http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/nov1943/f05nov43.htm
American planes hit Japanese warships
Friday, November 5, 1943 www.onwar.com
In the Bismarck Archipelago... US Task Force 38 (Admiral Sherman) with the carriers Saratoga and Princeton launches an attack on the Japanese naval squadron led by Admiral Kurita. A total of 107 American planes attack, resulting in damage to 4 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 2 destroyers. Only 10 American planes are lost. Later in the day, land-based Liberator bombers of the US 5th Air Force strike Rabaul and the Japanese squadron.
In the Solomon Islands... On Bougainville, the US 3rd Marine Division defeats a counterattack by the Japanese 23rd Regiment. Few of the large Japanese garrison (17th Army) oppose the landing because it is believed to be another diversion.
In Occupied France... Members of the French Resistance set off bombs in the Peugeot factory at Sochaux, destroying machinery used in the manufacture of tank turrets. This factory is described as the third most important target in France by the British Ministry of Economic Warfare.
On the Eastern Front... Soviet forces cut the Kiev-Zhitomir railroad, increasing the threat of encirclement to German forces in Kiev. Farther south, Soviet forces overrun the area between the lower Dniepr and the Crimea.
In Italy... The US 5th Army launches an assault on the German-held Reinhard Line. The German 14th Panzer Corps (Hube) defending here prevents significant gains. The defense is made easier by the difficult terrain and poor weather. Nonetheless, the offensive continues. Meanwhile, elements of the British 8th Army capture Vasto, Palmoli and Torrebruna.
Nice photograph of the “parachute bombs” being used by the U.S. 5th Air Force in New Guinea. It was yet another innovation by Gen. George Kenney, whom I consider to be superior to Curtis LeMay as a strategist and tactician, and easily the most underrated American general of the war.
Kenney had very little to work with, as his theater was very low on the priority list for air assets. He worked around his limitations with several brilliant innovations. He became the master of low-level attacks, primarily with his B-25s and A-20s, medium bombers that turned out to be ideally suited for such tactics. He packed the nose of B25s with eight forward-firing .50 cal. machine guns. These were absolutely devastating at strafing airfields and coastal shipping. The skip-bombing technique gutted the Japanese convoy at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. And now he’s dropping fragmentation bombs on Japanese airfields by parachute. The delay allows the bomber to come in just over the tree tops, drop the bombs, and get away without being damaged by the blast. The Japanese had absolutely no answer to these tactics.
Great article on Kenney found here:
http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2002/April%202002/0402kenney.aspx
What was interesting in the article is that Kenney advocated deploying the B-29s to New Guinea, and using them against the oil refineries in Indonesia. Kenney thought it would cripple the Japanese war effort much more quickly than the raids on the home islands from the Marianas. It would have been interesting to see how that would have played out.