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09/01/1943 In the Pacific, an American amphibious unit takes Baker Island, midway between Hawaii and Australia, and SeaBees begin building an airfield. Bombers based on Baker and the nearby Ellice Islands will soon pound Tarawa and other Japanese bases in the British-owned Gilbert Islands.

Italian head of state Pietro Badoglio secretly agrees to unconditional surrender of all Italian military forces. The armistice will be announced by Badoglio and Eisenhower on Sept. 8 as an Allied invasion armada approaches Italy's west coast. Italian navy and merchant ships will sail to Allied-controlled ports; Italian aircraft will fly to Allied airfields, and two million soldiers will lay down their arms in Italy, France, the Balkans, Greece and the Aegean. All Allied POWs will be repatriated.

The Red Army scores another success by taking Dorogobuzh, a rail center in central Russia.

09/02/1943 U. S. bombers and British warships bombard northern and southern Italy to prepare for the upcoming Italian armistice.

Heavy bombers blast roads and facilities in the Brenner Pass the main Alpine artery connecting Austria and Italy. Rubble temporarily blocks the pass. Other raids by U. S. and British planes have cratered every southern Italian airfield except those at Foggia, where the Allies later will base the U. S. 12th and 15th Air Forces.

The Red Army is rapidly liberating the industrialized Donets Basin and making big gains in northern Ukraine. The Soviets take Lisichansk and Kommunarsk in the Donets and Sumy, a regional center near the Ukrainian-Russian border.

09/03/1943 The worst Japanese earthquake in 10 years kills 1,400 people in Tottori, 300 miles west of Tokyo.

The British army returns to mainland Europe -- this time to stay -- as Montgomery's 8th Army lands on the toe of the Italian boot and takes Reggio Calabria.

The landing is a diversion to distract German forces commanded by Field Marshal Albert Kesselring from the Allies' upcoming landing near Salerno, 25 miles south of Naples. Kesselring isn't fooled. He delays the British advance in Calabria by blowing bridges, mining roads and planting booby traps and withdraws his Sicilian veterans toward Salerno.

On Sicily, Italian Gen. Giuseppe Castellano signs the secret armistice that will take Italy out of the war on Sept. 8. U. S. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith initials the agreement for the Allies.

09/04/1943 MacArthur's clever strategy for capturing Lae, the biggest Japanese base on New Guinea, swings into high gear as the 9th Australian division and U. S. combat engineers seize two beachheads near the air and naval base.

MacArthur has hoodwinked the Japanese by attacking Salamaua, an unimportant seaport 20 miles from Lae, and the Japanese have rushed most of their forces there. The 9th Australian, which gained everlasting fame at El Alamein, quickly heads for Lae against minor opposition.

Hitler partially corrects one of his stupidities by ordering the German 17th Army to abandon Novorossisk and a tiny corner of the Kuban steppe, north of the Caucasus. For seven months more than 250,000 Germans and Romanians have been uselessly cooped up in the Kuban because Hitler thinks the Wehrmacht some day will go on the offensive again and capture the Caucasian oilfields. Now there's a good chance the 17th will be trapped and captured by the Red Army.

In the Ukraine, the Soviets take Merefa, a major rail junction south of Kharkov.

09/05/1943 The first American parachute assault of the Pacific war is a complete success as the U. S. 503rd Parachute Infantry regiment chutes into Nazdab, New Guinea, near Lae. Under the watchful eyes of MacArthur himself, the 503rd seizes an air head and begins carving an airstrip which will be used to bring in a Australian infantry division. The move places Allied forces east and west of Lae and ensures its speedy capture.

The Allies' main Italian invasion force sails from North Africa and heads for Salerno, 25 miles south of Naples. More than 450 ships are carrying 69,000 American and British troops commanded by Gen. Mark Clark.

Clark's Fifth Army will land at Salerno on Sept. 9th, and he confidently expects to take Naples five days later. He's in for a rude shock.

In Italy, Montgomery's 8th Army is taking its time liberating the peninsula's toe. In three days with no opposition, the 8th has crawled 15 miles to Bagnara on Calabria's north coast.

09/06/1943 The Red Army is rolling like a tidal wave through Ukraine's Donets basin. Forces led by Gens. Rodion Malinovsky and Feodor Tolbukhin take the steel centers at Makeyevna and Kramatorsk and chemical works at Slavyansk. In central Russia, the Soviets take the rail hub at Konotop and push toward Kiev and the Dnieper.

The British 8th Army continues creeping through southern Italy, taking Gioia Tauro on Calabria's northern coast. German commander Albert Kesselring orders his 16th Panzer division to occupy hills surrounding Salerno, site of the Allies' upcoming invasion.

The U. S. 8th Air Force suffers stinging loses again as German fighters and anti-aircraft guns shoot down 45 Flying Fortresses near Stuttgart, Germany.

09/07/1943 The British 8th Army tries to trap the German rearguard in the toe of the Italian boot. Commandos and infantry land at Pizzo on Calabria's northern coast, but the Germans sidestep them. Montgomery's army has advanced only 60 miles in five days.

Brig. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor begins a spy mission to see whether a surprise parachute drop by the 82nd Airborne Division can capture Rome. Posing as a downed Allied airman, Taylor -- the 82nd's artillery commander -- goes to Rome and finds it's crawling with Germans.

After meeting with Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio, Taylor realizes the 82nd would be cut to pieces. He sends a secret signal to cancel the drop, and the division -- which is en route in transport planes -- is recalled. Taylor then escapes.

In the USSR, the Red Army takes Stalino, capital and largest city of Ukraine's Donets Basin.

09/08/1943 Eisenhower and Italian chief of state Pietro Badoglio announce Italy's unconditional surrender.

The radio broadcasts from Ike's Algiers headquarters and Rome come after a frightened Badoglio tries to cancel the surrender because the Germans have seized the Italian capital. Ike refuses to go along and reveals the surrender. An hour later, Badoglio confirms the armistice.

09/09/1943 The U. S.-British 5th Army lands at Salerno, 25 miles south of Naples, and runs into stiff German resistance.

The American beachhead is established by the 36th Infantry division, a National Guard outfit nicknamed "The Texas Army." It lands near Paestum, a 2,500-year-old village, where it suffers heavy casualties as it repulses four German attacks and claws inland.

Strong resistance also is encountered by British and Americans landing north of Salerno. By the end of the day, the Allies have a 36-mile-long beachhead with a 10-mile hole in the middle.

Another Allied force spearheaded by the British 1st "Red Devils" Airborne Division takes the Italian naval base at Taranto and heads toward Foggia's airfields, a prime Allied target.

Italy's army collapses as most of its 2 million men lay down their arms in Italy, France, Greece, the Balkans, Sardinia, Corsica and the Aegean islands.

09/10/1943 The 36th "Texas" and the 45th "Thunderbird" divisions expand the 5th Army's beachhead at Salerno. The 36th takes Altavilla, a mountain village that overlooks the coastal plain, and the 45th comes ashore to strengthen the American foothold.

The British solidify their beachhead by taking Salerno, but German counterattacks force them to abandon high ground inland. German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring orders two divisions that escaped from Sicily to drive the Allies into the sea.

Elsewhere, the Germans begin evacuating their 25,000-man garrison from Sardinia, and two Italian divisions attack Germans on Corsica.

Domestically, Secretary of State Cordell Hull says the United States will do everything it can to ameliorate the plight of Europe's Jews.

09/11/1943 American and British units of Gen. Mark Clark's 5th Army seize high ground 6 to 10 miles inland from the Salerno beachhead, but the Germans are preparing a counter-stroke.

The Germans also make fierce air attacks, including one that badly damages the American cruiser Savannah. German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring announces that most of Italy is under Nazi control.

09/12/1943 There was no WWII - 50 years ago entry for this date - The following is the standard 50 years ago entry, which might be of interest to some. - R. O. B.

Memphis' Road to Victory today leads to the Mid-South Fairgrounds where, at 2 o'clock this afternoon, a mammoth War Bond Show will be staged by five visiting war heros, four motion picture stars from Hollywood, and personnel from the Naval Air Technical Training Center at Millington, Second Army Headquarters and the Fourth Ferrying Group. Admission will be purchase of a War Savings Bond or the signing of a pledge to buy one in September.

09/13/1943 Tank and infantry attack almost overwhelms the American beachhead at Salerno, but the 36th "Texas" and 45th "Thunderbird" divisions halt the assault two miles from the beach. Cooks and clerks join the fray.

The 36th's fiercest fighter is Cpl. Charles "Commando" Kelly, 22, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who with machineguns, a bazooka and 60-mm mortar single-handedly covers his company's retreat. He wins the Medal of Honor.

The guns of the cruiser Philadelphia and other warships savage the attackers, but the Germans are so close to winning that Gen. Mark Clark considers evacuating the beachhead.

Ike orders in reinforcements. Elements of the 82nd Airborne parachute in and transports bring up the U. S. 3rd Infantry and British 7th Armored divisions.

A Luftwaffe-launched radio-controlled bomb damages the British cruiser Uganda.

09/14/1943 Bombing and strafing by hundreds of Allied warplanes and bombardments by Allied warships break the back of the German attack at Salerno. The crisis also is eased by the arrival of more U. S. 82nd Airborne paratroopers and the British 7th Armored division.

Additional help is on the way as Montgomery's now fast-moving British 8th Army roars toward the beachhead. Another British force takes Bari, a large port on the Adriatic that will become a major supply center.

In the Soviet Union, house-to-house fighting erupts in Novorossisk, a Black Sea naval base.

Elsewhere, recently rescued Mussolini has an emotional reunion with Hitler in the fuhrer's East Prussian headquarters.

09/15/1943 Fighting subsides at Salerno as both sides regroup. The Allies now have seven divisions in the beachhead and outnumber the Germans nearly 2-to-1.

Elsewhere, Mussolini announces his reinstatement as dictator of Italy.

A hasty effort to occupy Greek islands in the Aegean begins as British units reinforce Italian garrisons on Kos, Leros, Samos, Kalimnos, Kastellorizon and Simi. But 7,000 Germans seize Rhodes and its airfields.

09/16/1943 In the South Pacific, the 7th and 9th Australian divisions complete MacArthur's brilliant Lae campaign by taking the biggest Japanese base on New Guinea.

Ex-Flying Tiger Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, leader of the Marines' "Black Sheep" squadron, downs five Japanese fighters over the northern Solomons.

The worst is over at Salerno as the American-British 5th Army and Montgomery's 8th Army make contact near the beachhead.

The Germans are withdrawing.

The 8th Army also makes contact with the British 1st Airborne divisions that took several Adriatic ports; the Allies now have a continuous battle line across southern Italy. Off Salerno, two Luftwaffe-launched radio controlled bombs mangle HMS Warspite, one of the Royal Navy's most famous battleships.

The Red Army takes the naval base at Novorossisk and wipes out part of the German bridgehead in the Caucasus.

09/17/1943 Long-range American bombers strike the opening blow of the central Pacific campaign by attacking Japanese facilities on Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands. Tarawa is the first target on Adm. Nimitz's invasion list.

Allied commanders led by MacArthur recommend invading Bougainville, the largest island in the northern Solomons.

The 10-mile gap that almost caused a disaster at Salerno is finally closed by Gen. Mark Clark's 5th Army. Allied units move inland to attack Germans holding hills overlooking the beachhead.

09/18/1943 Three new U. S. Navy aircraft carriers make their combat debuts as planes from Lexington, Princeton and Belleau Wood blast Tarawa, Makin and Abemama in the Gilbert Islands.

The American-British 5th Army finally take the hills overlooking Salerno and begins pursuing Field Marshal Albert Kesselring's slowly retreating forces. Kesselring is pulling back his 10th Army to a fortified position north of Naples.

Mussolini calls on Italians to resume fighting alongside the Germans. His appeal falls on deaf ears as thousands of Italians on Sardinia surrender to a small British naval landing party.

The Red Army is sweeping forward along a 450-mile front from central Russia to the Black Sea. Their forces in Ukraine take Pavlograd and Krasnograd and are only 40 miles from the Dnieper River.

09/19/1943 In the Pacific, Navy long-range bombers again pound Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands. The third destructive strike in three days wrecks 12 Japanese planes and two patrol boats.

The United States now has the world's mightiest Navy -- more than 14,000 vessels ranging from new battleships and aircraft carriers to tiny torpedo boats.

Gen. Mark Clark's 5th Army and Montgomery's 8th Army move through the hill country east of Salerno and set their sights on Naples and the Foggia airfields, the invasion's premier initial targets. Taking Naples will give the Allies a huge port to ease their supply problem.

After a four-month absence, German U-boats resume attacks on North Atlantic convoys, but pay a stiff price. Reequipped with acoustic homing torpedoes, the U-boats down nine ships, but four subs are sunk or damaged by Allied planes and warships.

09/20/1943 Gen. Mark Clark's American-British 5th Army continues moving toward Naples and Montgomery's 8th Army pushes through southern Italy's Apennine mountains and along the Adriatic coast. In 18 days, the Allies have overrun one quarter of the Italian peninsula and are 150 miles from Rome. But the campaign has cost 12,000 American and British casualties, mostly at Salerno.

Two governments claim to represent Italy. With German help, Mussolini rules the northern three-quarters of the country, with Allied support Marshal Pietro Badoglio rules the southern quarter and Sicily.

In Russia, the Red Army is closing in on Smolensk. The Germans in central Russia and the Ukraine are retreating to the "East Wall," supposedly a 900-mile-long fortification stretching from Estonia to the Black Sea but existing largely in Hitler's imagination.

09/21/1943 The Allied armies in Italy have established a pattern that will continue until early 1944. Gen. Mark Clark's 5th Army will hold the west side of the Italian peninsula; Montgomery's British 8th Army, the east side.

Allied commander Harold Alexander's plans call for swift advances to Naples, Rome and Florence and pinning down a large number of German divisions so they won't be used in France next year.

Instead, the Italian campaign will degenerate into a bloody crawl in which more Allied troops will be tied down than Germans.

In the Soviet Union, a Red Army spearhead reaches the Dnieper 50 miles south of Kiev, and another force takes Chernigov-on-the-Desna, a provincial capital northeast of Kiev. Since the Battle of Stalingrad, the Red Army has liberated half the Soviet territory overrun by the Germans.

09/22/1943 Royal Navy midget submarines make a heroic attack on the Tirpitz in Altenfjord, Norway, putting the giant German battleship out of action for six months.

09/23/1943 Two new offensives are ordered in the South Pacific. Forces led by Adm. Halsey will land on Bougainville -- the largest of the Solomon Islands -- on Nov. 1, and units commanded by MacArthur will land on New Britain on Nov. 20.

Domestically, the Selective Service announces fathers of children born after September 14, 1943, will be eligible for the draft beginning October 1.

The Red Army's summer offensive is punching holes in German defenses along the Dnieper River.

The Russians have established large bridgeheads north and south of Kiev and during the coming week will make two dozen crossings along a 300-mile stretch of the upper and middle river.

Gen. Ivan Konev retakes Poltava in the Ukraine. Poltava is the site of Czar Peter the Great's defeat of the invading Swedes in 1709 and is also the Germans' last major supply base in the eastern Ukraine.

09/24/1943 In the Pacific, MacArthur's latest surprise landing reaps a quick dividend as the 9th Australian division seizes Finschafen airfield on New Guinea's Huon peninsula. A torpedo attack by U. S. Sub Cabrilla damages escort carrier Taiyo off Honshu, the largest of Japan's home islands.

Gen. Mark Clark's 5th Army launches twin attacks on Naples. Three British divisions assault German defenses in the hills south of the city while the U. S. 3rd and 45th Infantry divisions swing inland to bypass it.

To hinder the Allied advance, the Germans have blown every bridge between Salerno and Naples; blocked every road with fallen trees; and plugged village streets with waist-high debris. They're also demolishing Naples' docks, blocking its harbor with sunken ships, blowing up oil tanks and destroying electric and natural gas facilities.

09/25/1943 In the Pacific, Japanese warships, subs and barges begin withdrawing the 13,000-man garrison on Kolombangara in the central Solomons. The Japanese were isolated six weeks ago when the U. S. 25th "Tropic Lightning" division leapfrogged Kolombangara and occupied Vella LaVella, 20 miles farther north.

Gen. Vasili Sokolovsky caps a two-month campaign in central Russia by capturing Smolensk, the most powerful German citadel in the Soviet Union.

Once again, the Red Army has forced the Germans to retreat by threatening to surround them. Before the Germans pull out, they demolish 90 percent of the ancient Russian city.

09/26/1943 In the South Pacific, the Japanese who fled from their base at Finschafen, New Guinea, regain their courage and counterattack the Australian 9th division. The assault fails.

Eisenhower orders the American-British 5th Army to liberate Rome, but autumn rains and German demolitions have slowed the Allied advance to a crawl.

Despite the difficulties, British divisions of Gen. Mark Clark's army continue edging toward Naples as the U. S. 45th Infantry division takes Teora, a mountain town 50 miles east of the city.

Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, German bombers sink British destroyer Intrepid and Greek destroyer Vasilissa Olga near Leros in the Aegean Sea. The raid shows German determination to oppose British efforts to liberate Greece's Dodecanese islands.

09/27/1943 Angered by German outrages, Italian civilians and ex-soldiers begin a massive uprising in Naples.

The fighting erupts as the Germans loot the city's shops and stores, dynamite the docks, steal trucks and buses and round up Neapolitans to be slave laborers. The battle will continue for four days and cause heavy casualties among the lightly armed Italians.

Units of the British 8th Army score an important victory by taking the Foggia airfields. Later this year, bombers based at Foggia will raid southern Germany, Austria and the Balkans.

Elsewhere, more than 300 Flying Fortresses attack Emden, a German shipbuilding center on the North Sea. For the first time, the B17s are guided by radar-equipped Pathfinders and escorted by P47 Thunderbolt fighters whose range has been extended by droppable gasoline tanks.

09/28/1943 In the Pacific, American destroyers harry the Japanese evacuation of Kolombangara in the central Solomons. During the next week, American warships will destroy 30 Japanese barges carrying 1,000 troops, but 9,000 will escape.

Elsewhere, the American sub Cisco is sunk near the Philippines.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill predicts the war will end in 1945.

The insurrection in Naples becomes citywide as residents erect street barricades and firebomb German tanks, but the Neopolitans suffer severe casualties.

Help is on the way as the British 7th Armored division and American Rangers break through mountain passes 20 miles south of the city and take the naval base at Castellamare di Stabia. The U. S. 3rd and 45th Infantry division are 30 miles east of the city and threatening to cut off the Germans' line of retreat.

09/29/1943 The Naples uprising continues for a third day as the American-British 5th Army nears the city. British units take the ruins of Pompeii, the ancient city south of Naples destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 70 A. D.

East of Naples, the U. S. 3rd and 45th divisions are converging on Avellino, an inland highway junction.

09/30/1943 The Naples uprising ends as the German garrison pulls out and retreats toward prepared defenses along the Volturno River, 20 miles north of the city. British units of Gen. Mark Clark's 5th Army reaches the city's southern suburbs.

Inland, the U. S. 3rd "Rock of the Marne" Infantry division takes the road junction at Avellino and drives toward the Volturno.

Elsewhere, British and American engineers begin building air bases on Fayal and Terceira in the Azores to enable long-range bombers to patrol the central Atlantic, where German "milch cow" U-boats are rearming and refueling attack submarines.