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) In China,
nine B-24's, escorted by US and Chinese P-40's, bomb Ichang Airfield. The heavy
bombers and fighters shoot down 5 fighters of an intercepting group of about
20. 1 Chinese P-40 is lost. 6 P-4O's on armed reconnaissance over the Siaokan
area blast a train and strafe a troop concentration.
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 31 Sqaudron Beaufighters attack 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.
USMC: 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: 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.
