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• USS Sea Cat was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Sea Cat | CPC]
• H Force arrived at the village of Namkwi, Burma, 4 miles north of the airstrip at Myitkyina. Colonel Hunter ordered his troops to intern the villagers in case any were informants for the Japanese. In the evening. Hunter sent the code phrase Strawberry Sundae to Joseph Stilwell to indicate the offensive would begin in 24 hours. After dark, he ordered Sergeant Clarence Branscomb to sneak onto the Japanese-held airfield to see how many defensive structures were manned and whether the airstrip had any unepaired bomb craters; Hunter gave Branscomb his opened bottle of Canadian Club whiskey as a gesture of appreciation. Branscomb recruited Tom Frye and Walter Clark, who finished the whiskey before moving out in the dark. The group would successfully complete the reconnaissance mission. ww2dbase [Battle of Myitkyina | Charles Hunter | CPC]
• Light carrier Ryuho arrived at Tawi-Tawi, Mindanao, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Ryuho | CPC]
• Patrol Boat No. 102 experienced trouble with her No. 2 boiler while at sea. ww2dbase [Stewart | CPC]

• After three days of bombardment exercises, USS Honolulu and USS St. Louis departed Hathorn Sound bound for Tulagi, Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [St. Louis | Honolulu | New Georgia, Solomon Islands | DS]

• Tan Kun, flying a P-40N fighter, conducted a reconnaissance mission over Luoyang, Henan Province, China. He shot down one Ki-44 aircraft of Japanese 9th Sentai and another Ki-44 aircraft of a different unit between Luoyang and Longmen to the south. Suffering a punctured fuel tank, he crash landed successfully in friendly territory. He was given credit to the two victories by the Chinese Air Force but not by the US Army Air Forces. ww2dbase [Tan Kun | Luoyang, Henan | CPC]

• Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel issued Adolf Hitler's directive for Operation Kirshkern ("Cherry Stone") to commence the bombardment of England, United Kingdom by long-range weapons. ww2dbase [Wilhelm Keitel | AC]

• USS Pintado departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her first war patrol. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Pintado | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Major General Nobuo Tanaka ordered a two-pronged offensive toward Bishenpur and the plains near Imphal in India. ww2dbase [Battle of Imphal-Kohima | Imphal, Manipur | CPC]

• British fusilier Frank Jefferson used a PIAT anti-tank launcher to destroy a German Panzer IV tank along the Gustav Line in Italy, which led to his unit repulsing a German counterattack which was spearheaded by the tank. He would later be awarded the Victoria Cross for this action. ww2dbase [Battle of Anzio | PIAT | CPC]
• US Army personnel Captain Young-Oak Kim and Private First Class Irving Akahoshi captured two German soldiers near Cisterna, Italy for intelligence. ww2dbase [Young-Oak Kim | Cisterna, Lazio | CPC]

• A transport of Jews from Hungary arrived at Auschwitz Concentration Camp in occupied Poland. Adolf Eichmann, in charge of all transports to the camps, arrived to oversee and speed up the extermination process personally. ww2dbase [Adolf Eichmann | Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Oswiecim | CPC]

• Detached from the USS Ranger group while at sea and diverted to Norfolk, Virginia with engine difficulties, escort carrier USS Card arrived at Norfolk and began a period of maintenance and upkeep. ww2dbase [Card | Norfolk, Virginia | DS]
• USS Ranger arrived at the Army Base, Staten Island, New York. ww2dbase [Ranger | New York | DS]

16 May 1944 Interactive Map