Casablanca Bureaucracy Fest Ends; War Comes to Great Lakes?

SAT 23 JAN 1943
General
Casablanca (SYMBOL) Conference ends. Major accomplishments of the talks include the American decision to invade Sicily, and to delay a cross-channel invasion of the European continent until 1944. With German U-boats taking an increasing toll of Allied shipping in the Battle of the Atlantic, U.S. and Britain agree to accord priority to building antisubmarine weapons. President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill declare that the Allies will pursue a policy of "Unconditional Surrender" of the Axis.

District patrol craft YP-577 is destroyed by explosion of undetermined origin, Great Lakes, Illinois.

Pacific
Submarine Guardfish (SS-217) sinks Japanese destroyer Hakaze south of Steffen Strait, between New Ireland and New Hanover, 02°47'S, 156°38'E.

Japanese submarine I-8 bombards Canton Island.

Japanese planes bomb U.S. shipping in Milne Bay, New Guinea; fragments from near-misses damage freighter Stephen Johnson Field. One Armed Guard sailor and one merchant crewman are injured; there are no other casualties among the 23-man Armed Guard and 43 merchant seamen.

Atlantic
German submarine U-175 torpedoes and sinks U.S. freighter Benjamin Smith off Cape Palmas, Liberia, 04°05'N, 07°50'W. The 23-man Armed Guard detachment (as well as the 43-man merchant complement) survives intact; all hands reach Sassandra, French Ivory Coast, the next day.