Air Operations, Aleutians

• Despite bad weather, a small number of 11 Air Force aircraft are able to support US 7th Infantry Division troops battling Japanese Army defenders on Attu Island. 1 28th Composite Bomb Group B-24 drops supplies to ground forces, and 6 B-24s and 6 343rd Fighter Group P-38s attack ground targets. Several aircraft, however, mistakenly attack US troops, thus allowing retreating Japanese Army troops to escape.
• 1 USS Nassau-based VMO-155 F4F photographic-reconnaissance F4F and its pilot are lost in an operational accident.

Air Operations, Bismarcks

• 43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack airfields in the Rabaul area.
• V Bomber Command B-25s attack the Gasmata airfield on New Britain.
• B-24s and 43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s mount individual attacks against Cape Gloucester and Gasmata, and barges near Ubili.

Air Operations, CBI

• In their strongest attack against a USAAF target in the theater to date, 27 Ki-21 'Nate' fighters, escorted by 40 other fighters, attack the airfield at Kunming. Although only 4 23rd Fighter Group P-40s are in position to deter the attack, most of the Japanese bombs fall short. 1 B-24 and 1 B-25, however, are destroyed. As the Japanese withdraw, they are intercepted by nearly 30 23rd Fighter Group P-40s from nearby bases, with the result that 2 Ki-21 'Nates' and 14 Ki-43 'Oscar' fighters are shot down.

Air Operations, Central Pacific

11 307th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s under VII Bomber Command control are dispatched from Midway to attack Wake, but only 7 B-24s are able to locate the target and deliver an attack. 22 Japanese Navy fighters attack the bombers, and 1 B-24 is forced to ditch at sea. 1 crewman is lost in the crash, but all the others are rescued by a US Naby ship. This is the first VII Bomber Command loss to enemy action.

Air Operations, Europe

There is a night raid on Sunderland.

• 24 Bostons and 12 Mitchells are sent to bomb various targets but half of each plane type is recalled. 12 Bostons bomb the Poix airfield and 6 Mitchells attack an industrial target at Caen.
• There are no losses.

• 3 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin and there are 16 OTU sorties.
• There are no losses.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• 90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Nabire.
• V Bomber Command B-25s and A-20s attack the airfield at Lae.
• The crew of a 6th Night Fighter Squadron P-70 on loan to the 5 Air Force bring down a Japanese twin-engine bomber over Port Moresby at 2005 hours.

Aleutians

One American attack at Massacre Bay is renewed, but even with the help of naval guns, they make no progress. A second in the north of Attu, in Holtz Bay, does better although there are casualties from badly aimed American bombing as well as Japanese fire.

American troops traveling across snow and ice during the Battle of Attu Island, May 1943

American Troops on Attu

Battle of the Atlantic

The Cuban sub-chaser CS-13 and a US naval land-based aircraft (VS-62) sink U-176 off Havana.

China

• In order to repulse the 'rice offensive' launched by the Japanese in the center of the country, Chiang Kai-shek orders Gen Chen Cheng to come back with his army and defend Yichang, on the Yangtze.
• The Combined Chiefs of Staff decide to give absoulute priority to the construction of the airfield in Assam, India. The quantity of war materials to be supplied to China will be increased to 7,000 tons a month by June 1.

Eastern Front

The Germans attempt a small attack in the Leningrad sector but fail to make any progress.

North Africa

The pro-Axis Bey of Tunis is deposed.

Gen. Hans-Jürgen von Arnim, commander of the Axis forces in North Africa, on May 15, 1943, three days after his capture and shortly before being flown to a prison in England. Behind him is General Hans Cramer, commander of the German Afrika Korps.

Gen. Hans-Jürgen von Arnim

Occupied Yugoslavia

The fifth Axis offensive (Operation 'Black') against Tito's Partisans begins. It will last about a month. 120,000 Germans, Italians, Bulgarians and Croats will participate supported by the Luftwaffe.

Soviet Union, Politics

The Soviet authorities decide to dissolve the Comintern to 'prove' to the West that Russia no longer has any expansionist aims. The dissolution is announced on May 22.

In a gesture designed to reassure his Western Allies that the USSR is no longer trying to foment world revolution, Stalin dissolved the Comintern. The latter, founded in 1919 by Lenin and the Bolsheviks, is dedicated 'by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the State'. The Americans in particular were keen for this organization to be disbanded.