Members of the Mochida family in Hayward, California, during World War II await an evacuation bus. Identification tags were used to keep the family unit intact during all phases of evacuation. In Utah, James Wakasa, a Japanese-born U.S. citizen who interned at the Topaz War Relocation Center, was shot and killed by a military policeman for venturing too close to the compound’s fence. At a subsequent court martial, the MP was acquitted of any wrongdoing. For more information, click here.
By: Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
The British First Army’s IX Corps, which includes the U.S. 34th Infantry Division, attacks the Foundouk Pass in Tunisia on April 9, 1943. Axis forces manage to hold the area, however, until they can successfully disengage the bulk of their units from the fighting. In Ukraine, the Germans begin liquidating the Jewish ghetto of Zboriv. Around 2,300 people are shot the first day.
U.S. Army Air Force bombers sink the Italian heavy cruiser Trieste in a raid over Sardinia on April 10. The vessel had earlier been disabled by a torpedo from an Allied submarine. British forces under Gen. Bernard Montgomery capture the Tunisian port of Sfax. The city will be a jumping-off base for an invasion of Sicily.
On April 11, Japanese planes, as part of “Operation I-Go,” attack Allied ships off Papua-New Guinea. In Utah, James Wakasa, a Japan-born U.S. citizen interned at the Topaz War Relocation Center, is shot and killed by a military policeman for venturing too close to the compound’s fence. At a subsequent court martial, the MP is acquitted of any wrongdoing.
The British Eighth Army on April 12 takes Sousse, Tunisia, about 75 miles south of Tunis, and claims that 20,000 Axis prisoners have been taken in Tunisia since March 20th. Defeat for the Axis forces in Africa now seems inevitable: Allied sea and air control denies them any reinforcements. Axis commanders are determined to fight on, however, to delay any Allied plan to invade Italy until the autumn, when deteriorating weather is likely to disrupt any Allied landings. In the Pacific, Japanese planes, as part of “Operation I-Go,” attack the airfield at Port Moresby in Papua-New Guinea. The raid has little strategic effect. In Berlin, Martin Bormann is appointed Secretary to Adolf Hitler, the second-highest office in Nazi Germany. In London, Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Kingsley Wood announces that the war has cost Great Britain £13 billion to date, and is costing £15 million per day. (In April 1943, £1.00 equals US$2.57.)
The Japanese continue “Operation I-Go” on April 13, with an attack on British ships at Milne Bay, Papua-New Guinea. In Washington, D.C., President Roosevelt dedicates the Jefferson Memorial. It is the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s birth. An original of the Declaration of Independence — temporarily removed from the vaults at Ft. Knox, Kentucky — is displayed for one week in the monument to its principal author. In Germany, Radio Berlin announces that the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) has discovered the mass graves of another 10,000 Poles killed by the Soviets in the Katyn massacre.
Joseph Stalin’s son Yakov — an artillery officer in the Red Army, captured July 16, 1941, at Smolensk, Russia, — commits suicide on April 14 in a German POW camp at Sachsenhausen, Germany, by running into an electrified fence. This follows his father’s refusal of a German offer to exchange him for German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, captured by the Soviets at Stalingrad. Stalin supposedly said, “I will not trade a marshal for a lieutenant.” The Soviet 14th Army repulses a German attack to the southeast of Leningrad. U.S. Senator Harry Truman of Missouri, speaking in Chicago at a “Rally to Demand the Rescue of Doomed Jews,” calls upon the U.S. to directly address the ongoing murder of European Jews.
In the Aleutian Islands, U.S. forces on April 15 prepare for an invasion of Attu Island, held by the Japanese. The Army’s 7th Infantry Division, which had been preparing for deployment in North Africa, is earmarked for the operation. In Berlin, Adolf Hitler approves “Operation Citadel,” a German offensive aimed at a large Soviet salient near Kursk, Russia. The plan is that Army Group Centre and Army Group South will execute a double envelopment, surround five Soviet armies, and “strangle” the salient.
