Air Operations, Europe

• 4 Mosquitos attack various targets just over the German border. In another raid, 4 Mosquitos are sent to hit the railway yard at Orleans, but this mission is aborted. There are no losses.

• 5 Mosquitos and 104 Lancasters are again sent to Duisburg.
• There is a thick cloud cover and the bomb loads are scattered.
• 8 Lancasters are lost.

• 5 OTU Wellingtons make leaflet flights over France.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• 43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s mount individual attacks against Wewak, vehicles at Lorengau on Manus Island, and barges at or off Alexishafen, Bogia, and Finschafen.
• V Bomber Command B-25s attack the airfield at Madang, and the Madang port and town areas.
• 3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s attack ground targets around Kitchen Creek and Mubo.

North Africa

British troops from 8th Army take Mahares, 50 miles north of Gabes, as the Axis forces continue to retreat. The British 26th Arm Bde drives through Fondouk Pass to Kairouan.

In the IX Corps area, while infantry of the 46th and the US 34th Divs continue efforts to clear the height dominating Fondouk Pass, the 6th Armored Div is committed at 1500 to speed the operation and succeeds in forcing the pass, but losing a lot of tanks in the process. Meanwhile, the 128th Brigade, 46th Div, clears Djebel Rhorab. The US 34th Div is unable to lear Djebel el Haouareb during the day but gains its crest in a night attack by the 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry. The 1st Armored Div, US II Corps, moves northward to positions north of Sidi Bou Zid, leaving the 60th Regimental Combat Team to hold the Maknassy sector.

The British 8th Army continues its pursuit of the enemy northward along Gabès Gulf. The XXX Corps, in the coastal sector, reaches positions a few miles short of Sfax.

In the British 1st Army's V Corps area, the 78th Div takes Chaouach, a mountain village 4 miles northwest of Medjez el Bab.

Pacific

The Japanese destroyer Isonami is sunk by the US submarine Tautog (SS-199) off the Celebes.

Soviet Union, Strategy

Following the end of Manstein's attack in the south, the Red Army now holds a huge salient in the central sector of the front that bulges into German-held territory: the Kursk salient. It quickly becomes obvious to Zhukov that this salient will be a prime target for the Wehrmacht during the coming summer. He reports to Stalin: 'I consider that it would be pointless for our forces to go over to the offensive in the near future in order to pre-empt the enemy. It would be better for us to wear out the enemy on our defenses, to smash his tanks and then, by introducing fresh reserves and going over to a general offensive, to beat the main enemy force once and for all.'

Stalin agreed, and on April 12 the Stavka gave the order that the Kursk salient would be defended in great depth. This was in fact the first part of a three-part strategy for the conduct of the war in the second half of 1943. First, the Red Army would conduct a deliberate defense of the Kursk salient to wear down enemy forces in a so-called battle of attrition. Second, once the Germans were exhausted the Red Army would launch a series of offensives in the Kursk region. Finally, these offensives would be expanded to the flanks with the aim of reaching the Dnieper River and, if possible, advance into Belorussia and the Ukraine.