Air Operations, Carolines

• 5th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the Woleai Atoll.
• 21 30th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the airfield at Satawan.
• 41st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack Ponape Island.
• During the night,
• RAAF Catalinas mine the waters in and around the Woleai Atoll.
• VII Bomber Command B-24s attack the Truk Atoll.

Air Operations, CBI

• 6 10th Air Force B-25s and 8 P-51s attack Japanese Army ground troops and dumps near Banmauk.
• More than 50 A-31s attack Japanese Army positions and dumps near Buthidaung.
• 40 A-31s attack Japanese Army ground troops in the battle area on both sides of the Burma–India frontier.
• 10 459th Fighter Squadron P-38 fighter-bombers attack an airfield near Meiktila.
• 5 P-51s attack a bridge at Shweli and Japanese Army positions at Mawlu.
• 4 14th Air Force P-40s attack an occupied villge and a ferry.

• 3 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack a bridge, rail lines, and buildings at Thanh Moi.

Air Operations, East Indies

• Beginning at 0700 hours, following several weeks of joint training, 44 US Navy and Royal Navy carrier bombers and 37 carrier fighters from the British Far Eastern Fleet’s Task Force 66 (HMS Illustrious) and the USS Saratoga (Fleet Carrier Air Group 12) attack Sabang, Sumatra. Several oil-storage tanks are demolished, as are an estimated 21 parked airplanes. One US Navy F6F is downed, but the pilot is rescued by an RN lifeguard submarine.
• As the combined task force withdraws toward Ceylon, VF-12 F6Fs down 3 B5N 'Kate' torpedo bombers at sea between 1035 and 1059 hours.

Air Operations, Europe

The RAF drops mines in the Danube River.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• 380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s based in Australia attack the airfield at Manokwari Airdrome.
• V Bomber Command B-24s attack Urarom.
• B-25s, A-20s, and V Fighter Command fighters and fighter-bombers attack targets at and around Aitape, Bogia, Bunabun, Cape Croisilles, Madang, and Uligan.

China

2 Japanese divisions launch a southward thrust along the Peking-Hankow railroad in Hunan Province.

Eastern Front

Although the battle for Sevastopol continues, elsewhere on the front activity begins to die down. The recent Russian advances have stretched their supply lines and they need time to prepare their next moves. For their part the Germans and their allies have been so weakened as to welcome the respite.

Indian Ocean

Adm Sir James Somerville's Eastern Fleet, reinforced for the occasion by the USS Saratoga and 3 US destroyers as well as the Free French battleship Richelieu, sends the carrier aircraft to attack Sabang, north of Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies, and the nearby airfields. Only one of the attacking planes is lost and 27 Japanese are shot down. This is an alarm signal for the Japanese Imperial Headquarters, which thought it had eliminated the Allied naval presence from the Indian Ocean.

Occupied Poland

The Germans commence the destruction of the ghetto in Warsaw, one of the most horrific episodes in the whole war. In 5 days its Jewish inhabitants are exterminated.

United States, Home Front

Lend-Lease legislation is extended by the House of Representatives. The Senate concurs on May 8.

Images from April 19, 1944

Sd.Kfz. 303a. 'Goliath' V-motor, near Kowel, Soviet Union, 19 April 1944

A North American Mitchell II of No.98 Squadron Taking Part in an Attack on German Targets in Northern France, 19 April 1944

BA4 #14a 42-72954 on 19 April 1944: Took off on a mission to bomb troops at Daraga. Damaged by flak over Legaspi that damaged the hydraulic system but was able to returned and crash landed without flaps or undercarriage at Hollandia, crashing into a pile of 55 gallon fuel drums, that were luckily empty.

BA4 #14a 42-72954 Crash Landed at Hollandia

Named 'Shack Rat,' B-24H-15-FO Liberator, s/n 42-52566, with the 786th Bomb Squadron, 446th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force. Damaged by flak on mission to bomb airfield at Gutersloh on 19 April 1944, she was totally destroyed in the crashlanding at Attlebridge

B-24H-15-FO Liberator Crash Landed at Attlebridge