The following events occurred in May 1943:
May 1, 1943 (Saturday) More than 480,000 American coal miners walked off of the job a minute after midnight, when the United Mine Workers' contract with the nation's mining companies expired. U.S. President Roosevelt notified UMWA President John L. Lewis to cease the wartime work stoppage by 10:00 am, an order which was ignored, and then issued an Executive Order directing that "The Secretary of the Interior is authorized and directed to take immediate possession so far as may be necessary or desirable, of any and all mines producing coal in which a strike or stoppage has occurred or is threatened ..."."Roosevelt Orders Seizure of Coal Mines", Milwaukee Journal, May 1, 1943, p1 At the time, there was only a three-week supply of coal for American steel manufacturers and ten days' supply for some railroads."Steel Plants Have Only Three Weeks Supply of Coal on Hand", Milwaukee Journal, May 1, 1943, p2; "U.S. Strives to Get Mines Open Monday; Ickes Asks for a Cut in Railway Travel", Milwaukee Journal, May 2, 1943, p1 The strike would resume on June 1."Nation's Coal Mines Again Deserted as UMW Members Resume Strike", Milwaukee Journal, June 1, 1943, p1 The sinking of the British troopship Erinpura by German bombers, north of Benghazi, killed 942 people. One of the bombs struck a hold full of ammunition, and the ship went down in four minutes, taking with it Erinpura 's 114 crew and five gunners, along with 822 troops being transported, of whom more than 600 were African troops from Basutoland (now Botswana), 140 Jewish soldiers from Palestine and 54 sailors from British India."The Erinpura: Basotho Tragedy", The South African Military History Society In Tunisia, the four-day Battle of Hill 609 ended as the U.S. Army's II Corps drove Germany's Afrika Korps from a strategic position. An author would note that the battle, the first clear cut victory of U.S. forces in the North African Campaign, was "the American Army's coming-of-age.""The Wars in North Africa", by Russell F. Weigley, The New York Times, December 1, 2002 The Ford Motor Company fired 141 employees, mostly African-American, from its aluminum and steel plants in River Rouge, Michigan, because of labor disputes."Ford Co. Fires 141 for Plant Strife", Milwaukee Journal, May 2, 1943, p1 Count Fleet won the Kentucky Derby. Born: Ian Dunn, Scottish gay and paedophile rights activist; in Glasgow (d. 1998)
May 2, 1943 (Sunday) The top secret project of deception code-named Operation Mincemeat continued at the Spanish town of Huelva, where a funeral was held for Major William Martin of Britain's Royal Marines, whose body had washed ashore on April 30. Major Martin was, in reality, a homeless Welshman named Glyndwr Michael, who had died on January 28 and whose body was used to deceive German intelligence regarding the starting point for an Allied invasion.Ben Macintyre, Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory (Random House Digital, 2010) p204 U.S. President Roosevelt went on nationwide radio to talk about the need to end the coal strike, then directed his comments to the strikers themselves, saying "You miners have sons in the Army and Navy and Marine Corps ... I only wish I could tell you what they think of the stoppage of work in the coal mines."James T. Sparrow, Warfare State: World War II Americans and the Age of Big Government (Oxford University Press, 2011) p195 A group of 25 Japanese bombers and 27 Zero fighters carried out a raid on Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory that was defended by 33 Australian Spitfire fighter planes and a battery of anti-aircraft guns. As a result of the defense, Japan lost more than six aircraft and the damage to the city of Darwin was minimal. The German submarine U-465 was sunk in the Bay of Biscay by a Short Sunderland of No. 461 Squadron RAAF, with the loss of all 48 of its crew. Born: Mustafa Nadarevic, Yugoslav and Bosnian actor and comedian; in Banja Luka, Yugoslavia (now Boxnia) (d. 2020) Died: Viktor Lutze, 52, Chief of Staff for the SA Sturmabteilung, died one day after being fatally injured in a single car accident near Michendorf
May 3, 1943 (Monday) The United States Supreme Court invalidated, 5–4, a city ordinance in Jeannette, Pennsylvania that required members of the Jehovah's Witnesses religious denomination to pay for a peddlers license in order to distribute religious literature. The city ordinance required each individual distributor to pay $10 per day. The ruling, in Murdock v. Pennsylvania, invalidated similar ordinances in Alabama, Arizona and Kansas as a violation of the constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion. Died: U.S. Army Lieutenant General Frank Maxwell Andrews, 59, Commander of U.S. Forces in Europe, was killed in the crash of a B-24 bomber during bad weather in Iceland, along with 13 others aboard in an accident with only one survivor"Toll in Iceland Accident Now 14; Storm Warning Went Unheeded," Washington Post, May 6, 1943.; Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, D.C., was named in his honor.DeWitt S. Copp, Frank M. Andrews: Marshall's Airman (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2003]
May 4, 1943 (Tuesday) A bill to eliminate federal income tax for all Americans for an entire year failed to pass the U.S. House of Representatives by a margin of four votes, 202 to 206. The legislation, based on ideas proposed by New York Federal Reserve Bank chairman Beardsley Ruml, was replaced by a "pay as you go" Robertson-Forand bill that virtually eliminated the 1942 income taxes for 90% of Americans. The Battle of the Campobasso Convoy, fought off Tunisia's Cape Bon between three Royal Navy destroyers and the Italian Navy torpedo boat Perseo ended 90 minutes after it had started the night before. Britain sustained no losses, but the Italian merchant ship Campobasso was sunk with the loss of 73 of its 93 crew, and Perseo sank with 133 of its 216 crew. The German submarine U-109 was sunk with the loss of all 52 of its crew in the Atlantic Ocean by a B-24 Liberator of No. 86 Squadron RAF. The German submarines U-439 and U-659 collided with each other west of Cape Ortegal, Spain, and both sank. U-659 lost 44 of its 47 crew, and U-439 lost 40 men with only nine survivors. Died: Géo André, 53, French Olympic silver medalist in the high jump in 1908, was killed in action in Tunisia.
May 5, 1943 (Wednesday) The Vatican Secretary of State sent a request to the government of the Nazi-controlled Slovak Republic, requesting the exclusion of Jews "who have entered the Catholic religion" from the list of persons to be deported to Nazi concentration camps. The office of Prime Minister Vojtech Tuka gave its response on May 28, pledging that converts would be kept in local concentration camps, separate from other Jews, "and given every opportunity to fulfill their Christian religion."David Cymet, History vs. Apologetics: The Holocaust, the Third Reich, and the Catholic Church (Lexington Books, 2012) p331 The Battle of West Hubei began in China as Japanese forces (some 120,000 men) of the 11th Army under General Isamu Yokoyama started an offensive in western Hubei province, south of the Yangtze River, against defensive positions of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army. The battle would last for more than five weeks, ending on June 11 in a victory for the Chinese defenders, who had more than 25,000 troops killed or missing, while the Japanese sustained 771 killed.MacKinnon, Stephen R., Diana Lary and Ezra F. Vogel, eds. China at War: Regions of China, 1937–1945, p. 380. Stanford University Press, 2007. . The German submarine U-638 was depth charged and sunk northeast of Newfoundland by the British corvette HMS Sunflower, with the loss of its entire crew of at least 44. Born: Michael Palin, British comedian; in Sheffield
May 6, 1943 (Thursday) Admiral Ernest J. King, the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, ordered the creation of Naval Combat Demolition Units, after the success, in September, of a group of U.S. Navy divers who had destroyed nets that had prevented American ships from entering Morocco's Sebou River.Spencer C. Tucker, World War II at Sea: An Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2011) p289 Five German submarines (U-125, U-192, U-438, U-531, and U-630) were sunk after sinking 12 ships from Convoy ONS 5 in the last major North Atlantic U-boat "wolfpack" attack of the war. U-125s crew scuttled their damaged boat, but the British ships and were not authorized to pick up survivors and all 54 men on U-125 died after deliberately sinking their own vessel. U-192 lost all 55 of its crew Erich Gröner, et al., U-boats and Mine Warfare Vessels, Volume 2, translated by Keith Thomas and Rachel Magowan (London: Conway Maritime Press, 1991) p.68 , U-438 was depth-charged with no survivors from its crew of at least 44, U-531 lost all 54 crew, U-630 had no survivors from a crew of at least 44 after being depth-charged by . Born: Andreas Baader, West German militant and leader of the Red Army Faction, known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang; in Munich (d. 1977)
May 7, 1943 (Friday) Tunis and Bizerte were liberated by Allied troops, with Bizerte falling to the Americans at 4:15 pm local time, and the Tunisian capital being conquered five minutes later by the British First Army."TUNIS, BIZERTE CAPTURED; FLEEING FOE BLASTED", Milwaukee Sentinel, May 8, 1943, p1 Sex symbol and film star Mae West was granted a final divorce from her husband, Frank Szatkus, whom she had married on April 29, 1911. The couple had been separated for more than thirty years.Simon Louvish, Mae West: It Ain't No Sin (Macmillan, 2007) p351 The German submarines U-447 and U-663 were depth charged and sunk by Allied aircraft in the eastern Atlantic and Bay of Biscay, respectively. There were no survivors from either U-447 or U-663, which each had at least 44 crew.Erich Gröner, et al., U-boats and Mine Warfare Vessels, Volume 2, translated by Keith Thomas and Rachel Magowan (London: Conway Maritime Press, 1991) pp.43-46 Born: Peter Carey, Australian novelist; in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria Died: Fethi Okyar, 63, Prime Minister of Turkey from 1924 to 1925
May 8, 1943 (Saturday) The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff approved the recommendations contained in the Strategic Plan for the Defeat of Japan, with the objective of the unconditional surrender of the Japanese Empire.William C. Martel, Victory in War: Foundations of Modern Strategy (Cambridge University Press, 2011) p182 Three Japanese destroyers were sunk on the same day. The Kagerō was bombed and sunk southwest of Rendova by American aircraft with the loss of 18 of her 239 crew. The Kuroshio struck a mine and sank near Kolombangara in the Solomon Islands with 83 of her 240 crew. and the Oyashio was disabled by a mine and then sunk by aircraft near Kolombangara with the loss of 91 lives of its 239 crew. Count Fleet won the Preakness Stakes. The Western film The Ox-Bow Incident starring Henry Fonda premiered in New York City. Died: Mordechai Anielewicz, 24, Jewish leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Anielewicz, head of the resistance group Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, apparently killed himself after the Nazi SS surrounded the ZOB command post at 18 Miła Street in Warsaw.S. Lillian Kremer, Holocaust Literature: An Encyclopedia of Writers and Their Work, Volume One (Taylor & Francis, 2003) p288
May 9, 1943 (Sunday)
The Changjiao massacre began in China's Hunan province at Changjiao as the Imperial Japanese Army's Shina hakengun expeditionary force, commanded by General Shunroku Hata began the killing of at least 25,000 Chinese civilians and 5,000 soldiers. Specifically, at least 7,000 residents of Changjiao and 12,000 refugees who had fled there were killed, while another 6,000 died outside the town, along with 5,000 members of the Kuomintang's 73rd Corps and other units.