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• Weather data for 8 May 1943

• USS Gar reported sinking a Japanese ship in daylight with her deck gun. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German government issued the order that deaths of Eastern European workers in the concentration camps only need to be reported to labor offices. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Admiral Bruce Fraser replaced Admiral John Tovey as the head of the Royal Navy Home Fleet. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Japanese troops captured Maungdaw, Burma despite being outnumbered and being surrounded throughout most of the offensive. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Yamato departed Truk, Caroline Islands for Yokosuka, Japan. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• 16 B-24 bombers and 11 B-25 bombers of US 14th Air Force attacked Tianhe Airfield in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China, claiming about 20 aircraft destroyed on the ground. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• In Operation BG 6, Italian auxiliary ship Olterra launched three manned torpedoes against Gibraltar, sinking three cargo ships. ww2dbase [CPC]

• USS Scorpion arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her first war patrol. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | CPC]
• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Part of Marine Fighting Squadron 222 (VMF-222) departed. ww2dbase [Main Article | DS]

• Destroyer Yukikaze arrived at Kure, Japan. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS Wahoo attacked a Japanese transport off Iwate Prefecture, Japan; all 3 torpedo missed. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Guy Gibson, together with Harold Martin and John Hopgood, made a number of successful practice drops of "Upkeep" bombs at Reculver off southeastern England, United Kingdom. Low level training, which had now been consolidated at the Uppingham reservoir and a dam on the Colchester reservoir, was reduced from 150 feet to just 60 feet. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC]

• USS Sable was commissioned into service with Captain Warren K. Berner in command. ww2dbase [Main Article | DS]

8 May 1943 Interactive Map