The Italian island of Pantelleria was unconditionally surrendered to the Allies at 11:40 am local time.
It was an historic surrender in that no boots were on the ground. It was made solely in the face of an ongoing, and heavy, areal campaign, which is somewhat deceptive. At this point in time the U.S. Army Air Force was of the mind that it could win the war without an invasion of Europe, which was obviously incorrect, and something like this tended to emphasize that mistaken view.
The surrender was significant in that it provided a staging area for the invasion of Sicily.
The island is closer to North Africa than it is to Sicily, but it can be regarded as midpoint. The fact that it would call it quits is significant in and of itself, as it pretty clearly telegraphed that Italy was done.
On the same day the press reported that the Germans were planning a massive offensive in the East. They in fact were, but not in the location noted.
The RAF bombed Düsseldorf and Münster in its heaviest attack up to that time. The U.S. 8th Air Force made a daylight raid on Wilhelmshaven and Cuxhave with 225 airplanes, losing 85 of them in a record loss ration at the time.
This emphasized the British point that daylight raids, which the U.S. favored as they were in favor of "precision bombing", and justifiably concerned about the immorality of nighttime targeting, were doomed due to heavy losses, in spite of having just agreed to the same in the Pointblank Directive. On the other hand, this emphasized also the American view that the British fighter command was completely unhelpful in its refusal to do anything to extend the range of fighter escorts and make them suitable for long range penetration.
Indeed, it's worth noting that the Supermarine Spitfire and the P51 Mustang shared the same Rolls Royce Merlin engine. Had the RAF fighter command been less narrow-minded, the Spitfire, not the Mustang, would likely be remembered as the premier escort fighter of World War Two, and the P51 would have faded by late 1943 into obscurity.
U.S. coal miners went on strike again, with the support of their union President John L. Lewis.
Super patriotism at work. . . not.
Roosevelt would halt the strike, temporarily, by threatening to draft the miners.
In the popular imagination World War Two was free of labor strife, but in reality, it wasn't.
The German submarine U-417 was sunk in the North Atlantic by a B-17 of No. 206 Squadron RAF, the Japanese submarine I-24 was sunk off Shemya, Alaska by the U.S. Navy subchaser Larchmont, the Australian corvette HMAS Wallaroo sank off Fremantle after a collision with the American Liberty ship Henry Gilbert Costin.
The technicolor musical Coney Island was released. It was nominated, but did not win, an Academy Award for best musical score in 1944.
.jpg)
.jpeg)
.png)
.png)
