October 1st, 1943 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: A report by the intelligence section of the US Eighth Air Force in England shows that despite recent efforts of the Allies to destroy the German aircraft industry, fighter production has expanded greatly and enemy fighter strength on the Western Front has increased.
Submarine HMS Spur laid down. Minesweepers HMS Skurry and Spectacle launched.
GERMANY: Colonel Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg as chief of staff in the Replacement Army, is posted in Berlin. (Glenn Stenberg)
Sixteen USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses, unable to locate the target in Augsburg, bomb targets of opportunity at Gundelfingen; one B-17 is lost.
During the night of 1/2 October, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 243 Lancasters and eight Mosquitos to bomb Hagen. This raid is a complete success achieved on a completely cloud-covered target of small size, with only a moderate bomber effort and at trifling cost. The Oboe skymarking was perfect and severe damage was caused. Two Lancasters are lost, 0.8 per cent of the force. At the same time as the main attack on Hagen is ending, 12 Oboe Mosquitos are dispatched to attack a the Ruhrstahl A.G. steelworks at Witten, northwest of Hagen, for training purposes. Eight Mosquitos bomb at Witten and two, whose Oboe equipment failed, drop their bombs on the fires burning in Hagen. No aircraft lost.
DENMARK: Danes begin to smuggle the bulk of the Jewish community, 7,300 people, across the Oresund Strait to Sweden.
AUSTRIA: Vienna is the target of Allied Air Raids today. (Glenn Stenberg) In the third attack from the the Mediterranean on behalf of the Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO), B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators of the USAAF Twelfth Air Force and B-24s on detached service from the USAAF Eighth Air Force in England, bomb two targets: 73 bomb the aircraft industry at Wiener-Neustadt and 26 bomb a tank factory at Steyr. Nineteen bombers are lost. The Eighth Air Force B-24s return to England after this attack.
POLAND: In the Archdiocese of Posen in Poland, 74 Catholic priests have been shot or have died in the concentration camps, and 451 are being held in prisons or camps. Of the 441 churches in this diocese only 30 are still open for Poles.
U.S.S.R.: Under Vatutin, in the north and Konev, in the south, Russian forces cross the Dniepr River in numerous places around Kremenchug. They quickly improvise bridges to assist in their advance. This action will continue over the next 5 days.
During first week of the month, three Soviet army groups apply strong pressure against the German line along the Dnieper River bend and succeed in establishing small bridgeheads in the vicinity of Kiev, Kremenchug, and Dniepropetrovsk.
Polar Fleet and White Sea Flotilla: MS "TSch-896"/No. 42 (ex-RT-308 "Krasnii Onejanin") - by U-960, close to Mikhailov Peninsula, in Karsk Sea (Sergey Anisimov)(69)
Averell Harriman is appointed U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union. (Glenn Stenberg)
ITALY: In the U.S. Fifth Army’s British X Corps area, the King’s Dragoon Guards enter Naples during the morning without opposition.Naples, falls to the US 5th Army. At the cost of 12,000 British and American casualties in a 21-day campaign. Allied troops enter the wrecked city today. Allied bombs and German engineers have systematically destroyed everything of possible military value in Naples. The port - the Allies' prime target - is a mass of twisted wreckage, the harbour choked by sunken ships and the industrial area almost flattened.
The stench of raw sewage overhangs everything. The retreating Germans blew up the drainage system and the aqueduct that brought fresh water to the city. The population of more than a million people is threatened with mass epidemics and it has to be fed.
British tanks of Lt-Gen Richard McCreery's X Corps were the first to enter the city (King's Dragoon Guards, part of the US Fifth Army), but already they are moving on northwards to the Volturno river where the Germans are establishing a defensive line. The American 82nd Airborne Division has moved into Naples to police the city.
Even though the bulk of German forces had retreated north, the fight from Salerno to this city was never easy. To reach the plain of Naples, Allied troops had to cross rugged terrain easily defended by small German demolition detachments - aided by heavy rain that washed away bridges and flooded roads.
With the major ports of Taranto and Bari in Allied hands, Montgomery is preparing a major offensive in the east against Foggia, following on from today's occupation of the Foggia airfields by the British Eighth Army. The Germans are placing much reliance on a new weapon: the radio-controlled glider bomb which crippled HMS Warspite at Salerno and sank the Italian flagship ROMA.
In the British Eighth Army area, XIII Corps occupies the Foggia airfields and drives northward toward the line Termoli- Vinchiaturo in order to safeguard the fields, the British 78th Division along the main coastal road and the Canadian 1st Division along the inland route leading into mountains. Gargano Peninsula is clear of the Germans.
After his success with the delaying actions in Italy, Kesselring is ordered, by Hitler, to hold a defensive line south of Rome.
US Twelfth Air Force B-26 Marauders hit communications targets in the Capua, Grazzanise, Arce, and Mignano areas; and Northwest African Tactical Bomber Force and XII Air Support Command medium and light bombers, and fighter-bombers hit the Benevento town area and marshalling yard, the bridge at Capua, and motor transport, trains, and railroads mainly in the Isernia area and north to Avezzano. B-24s, including aircraft on detached service from the US Eighth Air Force in England, bomb Wiener-Neustadt, Austria; B-17s, sent against an airplane factory at Augsburg, Germany, fail to locate the target, and bomb several alternate targets and targets of opportunity in Austria, Italy, and off Corsica and Elba Island.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: 21 US Fourteenth Air Force B-24s, supported by 21 P-38s and P-40s, bomb a power plant, the warehouse and dock area at Haiphong. 40-65 IJA fighters intercept, shooting down 2 US aircraft; 30 fighters are claimed destroyed by the Fourteenth in the air battle.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC: US Fifth Air Force A-20 Havocs and RAAF aircraft bomb and strafe the Finschhafen, New Guinea area as the Australian 9 Division pours more troops into the assault on the town with another battalion. B-25s strafe a power boat near Gasmata Island off New Britain Island.
AUSTRALIA: The government discontinues recruiting for the Royal Australian Navy because of a severe manpower shortage.
NEW CALEDONIA: Headquarters, Special Troops, is activated at Fiji and assigned to the Americal Division. (Yves J. Bellanger)
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: B-25 Mitchells strafe a power boat near Gasmata, New Britain Island.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., commander of the South Pacific Area and commander of the Third Fleet, informs General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander South West Pacific Area (SWPA) in Australia, of his decision to invade Bougainville Island at Empress Augusta Bay on 1 November and is promised maximum air assistance from SWPA.
24 US Thirteenth Air Force B-24s bomb a supply and bivouac area north of Vila airfield on Kolombangara Island. B-25s and P-38s join USN SBD Dauntlesses in a strike on a barge depot at Kakasa on Choiseul Island.
8 USN destroyers make a sweep near Kolombangara Island and sink 20 or 35 Japanese barges. The destroyers are shadowed by Japanese aircraft that constantly harass the ships; 1 destroyer is damaged by a near-miss.
Coast Guard-manned LST-203 stranded in Southwest Pacific.
NEWFOUNDLAND: Tug HMCS Glenora commissioned and assigned to St John's.
U.S.A.: The US Army's 122nd Infantry Battalion (Separate), (formed with personnel of Greek ancestry, is redesignated Third Contingent, Unit "B," Operational Group, Office of Strategic Services. (Nick Minecci)
President Roosevelt"> Roosevelt announced the resignation of Admiral William H. Standley as Ambassador to Russia and named W. Averell Harriman as his successor.
The motion picture "Thank Your Lucky Stars" is released today. This musical comedy directed by David Butler, is a showcase for all of the Warner Brothers stars in a lame plot. Appearing are Humphrey Bogart, Eddie Cantor, Bette Davis, Olivia deHavilland, Errol Flynn, John Garfield, Joan Leslie, Ida Lupino, Dennis Morgan, Ann Sheridan, Dinah Shore, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, Spike Jones, et al. One notable is Bette Davis singing "They're Either Too Young Or Too Old."
Submarine USS Angler commissioned. Frigate USS Glendale commissioned.
The authorized complement of fighters in USN Essex Class carrier air groups is raised, increasing the total aircraft normally on board to 36 fighter, 36 scout bombers and 18 torpedo bombers. The authorized complement for small aircraft carrier (CVLs) air groups is established at the same time as 12 fighters, nine scout bombers and nine torpedo bombers and revised in November 1943 to 24 fighters and nine torpedo bombers and remained at that level through the war.
Destroyer escorts USS Manning, Rich and Sanders commissioned.
U-402 was attacked by a Ventura aircraft (VB-128, US Navy) but suffered no damage.
The 14th Antiaircraft Artillery Group departs the US. (Jean Beach)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-703 sank SS Sergej Kirov in Convoy VA-18.
U-532 sank SS Tahsinia.
U-410 sank SS Fort Howe and damaged SS Empire Commerce in Convoy MKS-26.