August 1943

The following events occurred in August 1943:

August 1, 1943 (Sunday) Operation Tidal Wave began as a group of 177 American B-24 Liberator bombers, with 1,726 total crew, departed from Libya to make the first bombing of the oil refineries at Ploieşti, Romania, the major supplier of fuel to Germany. The mission temporarily halted oil production, but 532 airmen and 54 of the planes were lost. After a 40% loss of production, the refineries would be repaired more quickly than projected."Ploieşti Air Raid (1 August 1943)", in World War 2 in Europe, David T. Zabecki, ed. (Taylor & Francis, 1999) pp1627-1628 Germany's Radio Reconnaissance Service had intercepted and decrypted the Allied messages about the raid and the departure from Libya, and anti-aircraft defenses were in place despite the low-level approach of the bombers.David M. Kennedy, The Library of Congress World War II Companion (Simon and Schuster, 2007) pp727-728

Japan granted "independence" to Burma, which had been a British colony at the time of its invasion and occupation by the Japanese Army. Ba Maw was installed as the head of state, (designated the Adipadi), although the commander of the Japanese Army forces in Burma, Lieutenant-General Kawabe Masakazu, would continue to oversee Burma's politics, economy, and foreign relations.Wolf Mendl, Japan and South East Asia: From the Meiji Restoration to 1945 (Taylor & Francis, 2001) p405 Rioting broke out in Harlem, the mostly African-American section of New York City, after a white NYPD officer, James Collins, shot a black soldier, Private Robert Bandy, in the shoulder during a scuffle."6 Die, 200 Hurt as Riot Flares in Harlem Area", Pittsburgh Press, August 2, 1943, p2 When an ambulance took Bandy to a hospital, a false rumor spread that the soldier had been killed, and a mob began smashing the windows of pawn shops, liquor stores and other white-owned Harlem businesses. The riot was finally suppressed by black and white NYPD officers, state national guardsmen, and military policemen, along with an appeal from Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia for peace and a delivery of food supplies to Harlem residents. When the riot ended, six African-Americans had died, and more than 500 arrested, while 40 officers had been injured."New York City Riot of 1943", in Encyclopedia of American Race Riots, Volume 2, Walter C. Rucker and James N. Upton, eds. (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007) pp476-477 William D. Becker, the Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri, was killed along with nine other people while riding as an honored guest in a new cargo-carrying glider airplane at an airshow at the city's Lambert Field airport. A crowd of 10,000 watched in horror as the wings of the glider buckled as it descended to 2,000 feet, then plummeted to the ground. Killed also were Major William B. Robertson, President of the Robertson Aircraft Corporation, which had built the glider; St. Louis County Judge Executive Henry Mueller; and Thomas Dysart, President of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce.""Glider Crash Fatal to Ten in St. Louis", Pittsburgh Press, August 2, 1943, p1; "Look Back: St. Louis glider disaster" , StLToday.com, August 1, 2011 The German submarines U-383 and U-454 were both depth charged and sunk in the Bay of Biscay by Allied aircraft. U-383, which carried at least 44 crew, was never found and U-454 lost 32 of its 46 crew. Died: The Blessed Martyrs of Nowogródek, eleven Roman Catholic nuns led by Mother Superior Maria Stella Mardosewicz, were executed by a Nazi firing squad in German-occupied Poland, after volunteering to take the place of local men who had been scheduled for execution. The eleven would be beatified by the Church in 2000."Bd. Maria Stella Mardosewicz and Ten Companions", Butler's Lives of the Saints: New Saints And Blesseds, Paul Burns, ed. (Liturgical Press, 2005) p197 Lydia Litvyak, 21, Soviet fighter ace who shot down at least 11 German airplanes. She is one of two women who were "aces", the other being Yekaterina Budanova, who died on July 19. Litvyak's remains would be found in 1979, and she would be posthumously awarded the medal of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1990.Hugh Morgan, Soviet Aces of World War 2 (Osprey Publishing, 1997) p81

August 2, 1943 (Monday) Jewish inmates at the Treblinka extermination camp in Poland seized weapons from the camp's armory and made plans to take over the concentration camp from their captors. The theft was discovered before the inmates had enough to completely overpower the guards, but hundreds charged through the main gate, and 300 managed to escape."Treblinka" , Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum A few guards were killed, and the rebels set several buildings ablaze, though most of the escapees were hunted down and killed, with no more than 40 surviving.Jonathan C. Friedman, The Routledge History of the Holocaust (Taylor & Francis, 2010) p333Naomi Kramer and Ronald Headland, The Fallacy of Race and the Shoah (University of Ottawa Press, 1998) p251

At 2:00 am local time, the U.S. Navy patrol torpedo boat PT-109, with a crew of 13 commanded by Lieutenant (j.g.) John F. Kennedy, was traveling through the Blackett Strait in the Solomon Islands, when it was rammed and sunk by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri. Though two of the crew were killed, Kennedy and the other ten men swam three miles to a small island and then to Olasana Island, both of which were uninhabited. Kennedy and Ensign George H. R. Ross would make their way to Naru Island where they were found by natives Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana who delivered a message that Kennedy had carved on a coconut to the PT base at Rendova Island. The PT-109 survivors were rescued on August 8, and Kennedy received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his heroism."Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, USN" Archived copy at the Library of Congress (June 20, 2006)., Naval History and Heritage Command Soviet partisan fighters began using a new weapon, land mines made of plastic, to fight the German occupiers. Reportedly, the partisans placed 8,422 of the mines along railway tracks in the Belarusian SSR.Walter Laqueur, Guerrilla Warfare: A Historical & Critical Study (Transaction Publishers, 1976) p210; The German submarine U-106 was depth charged and sunk northwest of Cape Ortegal, Spain by Short Sunderland aircraft of No. 228 Squadron RAF, with the loss of 22 of its 48 crew, while the other 26 were rescued by German ships. Born: Max Wright, American TV actor who portrayed Willie Tanner on ALF; in Detroit (d. 2019)

August 3, 1943 (Tuesday) General George S. Patton was visiting the 15th Evacuation Hospital in Nicosia, Cyprus, when he encountered Private Charles H. Kuhl, who was in the hospital for malaria and dysentery as well as for shell shock. Patton asked Private Kuhl what he was in for, and Kuhl replied, "I guess I just can't take it." Patton lost his temper and struck Kuhl with his gloves. On August 10, Patton would strike another soldier, and the incidents became public knowledge.D. A. Lande, I Was With Patton: First-person Accounts of WW II in George S. Patton's Command (Zenith Imprint, 2002) p88 Operation Rumyantsev began as the Soviet Army started an offensive against the German XI Corps to recapture Kharkov.Alexander Hill, The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, 1941-45: A Documentary Reader (Routledge, 2008) p213 The 20-day Mirgorod direction offensive, in which the Soviet Red Army would pursue retreating German Wehrmacht forces after the battle of Kursk, began and marked a turning point in Germany's Eastern Front campaign against the Soviets. When the battle ended on August 23, Germany had failed for the first time to defeat the Soviets in the summer, or to regain losses sustained during the Russian winter. The U.S. state of Georgia lowered the legal voting age from 21 to 18, becoming the first state in the union to grant 18-year-olds the right to vote. The amendment to the state constitution was one of 28 that was approved in a referendum."Georgia Votes To Give Ballot To 18-Year-Olds", Pittsburgh Press, August 4, 1943, p2

The German submarines U-335 (with 44 crew, of whom one survived), U-572 (with all 47 crew) and U-706 (with a crew of 44) were all lost to Allied action. Born: Clarence Wijewardena, Sri Lankan pop musician (d. 1996); in Haputale Steven Millhauser, American novelist known for Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer; in New York CityIngersoll, Earl G. 2014. Understanding Steven Millhauser. The University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC, p.3

August 4, 1943 (Wednesday) British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his cabinet ministers made what one commentator would call "one of his most important but least known decisions", electing not to ship British wheat to the colony in India, "thereby condemning hundreds of thousands, or possibly millions, of people to death by starvation". At the time, there was a famine in the Bengal province (now Bangladesh).Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II (Basic Books, 2010) p141; "Was Churchill Responsible for the Bengal Famine?" , "History News Network", George Mason University At the German V-2 rocket plant at Peenemünde, the decision was made to employ concentration camp inmates as slave labor to build the missiles. For every non-Jewish German employee, there would be at least ten camp inmates supplied by the SS."The Mittelwerk/Mittelbau/Camp Dora", V2Rocket.com The Battle of Munda Point, fought at New Georgia in the Solomon Islands, ended after five weeks with a U.S. victory over Japan. The Japanese death toll was 4,683 of 8,000 troops killed, while the U.S. sustained 4,994 dead or wounded. The German submarine U-489 was depth charged and sunk in the North Atlantic by a Consolidated PBY Catalina of No. 423 Squadron RCAF. The Progressive Conservatives under George Drew defeated the Liberal government of Premier Harry Nixon in a provincial election, forming a minority government in Ontario. For the next 42 years, Ontario would be governed without interruption by the Tories]]. The election was also notable for a breakthrough by the social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, led by Ted Jolliffe. In the port of Algiers, the cargo ship Fort La Montee caught fire and exploded after being towed out to sea. The British destroyer HMS Arrow took heavy damage from the explosion and was later declared a constructive total loss "with many casualties", not otherwise quantified."HMS Arrow (H 42) — A-class Destroyer", by Lt Cdr Geoffrey B Mason RN (Rtd), in Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War II" Born: Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper, and winner of two World Championships in 1966; in Alta Municipality Margaret Lee (stage name for Margaret Gwendolyn Box), British-born actress who became a star in Italian action films such as Se tutte le donne del mondo (released in the U.S. as Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die); in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire (d. 2024)

August 5, 1943 (Thursday) Soviet troops recaptured the city of Orel from German forces after the 37-day Operation Kutuzov campaign that involved 1.1 million troops (300,700 for the Germans and 800,000 for the Soviets. In reaching their victory, the Soviets suffered 112,529 dead or missing, lost 2,586 tanks and 1,014 aircraft, while the Germans lost 25,515 killed or missing and 60,939 wounded.. The United States Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) was formed, consolidating the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WFTD).