On This Day
1943 > WW2
On This Day - 1943
- October 1, 1943
The repair ship/works ship/store-carrier HMAS WHANG PU, was commissioned. WHANG PU was laid down in Hong Kong for the China Navigation Co Ltd, in 1920. The vessel was a former Chinese river ferry, which was under conversion to a submarine depot ship at Singapore when the Japanese drove south.
LCDR P. E. Carr, RAN, was lost while flying in an RAAF Catalina flying boat during a torpedo attack on Japanese shipping, in the Celebes. Carr was seconded to the RAAF for flying duties in 1932. He was the only serving RAN officer to be awarded the DFC in WWII.
The Australian Government ordered the cessation of recruiting for the RAN because of an acute manpower shortage.
- September 28, 1943
The Fremantle based USS CISCO, (submarine), was sunk by Japanese aircraft off Mindanao.
Six parties of Coastwatchers were landed on New Britain by USS GROUPER, (submarine), to prepare for an Allied landing.
- September 27, 1943
During Operation Jaywick, limpet mines were fastened to seven ships in Singapore Harbour, by Commandos launched from the Special Services vessel HMAS KRAIT. The largest ship attacked was the 10,000 ton tanker SINKOKU MARU. An estimated 37,000 to 39,000 tons of enemy shipping was sunk or damaged. All three parties returned safely to the rendezvous at Dongas Island. Major I. Lyon recorded in his journal a tense moment in the operation: “Halfway through the work, (attaching the mines to the ship’s hull), Huston drew my attention to a man watching us intently from a porthole ten feet above. Just before we left he withdrew his head. The alarm was not sounded.”
The Fremantle based USS BONEFISH, (submarine), sank the Japanese troop ship KASHIMA MARU in the South China Sea.
- September 26, 1943
Z Special Force, (Operation Jaywick), operatives enter Singapore Harbour in kayaks, and planted limpet mines on seven Japanese merchant ships. They then escaped undetected, to rendezvous with HMAS KRAIT. The raid was a complete success, with 37,000 tons of Japanese shipping sunk or damaged.
- September 22, 1943
LCDR J. M. Bland, RANR(S), commanding a naval beach party, landed with the first wave, and guided troops ashore under heavy enemy fire, at Finschhafen, New Guinea. Bland was killed shortly after the landing. He was awarded the US Navy Cross posthumously for outstanding bravery in the face of the enemy.
LEUT H. Henty-Creer, RANVR, commanded the midget submarine X-5 in the attack on the German Ship TIRPITZ, (battleship), in Kaa Fiord, Norway. X-5 was sighted within 450 metres of TIRPITZ, but proof that she laid her charges under the battleship before she herself was destroyed, has not been established. Wreckage, believed to be X-5, was found within 360 metres of where TIRPITZ was moored. Several attempts to have Henty-Creer awarded the VC posthumously have not met with success.
- September 17, 1943
LEUT L. V. Goldsworthy, RANVR, rendered safe and removed a German aerial mine which had lain dormant under a coaling wharf at Southampton, England. Goldsworthy was awarded the GM for gallantry and undaunted devotion to duty’.
LEUT H. E. Carse, RANR, commanding the commando vessel KRAIT, landed raiding parties on Pandjong Island, for the raid by canoeists on shipping in Singapore, Harbour, Operation Jaywick.
- September 13, 1943
Australian Coastwatcher SBLT A. Kirkwall Smith, RANVR, led a 12-day reconnaissance of Cape Gloucester, New Britain, to gather information on terrain, beaches and enemy defences for the planned landing of Allied troops.
- September 12, 1943
HMAS WOLLONGONG, (corvette), shared the sinking of the German submarine U617, in the Straits of Gibraltar, with HM Ships HAARLEM and HYANCINTH, and two Wellington bombers.
- September 4, 1943
Engaged in the Allied landing at Lae, New Guinea, HMA Ships SHEPPARTON and BENALLA, (corvettes), carried out a close bombardment of enemy troop positions. A preliminary survey of the landing beaches was made by HMA Ships STELLA and POLARIS.
- September 3, 1943
HMAS SHEPPARTON and ML 817, were straddled in a heavy attack by Japanese bombers at Morobe, New Guinea. Neither ship suffered casualties, but 50 holes were counted above the waterline on the port side of ML 817.