July 26, 1943
Today in World War II Pacific History
Day by day chronology

MONDAY, 26 JULY 1943

ALASKA (Eleventh Air Force) Three bombers and five fighters fly five armed reconnaissance missions to Kiska. 32 B-24's, 38 P-40's, and 24 P-38's fly 13 attack raids, bombing and scoring hits on numerous Kiska and Little Kiska including North Head, Main Camp, Kiska runway, Gertrude Cove, AA batteries, and a suspected submarine in Kiska Harobr. A submarine is sighted near Rat. AA fire claims 1 P-40 (pilot rescued) and damages 3 others. 1 B-25 and 15 P-38's fly two air cover missions to Kiska for the US Navy. Over 104 tons of bombs are dropped on Kiska this day, highest one-day bomb load so far dropped by the Eleventh Air Force.

CENTRAL PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Seventh Air Force) The last mission against Wake from Midway is flown. 8 B-24's bomb targets including oil storage area. 20+ fighters (including an aircraft identified as a possible Fw 190) intercept the formation. The B-24's claim 11 of the fighters shot down.

CHINA (Fourteenth Air Force) Five B-25s escorted by 12 fighters, bomb Hankow Airfield. An estimated 30-50 fighters intercept the force; the B-25's and fighters claim 14 airplanes shot down and 17 probably destroyed; 1 P-40 is lost.

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Fifth Air Force) 40+ B-24's and B-17's bomb Salamaua, Malolo Mission, Komiatum, Komiatum Ridge and Lae Airfield. The 65th Troop Carrier Squadron, Fifth Air Force, arrives at Port Moresby from the US with C-47's. The squadron flies it's first mission upon arrival.

SOUTH PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Thirteenth Air Force) B-24's, P-38's, P-40's, and Navy aircraft hit a bivouac area and the runway at Kahili Airfield. B-25's, P-40's, and US Navy fighters over southern Kolombangara hit the east shore of Webster Cove and bivouac area and buildings on Simbo Island.

U.S. Army: 43d and 37th Divs are assisted by tanks and flame throwers as they continue attack on Munda after preparatory artillery fire. 103d Inf, 43d Div, takes Ilangana and reaches coast at Kia, but 161st Inf, in 37th Div zone, makes little headway against Bartley Ridge.

Six soldiers from Company C, 118th Engineer Combat Battalion volunteered for flame thrower duty and crawled within 20 yards of enemy bunkers and opened fire to burn off vegetation then opened fire on the bunkers and resulted in two dead in a center bunker and one in each flank bunker. During the next five days thirty more bunkers were neutralized with flame. (Reference: Portable Flame Thrower Operations in World War II, page 42)

USN: Admiral Halsey proposes to Gen MacArthur plans for invasion of south Bougainville be dropped and that the Shortlands and Ballale, in Bougainville Strait, be secured as planned in order to provide airfields and anchorages to support future operations. General Douglas MacArthur later approves the plan.

After midnight, TG 16.7 (Rear Admiral Robert C. Giffen) and TG 16.17 (Rear Admiral Robert M. Griffin) centered on the battleships USS Mississippi (BB-41) and USS Idaho (BB-42) open fire on radar targets 90 miles southwest of Kiska. 518 14" shells were fired from both battleships, but there were no hits. The contacts, however, prove to be phantom echoes on the U.S. radar screens, and the engagement becomes known as the Battle of the Pips.

Indian Ocean: Third group of survivors from U.S. freighter Alice F. Palmer, torpedoed, shelled and sunk by German submarine U-177 on 10 July 1943, reaches safety at Mozambique (see July 30 1943).