US forces invaded Peleliu. Initial troops were from the 1st Marine Division, which would later be joined by the Army's 81st Infantry Division for the hard fought battle. The landing on the island was in order to seize its airfields for the invasion of the Philippines.
The landings were bizarrely named Operation Stalemate II.
American and Australian forces landed at Morotai near New Guinea. The Battle of Morotai would go on until the end of the war.
The Battle of Gemmano in Italy ended in an Allied victory.
The Lapland War between Germany and Finland commenced when the Kriegsmarine attempted to take the island of Suursaari in order to secure the shipping routes in the Gulf of Finland. Up until that time the German withdrawal from Finland had been going peacefully, although it was deteriorating as the Germans destroyed things on their way out. The attempted German landing was resisted and the Finns withdrew their shipping from German evacuation efforts, although evacuation from Lapland to Norway, guaranteed by a secret agreement between the countries, continued peacefully at first.
The failed landings at Suursaari were an attempt to secure the island out of a fear the Soviets would.
The French Provisional Government issued arrest warrants for Philippe Pétain and his cabinet.
The Great Atlantic Hurricane made landfall on Long Island and Rhode Island.
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