Chronology of World War II

June 1943

Tuesday, June 8


Air Operations, CBI

BURMA
  • 23rd Fighter Group P-40s strafe a Japanese Army barracks near Lamaing.
CHINA
  • 23rd Fighter Group P-40s attack a Japanese Army camp near Lungling and a headquarters at Tatung.
FRENCH INDOCHINA
  • At the opening of a regional anti-shipping campaign, 7 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s and 6 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s, escorted by 23Rd Fighter Group P-40s, sent to attack the port of Haiphong divert in the face of bad weather to Hongay, where they attack rail, power, and port facilities. Also attacked are the Gia Lam airfield at Hanoi and warehouses near Hanoi.
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Air Operations, East Indies

  • V Bomber Command B-25s attack Koepang, Timor, and targets near Dili, Timor.
  • B-24s attack shipping near Waingapoe, Sumatra.
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Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command B-24s attack shipping near Wewak.

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Air Operations, Solomons

XIII Bomber Command B-24s on armed-reconnaissance missions attack the airfield at Ballale and the Kahili airfield on Bougainville.

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Aleutians

The Japanese Supreme Command orders the evacuation of Kiska Island. The island is being shelled every day by American destroyers which prevent the arrival of any supplies except those that can be brought in by submarine.

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Eastern Front

CENTRAL SECTOR

As the build-up in and around ghe Kursk salient continues, the Soviet 1st, 2nd and 15th Air Armies begin a series of raids against German airfields around the salient, destroying some 220 aircraft on the ground.

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Japan, Planning

The Japanese high command gives orders that Kiska, one of the Aleutian Islands, be evacuated. A US blockade of the island, plus the fall of Attu and the strategic irrelevance of the Aleutians, leads the Japanese to abandon this northern Pacific outpost.

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Mediterranean

British naval units, including 3 torpedo-boats, shell the harbors and coastal batteries on Pantelleria. Leaflets demanding the unconditional surrender of the Italian garrison are dropped on the island.

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A conference at Allied Forces headquarters in North Africa on June 8, 1943. From left to right: British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, Alan Brooke, Air Chief Marshal Tedder, Adm. Sir Andrew Cunningham, Gen. Harold Alexander, Gen. George C. Marshall, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. In the center is British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.(Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Conference at Allied Forces Headquarters in North Africa


Conference at Allied Forces Headquarters

Pacific

The battleship Mutsu sinks in Hiroshima Bay after an internal magazine explosion.

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[June 7th - June 9th]