October 3rd, 1943 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: USS Rodgers (DD-254), was commissioned as HMS Sherwood (I-80) on 23 Oct. 1940, as part of the bases-for-destroyers deal. Now stripped of usable parts she has been paid off at Chatham and towed to the Humber Estuary and beached today. She will be used as a target for RAF rocket-equipped Beaufighters. Her hulk is scrapped in 1945. (Ron Babuka)
WAAF Photographic Interpretation Officer, F/O Babington-Smith, discovers evidence of the V1 flying-bomb. It was photographed by a Mosquito of No. 540 Squadron during a sortie over Peenemünde, Germany.
Miniature submarine X-10 is scuttled in the North Sea after meeting up with HMS Stubborn on 28 September. With no working compass, a periscope propped in the up position and the weather worsening, Flag Officer Submarines ordered that it be scuttled rather than risk the lives of the transit crew who would otherwise have to bring it back to the UK. There are no casualties. (Alex Gordon)(108)
Submarine HMS Unswerving commissioned.
FRANCE: Corsica is liberated by Free French troops. (Glenn Stenberg)
USAAF Eighth Air Force' VIII Air Support Command flies two missions: 36 B-26B Marauders are dispatched to the Vendeveille Airfield at Lille, France, but weather prevents their hitting the target and 72 B-26Bs are dispatched to Tille Airfield, Beauvais with 63 hit the target at 1724-1727 hours; a B-26 is lost.
During the night of 3/4 October, six RAF Bomber Command aircraft drop leaflets over the country.
NETHERLANDS: The USAAF Eighth Air Force VIII Air Support Command sends 131 B-26B Marauders to three airfields: 71 bomb Schiphol Airfield, Amsterdam; 34 hit Woensdrecht Airfield ; and 26 bomb Haamstede Airfield at 1120-1136 hours.
During the night of 3/4 October, seven RAF Bomber Command Stirlings lay mines in the Frisian Islands.
GERMANY: During the night of 3/4 October, RAF Bomber Command sent 547 aircraft, 223 Halifaxes, 204 Lancasters, 113 Stirlings and seven Mosquitos, to bomb Kassel; 501 aircraft actually bombed. The H2S “blind marker” aircraft overshot the aiming point badly and the “visual markers” could not correct this because their view of the ground is restricted by thick haze. German decoy markers may also have been present. The main weight of the attack thus fell on the western suburbs and outlying towns and villages. Twenty four aircraft, 14 Halifaxes, six Stirlings and four Lancasters, are lost, 4.4 per cent of the force. A number of Mosquito operations also took place; nine aircraft on a diversion bombed Hannover, nine Oboe aircraft bombed the Knapsack power-station near Cologne and four on Mark II Oboe trials to Aachen, and three hit Cologne.
ITALY: In the U.S. Fifth Army’s VI Corps area, the 34th Infantry Division takes Benevento and establishes a bridgehead across Calore River. In the British Eighth Army area, the Germans rush reinforcements forward in an attempt to hurl back the bridgehead across the Biferno River at Termoli, and hard fighting ensues. A brigade of the 78th Division is landed in the bridgehead, during the night of 3/4 October. The Canadian 1st Division, hampered by terrain, is within 55 miles (89 kilometers) of Vinchiaturo.
The Twelfth Air Force's XII Bomber Command dispatches B-26s, B-25s, and P-38s to bomb railroad, highway, and pontoon bridges, an overpass, and road junction at Capua, Castel Volturno, Piana, Arce, Mignano, and Isernia; P-38s also hit shipping between Corsica and Italy. XII Bomber Command fighter-bombers hit motor transport in the battle area as US Fifth Army troops take Benevento.
The marshalling yard at Civitavecchia is bombed by 46 RAF aircraft of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group during the night of 3/4 October without loss.
GREECE: German troops invaded the 209 square kilometer (81 square mile) Kos Island in the Aegean Sea.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: U-class submarine HMS Usurper (P 56) is lost after leaving for a patrol off Algiers on 24 September with instruction to patrol the Italian naval base at La Spezia. Today she is ordered to move to the Gulf of Genoa. It is thought that she may have been sunk in minefield QB.192 in the Gulf of Genoa, or been the victim of an attack by UJ.2208 on this date. There are no survivors. (Alex Gordon)(108)
CHINA: 7 Fourteenth Air Force P-40s damage a 250-ft (76.2 m) vessel on the Yangtze River near Chiuchiang; 4 P-38 Lightnings bomb Chiuchiang docks; and 6 B-24s damage a 100-ft (30.5 m) coastal freighter off Tonkon Point on Hainan Island.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Thirteenth Air Force P-39s strafe several barges west of Choiseul Island while the Japanese complete evacuation of Kolombangara Island.
NEW BRITAIN ISLAND, Bismarck Archipelago: Fifth Air Force B-25s continue to hit barges along the west coast of the island.
NEW GUINEA: Destroyer USS Henley Sunk after being torpedoed by the Japanese submarine RO-108 off Cape Cretin.17 crewmembers lost their lives.
In North East New Guinea, Australian troops north of Finschhafen are attacked by the Japanese.
CANADA: Frigate HMCS Dunver arrived Halifax from builder Quebec City, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.: Destroyer escorts USS Tills, Samuel S Miles and Gustafson launched. Submarine USS Springer laid down.
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