Air Operations, Bismarcks

8 V Bomber Command B-17s and 3 B-24s attack the Vunakanau airfield at Rabaul in support of US Army landings in the Trobriand Islands. 1 heavy bomber attacks a cargo ship off Cape Gloucester.

Air Operations, East Indies

V Bomber Command B-25s attack the the Cape Chater airfield on Timor.

Air Operations, Mediterranean

B-17s raid Palermo.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command B-25s support Australian Army ground troops in the Nassau Bay beachhead and attack Logui and Salamaua. Making its combat debut on this mission is the 345th Medium Bomb Group.

Air Operations, Pacific

The Japanese bomb Darwin again.

Air Operations, Sicily

• NASAF B-17s attack the Bocca di Falco Airdrome and the city of Palermo.
• NASAF B-25s attack the Sciacca Airdrome.
• NASAF B-26s attack the Bo Rizzo Airdrome.
• 82nd Fighter Group P-38s down 3 Luftwaffe fighters over the Sciacca Airdrome at 1130 hours.

Air Operations, Solomons

• The main body of the US 43rd Infantry Division opens the central Solomons invasion with a main landing at Rendova Island and several subsidiary landings at outlying areas of New Georgia and several nearby islands. Several of the sites attacked on D-day are to be utilized for advance airstrips.
• AirSols fighters maintain a dawn-to-dusk umbrella over the invasion area with at least 32 Allied fighters being airborne at all times.
• 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s and AirSols SBDs attack the Munda Point airfield on New Georgia, but scheduled attacks by V Bomber Command B-24s against Japanese Navy airfields on Bougainville are thwarted by bad weather (as they will be for most of July).
• 16 A6M Zeros attempt to sweep Allied fighters from the sky over the invasion fleet at about 1100 hours, but VMF-121 F4Us down 15 of the Zeros over and around Rendova.
• VF-21 F4Fs down a G4M 'Betty' bomber at 1035 hours and 2 A6M Zeros at 1110 hours.
• At 1530 hours, 24 G4M 'Betty' torpedo bombers escorted by 25 A6M Zeros, attack the US invasion fleet as it retires for the day toward Guadalcanal. All available AirSols fighters are called to intercept the strike. In the ensuing melee, VMF-121, VMF-122, VMF-213, and VMF-221 F4Us and VF-11 F4Fs claim far more G4M 'Bettys' and A6M Zeros than are actually in the area at the time. 1 'Betty' bomber inflicts serious damage on the US Navy flagship with a torpedo.
• A VMF-122 F4U downs a G4M 'Betty' bomber over Rendova at noon. VT-11 TBF crews down a D3A 'Val' dive bomber and an A6M Zero over the invasion area at an unspecified time. 1 VMSB-132 SBD downs a Zero over the Vila airfield on Kolombangara, also at an unspecified time.
• A flight of 30 A6M Zeros, A6M2-Ns 'Rufe' fighter-bombers, and E8N 'Dave' seaplanes attempt to attack the invasion force at 1730 hours. 12th Fighter Squadron P-38s and 44th Fighter Squadron P-40s down 11 'Daves' around Rendova between 1730 and 1745 hours, and VMF-213 F4Us down 9 'Daves' between Rendova and Vella Lavella at 1800 hours.
• 14 Allied fighters are lost with 7 of their pilots.

Atlantic

• The battleships Alabama (BB-60) and South Dakota (BB-57) arrive in Scapa Flow.
• The Free French take over the Vichy warships at Martinique.
• The US Coast Guard cutter No.83421, en route to Miami, Florida, is sunk in a collision with submarine chaser SC-1330.

Caribbean

Vichy's high commissioner in the French West Indies, Adm Georges Robert, in Martinique, asks the US to send a 'plenipotentiary to fix the terms for a change of French authority . . . to avoid bloodshed.' Robert had previously kept the island and other French possessions in the Caribbean loyal to Pétain. Fighting does break out, however, between military units, some of which are insisting on aligning the islands with de Gaulle.

Eastern Front

There are numerous small-scale engagements in many locations all along the front. The armies are becoming more active again as the ground hardens and the winter's losses are being made good as far as is possible.

The Ostheer has 3,100,000 men under arms, of whom approximately 1,200,000 are combat troops. The armies in the line also have 2,270 panzers, of which 500 are obsolete models, nearly 1,000 assault guns and 2,500 aircraft. Around Kursk the Germans deply 10,000 arty pieces and 2,400 tanks.

The Germans commit the 328th Infantry Division to the combat line, bringing their strength up to 16 panzer, 14 motorized and 147 infantry divisions.

The Soviets have 6,422,000 men mobilized, of whom around half are combat soldiers equipped with 103,000 arty pieces, nearly 10,000 tanks and Su's and over 8,300 aircraft. In the Kursk salient there are 1,300,000 men and 3,500 tanks.

The Red Army and Navy have lost 191,904 killed and missing in action and 490,637 wounded during the second quarter of 1943.

New Georgia

The US 43rd Division has taken the island of Rendova, within artillery range of the New Georgian mainland and the important airfield at Munda. The occupation of Munda is vital to enabling the next 'hop' up the Solomon Islands toward Bougainville. Other US landings are made at Wickham, Viru and Segi Point.

Cameraman on Rendova Islands During Invasion Beginning 30 June 1943. (NARA)

The US attack transport McCawley (APA-4) is damaged by an enemy submarine torpedo and later sunk by a US motor torpedo boat off New Georgia.

New Guinea

A mixed Australian and American unit known as MacKechnie Force lands at Nassau Bay at Salamaua from Morobe and immediately is involved in heavy fighting to consolidate and extend a bridgehead. They push north towards the Bitoi River and to the south towards the Tabali River. There is heavy resistance by the Japanese.

The enemy salient at Mubo is held despite constant pressure by the Australian 17th Bde.

Landing operations on Rendova Island in the Solomon Islands. Attacking at dawn in a heavy rainstorm, the first Americans ashore huddle behind tree trunks and any other cover they can find. 30 June 1943.

Landing operations on Rendova Island

A P-40 Fighter Squadron 44 protects the landing of American troops on the island of Rendova in the Solomons archipelago l, the June 30, 1943.

P-40 Fighter Squadron Protecting the Landings on Rendova Island

Solomons

Operation CARTWHEEL begins according to plan with a series of assaults and amphibious operations carried out by the South Pacific and Southwest Pacific forces, with the object of capturing Rabaul, New Britain, advance post of the Japanese Empire. The forces of the US army and navy act in coordimation under the overall command of Gen MacArthur. The amphibious force of the US 3rd Fleet, organized as Task Force 51 under the command of Rear-Adm R. K. Turner and with land-based air support commanded by Vice-Adm A. W. Fitch, lands the New Georgia occupation force. The landing force is made up of the US 43rd Div and contingents of Marines under to overall command of Gen John K. Hester. The landings are on several islands in the New Georgia group.

The Main landing is on Rendova Island. The troops landed here are to occupy the island and then cross to New Georgia to take Munda airfield. The landing on Rendova takes place with no difficulty; the units from the 43rd Div press on inland for over half a mile before they meet any resistance from the few Japanese patrols.

In New Georgia units of the 103rd Inf, not getting the signal agreed with the Raiders that they have already occupied Viru harbor, are put ashore at Segi Point. The Raiders occupy Viru in the evening. Other landings are made on smaller islands: Sasavele, Baraulu and Vangunu. Here the Japanese, while not holding up the landing, as they have elsewhere, put up a strenuous resistance to the Marines' penetration from Oleana, where they land, towards Wickham Anchorage. The Japanese air force is very active, sinking the transport McCawley and damaging other ships. US fighters break up the Japanese formations operating in the area losing 17 of their own.

Trobriand Islands

The main body of the occupation forces of the US 6th Div lands on Woodlark and Kriwina Islands, together with a contingent of Seabees who are to build 2 airfields.