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• Weather data for 31 May 1943

• USS Tunny was attacked by a Japanese aircraft, incurring minor damage that was repaired at sea later in the day. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• US troops completed their occupation of Attu in the Aleutian Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]
• Adolf Hitler expressed extreme dismay at the withdrawal of German submarines from the American coast. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld was named the commanding officer of the 3rd Group of the Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 wing. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Lydia Litvyak shot down a German observation balloon. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Francis Tuker was promoted to the rank of major general. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• George Kenney arrived at Port Moresby, Australian Papua to temporarily relieve Ennis Whitehead, who was sent to Australia for treatment for a badly infected toe. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Japanese Army Major General Noboru Sasaki arrived at Kolombangara, New Georgia, Solomon Islands as the new commanding officer of the joint Army-Navy Southwest Detachment. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Japanese forward positions in the Hubei-Hunan border region in China fell back in multiple places as the result of a large scale Chinese counterattack launched on the previous day. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Zang Xilan, flying a P-40E fighter, shot down a Ki-44 aircraft that was pursuing the P-40E fighter flown by Lieutenant Colonel John R. Alison of 75th Fighter Squadron of USAAF 23rd Fighter Group. They were both escorting a group of B-24 bombers attacking Jingmen, Hubei Province, China. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Berthe Albrecht was executed by hanging at the Fresnes Prison in Fresnes, France. ww2dbase [Main Article | Event | Facility | CPC]

• US 15th Air Force bombed Foggia airfield in Italy, destroying a number of German and Italian planes on the ground. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]

• Shokaku departed Yokosuka, Japan for the Inland Sea. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• Battleship Parizhskava Kommuna was renamed Sevastopol. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC]

• USS S-35 completed post-repair trials off Bremerton, Washington, United States. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

31 May 1943 Interactive Map