Air Operations, Bismarcks

43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack Rabaul and the Lakunai airfield at Rabaul.

Air Operations, Europe

• 93 aircraft

  47 Venturas, 36 Bostons and 10 Mosquitos

  are sent to raid the Philips radio and valve factories in Eindhoven.

• The raid is a low-level one in clear weather conditions; bombing is accurate and severe damage is inflicted upon the factory which is located in the center of the town; being Sunday, there are few casualties in the factory but bombs falling in nearby streets kill 148 Dutch people and 7 German soldiers.
• 9 Venturas, 4 Bostons and 1 Mosquito are lost over Holland while 3 more planes crash upon their return to England; almost all the aircraft suffer some kind of damage.

Mosquito crews prepare for the daylight attack on the Philips factories

Mosquito Crews Prepare for Attack

The attack was carried out at low-level, as this remarkable photo shows.

Attack Is at Low-level

Another shot of the factory from the photographic Mosquito.

Another Shot of the factory

Two Mosquitos can be seen climbing after making their bombing runs.

After the Bomb Run

A pair of Mosquitos make good their escape.

Mosquitos Making Good Their Escape

Overhead view of the smoking Philips factory with substantial damage to several buildings clearly evident.

Overhead View of Damage to the Philips Factory

The burning Philips radio works at Eindhoven after the raid.

The Burning Philips Radio Works at Eindhoven

• 272 aircraft are sent to Mannheim: 101 Lancasters, 65 Halifaxes, 57 Wellingtons and 49 Stirlings.
• The target are is completely covered by clouds and the Pathfinders do not drop their flares; 220 aircraft drop their bombloads on dead-reckoning positions; Mannheim reports some incendiaries and leaflets fall in the city, but there are no casualties.
• 5 Wellingtons, 3 Halifaxes, 1 Lancaster and 1 Stirling are lost.
• US B-17s attack the Lille locomotive works. 500 RAF, USAAF and Allied fighters fly escort and diversionary sorties. There are RAF night raids on Karslruhe and Pforzheim in southwest Germany.
• 4 bombers are lost.

• 14 Lancasters and Wellingtons lay mines in the Frisians without a loss.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command B-25s attack the airfield at Lae.

Air Operations, Solomons

AirSoPac P-39s strafe the airfield at Munda Point, New Georgia.

Eastern Front

Paulus is brought under sustained attack as the Don and Stalingrad Fronts probe the German defenses.

Lucht's 336th Infantry Division takes up defensive positions along the Chir north of Balck's 11th Panzer Division which is at Nizhne Chirskaya. Knobelsdorf intends to operate in tandem with Hoth's relief attack from Kotelnikovo.

Holland, Politics

Queen Wilhelmina promises domestic autonomy within the Dutch Commonwealth to the Indonesians after the war.

New Guinea

After more vicious fighting the Allied troops manage to reach the beach on the east side of Buna. They now are waiting for some tanks to arrive to renew their attack on the Japanese. The Australian forces again attack at Gona but with little success. Japanese attempts to push a relieving force along the coast from farther west make some progress. The troops manning the road-block on the Soputa-Sanananda track, surrounded by the Japanese, are almost out of rations and ammunition.

North Africa

The Allied forces are pushed back near Medjez el Bab by renewed German attacks which continue for the next 4 days. 2 German Panzer columns attempt to retake Medjez, 56 km southwest of Tunis in torrential rains. Grant tanks and Allied fighters halt 1 column, and the second is smashed by artillery in the outskirts of the town. German troops penetrate the positions of Combat Command B, US 1st Arm Div, in the El Guessa heights sector. Combat Command B is cut off and attempts to escape across the Borj Toun Bridge, only to lose most of its vehicles in deep mud. The battle of Tebourba causes heavy Allied losses: 72 tanks and 1,100 prisoners, according to an Italian bulletin, not the 25 tanks and 400 prisoners originally claimed.

United States, Home Front

Claude R. Wichard is appointed War Food Administrator.