|
1943 |
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January 4th |
Operation Ring approved by STAVKA. It
entailed the destruction of the VI Army at Stalingrad unit by unit. |
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January 8th |
STAVKA proposed to von Paulus, commander of
the VI Army at Stalingrad, that he surrenders. Von Paulus refused the
offer. |
|
January 10th |
Operation Ring began at 08.00 with a
massive artillery attack on the VI Army. The German troops in Stalingrad
were hunted out unit by unit as laid down in Operation Ring. |
|
January 12th |
Leningrad gained a rail line to link it to
the outside. |
|
January 13th |
The struggle for Kharkov started again. Two
Russian armies attacked the Germans at Kharkov. |
|
January 14th |
The start of the Casablanca
conference. |
|
January 22nd |
The Germans evacuated Tripoli in North
Africa. |
|
January 31st |
Von Paulus surrendered the
southern group of the German VI Army at Stalingrad.
Two days later, the northern group led by Schreck surrendered. |
|
February 2nd |
The first Allied merchant ship unloaded its
cargo in Tripoli, greatly improving Montgomery's
supply lines. |
|
February 5th |
The Americans drove the Japanese out of
Guadacanal. What is left of the XVII Army was taken off by the "Tokyo
Express". |
|
February 8th |
The Russians retook the city of Kursk. |
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February 9th |
Guadacanal was taken by American forces. |
|
February 14th |
Start of the first long-range penetration
patrols by Wingate's Chindits. |
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February 16th |
The Russians retook Kharkov. |
|
February 20th |
The Germans, led by Manstein, launched a
counter-offensive against the Russians. |
|
March 2nd |
The Germans destroyed the Russian 3rd Tank
Army. |
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March 3rd |
Manstein massed four Panzer corps
south-west of Kharkov to launch another massive attack on the Russians. |
|
March 15th |
The Germans re-captured Kharkov |
|
March 31st |
The weather (a spring thaw) prevented
Manstein from making further gains but in five weeks, Manstein managed to
push the Russians back 100 miles on the south-eastern Russian front. |
|
April 13th |
First news of Katyn Wood massacre was
broadcast by the Germans. |
|
April 19th |
Start of the Warsaw
Uprising. |
|
May 7th |
The German army in North
Africa surrendered to the British and Americans. |
|
June 5th |
The start of Operation Citadel; the German
attempt to cut off the Kursk salient. |
|
July 10th |
Britain and America invaded Sicily. |
|
July 12th |
The 'greatest' tank battle in history
occurred at Kursk. |
|
July 16th |
The start of the German withdrawal from the
Kursk salient. |
|
July 17th |
Rome received its first major bombing raid
of the war.
Mussolini met Hitler at Feltre. |
|
July 24th |
The fascist Grand Council agreed that
military power in Italy should rest with the king, Victor Emmanuel. |
|
July 25th |
Mussolini was arrested. |
|
July 28th |
A bombing raid on
Hamburg resulted in a firestorm that killed more than 50,000 people. |
|
August 3rd |
Italy made her first move towards a peace
settlement with the Allies. |
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August 6th |
German troops poured into Italy to stop any
chance of a peace settlement taking Italy out of the war. |
|
August 22nd |
The Germans began their withdrawal from
Kharkov and the Russians entered the city the next day. |
|
August 26th |
The Russians started their campaign to
liberate eastern Ukraine. |
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September 3rd |
Britain and America invaded Italy. |
|
September 8th |
American/British forces land at Salerno. |
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September 25th |
Smolensk was liberated. |
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October 1st |
British troops entered Naples. |
|
October 9th |
The liberation on the northern Caucasus was
completed. |
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November 6th |
German troops were forced out of
Kiev. |
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November 20th |
Start of the Battle of Tarawa which
resulted in the death of over 1,000 US Marines. |
|
November 23rd |
The Japanese were driven out of the
Gilbert Islands |
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November 28th |
Start of the Tehran
conference. |
|
December 26th |
'Scharnhorst' was sunk north of Norway. |
