The end of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising occurred after nearly a month of fighting. It concluded by the demolition of the Warsaw Synagogue.
Warsaw Synagogue in 1910.
The RAF destoryed the Möhne and Edersee dams with a mere nineteen bombers in the famous "Dam Busters" raid. At the time it was regarded as a success by the Germans, who were puzzled why the destruction of the hydroelectric dams by bouncing bombs was not followed up upon, while the RAF's Bomber Harris regarded it as a failure that wasted resources.
While the raids caused civilian loss of life, German civilians regarded the destruction of the hydroelectric generating dams as legitimate. German authorities accurately reported the resulting loss of civilian lives. Albert Speer wrote of the attack; "employing just a few bombers, the British came close to a success which would have been greater than anything they had achieved hitherto with a commitment of thousands of bombers. But they made a single mistake which puzzles me to this day: They divided their forces and that same night destroyed the Eder Valley dam, although it had nothing whatsoever to do with the supply of water to the Ruhr."
While enormously celebrated as a British success by the population, perhaps the reaction of Harris, who seems to have had a particularly cold view of the destruction of Germany from the air, isn't too surprising. In reality, however, the raid demonstrated a very clever deployment of British resources with a real understanding of how industrial infrastructure worked.
The raid did cause the British to switch aerial munitions, going thereafter for massive "Earthquake Bombs" which caused a seismic effect when detonated.
Eight of the British aircraft were lost in the raid.
Churchgoers leaving Methodist Church after Good Friday service in San Augustine, Texas, April 23, 1943.
While church attendance on Good Friday is not required in the Catholic or Orthodox churches on Good Friday, or any other Christian church of which I'm aware, it is a day of fast and abstinence from meat. In the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, it's one of only two such days all year long, the other being Ash Wednesday.
Today in World War II History—April 23, 1943: Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff establishes COSSAC (Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander) for planning the invasion of western Europe (D-day).
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
She also reports that the US commenced its final drive in Tunisia.
Yesterday we reported
The Battle of Longstop Hill commenced in Tunisia.
Bringing down the wounded at Longstop Hill. Note Churchill tank in the background.
Churchill tanks played a critical role in the battle, which ended on April 23 and oddly contributed to the Allied war effort in an odd way. A Churchill disabled a Tiger I, Tiger 131, which was then captured and heavily studied.
Tiger 131.
Of note, in this late stage of the war in North Africa armor upgrades were becoming a significant factor. Earlier much of the fighting had been done with late pre-war tanks, but now it was being done by tanks developed during the war itself, including the new heavy tanks.
That battle concluded on this day.
The SS commenced burning the buildings in the Warsaw Ghetto.
The Oregon coast was buffeted by a strong, unusual April windstorm.
Postage stamp commemorating the phrase coined in Order 227.
Stalin issued his "not one step back" order in the face of advancing Axis forces near Stalingrad. The order, which was actually quite lengthy and detailed, read in part:
Moscow, Nr. 227, July 28, 1942
The enemy throws new forces to the front without regard to heavy losses and penetrates deep into the Soviet Union, seizing new regions, destroying our cities and villages, and violating, plundering and killing the Soviet population. Combat goes on in region Voronezh, near Don, in the south, and at the gates of the Northern Caucasus. The German invaders penetrate toward Stalingrad, to Volga and want at any cost to trap Kuban and the Northern Caucasus, with their oil and grain. The enemy already has captured Voroshilovgrad, Starobelsk, Rossosh, Kupyansk, Valuyki, Novocherkassk, Rostov on Don, half Voronezh. Part of the troops of the Southern front, following the panic-mongers, have left Rostov and Novocherkassk without severe resistance and without orders from Moscow, covering their banners with shame.
The population of our country, who love and respect the Red Army, start to be discouraged in her and lose faith in the Red Army, and many curse the Red Army for leaving our people under the yoke of the German oppressors, and itself running east.
Some stupid people at the front calm themselves with talk that we can retreat further to the east, as we have a lot of territory, a lot of ground, a lot of population and that there will always be much bread for us. They want to justify the infamous behaviour at the front. But such talk is a falsehood, helpful only to our enemies.
Each commander, Red Army soldier and political commissar should understand that our means are not limitless. The territory of the Soviet state is not a desert, but people - workers, peasants, intelligentsia, our fathers, mothers, wives, brothers, children. The territory of the USSR which the enemy has captured and aims to capture is bread and other products for the army, metal and fuel for industry, factories, plants supplying the army with arms and ammunition, railways. After the loss of Ukraine, Belarus, Baltic republics, Donetzk, and other areas we have much less territory, much fewer people, bread, metal, plants and factories. We have lost more than 70 million people, more than 800 million pounds of bread annually and more than 10 million tons of metal annually. Now we do not have predominance over the Germans in human reserves, in reserves of bread. To retreat further - means to waste ourselves and to waste at the same time our Motherland.
Therefore it is necessary to eliminate talk that we have the capability endlessly to retreat, that we have a lot of territory, that our country is great and rich, that there is a large population, and that bread always will be abundant. Such talk is false and parasitic, it weakens us and benefits the enemy, if we do not stop retreating we will be without bread, without fuel, without metal, without raw material, without factories and plants, without railways.
This leads to the conclusion, it is time to finish retreating. Not one step back! Such should now be our main slogan.
The order went on to require unit commanders to form penal battalions and blocking detachments to block, detain, and shoot the non-compliant.
Jewish youth organizations formed the first Jewish combat organizations in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Yugoslav Partisans and Croatian forces started to fight each other at the Bosnian town of Kupres, giving an example of the odd wars within the war feature of the World War Two in the East.
Arthur "Bomber" Harris made a radio broadcast to the Germans, warning them they were about to face around the clock bombing and the only solution to preventing this was to overthrow the Nazis and make peace.
Spike Jones and his City Slickers released their song Der Fuehrer's Face.
Disney would use the song as the basis for a cartoon the following year.
