Battle of Britain: With the autumn weather, accident casualties on both sides from now on often exceed combat casualties.
There is widespread fog in Germany and France during the day which keeps all but the most capable Luftwaffe pilots on the ground. Those that do fly attack Kent and the western part of England. RAF fighters fly 275 sorties and down 7 Luftwaffe aircraft; the RAF loses 1.
It is a wet and misty night over England and only about 200 aircraft bomb Britain. RAF bombers returning from a raid on Italy encountered difficulties and 8 Whitleys and a Czech-crewed Wellington crashed.
After nightfall, attacks on Central London are not of the same intensity of late probably due to adverse weather conditions; however, bombing is reported over a widespread area in the suburbs together with attacks in South Wales, Perth and Birmingham. It is reported that the bombs which fell on the Great Western Railway Goods Depot at Lambeth are of extremely light material with a very high penetrating power. According to pitting of walls and buildings, fragments appear to spread low over the ground as well as up into the air. They appear to be a combination of very high explosives and incendiary bombs of a small type.
Despite official denials, rumours persist that the Germans attempted an invasion in the late summer and perished disastrously. Large numbers of dead Germans are believed to have been washed ashore on the south coast between the Isle of Wight (where the "invasion" was aimed) and Cornwall. One story is that the corpses were charred, because the sea was set on fire.
A further theory is that the Germans held an ill-fated rehearsal of the invasion and that the barges were sunk in storms. No-one has seen the bodies, but that is explained by the authorities concealing them. In fact, any bodies washed up are of German airmen shot down.
Minesweeper
HMS Dundalk is mined during routine minesweeping operations off Harwich at
52 03N 01 48E. She is taken in tow, but founders on the 17th at
51 57N 01 27E
Corvette HNLMS Friso ex-HMS Carnation commissioned.
FRANCE: Dunkirk is bombarded by ships of the Royal Navy.
GERMANY: During the night of 16/17 October, RAF Bomber Command Blenheim Mk. IVs attack the German naval base at Kiel. RAF 2 Group tries a new tactic with one crew from each of three squadrons (114, 139 and 218) being given a free hand attacking any target in Germany or occupied territory under cloud cover.
U-458 laid down.
U-145 commissioned.
NORWAY: Aircraft of the Royal Navy bomb oil tanks at Tromsų .
POLAND: Warsaw: The Jewish ghetto is formally established by decree.
EGYPT: Cairo: Eden cables Churchill asking that Wavell be sent another battalion of Infantry tanks with a Brigade Recovery Section, to keep them serviceable, in the event of a planned British offensive.
ETHIOPIA: The Regia Aeronautica executed a particularly impressive counter air mission. In the early morning hours a single Vickers Vincent attacked the Italian airfield at Tessenei in Ethiopia. The offending aircraft was in turn followed home to its base at Gedaref in the Sudan by a single CA. 133. After making an unsuccessful attack run the CA. 133 returned to Tessenei and reported the location of the British airfield. A follow up attack by nine CR.42s of 412 Squadron led by a single SM.79 destroyed eight of 47 Squadron's Wellesleys and two Vincents while also damaging an ammunition dump. Participating in the attack was the Regia Aeronautical leading East African ace, Capt. Mario Visintini. (Mike Yared)(284)
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: The Japanese and authorities in the Dutch East Indies begin four days of discussions regarding oil supplies. It is agreed to supply 40% of production to the Japanese for the next six months. Attempts are made by the British to block this agreement.
CANADA: The fifth group of ten USN ships involved in the destroyers-for-bases agreement with Britain--USS Twiggs (DD-127), USS Philip (DD-76), USS Evans (DD-78), USS Wickes (DD-75), USS McCalla (DD-253), USS Rodgers (DD-170), USS Conner (DD-72), USS Conway (DD-70), USS Stockton (DD-73) and USS Yarnall (DD-143)--arrive at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Corvettes HMCS Trail and Chicoutimi launched.
Destroyer HMCS Saguenay departed Halifax for UK to join EG 10, Greenock.
U.S.A.: 16 million men register for the draft under the Selective Training and Service Act passed by the Congress.
In an effort to undermine the Japanese war economy, the Roosevelt administration had placed a ban on the exportation of scrap iron and steel from the U.S. to countries outside the Western Hemisphere (with the exception of exports to Britain), on 26 September. The ban becomes effective today.
Destroyer USS Hambleton laid down.
Corvette USS Tenacity ex-HMS Candytuft.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-48 (Lt-Cdr Bleichrodt) operating in the area to the North-West of Rockall Bank, establishes contact with a homeward bound convoy (SC7, homeward bound from Sydney, Nova Scotia) Five further U-boats in the area are directed towards the convoy. They were U-46, U-99, U-100, U-101 and U-123.
U-48 attacks but is pursued and attacked with depth charges.
The Canadian Great Lakes Carrier bulk cargo ship Trevisa (1,813 GRT) was sunk in the North Atlantic in position 57.28N, 020.30W, by U-124, KptLt. Georg-Wilhelm Schulz, Knight's Cross, CO. Seven men were lost from her 21 crewmembers.
During battle against convoy OB- 228, U-93 was attacked three times - in the early morning by three escorts with 19 depth charges, the second time at 1015 hrs by an escort with 7 depth charges, and the third and last time in the evening by a Sunderland aircraft with a bomb. The boat suffered no damage at all.