US air power was expanding on every front. On 13 August 1943 alone:

B-24 bombers of the US 380th Heavy Bomber Group flew from Australia to raid the Japanese-held oilfields in Borneo;

US bombers staged the first air raid of the war against an Austrian city by bombing Wiener Neustadt, 50 kilometers from Vienna;

and, in an attempt to force Italy’s Badoglio government (which had taken over from Mussolini) to sue for peace, over 250 bombers of the US 12th Air Force attacked Rome.

The following day, the Italians declared Rome an ‘open city’ to avoid further air raids.