October 26th, 1943 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Thermopylae laid down.
FRANCE: Paris: Diarist Charles Braibant sitting outside a café, "I am counting vehicles crossing the square between 12:20 and 12:30; three cars, one motorbike, a fiacre. On the Place de la Bourse, at an hour when normally Paris would have been bustling..." On Sundays only Germans are allowed to drive cars.GREECE: Kos: After a week of living on locust beans and jam, British survivors of the ill-fated Kos invasion climbed aboard a caique tonight and made their way to the Turkish coast. They had fought hard, but constant attacks by Stukas, German artillery and 4,000 German infantrymen forced men of the 1st Battalion, the Durham Light Infantry, to disperse. The SS have shot 90 Italian officers for collaboration.
USAAF Twelfth Air Force XII Bomber Command B-25 Mitchells and P-38 Lightnings attack the airfields of Sedhes Airfield at Salonika Mikra Airfield at Megalo.
ITALY: USAAF XII Air Support Command and RAF Desert Air Force fighters and fighter-bombers attack gun emplacements and road junctions in the battle area along the east coast and in the center of Italy, also destroying many vehicles and parked aircraft in the Ancona area, where railroad facilities are also hit; a schooner at Porto Civitanova is left smoking; medium bombers of the Northwest Africa Tactical Bomber Force bomb Terracina and an ammunition dump.
CHINA: Two USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells attack several vessels at Kiungshan, claiming four sunk or badly damaged and the airfield at Kiungshan is strafed by one of the B-25s.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: Thirteen USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators and 15 P-40s attack railroad yards at Haiphong, Vietnam.
EAST INDIES: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators fly a small raid against Pombelaa Island off Celebes Island with the loss of two aircraft; USAAF gunners claim 11 Japanese fighters. B-25 Mitchells hit targets in Tanimbar Island about 300 nautical miles (556 kilometers) north of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
NEW GUINEA: The Japanese begin withdrawing units around Finschhafen towards Sattelberg.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Kahili Airfield in southern Bougainville is hit twice during the day by USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators, B-25 Mitchells, P-38 Lightnings, P-39 Airacobras, P-40s and USN fighters and dive bombers. Buka Airfield on Buka Island north of Bougainville is strafed by P-38s and then bombed and strafed by B-25s and P-38s. P-39s and P-40s join USN fighters and dive bombers in a strike on Kara Airfield in southern Bougainville.
PACIFIC OCEAN: In the South China Sea, two USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells sink a Japanese transport, two army cargo vessels, and a merchant cargo ship about 15 nautical miles (28 kilometers) west of Haikou, Hainan Island, China in position 20.05N, 110.05E. Meanwhile, six USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25s sink a Japanese transport about 60 nautical miles (111 kilometers) east of Haikou, Hainan Island, in position 20.05N, 11.25E.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Frontenac commissioned.
U.S.A.:
Minesweeper USS Inflict laid down.
Submarine USS Rock commissioned.
Destroyer escort USS Menges commissioned.
Minesweeper USS Recruit launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1205 an RCAF 10 Sqn Canso patrol a/c attacked U-91 Kptlt. Heinz Hungershausen, CO, inflicting no damage.
U-420, OLtzS. Hans-Jürgen Reese, CO, went missing in the North Atlantic. All of her 49 crewmembers were lost. The exact cause of her loss remains a mystery.