April 13, 1943
Today in World War II Pacific History
Day by day chronology

TUESDAY, 13 APRIL 1943

AMERICAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Eleventh Air Force) Fifteen B-24's, fifteen B-25's, 28 P-38's and 20 P-40's fly eleven attacks to Kiska; 43 tons of bombs are dropped on the Main Camp, North Head, and Kiska Airfield. Fighters attack the Main Camp causing large fires, and also strafe aircraft on the beach. Heavy AA fire damages 2 P-38's, 1 of which later crashes into the sea, and 1 B-25.

BURMA-INDIA (Tenth Air Force) In Burma, nine B-25's bomb the Myitnge bridge without inflicting further damage to the structure. Nine others hit Monywa Airfield. Six P-40's knock out a bridge at Shaduzup.

SOUTH PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Thirteenth Air Force) P-38's and Navy aircraft bomb Munda Airfield and strafe a barge at Bambatana. Ditched is B-17E "Lucky 13" 41-2413.

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Fifth Air Force) In New Guinea, A-20's bomb and strafe the pr area while a single B-l7 bombs the runway at Finschhafen.

USN: Admiral Halsey, ComSoPac, and General MacArthur CinCSWPA meet in Brisbane. They agree that a Marine defense battalion with a naval construction battalion and a regimental combat team would be transferred to SWPA with May 15, 1943 tentatively set as D-Day for combined operations against New Georgia.

USN: A coded Japanese message NTF131755 was sent to the commanders of Base Unit No. 1, 11th Air Flotilla and the 26th Air Flotilla with the planned itinerary and timetable for a flight by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. This message was encoded using the Japanese Naval Cipher JN-25D and was intercepted by three U.S. Magic stations and decoded by U.S. Navy cryptographers.