Air Operations, Far East

RAF bombers attack Japanese targets in Rangoon, Mandalay and Prome.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• 3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s and 22nd Medium Bomb Group B-26s attack the airfield at Buna and ground targets in the Owen Stanley Mountains.
• The Japanese destroyer Yayoi is sunk by V Bomber Command B-17s and RAAF Hudsons flying from Normanby Island, D'Entrecasteaux Islands, off New Guinea.

Air Operations, Solomons

• 26 G4M 'Betty' bombers and 8 A6M Zeros are intercepted over Guadalcanal by 12 Marine Corps F4Fs. 1 P-400 is destroyed by a bomb and several 67th Fighter Squadron are injured. 6 'Bettys' and 1 Zero are shot down by the F4Fs to the loss of 1 F4F.
• 9 Cactus Air Force SBDs attack Gizo harbor and 11th Heavy Bomb Group B-17s strafe shore installations on Gizo Island.

Aleutian Islands

The Americans complete the airstrip on Adak and can now begin raiding Kiska Island, 250 miles away, which is occupied by the Japanese.

Battle of the Atlantic

U-517 sinks the Canadian corvette Charlottetown (900t) 5 miles off Cap-Chat in the Gulf of St Lawrence with the loss of 9 of her crew. 55 survivors are picked up by the Canadian minesweeper Clayoquot.

Eastern Front

The attacks by the 6th Army and the 4th Panzer Army press the 62nd and 64th Armies back into Stalingrad. Heavy fighting rages in the Mnina suburb where the XLVIII Panzer Corps is punching its way through to the Volga. Already to the north in the Rynok and Spartakovka suburbs, the Germans hold a 5-mile stretch of the Volga river bank, bringing artillery fire to bear upon Soviet river traffic.

In the Caucasus, the 17th Army is fighting inside Novorossiysk, while elements of the 47th Army continue to resist in the cement factory.

Guadalcanal

6,000 Japanese have reached the island since August 29 in fast transports escorted by warships, landing by night. The Americcans call these the 'Tokyo Night Express'.

The Bettys come again at their usual time. The Cactus Air Force is slow to respond and the east side of the airfield is hit by a pattern of bombs causing 20 casualties and destroying 1 P-400. The F4Fs shoot down 6 bombers and fighters but 1 F4F is shot down although the pilot is able to swim to shore. Later in the afternoon 24 F4Fs from Saratoga's (CV-3) 'Fighting Five', the fighter squadron of Air Group Five, arrive.

Madagascar

The British advance along the coast towards Tananarive, capital of the island.

New Guinea

The Japanese advance on Port Moresby is halted at Ioribaiwa, 51 km to the north. The encircled Australian forces break out of their trap and fall back to Nauro which is yielded under pressure. They take up positions on a ridge north of Ioribaiwa, where the 2/1st Pioneer Battalion and the 3rd Battalion of the 14th Brigade are established. MacArthur submits to Gen Blamey a plan for accelerating operations. While the Australians, upon receiving reinforcements, are to attack to drive the enemy back along the Port Moresby-Kokoda trail, an RCT of the US 32nd Division is to execute a wide flanking movement to the east to get behind the Japanese at Wairopi and thus hasten their removal from New Guinea.

Pacific

The US submarine Saury (SS-189) sinks the Japanese aircraft transport Kanto Maru (8606t) about 30 miles off the west coast of Celebes in central Makassar Strait.

United States, Home Front

12 workers are killed and 35 injured when a plane crashes in flames on the Curtiss-Wright aircraft factory in Buffalo, New York.