well cratered but there are only near misses at the flak position, although its approach road is cut. 2 Lancasters lost from the Moerdijk raid.

FRANCE: Beaugency: In the first capitulation on the western front, General Botho Elster surrenders to the US Ninth Army with 18,850 men of Group Elster of the XVI Luftwaffe Field Division.

The USAAF Fifteenth Air Force in Italy dispatches 54 B-24 Liberators to fly supplies to southern France.

DENMARK: Copenhagen: All Denmark stopped work today in protest against the shooting of 23 demonstrators by German soldiers in City Hall Square last night. The demonstrators were protesting at the removal of 190 Danes to concentration camps. Railways, trams and factories are still. The strike was called by the Danish Freedom Council, which co-ordinates the resistance with the discreet support of King Christian and the majority of his subjects.

GERMANY: During the night of 16/17 September, RAF Bomber Command attacks four targets: 51 aircraft bombed Hopsten Airfield and another 51 hit Rheine Airfield; 26 of 29 Mosquitos sent to Brunswick bomb the city with the loss of one aircraft; and three of four Mosquitos dispatched to the Hoesch synthetic oil refinery at Dortmund hit the plant.

     USAAF Ninth Air Force fighters fly sweeps, and armed reconnaissance over Rastatt and Haguenau.

U-3507 launched.

U-2526 laid down.

U-1014 suffered an accident during its trials at Libau in the Baltic Sea where 2 men were killed and 3 wounded.

ESTONIA and LATVIA: The Soviets begin new attacks, in the Baltic states, towards Riga and Tallinn.

The Red Army launched a new offensive on the Baltic front yesterday. Some 40 divisions with strong tank and air support are attacking the German positions on a 130-mile front running from Valga on the Estonian border to Bauska, south of Riga, the Latvian capital. The Russians are trying to drive through the narrow German-held corridor on the Gulf of Riga in order to trap the much-battered Army Group North under General Schorner. They are also seeking to give themselves "elbow room" to build up their forces in preparation for their next campaign: the invasion of East Prussia.

ROMANIA: The 3rd Ukraine Front turns west after crossing the Danube River to threaten the retreating Germans from Greece.

POLAND: Warsaw: Stalin has at last come to the aid of the Poles who have been fighting the German occupation for the last six weeks. The Red Army has halted at the gates of the city while Stalin has either refused, or been unable, to help the Poles whom he describes as "reactionary".

The Soviet leader has actively obstructed British and American efforts to drop supplies. More than 200 Polish, American, South African and British airmen have died in attempts to supply Warsaw. Flying from bases in Italy, they have been refused permission by Stalin to land on Russian airstrips.

In the last 48 hours, Stalin's forces have dropped two heavy machine-guns, 50 pistols and a quantity of ammunition for the freedom fighters, a meagre offering made even more negligible by the Russian failure to use parachutes. With nothing to break their fall, most of the arms were damaged and made useless when they hit the ground.

Stalin's half-hearted aid has coincided with the opening of a Russian assault on Warsaw. The First Infantry Division of a Polish army raised in Russia has captured the suburb of Praga.

BULGARIA: In accordance with the terms of the Bulgarian armistice, Soviet forces occupy Sofia.

ITALY: The territorial demands on Italy by Yugoslavia's Marshal Josip Tito, Commander-in-Chief Yugoslav Liberation Army, including Istria and Trieste, causes dismay among Italians.

Bad weather cancels bombing operations by the US Fifteenth Air Force but 2 P-38 Lightnings fly weather reconnaissance.

US Twelfth Air Force medium bombers attack fuel and supply dumps and defensive positions in the Bologna and Rimini areas while fighter-bombers and fighters bomb and strafe rail and road targets north of the battle areas in the northern Apennine Mountains as US Fifth Army forces struggle to break through strong enemy defenses in the hills north of Prato, along the main Monte Altuzzo ridge, on Monte Veruca, Monte Monticelli, and other mountain positions. 

CHINA: In China, 19 US Tenth Air Force B-24s haul fuel from Burma to Liuchow.
In spite of bad weather in Burma, 4 P-47s sweep the Lungling, China-Wanling-Loiwing road and 5 damage a bridge approach at Manyut.
The US Fourteenth Air Force dispatches 20 B-24s to bomb Hengyang; 12 B-25s to bomb Kutkai; 28 B-25s hit targets including the Yuangshaho ferry, Pakmushih, Chuanhsien, and Lengshuitang; 130+ P-40s and P-51 Mustangs on armed reconnaissance hit targets of opportunity in the Mangshih and Lungling area and from north of Tangyang and along the Yangtze River southward including areas around Changsha, Kiyang, Samshui, Chuanhsien, Lingling, and Kwongning.

JAPAN: In the Kurile Islands, 3 US Eleventh Air Force B-24s bomb Kataoka naval base on Shimushu Island and 4 B-25s abort a shipping sweep due to weather and mechanical difficulties.

EAST INDIES: The British Eastern Fleet begins 4 days of air strikes on Sigli in northern Sumatra.

Japanese aircraft make light raids on US ground and naval forces involved in the invasion of Morotai. 

The US Far East Air Force attacks various islands. On Celebes Island, B-24s bomb Kendari air depot and Ambesia Airfield while B-25s attack a large warehouse at Gorontalo and B-24s and B-25s hit Kairatoe and Kamarian. B-25s and B-24s pound Namlea on Buru Island, Liang on Ambon Island, Haroekoe on Haroekoe Island, and Laha on Amboina Island.

NEW GUINEA: In Dutch New Guinea, the USAAF Far East Air Forces dispatches fighter-bombers to hit Manokwari, Sagan 3, Moemi, and Warren Aerodromes.

CAROLINE ISLANDS: Peleliu, Palaus Islands: The beachhead is consolidated by US Marines, including capturing part of the airfield.

The first night ashore was gruelling: small Japanese infiltration parties hit the Marine lines repeatedly. The cruiser Honolulu and three destroyers provided star shell illumination to help the Marines turn the infiltrators back, but the rest of the fleet withdrew to avoid enemy submarines. The Marines fought the night away, well dug in, in their foxholes. In the south, the foxholes filled with stinking swamp water.

Today the 5th and 7th Marines advance relentlessly; the 1st Marines more slowly, encountering fierce resistance from the northern ridges they were assigned to take. (Paul and Jean Beach)

PACIFIC OCEAN
:  Five Japanese ships are sunk by USN aircraft and submarines: (1) South of Formosa, USS Picuda (SS-382) sinks an army cargo ship in Bashi Channel and USS Redfish (SS-395) sinks a fleet tanker; (2) USS Sea Devil (SS-400) sinks submarine HIJMS I-364 off Yokosuka, Japan; (3) an army cargo ship is sunk by aircraft southwest of Mindanao, Philippine Islands; and (4) a cargo vessel is sunk by a mine south of Mindanao. 

VOLCANO ISLANDS: The US Seventh Air Force sends 17 Saipan Island-based B-24s to bomb Iwo Jima Island; 3 others on training and armed reconnaissance missions bomb Pagan Island.

MARCUS ISLAND: Three USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb Marcus Island. The island is located in the North Pacific about 768 nautical miles (1 422 kilometers) west-northwest of Wake Island and is used as a refueling point for Japanese aircraft en route to the Central Pacific.

MARSHALL ISLANDS: USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators in the Marshall Islands bomb Emidj Island, Jaluit Atoll.

CANADA: The Second Quebec Conference (Octagon) attended by US President Franklin D Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) ends.
At a press conference concluding this, the eighth summit of the war, President Roosevelt said that after Germany's surrender "the British Empire and the United States will work together" against Japan.

Much of the conference was taken up, however, with three different great questions: Anglo-US co-operation on the "atom bomb"; the British prime minister's fear of Russian influence in central Europe after the war; and the plans of the US treasury secretary, Henry Morgenthau, for turning Germany into an "agrarian" country after the war. Sitting on the terrace of the citadel here knows as "the deck", Mr. Churchill called Japan an "evil and barbarous nation".

Mr. Churchill has confided to Mr. Roosevelt his fears of the "dangerous spread of Russian influence" in the Balkans, especially Greece and Yugoslavia, and FDR is beginning to agree.

 The CCS approves Admiral William F Halsey's plan to move the date of the Leyte invasion from 20 December to 20 October. Agreement is also reached on invading Japan; Kyushu will be invaded in October 1945 and Honshu in December 1945.

USA: Heavy cruiser USS St Paul launched.

Frigate USS Gulfport commissioned.

ARCTIC OCEAN: The German submarine U-703 is last heard from in the Arctic east of Iceland today, position unknown. All 54 hands on the U-boat are lost. This is her 13th patrol during which she sank seven ships for a total of 31,952 tons. There is no explanation for her loss.

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16 September 1945

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September 16th, 1945 (SUNDAY)

HONG KONG: The Japanese formally surrender to British forces. Vice-Admiral Ruitaro Fujeta and Major-General Umetichi Odada, standing behind a small table, sign the Instrument of Surrender and give their swords to Rear Admiral Harcourt. The Admiral is accompanied by American, Canadian and Chinese representatives. After the removal of the Japanese officials as prisoners of war, the Union Jack is ceremonially hoisted to the accompaniment of the National Anthem. A salute of twenty one guns is fired from the naval ships in the harbour and a fly-past is made by aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm. (Jack McKillop and Mike Yared)(208)

A cruiser HMCS Prince Robert represented Canada at Japanese surrender, Capt Wallace Bourchier CREERY RCN Commanding Officer.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The US 86th Infantry Division is instructed to send a rifle company to Corregidor Island to guard PoWs employed in clearing Malinta Tunnel of debris and dead Japanese. In addition, the company is to have the secondary task of setting up and guiding tours of the historical sites of the island. (Drew Philip Halévy)

Canada: HMC ML 105 paid off.

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