The U.S. Army VI Corps and British X Corps landed at the Gulf of Salerno. German forces offered heavy resistance. The landings were not proceeded with areal bombardments in an effort to keep the element of surprise.
The Italian fleet put to sea in an effort to avoid capture by the Germans, as the Germans rushed to occupy the country. Those ships that could not sail were scuttled.
The Luftwaffe attacked the Italian battleship Roma, sinking it through the use of a guided bomb. 1,253 of its 1,849 man crew died, including the commander of the Italian Navy, Carlo Bergamini.
The wreckage was not discovered until 2012.
The British landed at Taranto.
The Germans and the Italians commenced fighting on Rhodes. Grossly outnumbering the Germans, but less well-equipped, the two-day battle would result in an outsized Italian defeat resulting in large numbers of Italian surrendering. The Italian commander, Admiral Inigo Campioni, would become a POW and ultimately be executed by the Germans, showing a real idiocy in regard to their own situation given that by this point in the war, they'd clearly lost it.
The Italians, now at war with Germany, did sink two German submarine tenders and five naval barges in the Action off Bastia.
Iran declared war on Germany.
The Red Army captured Bakhmach.
