Air Operations, Aleutians

Despite bad weather that prevents air support, a US Army ground force invades Kiska, which has been secretly abandoned by the Japanese. Eventually, 1 343rd Fighter Group P-38 bombs and strafes a hill on Kiska.

Air Operations, East Indies

2 380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack oil-storage tanks at Balikpapan.

Air Operations, Europe

There is a 90-plane raid by the Luftwaffe on Portsmouth.

Operation STARKEY begins. The first in a series of B-17 raids on French airfields takes place. The intent is to deceive the Germans into believing that the Allies will land in the Pas de Calais.

• 199 Lancasters continue to offensive on Milan. A particular concentrated bombing is claimed. 7 Lancasters are lost, mostly by German fighters awaiting the bombers' return over France.
• 154 aircraft of Nos. 3 and 8 Groups are sent to Turin. This total includes 103 Stirlngs, 37 Halifaxes and 14 Lancasters. This raid concludes Bomber Command's attacks on Italian cities which had commenced in June 1940.
• 2 Halifaxes, 1 Lancaster and 1 Stirling are lost.

• 8 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin, 63 aircraft lay mines in the Frisians, off Texel and off the main Brittany and Biscay ports, and there are 16 OTU sorties.
• 2 Wellingtons and 1 Stirling mine-layers are lost.

Bomb Damage in Milan

'The Last Supper' by da Vinci

• On a mission confused by bad weather, 91 of 180 1st Heavy Bomb Wing B-17s dispatched attack their secondary target, the Flushing/Vlissingen Airdrome, about 1930 hours. About the same time, 56 other B-17s from the original formation attack the Poix and Amien/Glisy Airdromes in France.
• There are no losses, 48 are damaged; 3 crewmen are wounded

• Of 147 4th Heavy Bomb Wing B-17s sent, 82 of the planes drop half their bombs on the Merville Airdrome and half on the Lille/Vendeville Airdrome. 61 other B-17s attack the Vitry-en-Artois Airdrome.
• 2 B-17s are lost, 11 are damaged; 1 crewman is killed, 3 wounded, 20 missing
• In the VIII Air Support Command's first mission of the day, 31 387th Medium Bomb Group B-26s attack the St.Omer-Ft. Rouge Airdrome about 1000 hours.
• 18 B-26s are damaged
• 19 323rd Medium Bomb Group B-26s attack the Abbeville marshalling yart with 54 1,000-pound bombs about 1930 hours.
• 9 B-26s are damaged; 1 crewman is wounded

• NASAF B-25s and B-26s attack the rail junction and marshalling yard at Sibari.
• NASAF P-38s attack the tracks and tunnel at Sibari as well as trains, troops, and radar installations throughout the Sibari area.

Air Operations, Mediterranean

2 Bf-109 are downed over the Isle of Capri by a 1st Fighter Group P-38.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• Just in time, the V Fighter Command’s 35th Fighter Group transfers to the airfield at Tsili Tsili from Port Moresby. When 12 Japanese bombers and 20 fighters attack there for the first time. P-39s of the 35th Fighter Group’s 40th and 41st Fighter squadrons down 3 Ki-43 'Oscar' fighters and 10 Ki-21 'Sally' bombers over or near the base and the airfield at Marilanan between 0910 and 0915 hours. 4 P-39s and 3 of the pilots are lost, as are 2 C-47s that were about to land at the base when the attack began.
• V Bombers Command B-17s and B-24s attack the Salamaua area.

Air Operations, Sardinia

NAAF P-40s attack a troop bivouac near Monserrato.

Air Operations, Sicily

• IX Bomber Command B-25s attack ships picking up troops along the beaches.
• IX Fighter Command P-40s mount more that 180 sorties against ships and craft in the Straits of Messina./li>

Air Operations, Solomons

• A 6th Night Fighter Squadron P-38 downs an A6M Zero over Guadalcanal at 0115 hours.
• Under cover provided by AirSols fighters and supported by AirSols bombers, a US Army ground force makes an unopposed landing near Barakoma on Vella Lavella. Beginning at 0741 and lasting until after 2030, Japanese Navy aircraft mount 127 largely ineffective sorties against the Allied invasion flotilla. VMF-123 F4Us down 4 A6M Zeros and 1 D3A 'Val' dive bomber over Vella Lavella between 0750 and 0755 hours. P-40s from the 18th Fighter Group’s 44th Fighter Squadron down 3 A6M Zeros near the Vella Lavella area between 0800 and 0820. VMF-124 F4Us down 6 A6M Zeros and 2 D3A 'Val' dive bombers over and near Vella Lavella at 0830 hours. 1 VMF-215 F4U downs a 'Val' over Vella Lavella at 1230. VMF-123 and VMF-124 F4Us down 4 Zeros and 2 'Vals' over or near Vella Lavella between 1720 and 1730. 1 P-39 with the 18th Fighter Group’s 12th Fighter Squadron downs a Zero over Vella Lavella at 1752 hours. VMF-214 F4Us down 2 'Vals' and a Zero over the Kahili airfield on Bougainville at 1800 hours.
• 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack targets around Rekata Bay.

Aleutians

29,000 American and 5,300 Canadian soldiers who sailed from Adak on the 13th in about a hundred special transports - LSTs, landing ships, tanks: ships of 1,500 tons specially designed for the transport of armored fighting vehicles, LCIs, landing craft, infantry, and LCTs, landing craft, tanks: able to carry about three medium tanks - escorted by huge naval forces, land at dawn on the western beaches of Kiska Island. They discover for the first time that the Japanese gone. Everything that the Japanese have not destroyed on leaving has been destroyed before of after by American bombs and shells.

Allied Troops Land on Kiska

Three PV-1 Planes Fly by Kiska Volcano

Axis Planning

There is an urgent meeting between German and Italian military representatives at Bologna. Strategy on the Italian peninsula is discussed. The delegations are led by Field-Marshal Rommel and Gen Roatta, Chief of Staff of the Italian army. The talks take place in a very tense atmosphere. The Germans are suspicious about Italian troop movements from the south of Italy to the north, and both sides make veiled suggestions that the others are pursuing ends which are not strictly those of both allies.

The meeting ends with no new resolutions and the discussions are deferred. And now the Italian Gen Giuseppe Castellano, with the Chief of the General Staff, Gen Ambrosio, begins his laborious nogotiations with the Allies for an armistice. The first stage is Madrid, where Castellano is to meet the British ambassador to Spain, Sir Samuel Hoare.

Burma

Work on the constructoin of the new 'Burma Road' east of Ledo makes slow progress; the roadway has only advanced 3 miles since the end of March.

Diplomatic Relations

Castellano, a representative of the Badoglio government arrives in Madrid and informs British Ambassador Hoare that Italy wishes to join the Allies.

Eastern Front

On the Bryansk Front, Karachev falls to Popov's troops after a fierce fight.

The Soviet Southern Front (446,000 troops) opens an offensive along the Mius River against the German 6th Army, with the 5th Shock Army striking the XVII Corps. In Kharkov the German defenders are resisting the sledgehammer blows of the Steppe Front, the Soviets losing 20 tanks destroyed in the streets of the city.[MORE]

New Guinea

Japanese aircraft attacke Tsili Tsili where the Allies now have an air base.

Occupied Soviet Union

The Bialystok Ghetto is cleard by Wehrmacht, SS troops and Ukrainian auxiliary forces backed up by artillery. As 30,000 exhausted Jews head toward the evacuation point, the Jewish underground in the ghetto launches an uprising. For the next five days fierce battles rage in the ghetto. A detachment of German soldiers and police, backed by armored vehicles and tanks, is brought into the ghetto, and the main bunker of the underground is surrounded on August 19. Deportations from the ghetto begin on August 18 and go on for three days, in the course of which all the inhabitants of the ghetto save 2,000 are sent to Majdanek and Treblinka. The remaining 2,000 are murdered three weeks later.

Sicily

On the east coast the British enter Taormina and Milazzo as the Allied advance continues. A further American amphibious operation on the north coast arrives after the Germans have pulled back. The Americans reach Barcellona.

Solomons

At dawn the 3rd Amphibious Force begins to land 6,000 men from Gen McLure's 25th Div at Biloa, near Barakama, on the southeast coast of the Vella Lavella Island. The landing, with strong aerial support, is carried out without difficulty, and the Japanese forces are very thin on the ground. In New Georgia, units of the US 25th Inf Regt take Zieta. The naval force is commanded by Adm Wilkinson who leads Task Force 31.