June 8, 1943
Today in World War II Pacific History
Day by day chronology

TUESDAY, 8 JUNE 1943

USA: Launched is Liberty Ship SS John A. Johnson at Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation in Portland, Oregon.

ALASKA (Eleventh Air Force) A C-47 Skytrain transporting fighter crews is the first USAAF plane to land at Attu Airfield. All other flying is cancelled due to weather.

CHINA (Fourteenth Air Force) Seven B-24's and 6 B-25's, with P-40 escorts, are dispatched to bomb shipping and dock installations at Haiphong. Bad weather prevents striking the primary targets; alternates, including Hongay shipping, rail yard, and power facilities, Gia Lam Airfield, and warehouses east of Hanoi are bombed. P-40's bomb and strafe Japanese HQ at Tatung, China barracks E of Lamaing, Burma on the Salween River, and a camp N of Lungling, China.

SOUTH PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Thirteenth Air Force) B-24's on armed reconnaissance bomb Kahili Airfield and Ballale.

USMC: Crashed is R4D Dakota 12406 (KIA).

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS (Fifth Air Force) B-25's bomb Koepang and hit the area southeast of Dili. B-24's unsuccessfully attack shipping at Waingapoe, in the Sunda Islands and off Wewak.

USN: Naval Air Facility, Attu Airfield is established.

USS Finback (SS-230) attacks Japanese convoy, sinking auxiliary minelayer Kahoku Maru about 100 miles north of Palau, 08°14'N, 134°18'E.

IJN: Battleship Mutsu suffers an internal magazine explosion and sinks off Hashirajima in Hiroshima Bay at Lat 34°05'N, Long 132°20'E.