Krauts Occupy Italian Harbors

WED 8 SEP 1943
Pacific
Four U.S. destroyers bombard Lae, New Guinea.

Submarine Drum (SS-228) sinks Japanese army cargo ship No. 13 Hakutetsu Maru off Hollandia, 02°44'S, 141°36'E.

Japanese land attack planes (755th Kokutai) bomb Nanomea, Ellice Islands.

Mediterranean
General Dwigth D. Eisenhower announces from Algiers that an armistice has been concluded with the Italian government. German forces in Italy, however, remain in place; among other actions, they occupy harbors along the Tyrrhenian Sea, as well as Sardinia and Corsica (see 9 September).

Operation SLAPSTICK: Light cruiser Boise (CL-47), withdrawn temporarily from the bombardment force being massed for Operation AVALANCHE, transports British troops from Bizerte and is the only U.S. Navy ship to participate in the British occupation of Taranto, Italy. [Alleged (& dull) footage here.]

Convoy FSS 1, bound for Salerno to participate in Operation AVALANCHE, is attacked by German JU 88s; large infantry landing craft LCI(L)-87 is damaged by near misses. German planes bomb TG 85.1; tank landing ship LST-375
is damaged by direct hit and near misses.

Arctic
Operation SIZILIEN: German battleship Tirpitz, accompanied by a destroyer flotilla, shells Barentsburg, Spitsberge, Norway; battleship Scharnhorst and two destroyer flotillas land troops (349th Grenadier Regiment) that destroy facilities at Grönfjord and Advent Bay before reembarking. The German force returns to its Norwegian bases unhindered.