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• USS Tunny performed photographic reconnaissance at Saipan Harbor and Tinian Channel in the Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Tunny | CPC]
• The US submarine Runner failed to report in whilst on patrol off Northern Japan and would soon be presumed lost. Post-war records showed that she sank Japanese passenger-cargo ship Shinryu Maru off Kurile Islands, Japan on this date. ww2dbase [Runner (Gato-class) | AC, CPC]
• USS Finback arrived at Fremantle, Australia, ending her fifth war patrol. ww2dbase [Finback | CPC]

• 11 B-17 bombers attacked Rabaul, New Britain before dawn. A J1N nightfighter (pilot Senior Flight Petty Officer Shigetoshi Kudo, observer Warrant Officer Michitaro Ichikawa) shot down B-17F bomber "Taxpayer's Pride" and B-17E bomber "Naughty But Nice", which made Shigetoshi Kudo the first Japanese nightfighter ace. ww2dbase [J1N | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• US Navy squadrons VF-26, VF-27, and VF-28, all equipped with F4F fighters, were assigned to Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. US Marine Corps squadron VMSB-144, equipped with SBD-3 dive bombers, was transferred out of Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Henderson Field | Lunga Point, Guadalcanal | CPC]

• Robert Johnson's P-47 aircraft was badly damaged by German aircraft while flying patrol over France, but was able to return to base in Britain. ww2dbase [Robert Johnson | AC, CPC]
• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a bombing raid against the airfield at Triqueville, France. ww2dbase [Bombing of Cities in France and Low Countries | RAF Thurleigh | Triqueville | DS]

• U-821 was launched by Oderwerke in Stettin, Germany. ww2dbase [Oderwerke AG | U-821 | Stettin, Pommern | CPC]

• USS S-38 departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her seventh war patrol. ww2dbase [S-38 | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]
• Submarine USS Narwhal departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaiʻi on her fifth war patrol. ww2dbase [Narwhal | Pearl Harbor, Oʻahu | DS]

• USS S-35 transited Onekotan Strait in the Kurile Islands. ww2dbase [S-35 | Onekotan Strait, Hokkaido | CPC]

• Aircraft designer Clarence Johnson and his team at Lockheed in Burbank, California, United States began working on the first airframe of the XP-80 prototype jet fighter. ww2dbase [P-80 Shooting Star | Burbank, California | CPC]

26 Jun 1943 Interactive Map