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• » 23 Sep 1943

• Red Army captured Poltava, Ukraine. ww2dbase [TH]
• Joseph Goebbels visited Adolf Hitler at Rastenburg, East Prussia, Germany. The two had dinner together, during which Adolf Hitler shared his belief that Winston Churchill would not be willing to consider peace offers coming from Germany. ww2dbase [Joseph Goebbels | CPC]
• USS Nicholas departed Brisbane, Australia escorting evacuation transport USS Rochambeau bound for Nouméa, New Caledonia. ww2dbase [Nicholas | DS]
• James Gavin was promoted to the war time rank of brigadier general. ww2dbase [James Gavin | CPC]

• Two Norwegian vessels, the 5,096-ton merchant ship Skjelbred in ballast and the 2,642-ton ship Oregon Express were torpedoed by German submarine U-238 (Horst Hemp) south-east of Cape Farewell, Greenland. U-238 had fired at the convoy ON 202 and claimed four ships sunk. The steering gear of the Skjelbred was put out of action and an attempt to set up an emergency rudder was halted when the escorting ship HMS Northern Foam ordered the crew to abandon her. The master, Torjus Emil Johnsen and 37 crew members with five gunners left the vessel, which was last seen in a sinking condition. The captain later stated that Skjelbred, being capable of 16-17 knots, should not have been placed in such a slow convoy. The Oregon Express also in ballast was hit on the starboard side in the engine room. The explosion killed one man on the bridge and two on watch below and blew others overboard. The survivors among the 41 crew members and four gunners on board tried to abandon ship in the only two lifeboats that remained intact, but one became filled with water and the other contained only a few men. The most survivors had to jump overboard when the ship broke in two and sank within three minutes. Both lifeboats fished others out of the water until 25 men were in the boats, while eleven rescued themselves on a raft that had floated free, including the injured master. ww2dbase [HM]
• Ermland was discovered and bombed by Allied aircraft, breaking in two, off Nantes, France. ww2dbase [Ermland | CPC]

• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a bombing raid against the port facilities at Nantes, France. ww2dbase [RAF Thurleigh | Bombing of Cities in France and Low Countries | Nantes | DS]

• 73 Canadian internees, 13 Latin American internees, and 24 American internees of Stanley Internment Camp were brought out of Hong Kong aboard passenger ship Teia Maru; they were to be transported to Goa, where an internee exchange with the Allies was to take place. ww2dbase [Stanley Prison and St Stephen's College | CPC]

• Indian 8th Infantry Division began to arrive at Taranto, Italy. ww2dbase [Operation Avalanche | Taranto, Puglia | CPC]
• Colonel Walter Schöll issued the complete evacuation of the coast near Naples, Italy within a day; the area had a population of over 200,000. ww2dbase [Naples Uprising | Napoli, Campania | CPC]
• British Mediterranean Fleet Commander-in-Chief Admiral Andrew Cunningham and Italian Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Raffaele de Courten at Brindisi, Italy and struck the Gentlemen's Agreement, beginning a period of cooperation between the two navies. ww2dbase [Raffaele de Courten | Invasion of Sicily and Italy's Surrender | Brindisi, Puglia | CPC]

• USS Harder sank freighter Kowa Maru and tanker Daishin Maru off Nagoya Bay, Japan, hitting each with one torpedo; six torpedoes were expended in this attack. ww2dbase [Harder | CPC]

• The Vilna Ghetto in Lithuania was liquidated. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Vilnius | CPC]

• Shokaku departed Eniwetok, Marshall Islands for Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Shokaku | Eniwetok | CPC]

• Colonel Pyotr P. Timofeev was named the Soviet counterintelligence agency GUKR SMERSH's chief within the Steppe Front. ww2dbase [CPC]

• King George VI cabled Chiang Kaishek, informing the Chinese leader that Louis Mountbatten would soon be dispatched to Chinese to discuss an Anglo-American-Chinese joint offensive against Japanese forces in Burma. ww2dbase [George VI | London, England | CPC]
• Air Marshal Arthur Harris despatched a bomber raid to Berlin, Germany to test the effectiveness of the H2S navigation system over the city and to probe German defences before the first major operation was undertaken. ww2dbase [Arthur Harris | Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | England | AC]

• USS Gar entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, United States for overhaul. ww2dbase [Gar | Mare Island Navy Yard | Vallejo, California | CPC]
• The keel of submarine Brill was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, United States. ww2dbase [Brill | Electric Boat Company | Groton, Connecticut | CPC]
• Task Group 21.14 (TG 21.14) was reformed at Norfolk, Virginia as an anti-submarine Hunter-Killer group centered around escort carrier USS Card with the TBF Avengers and F4F Wildcats of Composite Squadron VC-9 embarked and with escorts of Clemson-class destroyers USS Barry, Goff, and Borie. TG 21.14 departed Norfolk bound for the Central Atlantic that same day. ww2dbase [Norfolk Navy Yard | Card | Norfolk, Virginia | DS]

23 Sep 1943 Interactive Map