World war II chronology - April 1943

2 April 1943	British Bombers make a final attack on German submarine bases at St. Nazaire and Lorient.
5 April 1943	In Tunisia, the British 8th Army breaks the Axis defensive line at Wadi Akarit. In Germany, Dr. Hans von Dohnanyi is arrested for several anti-Nazi offences. The German Government announces that French former Premier Edouard Daladier and General Maurice-Gustave Gamelin have been taken to German prisons to prevent establishment of a counter-government.   The British Air Ministry directs Bomber Command to cease attacks on German submarine bases, due to ineffectiveness.
11 April 1943	In Tunisia, Messe's army reaches Enfidaville, linking up with Deitrich Von Arnim's 5th Panzer Army.
12 April 1943	The British War Office circulates a paper on German Long-Range Rocket Development, the first formal warning of the impending threat.
13 April 1943	Beginning of Warsaw ghetto uprising. 211 British bombers attack La Spezia, Italy, especially the naval base with three battleships in port. Four Lancaster bombers are shot down. The battleships are unharmed.
14 April 1943	About 500 British bombers attack Stuttgart, Germany. German radio announces the discovery of a massacre of thousands of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk. In Germany, Josef Müller is arrested. He had opened a communications link with the British government through Pope Pius XII. Geyr von Schweppenburg, German commander of 86th Corps, is ordered to prepare Operation Gisela, with divisions entering Spain, in case Allied movements require it. American aircraft carrier USS Wasp loads on 48 Spitfire planes in England, and sets out for the Straits of Gibraltar, to help the defence of Malta. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill decides church bells would no longer be used only for warning of an air invasion of the country.
16 April 1943	327 British bombers attack Pilsen, trying for the Skoda armament works. No hits are scored, and 36 planes are shot down.
17 April 1943	110 American B-17 bombers attack the Focke-Wulf works outside Bremen. 16 planes are shot down.
18 April 1943	US Navy planes shoot down the Japanese transport plane flying Admiral Isokuro Yamamoto (killing him) from Rabaul to the Solomon Islands. Sixteen American P-38G Lightening attack fighters from their base 430 miles away in Guadalcanal attack the three transport bombers and six Zero fighter planes. All but one P-38G fighter returns to base. (This is the longest fighter-intercept of the entire war.) 178 British bombers attack La Spezia, Italy, again. One destroyer is sunk, but the target three battleships are unharmed.
19 April 1943	A Jewish uprising in the Warsaw, Poland, ghetto results in over 50,000 deaths over several weeks. In Tunisia, the British 8th Army begins an attack north through Enfidaville toward Tunis.
20 April 1943	339 British bombers attack Stettin, wrecking 100 acres of the town.
21 April 1943	In Tunisia, the British 8th Army ceases its attack on Enfidaville due to losses.
22 April 1943	In Tunisia, the British 1st Army near Medez el Bab attacks the Germany 334th Division.
23 April 1943	In Tunisia, US General Omar Bradley's 2nd Corps attacks a German division of 8000 men. Britain requests Canada commit one Canadian infantry division and one tank brigade to operations based in Tunisia. (The Canadian government approves two days later.)
25 April 1943	The Soviet Union severs relations with the Polish Government, over the Katyn Forest massacre affair, accusing the Poles of acting in collusion with Hitler.
26 April 1943	In Tunisia, US General Omar Bradley's 2nd Corps resumes its attack on German forces, forcing a withdrawal to a line east of Mateur, 15 miles from Bizerte.
27 April 1943	160 British Bomber Command aircraft take off to lay mines. 458 are laid off the French Atlantic ports, and around the Frision Islands. One plane is shot down.
28 April 1943	Over 200 British Bomber Command aircraft take off to lay mines. 593 are laid in the area of Denmark, the highest amount for a single outing of the war. 22 planes are shot down.