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• Weather data for 16 Sep 1943

• USS S-28 transited Mushiru Kaikyo in the Kurile Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Leros Island in the Aegean Sea was captured by British troops. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]
• Yugoslavian partisans captured Split, Dalmatia, Yugoslavia. ww2dbase [TH]
• Soviet naval infantry captured Novorossiysk, Russia. ww2dbase [TH]
• Otto Skorzeny was awarded the Gold Flying Badge by Hermann Göring at Wolf's Lair, East Prussia, Germany. Upon receiving the award, he requested the Knight's Cross to be awarded to his men Captain Gerlach and Lieutenant Meyer. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Adolf Hitler, Otto Skorzeny, Ambassador Hewel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and Hitler's secretaries Fräulein Wolf and Frau Traudl Jung had midnight tea between 0000 and 0100 hours. Hitler said during tea that "Germany must be cleaned up after the war. We will draw our coming men from the fighting soldiers, but traitors must be rooted out now. Don't forget how Clemenceau dealt with the enemy within in 1914. he ruthlessly rounded them up and had them shot, thereby saving France. We must get rid of deserters and mutineers behind the front. Traitors always work on the same lines - to let the enemy in by the back door." ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Minesweeper USS Armada was transferred to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease Act. ww2dbase [AC]

• USS S-44 arrived at Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, US Territory of Alaska. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Gregory Boyington led 24 Corsair fighters of US Marine Corps squadron VMF-214 from Banika, Russell Islands to join 80 other aircraft of other squadrons to attack Ballale fighter base southeast of Bougainville island. 40 A6M fighters rose to defend the base. The Americans were credited with 17 Japanese aircraft shot down and 9 probables (VMF-214 alone was awarded 11 (5 of which were Boyington's) and 8, respectively), but lost pilot Bob Ewing in the action. Post-war Japanese records would reveal that only 6 aircraft were shot down in battle that day, with a further 1 aircraft written off due to heavy damage. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Repair ship Akashi performed repair work for cable layer Osei Maru at Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• Julius Ritter, aide to the Labor Minister Fritz Sauckel, was shot in Paris, France; 50 French would be executed in reprisal. ww2dbase [TH]

• USS Pollack arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her seventh war patrol. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | CPC]

• USS Ancon departed Salerno, Italy and arrived in Palermo, Italy. ww2dbase [Main Article | Event | CPC]
• Bernard Montgomery's British 5th Infantry Division reached Sapri, less than 100 kilometers from Salerno, Italy. Heinrich von Vietinghoff recommended Albert Kesselring to break off the offensive in the Salerno area, fall back, and form a defensive line, but meanwhile the German troops attempted to attack positions held by troops of British X Corps near Salerno, making little progress. At Salerno, about 600 men of the British X Corps mutinied when informed that they were to be assigned to new units as replacements. To the north, after sundown, British 10th Parachute Battalion and 156th Parachute Battalion captured Gioia. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH, AC]

• USS Haddock fired 6 torpedoes on transport Samsei Maru in the Pacific Ocean, damaging her with 1 hit. The damaged ship turned and attempted to ram Haddock, forcing the submarine to submerge and flee. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• The keel of submarine Chub was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, United States. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | CPC]

• At Osekovo, Croatia, Yogoslavia, an SS unit of eighty men was attacked by partisans and forced to withdraw. With four badly wounded and several lightly wounded the unit commander telephoned his superior officer in Popovaca to proudly report that as it had been impossible to distinguish between the local population and the partisans he had personally murdered one hundred. ww2dbase [AC]

16 Sep 1943 Interactive Map