Air Operations, East Indies

• 380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Saumlakki in the Molucca Islands.
• V Bomber Command B-25s attack Fuilaro, Koepang, and Lautem on Timor.

Air Operations, Europe

There are heavy Allied air raids by B-17s, B-24s and Wellingtons on Avellino, Salerno and Foggia.

• 8 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin, 1 Mosquito is lost.

Result of Allied Bombings on Kiska

• 36 323rd Medium Bomb Group B-26s attack the Amiens/Olisy Airdrome at 1130 hours.
• 35 387th Medium Bomb Group B-26s attack the Poix/Nord Airdrome about 1215 hours.

• NAAF P-40s sweeping across southern Italy attack a train and strafe several trucks.
• IX Fighter Command P-40s sweeping across southern Italy bomb roads and buildings.
• More than 150 NASAF B-17s and 70 IX Bombers Command B-24s, in separate formations, attack marshalling yards at Foggia.
• About 100 NASAF medium bombers attack marshalling yards at Salerno and Sapri.
• 14th Fighter Group P-38 escorts down 7 Axis fighters in a running fighte southwet of Foggia and Salerno just after noon.
• A 27th Fighter-Bomber Group A-36 downs a Bf-109 while attacking a marshalling yard at Catanzaro.

• A total of 93 1st Heavy Bomb Wing B-17s, of 125 dispatched, attack the Gilze-Rijen and Flushing/Vlissingen Airdromes about 1800 hours. 4th Heavy Bomb Wing aborts its attack on the Woensdrecht Airdrome because of bad weather.
• 5 B-17s are lost, 50 damaged; 9 crewmen are wounded, 51 missing
• Several fighter groups are involved with escort duty. A 78th Fighter Group P-47 downs 1 Luftwaffe plane, and 56 Fighter Group P-47s down 9 Luftwaffe fighters.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command B-24s attack Manokwari, Larat, and small craft near Babo.

Air Operations, Solomons

• Pairs of 42nd Medium Bomb B-25s, each with a fighter escort, mount anti-shipping strikes and attack a radio station.
• Japanese Navy aircraft in the Solomons open an interdiction campaign against Allied forces on Vella Lavella.
• Following days of inconclusive fighting on Baanga Island, a US Army ground force captures Japanese Navy field artillery pieces that have been used to bombard the Munda Point airfield on New Georgia. The remaining Japanese on the island withdraw.
• A VMF-215 F4U downs 2 A6M2-N 'Rufe' fighter-bombers over Rekata Bay during the late afternoon.

Diplomatic Relations

The Italians have made approaches to the Allies to negotiate a surrender. Gen Bedell Smith, Eisenhower's Chief of Staff, and Gen Kenneth Strong, his chief of Intelligence, arrive in Lisbon to continue the talks with approaches to the British ambassador there, Sir Samuel Hoare. The leading Italian representative is Gen Castellano who must still refer to Rome about the Allies' reaction to the Italian wish for an armistice.(See September 3 and 8.)

Eastern Front

Leading units of the 53rd Army clear the forests west of Kharkov, while Rotmistrov's 5th Guards Tank becomes bogged down in bitter street fighting with the XI Corps. Furious battles cost the 5th Guards Tank another 180 tanks disabled. The 6th Panzer Division, fighting the hordes of Soviet vehicles, number just 15 operational panzers. Meanwhile, the 57th Army swings around the German flank south of Kharkov in an effort to take Army Detachment Kempf in the rear. The 69th Army moves to support the 53rd Army.

Germany, Planning

In a special report to the Führer, Georg von Mackensen, the German ambassador in Rome, looks optimistically at the Italian situation: 'There is a widespread desire for peace among the Italian people, but the present government wants to fight on, because they are aware that they cannot obtain peace without turning the whole of Italy into a battlefield.

Italian POWs

New Guinea

Under pressure by Australians and Americans, the Japanese abandon Mount Tambu and the Komiatum Ridge, the last natural obstacles of any size in front of Salamaua, and fall back on new defensive positions on the Francisco River.

Pacific

• The Japanese submarine I-17 is sunk by US naval land-based aircraft (VS-57) and a New Zealand naval vessel off easter Australia.
• The US submarine Finback (SS-230) sinks the Japanese auxiliary submarine chaser CHA-109 off the east coast of Celebes.

Solomons

The big guns that have been firing on Munda airfield from Baanga Island are captured by American troops.

The Memphis Belle