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• Weather data for 31 Aug 1943

• USS Langley was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Velite was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• USS S-31 made a daylight attack on a Japanese submarine; three torpedoes were fired, but none hit the target. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Lieutenant Commander Bernard Bowick was named the commanding officer of HMS Dianthus. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Hitler authorized limited withdrawals in Ukraine. ww2dbase [TH]
• The first combat mission of the US Navy's latest fighter aircraft occurred when F6F-3 Hellcat fighters of VF-5 operating from the carrier USS Yorktown assisted in an attack on Japanese installations on Marcus Island. This was a mere eighteen months after the prototype's first flight. Altogether some 2,545 examples of the F6F-3 aircraft were delivered during 1943. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC]
• Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein was awarded Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• British RAF aircraft attacked Berlin, Germany. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]

• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: F6F-3's of Fighting Squadron 1 (VF-1) on board. ww2dbase [Main Article | DS]

• Eleanor Roosevelt arrived at Rotorua, New Zealand and visited Whakarewarewa with the famous guide Rangitiria Dennan. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• German submarine U-703 arrived at Narvik, Norway and dropped off four survivors of Russian freighter Dekabrist. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS Yorktown (Essex-class) and TF 15 arrived at the launching point about 128 miles from Marcus Island in the early morning, spent most of that day launching fighter and bomber strikes on Marcus Island before beginning the retirement to Hawaii that evening. ww2dbase [Main Article | DS]

• USS Ray arrived at the submarine base of Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

31 Aug 1943 Interactive Map