Air Operations, Bismarcks

43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s and 90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Rabaul and airfields in the area.

Air Operations, CBI

• 6 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Syriam.

Air Operations, East Indies

V Bomber Command B-25s attack Dili and Penfoei, Timor.

Air Operations, Europe

FW-190 fighter-bombers attack Greater Yarmouth. 26 people are killed in an ATS hostel.

• 6 Mitchell are sent to bomb a railway works, but are recalled.

XII Fighter Command P-40 fighter-bombers attack the harbor at San Michele.

Air Operations, Mediterranaan

There are more raids on Catania, Marsala and Trapani in Sicily.

Air Operations, Sicily

• IX Bomber Command B-24s attack port facilities and ships at Catania harbor and sink a tanker and damage 2 freighters.
• 180 NASAF B-17s, B-26s, and B-25s attack rail and port facilities at Marsala with 450 tons of bombs.
• 3 Axis fighters are downed over Marsala between 1130 and 1150 hours by 14th and 82nd Fighter Group P-38s.

Air Operations, Solomons

During the night, XIII Bomber Command B-17s mount harrassment raids against the Kahilie airfield on Bougainville.

Air Operations, Tunisia

NATAF A-20s, B-25s, and fighters, IX Bomber Command B-25s, and IX Fighter Command P-40s continue to attack Axis forces that are still resisting in northeastern Tunisia.

Aleutians

In Operation LANDCRAB the American 7th Division under Gen Albert E. Brown begins to land at several points on Attu supported by Adm Thomas C. Kinkaid's Task Force 16. All units get ashore safely in the afternoon in Massacre Bay, at Alexai Point, west of Holtz Bay in the northern part of the island. The 17th Infantry (less Boat Landing Team 1), with the 2nd Battalion of the 32nd Infantry attached as reserve, makes the main landing of the Southern Landing Force on the coast of Massacre Bay (Beaches Blue and Yellow) in the afternoon. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 17th Infantry push rapidly northward up Massacre Valley toward Jarmin Pass until pinned down about 1900 by intense enfilading fire from the heights surrounding the valley. A platoon of the 7th Reconnaissance Troop makes a subsidiary landing at Alexai Point and joins the main body at Massacre Bay without opposition. BLT 1, 17th Infantry--the main assault group of the Northern Landing Force--goes ashore at the end of the western arm of Holtz Bay (Beach Red) in the afternoon. This unit pushes southward toward Jarmin Pass to within 800 yards of its first objective, a hill mass called Hill X, virtually unopposed. A Provisional Battalion (the 7th Scout Company and the 7th Reconnaissance Troop, less 1 platoon) makes a subsidiary landing on the north coast west of Holtz Bay (Beach Scarlet) before dawn and moves inland unopposed toward Jarmin Pass. Mud paralyzes trucks and tractors. Gen Brown plans an assault on the pass the following day. There are strong naval forces in support including 3 battleships, 1 escort carrier and numerous cruisers and destroyers.

US Landing Craft Heading for Attu

Ammo for the Guns

The ships provide effective fire support throughout the operation.

Landing on Attu

Map of Landings on Attu

Atlantic

The first of 5 Italian submarines leave Bordeaux on transport missions to Sumatra and Singapore. 2 will be lost.

Battle of the Atlantic

• Over the next 3 days 3 U-boats are sunk during attacks on Convoy HX-237. The destroyer Hesperus and U-223 fight a dramatic but inconclusive battle with guns, torpedoes and depth charges. U-223 escapes despite a ramming.
• Returning from patrol after being damaged by a US Navy Catalina, U-528 is sighted by air patrols convering convoy OS-47. Halifax 'D' of No 58 Squadron attacks the U-boat from the port bow with depth charges and notices the submarine lift out of the water and roll over as the depth charges exploded. The sloop HMS Fleetwood blows the U-boat to the surface with more depth charges. The damaged submarine is then abandoned.

U-528

CBI

The British pull the 26th Division back from Maungdaw which the Japanese occupy on May 14. The 1943 Arakan campaign is over. The British have lost 3,000 killed and seriously wounded, more than twice as many as the Japanese. Above all the morale of the British force could hardly be poorer and their health is also weak. Gens Noel M. Irwin and W. L. Lloyd are relieved and William Slim is appointed to command 14th Army on May 15.

The monsoon rains make it impossible to proceed with work on the construction of the new Burma Road, which is to lead from Ledo, in Assam, to China. The roadway has been completed up to 45 miles east of Ledo, in Burmese territory.

North Africa

Allied forces rout the remaining Axis forces. Organized resistance ceases and the Allies control the whole country.

In the British 1st Army's IX Corps area, an uneventful sweep around the Cap Bon Peninsula by the 4th Div reveals no important enemy forces are there. The 6th Armored Div reaches Bou Ficha. In the French XIX Corps area, Axis resistance is weakening in the Zaghouan sector.

WAACs Arrive in Great Britain

Pacific

The US submarine Grayback (SS-208) attacks a Japanese convoy sinking the collier Yodogawa Maru (6441t) about 125 miles northwest of Kavieng.