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.

Many historical buildings of Milan aere badly damaged in the raids on the city which began 8 August. Among the buildings damaged are the Duomo, the Castello Sforzesco, the Palazzo Reale, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the Teatro alla Scala and the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie which had in its Refectory Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece 'The Last Supper'.

Bomb Damage in Milan

'The Last Supper' by da Vinci

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, 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.

American and Canadian troops make an amphibious landing on the Aleutian island of Kiska, 15 August 1943

Allied Troops Land on Kiska

Three PV-1 planes fly by Kiska Volcano during the Allied invasion of Kiska on August 15, 1943

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 ]

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 | ]

Eastern Front

On the Bryansk Front, Karachev falls to [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.