BELGIUM: The British XXX Corps attacks near Laroche in the Ardennes. The US 1st and 3rd Armies also continue their advances.
FRANCE: Master Sergeant Vito R. Bertoldo, US Army, Company A, 242d Infantry, 42d Infantry Division, fights with extreme gallantry while guarding two command posts against the assault of powerful infantry and armoured forces which had overrun the battalion's main line of resistance. (MOH) ( Drew Philip Halévy)
GERMANY: GenMaj. Adolf Galland takes command of JV-44 (Jagdverband 44), the Luftwaffe. (Russ Folsom)
YUGOSLAVIA: Island of Ist in the ADRIATIC SEA: Signalman Kenneth Smith (b.1920), Royal Corps of Signals, carried a bomb from a house containing children; it blew up, killing him. (George Cross)
BURMA: The British XXXIII Corps advances to the Irrawaddy River. The IV Corps moves south to the west of the Chindwin River taking Gangaw.
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: U-510 sailed from Jakarta on her final patrol. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Heavy cruiser USS Chicago commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1603, SS Blackheath in Convoy KMS-76 (the convoy was combined with OS-102) was torpedoed and damaged by U-870 west of Gibraltar. She was set aground two miles south of Cape Spartel, Algeria, but broke in tow and was declared a total loss. Frigate HMS Ballinderry and sloop HMS Kilbirnie picked up the master, 41 crewmembers and nine gunners. Landed at Gibraltar. (Dave Shirlaw)