World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » Events
• » 23 Mar 1943

• In its heaviest bombing raid to date, the British RAF Bomber Command attacked Dortmund, Germany with 2,000 tons of explosives. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | TH]
• German 10th Panzer Division counterattacked the advancing American troops in the El Guettar region in Tunisia; heavy American anti-tank fire repulsed the German attack. ww2dbase [Battle of El Guettar | CPC]
• In a free election in occupied Denmark, the Government Party won 143 seats while the Danish Nazi Party only won 5 seats. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German Luftwaffe aircraft sank HMS Windsor Castle off Algeria. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Soviet troops surrounded the German headquarters at Ternopil, Ukraine. ww2dbase [CPC]
• USS S-31 began patrolling in the Kwajalein area in the Marshall Islands. ww2dbase [S-31 | CPC]
• Bernard Montgomery released British 1st Armoured Division from reserve to reinforce the New Zealand troops' offensive near Zarat, Tunisia. Indian 4th Division attacked the western end of the Mareth Line in coordination. ww2dbase [Operations Pugilist and Supercharge II | CPC]
• Heinrich Himmler's statistician reported to him that, thus far, 633,300 Russian Jews had been "resettled", with the latter word a likely euphemism for "exterminated". ww2dbase [Heinrich Himmler | CPC]

• 9 US B-17 bombers attacked the Japanese base at Rabaul, New Britain, causing damage to the airfields. One of the bombers dropped large bombs in the Rabalanakaia volcano in an attempt to artificially cause an eruption, but the attempt was unsuccessful; the Americans did not realize that the volcano was actually dormant. ww2dbase [Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | Truk | CPC]

• A German military patrol raided the original Bluie East Five radio and weather station in eastern Greenland, destroying the main building. ww2dbase [Bluie East Five | North Greenland | CPC]

• Nachi departed Paramushiro (Paramushir), Kurile Islands. ww2dbase [Nachi | Paramushiro, Hokkaido | CPC]

• USS Whale attacked a Japanese convoy off Saipan, Mariana Islands, hitting them with 4 of 6 torpedoes fired, sinking Kenyo Maru and damaging another freighter. A 7th torpedo was fired at the general direction of the convoy as she disengaged to discourage escorts from chasing her, but the torpedo circled back and almost struck USS Whale. ww2dbase [Whale | CPC]
• USS Wahoo sank collier Katyosan Maru in the Laotieshan Channel between Liaoning Province and Shandong Province, China, hitting her with 1 of 1 torpedo. ww2dbase [Wahoo | Laotieshan Channel, Yellow Sea | CPC]

• A group of Greek Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland. ww2dbase [Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Oswiecim | CPC]

23 Mar 1943 Interactive Map