MONDAY, 31 MAY 1943
U.S. Army: On Attu the 7th Division is rounding up stragglers of the defeated Japanese garrison. In total, the U.S. Army sustained 3,829 casualties including 549 KIA, 1,148 WIA and 1,200 with severe cold injuries;
614 from disease; and a remaining 318 to miscellaneous causes. This casualty rate amounted to roughly 25% of the invading force, a rate second only in proportion to the casualties later sustained on Iwo Jima. The Japanese on Attu are defeated with 2,471 killed or commit suicide with only 28 enlisted surrendering.
AMERICAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Eleventh Air Force) FIve F-5A's
fly separate photo missions. 6 B-24's, 10 B-25's, 37 P-40's and 8 P-38's fly
attack missions to Kiska. Their targets include Gertrude Cove, AA installations,
trenches, the North Head runway and a vessel.
CBI CHINA (Fourteenth Air Force) Nine B-24s from 308th Bombardment Group (308th BG), 374th Bombardment Squadron and 375th Bombardment Squadron escorted by nine P-40s led by Lt. Col John Alison including two Americans and seven Chinese pilots on a mission to bomb Kingmen Airfield. The formation are diverted to bomb Ichang Airfield when engaged by twenty Japanese fighters. The
bombers and fighters claim five shot down. 1 Chinese P-40 is lost. Six P-40's on armed reconnaissance over the Siaokan
area blast a train and strafe a troop concentration. Late in the afternoon, a dozen P-40K Warhawks from s (76th FS) led by Major Grant Mahoney took off from Lingling to strafe targets in the Ichang area and encountered bad weather and could not find the primary target and strafed an alternate. Low on fuel, two strafers force landed. Five of the escors Captain Robert Mayer, Captain Jewell Mathews, Lt. Sam Berman, Lt. George Dorman and Lt. Lawrence Durrell landed wheels up on a sand bank in the middle of the Yangtze River and evaded capture.
JAAF: Ki-43 Oscars from 33rd Hiko Sentai intercepted the Allied formation over
Ichang Airfield. One Oscar is shot down.
SOUTH PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Thirteenth Air Force) Three B-24's on armed reconnaissance over Bougainville bomb the Numa Numa area
and Tinputs. A small coastal vessel at Tinputs is set afire from strafing by B-24D "Frenisi" 42-40323.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Fifth Air Force) B-24's
bomb Lae Airfield and the Lae area.
RAAF: Five Beaufighters from No. 31 Sqaudron strike Langgoer Airfield, during which one bomber and one fighter were destroyed on the ground. One fighter was downed while airborne and another damaged. Two Beaufighters were damaged in the raid. Lost on a training flight is Beaufighter A19-73 pilot F/O William Thomas Roberson Harding (KIA) hit the mast of SS Pruth and crashed.
IJN: Major General Noboru Sasaki arrives on Kolombangara to head the new Southwest Detachment, a joint Army-Navy defense force in the New Georgia Group.
USN: Laid down is SS Leonidas Merritt as a Maritime Commission Emergency Cargo Ship (EC2-S-C1) Liberty Ship.
Light cruisers USS Milwaukee (CL-5) and USS Omaha (CL-4) are damaged in collision off the coast of Brazil.
IJN:
Three Type A midget submarines: HA-14 Type A Midget Submarine (M27) HA-24 Type A Midget Submarine (M24) and HA-21 Type A Midget Submarine (M22) are launched by a Type C1 mother submarines I-22, I-24 and I-27 east of Sydney for an attack on Sydney Harbor.
