Status - John Skinner - USS Daly:
USS Daly (DD-519) - Pacific Ocean - Aleutian Islands, Alaska
August 17th: At sea all day. Temperatures in low 50s, light breezes. At noon, 70 mile north of Adak.
August 18th: At sea all day. Temperatures in low 50s, moderate breezes. At noon, near north coast of Adak Island.
August 19th: At sea all day. Temperatures in low 50s, moderate breezes in morning, calm after noon. At noon, near north coast of Tanaga Island.
August 20th: At sea all day. Temperatures in low 50s, moderate breezes. At noon, near north coast of Tanaga Island.
As the Kiska landings continued unopposed, it finally became clear that the Japanese were gone and the Aleutians had fully returned to US control. There is little action in this area for the remainder of the war, as war in the south and central Pacific drew all the available resources. There was still some concern for the Aleutians; Adak Island was developed as a base that lasted long into the cold war; and the Daly would continue, with other ships, to patrol the area for some time.
Elsewhere, the Allied Invasion of Sicily was completed. The Axis managed to get about 75000 troops off the island before it was lost. There would be a short pause before the invasion of mainland Italy commenced.
Allied bombing of Germany had begun to concentrate on key military production. Between the 17th and the 20th, the ball bearing factory at Schweinfurt and the Peenemunde rocket research and production facility were bombed.
Intense fighting in the Solomons and in New Guinea continued. Soviet forces continued forward toward Kharkov (now Kharkiv, Ukraine) after having pushed the German army out of Belgorod. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Mackenzie-King (PM of Canada) met in Quebec, approving a secret agreement regarding the development and use of the atomic bomb.
More Information:
- Official Navy Chronology, pp. 374-376.
- Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 22-63.
- Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 233-239.
- Events of August, 1943
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