Air Operations, CBI

• 4 23rd Fighter Group P-40 fighter-bombers attack Mangshih.

• 23 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack a Japanese Army barracks at Cau Lo in 3 waves.

Air Operations, East Indies

380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack oil facilities at Balikpapan, Borneo.

Air Operations, Europe

The Americans mount a large daylight raid on the ball-bearing manufacturing centers at Schweinfurt by 230 aircraft and Regensburg by 146 aircraft. 51 aircraft are lost, one-fifth of the attacking force. Such losses are insupportable.

1st Bomb Wing B-17's over Schweinfurt, Germany

American B-17 Attack an Aircraft Factory at Regensburg, August 17, 1943

• 596 aircraft are sent to hit Peenemünde, the German research on the Baltic coast where V2 rockets are being built and tested. In the total are 324 Lancasters, 218 Halifaxes and 54 Stirlings.
• The raid is carried out in moonlight to increase the chances of success. There are several novel features:- there is a Master Bomber controlling a full-scale Bomber Command raid for the first time; there are three aiming points - the scientists' and workers' living quarters, the rocket factory and the experimental station; the Pathfinders employ a special plan with crews designated as 'shifters', who attempt to move the marking from one part of the target to another as the raid progresses; crews of No 5 Group; bombing in the last wave of the attack, have practiced the 'time-and-distance' bombing method as an alternative method for their part in the raid.
• The Pathfinders find the target area without difficulty in the moonlight and the Master Bomber controls the raid successfully throughout. It is estimated that this raid set back the V2 experimental program by at least 2 months and reduces the scale of the eventual rocket attack. A mosquito diversionary raid to Berlin draws off most of the German night-fighters for the first 2 of the raid's 3 phases. Most of the casualties suffered by the attacking force occurs in the third phase when the night-fighers arrive in force. This is the first night on which the Germans use their new schräge Musik weapons; these are twin upward-firing cannons fitted in the cockpit of Me 110s. Two schräge Musik aircraft find the bomber stream flying home from Peenemünde and are believed to have shot down 6 of the bombers lost on the raid.
• 23 Lancasters, 15 Halifaxes and 2 Stirlings are lost.

• 8 Mosquitos carry out a successful diversionary raid on Berlin. This raid provides a good example of the effectiveness of window. The Mosquitos dropping window cause about 200 German fighters to operate over Berlin.
• 1 Mosquito is lost.

During the night 88 German bombers are sent to attack Lincoln. None find the target as bombs are scattered along the East Coast. 11 planes are lost.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• In anticipation of an Allied ground offensive against Lae, the 5th Air Force opens a campaign to neutralize the airfield at Wewak and satellite fields at Boram, But, and Dagua. Between 0300 hours and dawn, 36 90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s and 12 43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack all 4 airfields with incendiary bombs and parachute fragmentaion clusters. After first light, 29 3rd Light Bomb Group B-25 strafers (of 32 sent), escorted by 85 P-38s (of 99 sent), mount a low-level attack against the airfields at Boram and Wewak, and 3 38th Medium Bomb Group B-25 level bombers (of 26 sent from Port Moresby) attack the airfield at Dagua with fragmentation bombs. 3 heavy bombers are lost.
• 3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s attack Japanese Army ground troops in the Salamaua area.

Air Operations, Pacific

The US 5th Air Force carries out a devastating series of raids on Japanese 4th Air Army air bases in the Wewak area of New Guinea. The attack shocks the Japanese, who believed that US aircraft were outside the combat radius for a raid on Wewak. However, US engineers covertly constructed a forward air base 60 miles west of Lae, putting Wewak only 400 miles away from USAAF aircraft of Lt-Gen George C. Kenney. The attack by 200 US aircraft results in three-quarters of the Japanese air base being rendered unusable and only 38 Japanese aircraft left operational.

Air Operations, Solomons

• Fresh ground troops are landed on Vella Lavella despite Japanese Navy air attacks. After AirSols fighters depart the beachhead area at dusk, several D3A 'Val' dive bomberss attack shipping off Barakoma and fatally damage 1 LST. Also, the early-warning air radar facility at Barakoma is demolished by a direct hit.
• Japanese Navy artillery based on Baanga Island continues to disrupt flight operations at the Munda Point airfield on New Georgia.

Germany, Home Front

Col-Gen Jeschonnek, the Luftwaffe Chief of Staff, commits suicide.

Hermann Göring at Hans Jeschonnek's funeral. As part of Operation Crossbow, Allied bombing raids struck Peenemünde on the night of August 17-18, 1943; Jeschonnek erroneously ordered Berlin's air defenses to fire upon 200 German fighters who had mistakenly gathered near the Reich's capital. Jeschonnek shot himself on August 18, 1943 at the Wolfschanze (Wolf's Lair) in Rastenburg, East Prussia.

Göring at Hans Jeschonnek's Funeral

Italy, Politics

Gen Giuseppe Castellano is received by Lisbon by the British ambassador Sir Ronald Campbell, but talks cannot proceed unit the Allies send military spokesman to take part in them.

Sicily

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Solomons

A small force of Japanese reinforcements is landed on Vella Lavella and there is a small inconclusive action between American destroyers and the Japanese transport force. In Baanga Island the Americans make little progress although their 2 infantry regiments receive support from dive-bombers and artillery.