World War II in Photographs
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1943
241
1943
ABOVE
A U-Boat commander at his periscope.
German submarine crews had a horrifyingly
high casualty rate: 40,900 men served
in submarines during the war, and
28,000 perished. Admiral Dönitz,
Commander-in-Chief of the German navy,
lost both his sailor sons, one in a submarine.
242
1943
LEFT
In 1943 the German introduced two types of
anti-shipping glider bomb. This photograph
shows a near miss on a freighter by a
glider-bomb launched by a Heinkel He 177.
RIGHT
The last moments of a freighter, seen
from a submarine. From January to
May 1943 Allied shipping loses
averaged 450,000 tons per month.
LEFT
U625 sinking after depth-charge attack
by a Sunderland of 422 Squadron, Royal
Canadian Air Force, 10 March 1944.
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1943
ABOVE
This U-Boat, attacked at periscope
depth by a Sunderland, was brought to
the surface by depth charges and then sunk.
244
1943
ABOVE
Merchant seamen scramble
aboard a US Coastguard cutter.
FOLLOWING PAGES
Firemen "Bonny" Bartell and "Snowy" Foster, both
of Canning Town in East London, come up for a
breather on a North African Convoy, July 1943.
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1943
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1943
KATYN
When Poland was divided between Russia and Germany in 1939
over 180,000 Polish prisoners of war fell into Soviet hands: officers
were segregated in special camps. In April 1943, the Germans
discovered a mass grave in Katyn forest near Smolensk, later found
to contain the remains of 4,400 Polish officers, and accused the
Russians of mass murder, summoning an international team of experts
to investigate the crime. Although the Russians long blamed the
Germans for the atrocity, in 1990 they at last admitted responsibility.
LEFT
The victims had their hands wired behind
their backs and had been shot in the back
of the head. This evocative photograph
sums up the fate of tens of thousands of
victims of mass murder during the war.
BELOW
The German-sponsored international
experts (all but one from Axis or occupied
countries) examining of the bodies of
Katyn. When the London-based Polish
government in exile suggested an impartial
International Red Cross investigation, the
Russians broke off diplomatic relations.
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1943
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1943
THE PACIFIC WAR
In early 1943 Australian troops, fighting in dreadful conditions,
extinguished the Japanese beachheads of Buna, Gona and
Sanananda Point on New Guinea. The Casablanca conference
that January suggested that one-third of Allied resources should
be deployed against Japan, but the British felt unable to agree to
a fixed formula. The US Joint Chiefs agreed a broad strategy,
with MacArthur and Admiral William F. Halsey pushing on
through the Solomons and along the New Guinea coast, while
Nimitz "island hopped" across the central Pacific towards Japan.
OPPOSITE PAGE
An Australian forward post near
Sanananda, less than thirty yards from the
Japanese. The robust and reliable .303 Bren
was the light automatic weapon in British
and Commonwealth infantry sections.
BELOW
Australian infantry, assisted by a Stuart
light tank, during the final assault on Buna.
249
1943
ABOVE
The battle for Buna sorely tried the US 32nd
Infantry Division, which had not been trained
for jungle warfare and was poorly equipped:
it lost almost ninety per cent of its strength as
battle casualties and sick. But it was a
disaster for the Japanese: this photograph
shows Japanese bodies on the shoreline.
250