Calendar and Summary for WW2 Related Events for May 1943

Calendar and Summary for May 1943

SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT

						1

2	3	4	5	6	7	8

9	10	11	12	13	14	15

16	17	18	19	20	21	22

23	24	25	26	27	28	29

30	31

April 1943

June 1943

Summary of Significant Events for May 1943

Anthracite and bituminous coal mines were placed under government control to prevent strikes in the United States.

German Chancellor Adolf Hitler decided to postpone the summer offensive at Kursk until more of the new Tiger and Panther tanks were available.

In the Caucasus, the Red Army advanced further into the Kuban Peninsula against the German 17th Army.

British forces recaptured Djebel Bou Aoukaz in Tunisia and secured the left flank for the final drive on Tunis.

On May 5 German U-boats sink 11 Allied merchant ships of Convoy ONS-5 in the north Atlantic. This day is considered the turning point of the Battle of the Atlantic as U-boats began to be sunk in ever larger numbers.

The British First Army captured Tunis, Tunisia.

The Japanese occupied Buthidaung in Burma as they forced the British to withdraw.

A Joint Strategic Plan creating three Pacific commands was approved at Cairo.

The Warsaw Uprising ended.

British intelligence agents managed to steal a German Ju-88 night fighter armed with the new Liechtenstein BC radar set and flew it to Scotland.

Hitler approved Operation Citadel, the attack on the Kursk salient.

The Trident Conference between the U.S. and Britain was held in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. 7th Division landed on Japanese occupied Attu Island.

Italian Field Marshal Giovanni Messe ordered the remaining German and Italian troops in Tunisia to surrender.

Operation Mincemeat, the deception operation for the invasion of Sicily, bore fruit as the Germans reinforced their forces in Greece against a fictitious upcoming invasion.

Operation Gypsy Baron started as six German divisions went on the offensive against partisan resistance fighters in the Bryansk area of the Soviet Union.

SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop reported to his commanders that the Warsaw Ghetto "is no longer in existence."

The Germans launched Operation Schwarz, their fifth major offensive against Tito's partisans in Yugoslavia.

A Japanese offensive began along the Yangtze River with the goal of capturing the Chinese capital of Chunking.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill set a date for a cross-Channel invasion of Normandy, in northern France, for May 1, 1944.

Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels announced that Berlin was "Judenrien" (free of Jews.)

Josef Mengele became the Chief Medical Officer at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

White workers rioted when the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company in Mobile, Alabama complied with federal regulations and gave twelve African-Americans skilled positions in the shipyards.

The V-1 and V-2 were tested at Peenemünde in the presence of high ranking German ministers and military officers.

Chinese troops defending Ichang stopped the Japanese advance along the Yangtze River.

Churchill called a meeting in Algiers between British and American senior officers hoping to convince U.S. General of the Army George C. Marshall and General Dwight D. Eisenhower to concentrate on the Mediterranean and drop the invasion of Western Europe.

Japanese forces on Attu launched a final desperate Banzai attack that was quickly and easily destroyed.

The Free French organized the French Committee of National Liberation in Algiers which included General Charles De Gaulle and General Henri Giraud as co-presidents.

45 ships (237,182 tons) were sunk and 4 ships (29,702 tons) were damaged by U-boats during May 1943.

Events occurring in May 1943 with no specific dates

The objective of WW2Timelines.com is to provide a day by day account of the events that lead up to and were part of the greatest conflict known to mankind. There are accounts for the activities of each particular day and timelines for subjects and personalities. It is the of this website intent to provide an unbiased account of the war. Analysis, effects caused by an event, or prior or subsequent pertinent events are presented separately and indicated as text that is italicized.