Today In History

Before dawn, British Wellington bombers attacked German supply lines between Benghazi and Tobruk, Libya. The negative impact of such attacks was felt during the day, as only some of the Axis tanks was able to attack Allied lines at Alam el Halfa, Egypt due to inadequate fuel.

Armored cars of 4/8th Hussars of British 4th Armoured Brigade penetrated Axis lines near Alam el Halfa, Egypt, destroying 57 German supply trucks near Himeimat. Erwin Rommel decided that he would withdraw since he could not gain initiative in battle.

The new Italian government signed a secret armistice with the Allies. Immediately after, Operation Baytown, the invasion of the Italian mainland, was launched across the Strait of Messina, with British and Canadian troops of British XIII Corps landing at Reggio Calabria without opposition.

Having driven Axis troops out of the island of Sicily by 17 Aug 1943, the Allies launched Operation Avalanche, the invasion of mainland Italy. Given a choice of two landing sites, the opening of the Volturno River north of Naples or Salerno southeast of Naples, the latter was chosen as it had landing beaches favorable to invaders and it had nearby major roads and airfields that could be used by the Allies after a successful invasion. Operation Baytown and Operation Slapstick were launched to prepare for the main Operation Avalanche invasion, although the latter was actually commenced on the same day as Operation Avalanche.

Hans-Joachim Marseille shot down five P-40 fighters and one Spitfire fighter over El Alamein, Egypt, bringing his score up to 142 kills. In the evening, he received personal congratulations on being awarded Diamonds to his Knight's Cross medal from Albert Kesselring, Erwin Rommel, Hermann Göring, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Joseph Goebbels, and Erhard Milch, but his spirits remained low because he had lost fellow pilot Hans-Arnold Stahlschmidt, whom he considered a close friend, in combat in the afternoon.

The first two German V-2 rockets were fired against the Allies by German 444 and 485 Mobile Artillery Detachments at 1030 and 1140 hours, respectively. They both targeted Paris, France, but both crashed immediately after launch.

The British 1st Corps (49th West Riding and 51st Highland Divisions) of the Canadian Army commenced the siege of Le Havre, the largest port in northern France, which had been earmarked for American use. The approaches to Le Havre were well protected by flooding, mines, anti-tank ditches and huge concrete gun emplacements primarily designed for sea defence. The German garrison of 11,000 (underestimated by Allied Intelligence as being around 8,700) was strongly provided with artillery. The siege opened with Allied aircraft dropping 4,000 tons of bombs on to the defences (followed by a further 5,500 tons over the two day battle). The 15-inch guns of HMS Erebus and Warspite were also brought to bear on the largest gun emplacements, although Erebus did receive some damage from return fire from the shore batteries. In addition, two heavy and six medium batteries added their support to the Divisional artillery Regiments during the softening-up process. The German resistance however proved less tenacious than expected resulting in a comparatively light Allied casualty rate of less than 400. Nevertheless on its capture the docks were found to have been thoroughly wrecked and it was over four weeks before the port could be used.