January
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10
Soviet troops launch an all-out offensive attack on Stalingrad.
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14
Casablanca Conference of Allied leaders begins.
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14
Casablanca Conference of Allied leaders begins.
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15
The Japanese are driven off Guadalcanal.
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18
Soviet officials announce they have broken the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad.
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The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto rise up for the first time, starting the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
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23
Allies capture Tripoli, Libya.
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27
50 bombers mount the first all American air raid against Germany (Wilhelmshaven was the target).
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31
Large parts of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, including Field Marshal Paulus, surrender.
February
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1
Vidkun Quisling is appointed Prime Minister of Norway by the Nazi occupiers.
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2
The Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end with the surrender of the German 6th Army.
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3
The death of the Four Chaplains when their ship was struck by a torpedo.
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8
In the Battle of Guadalcanal, United States forces defeat Japanese troops.
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11
General Eisenhower is selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
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14
Rostov-na-Donu, Russia is liberated by the Red Army.
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Battle of the Kasserine Pass: German General Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps launch an offensive against Allied defenses in Tunisia. It is the United States' first major battle defeat of the war.
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16
Soviet Union reconquers Kharkov, but is later driven out in the Third Battle of Kharkov.
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18
In a speech at the Berlin Sportpalast German Propagandaminister (Propaganda Minister) Joseph Goebbels declare a "Total War" against the allies.
March
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1
Heinz Guderian becomes the Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops for the German Army.
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2
Battle of the Bismarck Sea - United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships.
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13
German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.
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22
The entire population of Khatyn in Belarus is burnt alive by the German occupation forces. German forces rushed into the village and drove the inhabitants from their houses into a shed which was then set on fire. The trapped people managed to break down the front doors, but in trying to escape were killed by German machine gun fire. 149 people, including 75 children, were killed. The village was then looted and burned to the ground.
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26
Battle of the Komandorski Islands: In the Aleutian Islands the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.
April
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7
Bolivia declares war on Germany, Japan and Italy.
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13
Radio Berlin announces the discovery by Wehrmacht of mass graves of Poles killed by Soviets in the Katyn massacre, a mass murder of thousands of Polish prisoners of war (primarily military officers), intellectuals, policemen, and other public servants by the Soviet NKVD in 1940.
May
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7
Tunis captured by British First Army.
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9
German and Italian forces in Tunisia announce surrender to British.
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11
American troops invade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
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12
Trident Conference begins in Washington, D.C. with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill taking part.
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13
German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
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16
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
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24
Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the majority of U-Boats to withdraw from the Atlantic.
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Josef Mengele becomes Chief Medical Officer in Auschwitz.
June
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20
Operation Cartwheel opens with landings by the United States 4th Marine Raider Battalion at Segi Point on New Georgia.
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22
U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division land in North Africa prior to training at Arzew, French Morocco while serving in World War II.
July
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4
General Wladyslaw Sikorski and several other members of the Polish government in exile are killed in what is ostensibly an air accident in Gibraltar.
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5
Battle of Kursk begins.
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An Allied invasion fleet sails to Sicily.
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6
Americans and Japanese fight the Battle of Kula Gulf off Kolombangara.
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10
The Allied invasion of Sicily marks the beginning of an allied invasion of Axis-controlled Europe with landings on the island of Sicily, off mainland Italy by the U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division.
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12
The Wehrmacht and the Red Army fight the Battle of Prokhorovka.
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19
Rome is bombed by the Allies for the first time in the war.
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22
Deportations of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins. The extermination camp Treblinka is opened.
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24
Operation Gomorrah begins: The attack during the last week of July, 1943, Operation Gomorrah, created one of the greatest firestorms raised by the RAF and United States Army Air Force in WWII, killing roughly 50,000 civilians in Hamburg and practically destroying the entire city.
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25
In Italy the Gran Consiglio del Fascismo retires its consent to Mussolini; Mussolini is arrested and the power is given to Maresciallo d'Italia Gen. Pietro Badoglio.
August
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6-7
Americans and Japanese fight the Battle of Vella Gulf off Kolombangara.
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14
Quadrant Conference begins in Quebec City. Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King meets with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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17
The US 7th Army under General George S. Patton arrive in Messina, Italy followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.
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19
Roosevelt and Churchill sign the Quebec Agreement, formal agreement for coordinating atomic bomb research.
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23
The Battle of Kursk ends with a heavy defeat for the German forces.
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29
Germany dissolves the Danish government after it refuses to deal with a wave of strikes and disturbances to the satisfaction of the German authorities.
September
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3
Germany dissolves the Danish government after it refuses to deal with a wave of strikes and disturbances to the satisfaction of the German authorities.
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Mainland Italy is invaded by Allied forces under Bernard L. Montgomery, for the first time in the war.
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5
The 503rd Parachute Regiment under American General Douglas MacArthur lands and occupies Nadzab, just east of the port city of Lae in northeastern Papua New Guinea.
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8
United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the surrender of Italy to the Allies.
-
9
Iran declares war on Germany, under pressure of Allied forces who have occupied the country.
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Salerno landings in Italy.
October
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6
Americans and Japanese fight the Naval Battle of Vella Lavella.
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13
The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.
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18
Chiang Kai-shek takes the oath of office as president of China.
-
21
Lucie Aubrac and others in her French Resistance cell liberate Raymond Aubrac from Gestapo imprisonment.
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22
RAF delivers a highly destructive air strike on the German industrial and population center of Kassel.
November
-
1
In Operation Goodtime, United States Marines land on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
-
2
In the early morning hours, American and Japanese ships fight the inconclusive Battle of Empress Augusta Bay off Bougainville.
-
British troops, in Italy, reach the Garigliano River.
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6
The Red Army liberates the city of Kiev.
-
15
Allied Expeditionary Force for the invasion of Europe is officially formed.
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German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies and "part-Gypsies" are to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps."
-
16
Japanese submarine sinks surfaced USA submarine USS Corvina near Truk.
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18
440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF lost nine aircraft and 53 aviators.
-
20
Battle of Tarawa begins. United States Marines land on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands and take heavy fire from Japanese shore guns.
-
22
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and ROC leader Chiang Kai-Shek meet in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan.
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25
Americans and Japanese fight the naval Battle of Cape St. George between Buka and New Ireland.
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27
The Cairo Declaration is released. The Cairo Declaration was the outcome of the Cairo Conference in Cairo, Egypt, on November 27, 1943. President Franklin Roosevelt of the United States, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China were present. The Cairo Communiqué was broadcast through radio on December 1, 1943. The main points of the document were 1) The Allies resolved to bring unrelenting military pressure against Japan until it agrees to unconditional surrender, 2) All territories Japan has conquered from China, including Manchuria, Taiwan, and the Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China, and 3) Korea shall become free and independent.
-
28
Tehran Conference - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran to discuss war strategy (on November 30 they established an agreement concerning a planned June 1944 invasion of Europe codenamed Operation Overlord).
December
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3
Edward R. Murrow delivers his classic "Orchestrated Hell" broadcast over CBS Radio describing a Royal Air Force nighttime bombing raid on Berlin.
-
4
Bolivia declares war on all Axis powers.
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In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in-exile.
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24
US General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.
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26
German battle cruiser Scharnhorst sunk.
