Air Operations, Bismarcks

3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s attack dumps in the Gasmata area.

Air Operations, CBI

• 9 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s attack the airfield at Chingmen.

Air Operations, East Indies

380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Adobo in the Molucca Islands.

Air Operations, Europe

• 4 Oboe Mosquitos are sent to Cologne and 4 to Duisburg.
• 1 Mosquito is lost.

• NASAF B-17s attack a marshalling yard at Orte.
• NAsAF B-26s attac Torre Annunziata.
• NATAF fighters escorting the bombers attack rail targets and gun emplacements along the bomber routes.

• In fighter action, a 52nd Fighter Group Spitfire downs an Me-210 over Utica Island at 0950 and 14th Fighter Group P-38s down 3 Mc-202s and damage or possibly down 12 Bf-109s over Orte between 1020 and 1030 hours.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• 2 43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s and 48 V Bomber Command B-25s attack Alexishafen and Bogadjim.
• 35 V Bomber Command B-24s, escorted by 44 V Fighter Command P-38s, attack the airfields at Boram and Wewak and other B-24s attack Babo.
• P-38s from the 8th, 35th, and 475th Fighter groups down 7 Japanese fighters over Wewak between 1045 and 1100 hours.

Eastern Front

The Soviets take Lyubotin, just west of Kharkov.

Heavy fighting sees the fall of Lyubotin to the 5th Guards Tank Army. The III Panzer Corps is making the Soviet force pay dearly for every yard of territory. Behind the Mius line the 2nd Guards and 28th Armies reach the Azov coast and cut off the XXIX Corps in Taganrog. The XXIX has 3 infantry, 1 panzer and 1 Luftwaffe field divisions.

Lebanon

In the General Election Nationalists under Bechara el Khoury win a big majority by pledging themselves to free the country from French rule.

Occupied Denmark

Martial law is proclaimed. The Army is disarmed by German troops, but the majority of the fleet is scuttled to avoid capture by order of Vice-Adm Vedel. The Germans seize 5 small vessels but 13 ships and small craft escape to Sweden.

Solomons

Patrols of the 172nd Infantry, 43rd Division, start up the east and west coasts of Arundel without opposition. The 35rd RCT of the 25th Division is ordered to secure the radar site on northeastern Vella Lavella in the Kokolope Bay region, where patrols have observed considerable enemy activity.

Meanwhile the destroyers of the 'Tokyo Night Express' run the gauntlet of the American air and naval forces to take off about 3,400 men from the Japanese garrison of Santa Isabel and transfer them to Bougainville or New Britain. The Japanese airfield at Vila, on Kolombangara Island, is the target of continual attacks by American aircraft.