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• Orde Wingate shared his plans for an offensive into Burma; Claude Auchinleck, however, argued for Winston Churchill's alternate plan which focused on the Andaman Islands and then Sumatra instead. ww2dbase [Orde Wingate | CPC]

• A F-4 and a F-5 aircraft of US 8th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron detected 199 Japanese aircraft and 4 air strips at Wewak, Australian New Guinea. ww2dbase [CPC]

• US 9th Air Force bombed the Messerschmitt factory at Wiener Neustadt, Austria. Planners of the attack thought they were conducting a strike on a factory producing fighter aircraft, but in actuality it was manufacturing parts for V-2 rockets. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Vergeltungswaffe 2 | CPC]

• US Army 43rd Division landed on Vela Cela (and discovered no Japanese positions) and Baanga just off western New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. Meanwhile, in Tokyo, the Imperial General Headquarters issued Directive No. 267 authorizing the abandonment of the central Solomon Islands region. ww2dbase [Solomon Islands Campaign | CPC]

• The US IX Bomber Command attacked the Lorenzo marshaling yards near Rome, Italy with 106 B-17 bombers, 66 B-25 bombers, and 102 B-26 bombers, escorted by 140 P-38G Lightning fighters. Heavy damage was inflicted on the yards and although two B-26Cs were downed the Italians lost five modern fighters in combat with the P-38 fighters. ww2dbase [Bombing of Rome, Naples, and Other Cities | AC]

• Nachi arrived at Ominato Guard District, Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, Japan for a refitting; she would receive a Type 21 air search radar. ww2dbase [Nachi | CPC]

• USS Sunfish sanked Japanese converted gunboat Edo Maru and damaged another ship off Taiwan, hitting them with 6 of 10 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Sunfish (Gato-class) | CPC]
• USS Wahoo transited the Etorofu Strait and entered the Sea of Okhotsk. ww2dbase [Wahoo | CPC]

• No. 602 Squadron RAF, flying Spitfire VB fighters, arrived at RAF Newchurch in southern England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [RAF Newchurch | CPC]

• US 13th Airborne Division was activated on at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, United States under the command of Major General George W. Griner, Jr. ww2dbase [AC]

13 Aug 1943 Interactive Map