Thursday, September 2, 1943. Prisoner exchange.

Eighteen-year-old Seweryn Klajnman led 13 Treblinka prisoners in an escape when the group killed their Ukrainian SS guard, and he changed into the guard's uniform, took hs rifle, and marched them out of the camp.

The Swedish MS Gripsholm left Jersey City, New Jersey bound for Mormugao in Portuguese India carrying 1,330 interned Japanese diplomats and their families while the Tela Maru was bringing American civilians to the same port to be exchanged.

USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56), September 2, 1943. Naval Air Station, Astoria, Oregon.

Monday, August 2, 1943. The wreck of the PT-109

The crew of the PT-109.

At 02:00 the U.S. Navy patrol torpedo boat PT-109 was rammed and sunk by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri.  Two men were killed by the rest of the crew swam three miles to a small island, and then to Olasana Island.  The commander, John F. Kennedy and Ensign George H. r. Ross would then make it to Naru Island were they were found by natives who sent a message of their whereabouts, carved by Kennedy on a coconut, to the Navy.

The event arguably propelled Kennedy into the White House.

An uprising at Treblinka, which happened before the inmates could fully arm themselves, managed to free 300 during a rush of the main gate.

A much larger uprising had been planned.

Most of the escapees were captured, and only 40 survived.

Tuesday, March 22, 1943. Expanding Murder of European Jews by the Nazis, U.S. Army takes Maknassy, Tunisia, Italian port disaster.

Jewish women in Paris, 1942.  By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-N0619-506 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5367011

Germany began deportation of 4,000 Jews from occupied France.  They were sent to Sobibor, where only five of them would survive.

The initial deportation of 4,000 was shortly followed by an additional 1,000.

The Germans also began to deport Yugoslavian Jews from Skopje to Treblinka.

The Germans made the first executions of Gypsies at Auschwitz.

The Waffen SS attacked and destroyed Khatyn, Byelorussia in retaliation for the killing of four German officers, including Hans-Otto Woellke of the Order Police.  Woelke had been an Olympic shot putter.

Sarah Sundin notes:

Today in World War II History—March 22, 1943: Nazis extend work week in the occupied Netherlands to 54 hours. US II Corps under Lt. Gen. George Patton occupies Maknassy, Tunisia.

Sundin also has a very interesting photograph on her blog, of troops in Maknassy.  I wouldn't normally repost it, but the details are quite interesting.

The quality of the photograph isn't fantastic, but the details are really interesting as noted.  All of the soldiers except the one on the far right are wearing coveralls, suggesting they're armored vehicle crewmen.  They are armed, left to right, as follows:  M1903 Springfield, M1 Carbine, M1903 Springfield, M1903 Springfield, unclear, unclear.

British Colonel Edward Orlando Kellett DSO, parliamentarian, British Army officer, and big game hunter was killed in action during the fighting in Tunisia as a colonel of the Royal Armoured Corps. 

The U-524 and U-665 were sunk by Allied aircraft in the Atlantic.

The Allesandro Volta (Italy) exploded in port, devasting the harbor, after being hit by bombs from a B-24. The same raid took out the Franco M, the Labor, the Lentini, the Manzoni, the Maria Louisa, the Modena, the Mondovi,  hte Moni, the Renato, the Rosa and the Trentino.

It was a bad day for Italian shipping.

The German tanker Eurosee sank in an air raid on Wilhelmshaven.

The British Harbour Defense Motor Launches HMML 1157 and HMML 1212 sank in an air raid in Portugal.

The Imperial Japanese Army (yes, army) auxiliary transport ship Meigan Maru was sunk off of Java by the USS Gudgeon.

Clark Gable appeared on the cover of Look magazine in his airman attire.