Air Operations, Bismarcks

• In support of the amphibious assault on the Lae area, V Bomber Command B-25s attack the Cape Gloucester airfield on New Britain.
• 3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s and RAAF bombers attack the Gasmata airfield on New Britain.
• 11 RAAF Catalinas attack the Vunakanau and Lakunai airfields at Rabaul.

Air Operations, CBI

• 10 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s, escorted by 11 23rd Fighter Group P-40s, attack the Tienho airfield at Canton during the early afternoon.
• 74th Fighter Squadron P-40s (including one Chinese Air Force pilot attached to the squadron) down 3 A6M Zeros over the Tienho airfield at Canton.

Air Operations, Europe

• 8 Mosquitos are sent to Cologne and Duisburg and 25 Wellingtons and 13 Stirlings lay mines in the Frisians, in the Gironde River and off Lorient and St Nazaire.
• There are no losses.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• As Australian Army ground forces land at Hopoi, near Lae, 6 A6M Zeros followed by 3 G4M 'Betty' bombers attack troop-laden landing craft at 0705 hours. 1 Zero kills several Australian soldiers in one landing craft, and a 'Betty' sinks the craft with a direct hit and two very near misses.
• At 0800 hours, 9 V Bomber Command B-25s attack targets in the Hopoi area, and at about 0900 hours, 24 V Bomber Command B-24s attack gun emplacements and other targets at the Malahang airfield at Lae with 96 tons of bombs.
• At approximately 1400 hours, an estimated 100 Japanese bombers and fighters are intercepted over the departing Lae invasion flotilla by approximately 40 V Fighter Command P-38s and 20 348th Fighter Group P-47s. D3A 'Val' dive bombers score hits on an LST and near misses on 2 US destroyers, and 1 of 12 G4M 'Betty' bombers armed with torpedoes scores a hit on a troop-laden LST that kills 51 and wounds 30. Otherwise, little damage results, especially to vulnerable supplies stacked in the beachhead area.
• A 475th Fighter Group P-38 downs an A6M Zero over Hopoi at 0830 hours. P-38s of the 8th, 35th, and 475th Fighter groups down 11 A6M Zeros, 1 D3A 'Val' dive bomer, 3 Ki-43 'Oscar' fighters, and 2 G4M 'Betty' bombers over Huon Gulf, Lae, and Salamaua between 1345 and 1420 hours. Aa 348th Fighter Group P-47 downs an 'Oscar' and a 'Betty' near Hopoi at 1430 hours. 2 more 'Bettys' are downed by fire from the ships and landing craft.

Air Operations, Solomons

• 23 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack Dulo Cove.
• 9 AirSols B-24s and more than 35 fighters attack the airfield at Ballale.

Eastern Front

With no halt in their relentless advance the troops of Konev and Malinovsky take Merefa, a railway junction south of Kharkov. The last escape route left to the Germans in this sector is thus closed.

Hitler, yielding to the evidence for once, authorizes the evacuation of the remaining German forces holding the bridgehead in the Kuban, the powerfully fortified and mined 'blue line'.

The Germans execute a fighting withdrawal from the vital mining region in the Don basin.

Hitler gives the 17th Army permission to pull out of the Kuban and redeploy to the Crimea.

New Guinea

The diversionary action against Salamaua carried out by the Australian 5th Div and the American 162nd Inf Regt comes to an end and the big offensive against Lae, the biggest Japanese base in New Guinea, opens.

After a short naval bombardment the Allies land on Huon Gulf, 14 and 18 miles east of Lae. The troops are 20th and 26th Bdes from 9th Australian Div. There is little Japanese resistance with the only real opposition coming from their air force, which damages several landing craft, but is then driven off by Allied aircraft, which enjoy great numerical superiority. While one Australian brigade moves off westward toward Lae, other units thrust to the east toward Hopoi, the capture of which will protect the eastern flank of the beachhead. The naval forces include 10 US destroyers, led by Adm Daniel E. Barbey.

Solomons

The US forces on Arundel which have so far been quietly consolidating their beachhead now begin to move out.

Marines Land on Nanumea

A landing craft glides up to a reef, and Marines clamber down and wade ashore to occupy another Pacific island, Nanumea in the Ellice group (Tuvalu). This is one of the craft used in occupation of the island on September 4. The men, guns, tractors, and trucks had to be brought ashore at low tide across shallow water from the edge of a reef beyond which the landing craft anchored.

Trucks Moving Ashore on Nanumea

Another phase in the Marines' occupation of the island of Nanumea, in the Ellice (Tuvalu) group, September 4, 1943. The trucks shown here were landed from a landing ship at the edge of a reef offshore, and made their way at low tide through the intervening shallow water across the coral-studded bottom and have now reached the security of the beach. (Official US Marine Corps Photograph)