UNITED KINGDOM: Westminster: Churchill forced MPs to eat humble pie today. Against government advice they had voted 117 to 116 last night for equal pay for women schoolteachers.
The prime minister immediately demanded and got a vote of confidence in his conduct of the war and, with it, the reversal of the equal pay decision. "We had to show the government is in control. The German wireless was scoffing at us," he explained.
FRANCE: 30 Eighth Air Force B-24s, escorted by 37 P-47s, bomb V-1 sites at Watten.
GERMANY: 233 Eighth Air Force B-17s, escorted by 428 P-38s, P-47s and P-51s, industrial targets at Brunswick, Unterluss and Stedorf.
ITALY: Twelfth Air Force A-36s, B-25s, B-26s, P-40s and P-47s attack airfields, harbours and port facilities, supply dumps, tank repair shops and railway lines in addition to supporting the Anzio beachhead while 405 Fifteenth Air Force B-17s and B-24s attack marshalling yards and factories at Bolzano, Milan and Turin.
INDIA: Over 70 Tenth Air Force A-31s attack Japanese ground troops near Imphal. The 1st Air Commando Group is formally activated at Hailakandi, India. Commanded by Colonel Philip G. Cochran, the group consists of Bomber, Fighter, Transport, Glider, Light Transport and Liaison Sections rather than squadrons.
CHINA: Fourteenth Air Force P-40s and P-51s attack rail facilities and strafe the airfield and bridges at Nanchang.
BURMA: IJA 31st Division cuts the road between Imphal and Kohima at Maran.
Chinese troops capture Shaduzup, at the entrance to the Mogaung valley.
Over 200 Tenth Air Force B-24s, B-25s, P-38s and P-51s attack railroads,
warehouses, airfields and troop concentrations throughout the country.
CAROLINE ISLANDS: 24 Thirteenth
Air Force B-24s fly the first daylight mission against Truk where they bomb an
airfield while Seventh Air Force B-25s bomb Ponape.
MARSHALL ISLANDS: Seventh Air Force B-25s bomb
Jaluit and Rongelap.
NEW GUINEA: Fifth Air Force A-20s, B-24s, B-25s, P-40s and P-47s attack Hollandia, Wewak and various other targets on the north coast.
PACIFIC OCEAN: US naval aircraft bomb Japanese ships anchored off Palau Island.
U.S.A.: Washington: Congress authorises $1,350 million to found the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency, to help the growing refugee problem in Europe.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-961 (type VIIC) is sunk east of Iceland, in position 64.31N, 03.19W, by depth charges from the British frigate HMS Starling. 49 dead (all hands lost). (Alex Gordon)