60 RAF aircraft take part. The first operations are raids on the French airbase at Rayak. 80 Squadron RAF Hurricanes are ordered to destroy the Martin 167 Maryland bombers of French 39 Squadron, 1st Bomber Group (GBI/39), which had just arrived at Rayak and by this time had started bombing British columns approaching Quneitra.

Next, 5 Tomahawk fighters of the Australian 3rd Fighter Wing raided Rayak, where the French ground defenses took them for French planes because this was the first time they had seen the Tomahawk. Between them they claim six aircraft destroyed on the ground.

803 Squadron FAA lose three Fulmar fighters against French Dewotine D520 fighters. Plt-Off Roald Dahl (80 Squadron RAF) claims a Potez 63 shot down into the sea. French ace Sous-Lt Pierre Le Gloan shoots down a 208 Squadron RAF Hurricane, his first victory of the Syrian campaign and his 12th of the war. (Michael Alexander)

LEBANON: Beirut: Captain Moshe Dayan, of the Palestine Regiment, leading a section of the Allied attack, receives an eye injury when a stray bullet hits his binoculars.

He was a company commander in the Palmach. His company was acting as scouts for the Allied forces.

The Palmach was a paramilitary organization sponsored by the British -- it was not a part of the British army; it was created, commanded and manned by the Haganah which was the underground military organization of the Jewish Agency -- the quasi-government body of the Yishuv, Palestine's Jewish community (The British liason officer with the Palmach was Major Aubrey Eban -- a Cambridge educated South African Jew serving in British Army intelligence -- would later move to Israel change is fist name to Abba and become the "face of Israel" while serving as Israel's Foreign Minister form 1966-74). At the time the Haganah did not use military ranks such as "captain" but functional titles such as "company commander". The Palmach was created in May 1941, to undertake scouting and "commando" missions for the British in the Middle East.

In 1942, the SOE took over the sponsorship of the Palmach and trained them to act as stay behind guerillas in the event of a German occupation of Palestine (which at the time was a very real threat.) In 1943, when the threat of invasion passed and the Palmach and Haganah were caught stealing and hoarding British arms, Britain's sponsership of the Palmach stopped and the organization went underground.

After recovering from his wounds Dayan opting instead to continue his work with the Haganah. In 1942, he set up a radio network through Palestine in preparation for the expected German invasion. In 1943, he headed the Arab Department (Arab Intelligence unit) of the Jewish Agency. He remained in the post until the end of the War.

(Sidney Allinson and Stu Kohn)

AUSTRALIA: A report from Melbourne outlines the problems the Australian's are having with her soldiers in the Middle East.

While the countries of Europe are rationing their food supplies increasingly, Australia has too much. Food ships can make three or four trips between Europe and the United States or Canada to every one to Australia, whose surpluses thus are largely unexportable. She must eat the surpluses herself, store them, or destroy them ...

What is going to happen to the farmers in this period of wasted and partially wasted surpluses is another problem of Australia's government. It is part of the larger problem of Australia's wartime economic readjustment, including the matter of man power allotable to different industries.

U.S.A.: Washington: Senator Byrd states that there are 67 strikes in the defence industries and threats of 19 more.

Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and Chico Marx stage the first Hollywood "camp show" at Camp Roberts near Paso Robles, California.

En-route to Rio Hato, Panama, for a training flight from France Field, Panama in an OA-46A aircraft, Corporal R. Stubbs of Haverhill along with Augustus J. Allen of Myrtle Springs, Texas and Staff Sergeant  James D. Cartwright of Los Angeles are lost when their plane goes down. (Adrienne P. Samuels, Globe Staff)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: