While there are different dates for this that seem to be given, and this is just one of them, it seems that on this date Dwight Eisenhower, career U.S. Army officer who had been a Colonel prior to the built up for World War Two, and who had never been in combat, was chosen to lead Operation Torch, the planned fall 1942 amphibious landings by Anglo-American troops in North Africa.
That this was being planned shows the degree to which, in planning, the tide of the war was turning, in spite of the evidence on the ground.
On the ground, British commandos conducted a nighttime raid on anti-aircraft and radar sites at Pointe de Saire, France. The raiders crossed the channel in a British motor torpedo boat and did not sustain any losses.
The Ohio, mentioned yesterday, and the day before, doesn't sink, is reboarded and taken back under tow. Further attacks break the towline, but they're repaired, and the towing keeps on, lashed to warships near her.
British freighter MV Brisbane Star, part of Pedestal as well, makes it to Malta at 4:15 P.M. in spite of being heavily damaged.
The Australians retreat from Deniki in New Guinea. The Japanese land 3,000 additional troops.
From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—August 14, 1942: Two P-38 Lightnings of the US 1st Fighter Group shoot down a German Fw 200 Condor bomber off Iceland—the first US claim against the Luftwaffe
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