June 29th, 1943 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
VIII Bomber Command flies
Mission Number 70:
108 B-17s are dispatched against the air depot at Villacoublay, France
and another 40 against the airfield at Tricqueville, France; neither group hits the target
due to heavy cloud cover and they return to base claiming 0-3-3 Luftwaffe aircraft; 14
B-17s are damaged.
Another 84 B-17s are dispatched against the aeroengine works at Le
Mans, France; 76 hit the target between 1959 and 2003 hours local. Both of the two YB-40s
dispatched as escorts are forced to abort.
The lack of success of the YB-40s in this and previous missions in June 43 convinces Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker, Commanding General Eighth Air Force, that if the escort bomber is to succeed it must be able to carry bombs and must be endowed with the same flight performance as the B-l7.
London: Germany is reported to have recalled all U-boats in anticipation of the Allied invasion of Europe.
London: The award of the Albert Medal is gazetted in London to AB Eynon Hawkins (b.1920), RN, who organized a group of fellow survivors in the water pending their rescue, keeping them from their blazing merchantman and helping two men in trouble.
Corvette HMCS Copper Cliff (ex HMS Hever Castle) laid down Blyth.
Submarine HMS Stoic commissioned.
GERMANY: Due to technical problems U-270 had break off her patrol and return to base
U-1104 laid down
U-863 launched.
NEW GUINEA: Maj-Gen Teru Okabe is replaced by Maj-Gen Chuichi Muroya as Infantry Detachment Commander of 51 Division IJN. Muroya is also put in charge of the Salamaua area by Nakano, with III/66 Battalion and 102 Regiment. Colonel Araki keeps control of the Mubo area with 66 Regiment at Mubo itself and III/102 Battalion still on flank guard duty at Nassau Bay. (Michael Alexander)
SOLOMON ISLANDS: US cruisers and destroyers bombard positions at the Japanese naval base at Shortland in the Northern Solomon Islands. The force consisted of four cruisers and four destroyers of Task Unit 36.2.1. Their targets were the Vila-Stanmore area and Vila Airfield on Kolombangara Island, the Japanese naval base in the Shortland Islands and the Buin-Shortland area on Bougainville Island.
Also that night, Task Unit 36.2.2, the light minelayers USS Breese (DM-18), USS Gamble (DM-15) and USS Preble (DM-20) lay mines off the Shortland Islands and Bougainville; USS Gamble also lays mines off New Georgia Island.
U.S.A.: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Naval Auxiliary Air Facility (NAAF) Shemya, Alaska, on Shemya Island, is commissioned. The Navy facility consists of a seaplane ramp and barracks for 12 officers and 132 enlisted men.
U.S.A.: The motion picture "Best Foot Forward" is released in the U.S. This musical, based on a Broadway play and directed by Edward Buzzell, stars Lucille Ball, Gloria De Haven, June Allyson and Harry James and his band. A cadet at a military school invites movie star Lucille Ball to a dance and her publicity hungry agent convinces her to go. The trouble begins when the cadet's girlfriend also shows up.
The USN and USAAF finally got their acts together and issued a joint instruction, Army-Navy Aeronautical Specification AN-1-9a, dated 29 June, with the effective date of 1 September 1943, specifying the addition of white horizontal triangles to the national star insignia. The whole insignia was to be outlined in red.
Destroyer escorts USS Greenwood and Finch laid down
Destroyer escorts USS Eisele, Newell and Rhodes launched.
Destroyer USS Sigourney commissioned.