Air Operations, Aleutians

6 28th Composite Bomb Group B-24s attack Kiska.

Air Operations, Bismarcks

13 90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Rabaul-area airfields and 1 B-24 attacks the Cape Gloucester airfield on New Britain.

Air Operations, CBI

• 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack a bridge at Myitnge.

Air Operations, East Indies

380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the Kendari airfield on Celebes and 2 V Bomber Command B-25s attack Koepang, Timor.

Air Operations, Europe

• 653 aircraft are sent to Cologne. Included in the total are 293 Lancasters, 182 Halifaxex, 89 Wellingtons, 76 Stirlings and 13 Mosquitos.
• The target for this raid is that part of Cologne situated on the east bank of the Rhine, where a great deal of industry is located. Pathfinder ground marking is accurate and is maintained by both the Mosquito Oboe aircraft and the backers-up. The Main Force follows with their bomb loads causing extensive damage. Among the sites receiving extensive damage is the Humboldt-Deutz works which makes U-boat accumulators.
• This night sees the first operations of a new German unit, Jagdgeschwader 300, equipped with single-engined fighters using the Wilde Sau (Wild Boar) technique. In this, a German pilot uses any form of illumination available over a city being bombed

  searchlights, target indicators, the glow of fires on the ground

  to pick out a bomber for attack.

• Liaison with the local flak defences is supposed to ensure that the flak is limited to a certain height above which the Wild Boar fighter is free to operate. The new German unit claims 12 bombers shot down over Cologne but has to share the 12 available aircraft found to have crashed with the local flak, who also claims 12 successes.
• 9 Halifaxes, 8 Lancasters, 8 Wellingtons and 5 Stirlings are lost.

• 4 Mosquitos are sent to Duisburg, 4 more to Hamburg, and 14 Stirlings lay mines in the Frisians.
• 2 Stirlings are lost.

Air Operations, New Guinea

Approximately 7 Japanese bombers, escorted by A6M Zeros, attack the Nassau Bay beachhead, but they are intercepted by 14 49th Fighter Group P-40s returning to the airfield at Dobodura from another mission. P-40s of the 49th Fighter Group’s 7th Fighter Squadron down a Ki-46 'Dinah' recon aircraft and 5 of the Zeros between 1610 and 1615 hours.

Air Operations, Solomons

• 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack the Munda Point airfield on New Georgia and antiaircraft emplacements.
• P-38s of the 347th Fighter Group’s 339th Fighter Squadron down 5 A6M Zeros near Rendova at about 1445 hours. The Zeros are part of a force of 40 that sweep the invasion area.

Eastern Front

Operation CITADEL, the offensive for the elimination of the Russian Kursk salient, is delayed by preventive bombing by the Russians which holds up the deployment of the German forces.

British troops embarking into landing craft at Tripoli for the invasion of Sicily, 3 July 1943.

British Troops Boarding Landing Craft

New Georgia

US forces land at Zanana about 8 miles east of Munda. There is no Japanese resistance and the beachhead is quickly consolidated.

New Guinea

After heavy fighting in the Mubo area, the Australians advancing from Wau join up with the Americans from the Nassau Bay landing force in the region of the Bitoi River.

Solomons

On Vangunu Island the Americans occupy Wickham Anchorage.