. , shows captured fighters in the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. during 1943. • 18 January – World War II:
Soviet officials announce they have broken the
Wehrmacht's
siege of Leningrad. • 18 January – The
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins. • 27 January – World War II: 64 bombers mount the first all American
air raid against Germany (
Wilhelmshaven is the target). • 29 January – German police arrest alleged
necrophiliac Bruno Ludke. • 29 January – Dr
Ernst Kaltenbrunner succeeds the late
Reinhard Heydrich as head of the RSHA
SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt controlling the
Schutzstaffel Gestapo • 2 February – World War II: In
Russia, the
Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end with the surrender of the German 6th Army and its 91,000 remaining soldiers. • 3 February – World War II: The
Four Chaplains of the U.S. Army are drowned, when their ship () is struck by a German
torpedo. • 14 February – World War II:
Battle of the Kasserine Pass: German General
Erwin Rommel and his
Afrika Korps launch an offensive against Allied defenses in
Tunisia. • 16 February – World War II: The
Soviet Union reconquers
Kharkov, but is later driven out in the
Third Battle of Kharkov • 18 February – In a
speech at the Berlin Sportpalast, German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels declare a "
Total War" against the Allies. • 18 February – The
Nazis arrest the members of the
White Rose movement. • 22 February – Members of
White Rose are executed in
Nazi Germany. • 28 February –
Operation Gunnerside: 6 Norwegians led by Joachim Ronneberg successfully attack the heavy water plant
Vemork. • 1 March –
Heinz Guderian becomes the Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops for
Nazi Germany's Army. • 13 March –
Holocaust: German forces liquidate the
Jewish ghetto in Kraków. • 16 March – 19 March – World War II: 22 ships from
Convoys HX 229/SC 122 and one U-boat are sunk in the largest North Atlantic U-boat
wolfpack attack of the war. • 22 March – World War II: The entire population of
Khatyn in
Belarus is burnt alive by the Ukrainian
Schutzmannschaft Bataillon 118 and assisted by troops from
SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger in retaliation for an attack of a German convoy by Soviet partisans. • 26 March –
Adolf Hitler writes to
Benito Mussolini that Russia is so weakened by the defence of
Stalingrad that it cannot possibly be a serious menace. • 13 April – World War II: Radio Berlin announces the discovery by
Wehrmacht of mass graves of Poles killed by Soviets in the
Katyn massacre. • 6 May – World War II: Six U-boats are sunk after sinking 12 ships from
Convoy ONS 5, regarded as the turning point in the North Atlantic U-boat war. • 13 May – World War II: German
Afrika Korps and
Italian troops in
North Africa surrender to
Allied forces. • 15 May – The
Comintern is dissolved in
Moscow. • 16 May – World War II:
Operation Chastise by
RAF 617 Sqdn is carried out on German dams. • 16 May –
Holocaust: The
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends. • 24 May –
Holocaust:
Josef Mengele becomes the chief medical officer of
Auschwitz. • 5 July – World War II:
Operation Citadel commences, resulting in the
Battle of Kursk – The largest tank battle in history begins, with German
Panther tanks seeing combat for the first time. • 12 July – World War II –
Battle of Prokhorovka: The
Wehrmacht and the
Red Army fight to a draw. • 24 July – World War II:
Operation Gomorrah begins:
British and
Canadian aeroplanes bomb
Hamburg by night, those of the
Americans by day. • 27 July – World War II:
Operation Gomorrah – The continued
British bombing of
Hamburg, initiates a
firestorm. The fire rages through the night into the morning of the 28th, causing the majority of Operation Gomorrah's deaths. • 3 August – World War II: Operation Gomorrah closes, with an estimated 42,600 killed and 37,000 wounded; much of Hamburg is leveled. • 23 August – The
Battle of Kursk ends with a serious strategic defeat for the German forces. • 24 August – World War II: –
Heinrich Himmler is named Reichsminister of the Interior in Germany. • 29 August – World War II: Germany dissolves the
Danish government after it refuses to deal with a wave of strikes and disturbances to the satisfaction of the German authorities (see
Occupation of Denmark). • 8 September – World War II:
Frascati bombing raid September 8, 1943: The USAAF bombs the German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone. • 12 September – World War II: German paratroopers rescue
Benito Mussolini from imprisonment, in
Operation Eiche. • 13 October – World War II: The new government of
Italy sides with the
Allies and declares war on Germany. • 17 October – World War II: The last
commerce raider,
auxiliary cruiser Michel, was sunk off
Japan by
United States submarine Tarpon. • 22 October – World War II: The
RAF delivers a highly destructive airstrike on the German industrial and population center of
Kassel. • 15 November –
Porajmos: German
SS leader
Heinrich Himmler orders that
Gypsies and "part-Gypsies" be put "on the same level as
Jews and placed in
concentration camps." • 18 November – World War II: The
Royal Air Force opens its
bombing campaign against
Berlin, with 440 planes causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF loses 9 aircraft and 53 aviators. • 23 November – The
Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the
Berlin neighborhood of
Charlottenburg is destroyed. • 2 December – A
Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbour of
Bari, Italy, sinks an American ship with a
mustard gas stockpile, causing
numerous fatalities; the exact death toll is unresolved, as the bombing raid itself causes hundreds of deaths as well. • 11 December –
United States Army Air Corps raids a
U-boat yard at
Emden, losing 20 planes but shooting down 138 German fighters. • 20 December – First flight of a true four-engined version of the troubled He 177A heavy bomber, as the
Heinkel He 177 V102 prototype of the Heinkel He 177B series makes its maiden flight with four separate
Daimler-Benz DB 603 engines at the
Heinkel-Sud factory airfield in Schwechat. ==Births==