Air Operations, Aleutians

Due to bad weather, 11th Air Force aircraft are unable to conduct scheduled bombing attacks against Attu. However, 6 28th Composite Bomb Group B-24s and 5 B-25s are able to provide direct support for US Army troops. 1 re-supply B-24 crashes into a mountain. 2 P-40 fighter-bombers mount a dusk attack against Kiska.

Air Operations, Bismarcks

• 43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s and 90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Rabaul-area airfields.
• V Bomber Command B-25s attack the Gasmata airfield on New Britain. B-17s and B-24s mount inividual attacks against various targets on New Britain.

Air Operations, East Indies

• V Bomber Command B-25s attack Penfoei, Timor.
• 43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s and 90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s mount individual attacks against various targets in the East Indies.

Air Operations, Europe

125 US bombers attack Kiel. 3 U-boats are sunk.

• 6 Mitchells are sent to bomb the steelworks at Ijmuiden but are recalled.

• 5 OTU Wellingtons drop leaflets over France without a loss.
• RAF bombers continue to pound strategic bases in southern Italy.

(303rd BG, 358th BS, 'Hells Angels') was first aircraft to complete 25 combat missions in 8th AF, doing so May 14, 1943. Returned to USA after 48th mission Dec 13, 1943. Scrapped Aug 14, 1945.

303rd BG, 358th BS, 'Hells Angels'

• 109 1st Heavy Bomb Wing B-17s and 17 2nd Heavy Bomb Wing B-24s attack the kiel shipyard at high noon with more than 291 tons of bombs.
• 3 B-17s and 8 B-24s are lost, 27 B-17s and 9 B-24s damages; 3 crewmen are killed, 17 wounded, 81 missing

• In its first combat mission of the war, the specially trained 322nd Medium Bomb Group sends 12 B-26s to attack the power plant at Ijmuiden at very low level dropping 43 500-puund bombs.
• 10 planes are damage; 7 crewmen wounded

NASAF B-17s attack Civitavecchia.

Air Operations, New Guinea

43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s and 90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s mount individual attacks against various targets. In the last of a series of Japanese Navy air attack missions going back to March 11, a total of 40 G4M 'Betty' bombers and A6M Zeros attack the Oro Bay-Dobodura area. P-38s of the 49th Fighter Group’s 8th Fighter Squadron bring down a reconnaissance plane near Buna at 0935 hours, and 11 'Bettys', and 10 Zeros near Oro Bay between 1030 and 1045 hours. 1 P-38 and its pilot are lost.

Air Operations, Sardinia

• NAAF P-38s escorting an attack on Cagliari by RAF Wellington bombers attack a tunnel, a barracks, an airdrome, a power station, and several factories. 3 Axis aircraft are downed about 1300 hours by 82nd Fighter Group P-38s.
• NASAF B-26s attack Porto Ponte Romano.
• NASAF B-25s and escorting P-38s attack Olbia and claim the destruction of 3 Axis vessels.

Air Operations, Sicily

1 Luftwaffe medium bomber is downed over Gela at 1300 hours by a 14th Fighter Group P-38.

Air Operations, Solomons

• During the early evening, XIII Bomber Command B-24s mount individual attacks against the airfield at Ballale, the Kahili airfield on Bougainville, and the Munda Point airfield on New Georgia.
• During the night, B-17s attack the Kahili airfield on Bougainville.

Battle of the Atlantic

The German submarine U-657 is sunk by naval land-based aircraft (VP-84) in the North Atlantic area.

U-657

Italy, Home Front

The Under-Secretaries for War, Air and Navy announce anti-invasion measures.

Mediterranean

Pantelleria is blockaded.

Wrecks of German Junkers Ju-52 transport planes at El Aouiana airport, Tunis, Tunisia, May 1943.

Wrecks of German Junkers Ju-52s

Pacific

• The Australian hospital ship Centaur is sunk off Brisbane by Japanese submarine I-177 despite being clearly marked as a medical vessel. 268 people are killed with only 63 survivors.
• The US motor torpeod boats PT-150 and PT-152 sink the Japanese submarine RO-102 in the Vitiaz Strait, New Guinea.

Australian Hospital Ship Centaur

The Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was en route to New Guninea from Sydney to collect casualties of war. As a marked Hospital ship she was entitled to be respected as a non combatant under the Geneva Convention. Japan had not signed the Geneva Convention but had declared that she would abide by it in 1942. Japan also had obligations under 1907 Hague Convention, to which she had been a signatory.

Australian Hospital Ship Centaur

A poster depicting the Hospital ship Centaur being attacked and sunk by the Japanese off the coast of Queensland, on this day in 1943, when 286 lives were lost, including 11 out of 12 nurses. The poster depicts moments after the ship was torpedoed. The Japanese had demonstrated on many occasions that the international Conventions meant little to them. The most likely culprit was submarine I-177 under the command of Hajime Nakagawa which was one of three submarines on patrol in the area and the only one to record a sinking on the 14th May. The torpedo tore a large hole in the hull of Centaur and set fire to the fuel tanks. This combination of events was to cause heavy casualties. The ship quickly caught fire and then sank rapidly. There was no time to send an SOS message. Of the 332 persons on board only 64 survived…. A post war War Crimes investigation failed to conclusively link I-177 and Hajime Nakagawa with the crime, although subsequent evidence has pointed more firmly in this direction. Nakagawa died in 1991 without making any further comment on the issue.