Air Operations, CBI

• 4 23rd Fighter Group P-40 fighter-bombers attack a Japanese Army headquarters and supply dump at Tengchung, and 2 P-40s attack road traffic between Tengchung and Lungling.

Air Operations, Central Pacific

An advance detachment of Seabees land at Nukufetau Island in the Ellice Islands to begin construction of an advance airfield from which the projected invasion of the Gilbert Islands can be supported.

Air Operations, East Indies

V Bomber Command B-25s attack Dili, Timor.

Air Operations, Europe

Allied aircraft attack Salerno and cause serious damage.

FW-190 Shot Down in Flames

• 462 aircraft are sent to bomb Leverkusen. Included in the total are 257 Lancasters, 192 Halifaxes and 13 Mosquitos.
• The I. G. Farben factory is the aiming point for this raid and it is hope that some of the bomb would actually fall there. There is thick cloud over the target and partial failure of the Oboe signals. As a result, the bombs fall over a wide area with at least 12 other town in or near the Ruhr recording bomb damage.
• 3 Lancasters and 2 Halifaxes are lost.

• 12 Mosquitos are sent to the Ruhr and 6 to Hamburg, 47 aircraft lay mines in the Frisians and off Texel and there are 7 OTU sorties.
• There are no losses.

35 386th Medium Bomb Group B-26s attack Beaumont-le-Roger Airdrome at 2110 hours.

• NASAF B-26s and escorting NATAF A-36s attack marshalling yards at Salerno.
• NATAF P-40s conducting an armed reconnaissance attack motor vehicles in southern Italy.
• 86th Fighter-Bomber A-36s down 3 Axis fighters and damage or possibly down 4 others in a running fighte 25 miles west-southwest of Naples.

Air Operations, New Guinea

The airfield at Wewak and satellite fields are considered neutralized following ongoing attacks by 5 Air Force bombers.

Air Operations, Solomons

• 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s and Marine Corps SBDs attack barges and barge facilities in western Vella Lavella.
• A VMF-214 F4U downs an A6M Zero near Mundi Mundi at 1522 hours.
• VB-101, in PB4Ys, undertakes its final patrol missions from Carney Field on Guadalcanal before being withdrawn to the United States.
• 10 USAAF SB-24 radar-equipped pathfinders arrive at Carney Field, Guadalcanal, where they are attached to the 5th Heavy Bomb Group’s 394th Heavy Bomb Squadron.

Central Pacific

Over the next week US forces occupy various islands in the Ellice group, including Nukufetau and Namumea, without opposition. Work is begun on airfields.

Eastern Front

The Germans begin to pull out of Kharkov after a stubborn defense. Von Manstein, commanding Army Group South, refuses to hold out any longer because he believes that it would sacrifice Army Detachment Kempff in a re-run of the very costly Stalingrad offensive. The battle extends south of Izyum and along the Mius River, where the Germans have a hard task holding up the Russian attacks. Near the Mius the Russians reach the Taganrog-Stalino railway.

The Stavka brings its Mga Operation to a close, having failed to drive the XXVI Corps of the 18th Army out of its Mga defenses. The fighting has cost the Soviets 20,890 killed and missing and 59,047 wounded.

Manstein, refusing to rusk further losses in a useless battle at Kharkov, orders the withdrawal of Detachment Kempf, against Hitler's orders. The fighting along the Mius intensifies as the South Front presses back Hollidt's 6th Army. With his forces under attack from Kharkov to the Azov Sea, Manstein is unable to draw upon any reserves. A strength return by the 6th Army shows the sheer weight of Soviet forces against Army Group South. The 6th Army deploys the XXIX, XVII and IV Corps, the XXIX with 8,706 men against 69,000 Soviets, XVII Corps with 9,284 against 49,500, while IV Corps has 13,143 ment against 18,000 Soviet troops. The weakened German armored forces are also facing formidable numbers of Soviet forces; the 4th Panzer Army faces 490 Soviet tanks, Detachment Kempf faces 360 tanks, the 1st Panzer Army 220 and the 6th Army 400. Army Group A, reduced to only the 17th Army in the Kuban, has 21 divisins with around 270,000 men between the V Corps , XLIX Mountain Corps and XLIV Corps. Manstein repeatedly requests the withdrawal of these valuable men, the quarter of a million troops being sorely needed against the overwhelming Soviet armies facing Army Group South.

Repairing His Universal Carrier

Mediterranean

While escorting convoy MKF-22 the British destroyer HMS Easton makes contact with U-458 and makes two depth-charge attacks. The Greek destroyer Pindos makes one and the rams the U-boat further damaging her.

U-458

Pacific

• The US submarine Plunger (SS-179) sinks the Japanese merchant fishery mother ship Ryokai Maru (4655t).
• The US submarine Swordfish (SS-193) sinks the Japanese army cargo ship Nishiyama Maru (3016t) off Palau.
• The US submarine Tullibee (SS-284) sinks the Japanes transport Kaisho Maru (4164t) and survives a depth-charge attack by the destroyer Ikazuchi.