Air Operations, Aleutians

2 21st Heavy Bomb Squadron B-24s and 2 54th Fighter Squadron P-38s attack Atka Island.

Air Operations, Egypt

• 12th Medium Bomb Group B-25s, supporting RAF Bostons, help repel a German Army ground attack near Alam-el-Halfa.
• In the 57th Fighter Group's first air-to-air action, 2ndLt Thomas T. Williams, a 66th Fighter Squadron P-40, is credited with a Messerschmitt Bf-109 single-engine fighter probably destroyed as he escorts RAF bombers near Alam-el-Halfa.

Air Operations, Europe

Russian night bombers raid Budapest, Vienna, Breslau and Königsberg. 1 bomber is lost. Damage and casualties at Budapest necessitates immediate introduction of 'black-out'.

BOMBER COMMAND
Daylight Ops:

• 6 Mosquitos to Germany; 3 bomb Cologne, Essen and Münster through thick cloud; No losses.

• 251 aircraft to Bremen: 98 Wellingtons, 76 Lancasters, 41 Halifaxes and 36 Stirlings.
• Pathfinders introduce new technique this night; split their aircraft into 3 forces: 'illuminators', who light up the area with white flares; 'visual markers', who drop colored flares if they have identified the aiming point; 'backers-up', who drop all incendiary bomb loads on the colored flares; this pattern will be used by the Pathfinders on future raids with other bombing aids used as they become available.
• Weather is clear and Pathfinder plan works well; reports from the ground indicate raid successful; among industrial building seriously hit are the Weser aircraft works and the Atlas shipyard; 4 dockside warehouses and 3 oil-storage tanks are destroyed; 124 people are killed and 470 injured; damage as below:

A Lancaster Silhouetted Against Smoke Over Bremen

• 3 Wellingtons lay mines in the Frisians without loss.
• 'Hit and run' raiders bomb and strafe Torquay. 1 is shot down on the beach. At night, leaflets containing photographs of the Dieppe Raid are dropped on the English south coast.

Air Operations, Mediterranean

USAMEAF B-24s join with the RAF and the Royal Navy in attacking an Axis convoy at sea. 2 Axis ships are reported sun with another on fire.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Fighter Command P-40s bomb and strafe Japanese ground troops at various locations around Milne Bay.

Air Operations, Solomons

Throughout the day, Cactus Air Force F4Fs, SBDs, and P-400s bomb and strafe troop-laden Japanese landing barges attempting to cross open water from Santa Isabel Island to Guadalcanal. 1 F4F with its pilot is lost.

China

The Japanese re-take Lanchi.

Eastern Front

Over 1000 German planes are involved in attacks in the Stalingrad sector. The Germans reach the Volga south of the city cutting off the Russian 62nd Army.(3rd?)

The arrival of the German 11th Army on the Volkhov is paying dividends. Manstein deploys the XXVI Corps on the northern wing and XXX Corps in the south to contain the Soviet threat.

Yet another futile Soviet attack by the 1st Guards, 24th and 66th Armies against the XIV Panzer Corps suffers at the hands of German artillery and comes to nothing. Overhead, the Luftwaffe continues its round-the-clock attacks against the city.[MORE]

Guadalcanal

Coming in to Savo Island by landing craft the marines expect to be fired upon by the Japanese. The marines cover the whole island, discover villagers but no Japanese. They re-embark same day.

Because of bad weather the destroyer transports Little (APD-4) and Gregory (APD-3) patrol off Lunga Point during the night. They are being used to bring in reinforcements and supplies. The Tokyo Express comes in bringing more troops accompanied by the Japanese destroyers Yudachi, Murakamo and Hatsuyaki which are going to shell the air field and Lunga Point. Lit up by flares from a well-meaning PBY pilot, the 2 American ships became easy targets for the Japanese destroyers. The Little (APD-4) is soon ablaze after several hits one of which strikes the bridge and kills the Divisional Commander Hugh Hadley and her captain Lt-Cmdr G. B. Lofberg. The crew abandons ship. The Gregory (APD-3) is next. She takes several hits destroying the bridge and wounding the captain Lt-Cmdr Harry Bauer. He gives the order to abandon ship, but drowns in the process. The Japanese destroyers retire at high speed.

New Guinea

The Australians continue to advance eastwards at Milne Bay, and take Goroni.

North Africa

Heavy fighting takes place near El Alamein as Rommel completes his retreat to positions just east of the old British mine fields.

Forward Aid Station

Pacific

• The US submarine Growler (SS-215) sinks the Japanese ammunition ship (e4000t) in Formosa Strait, about 50 miles northeast of Keelung, Formosa.
• Operating off the northeast coast of Honshu, the US submarine Guardfish (SS-217) sinks the Japanese merchant cargo ships Kaimei Maru (5254t) and Chita Maru (2276t) and the passenger cargo ship Tenyu Maru (3738t) off Kuji Bay.
• The US submarine Pompano (SS-181) sinkd the Japanese guardboat No.27 Nanshin Maru (834t) northeast of Honshu, Japan.

Secret War

The first accurate details of the performance of the Mitsubishi Zero fighter are distributed to US air forces in the Pacific. These are based on the examination and testing of a crashed Zero recovered almost intact from the bog on one of the Aleutian Islands. The plane was lost on June 3, 1942.