October 31st, 1943 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Frigates HMS Rupert and Stockham launched.
Frigate HMS Conn commissioned.
FRANCE: USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb the Antheor Railroad Viaduct on the French-Italian border a few miles east of St Raphael.
GERMANY: During the night of 31 October/1 November, RAF Bomber Command sends 17 Mosquitos to bomb four cities: six hit Emden, four each bomb Cologne and Oberhausen and three attack Dusseldorf. One aircraft is lost.
U-772 is launched.
U.S.S.R.: The German access to the Crimea is cut as the advancing Soviets capture Chaplinka.
Moscow: Britain, the US and the Soviet Union today pledged themselves to work together for peace after the defeat of the Axis powers. A new United Nations organization will be created and national armaments will be controlled by agreement.
The three foreign ministers, Eden, Cordell Hull and Molotov, agreed to set up a three-power commission in London to consider European issues as the end of the war against Nazi Germany draws near. Austria's independence will be restored.
Moscow: General Tolbukhin, the commander of the Fourth Ukrainian Front, has captured Chaplinka, 15 miles north of Perekop, which guards the north-western entrance to the Crimea. With the main road cut and the railway under fire, this means that the Germans in the Crimea are virtually cut off by land from the rest of their forces in Russia. It is estimated that there are about 150,000 German and Romanian troops occupying the Crimea, plus the bulk of the Seventeenth Army which has been withdrawn from Taman across the Keren Straits.
They are all now in danger of being left behind as the Russians push forward along the Black Sea towards Kherson. The Germans enjoy one great advantage, however, their navy rules the Black Sea, with the Russians too fearful of Stuka attacks to risk their ships.
While this remains the case Hitler is unlikely to sanction an early evacuation on the grounds that the divisions still in the Crimea will tie down major Russian forces to guard against an attack in their rear. This reasoning does not please Field Marshal von Kleist, who would rather get his men, guns and tanks to safety.
U-24 sank Soviet minesweeper SKA-088.
YUGOSLAVIA: Eleven USAAF Twelfth Air Force P-40s bomb and strafe a tanker off Split leaving it burning.
ITALY: Teano is captured as the British X Corps advances towards Monte Santa Croce.
The U.S. Fifth Army takes control of the Italian 1st Motorized Group.In the British X Corps area, while the 7th Armoured and 46th Divisions continue attacks on Mt. Massico and Mt. St. Croce, the 56th Division, on the Corps right flank, takes Teano. In the VI Corps area, some elements of the 34th Division reach Fontegreca while others occupy Ciorlano, on the slopes of La Croce Hill.
The Germans have lost their Italian allies; but they have the rain on their side, a steady remorseless deluge that turns the small fordable rivers of summer into fierce-flowing torrents and makes every mountain track a treacherous quagmire.
The infantry have the worst of it. Supplies are plentiful in the rear echelons, but for the men in the frontline of this campaign, life has become a matter of finding shelter in a slit trench or gully and eating "nourishing" K-rations or bully beef cold from the tin. Hot meals are no more than a memory for thousands. And the Germans are fighting a skilled defensive battle with the aid of their new ally. Bridges are demolished, culverts are mined and booby traps are everywhere. Villages are flattened to deny shelter to the Allies.
The advance continues, however, but at a desperately slow speed. Earlier this month, the US Fifth Army managed to cross the Volturno river under an artillery barrage and smoke screen. By 14 October, a four-mile-deep bridgehead had been established. In the east, General Montgomery paused to regroup the Eighth Army; as he did so, four German divisions moved up to oppose him.
In the British Eighth Army’s XIII Corps area, Cantalupo falls to the 5th Division. .
USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-26 Marauders hit Anzio; B-25 Mitchells attack docks and shipping at Civitavecchia; and P-38 Lightnings strafe and bomb Tirana airfield. .
During the night of 31 October/1 November, 27 RAF bombers of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group attack Perugia Airfield, 2.3 miles (3,7 kilometers) north of Batia; two bombers are lost.
BURMA: In an attempt to knock out the Japanese base from which fighters are attacking ferrying operations, USAAF Tenth Air Force P-40s carrying 1,000-pound (454 kilogram) bombs fly four strikes against Myitkyina; following the bomb runs, the fighters strafe antiaircraft positions; the attacks cause considerable damage to the base. B-25 Mitchells attack the Meza railroad bridge, scoring hits on the approaches but missing the structure; the bridge remains unusable due to damage caused by the 10 October strike.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: USAAF Fifth Air Force P-40s sink a barge off the New Britain Island coast.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Over 20 USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells, with fighter support, bomb Kara Airfield in southern Bougainville Island.
PACIFIC OCEAN: 0600 hours: Submarine USS Gabilan (SS-252) sinks small patrol craft at 32-50 N, 134-21 E off Murotosaki.
0900 hours: Submarine USS Guitarro (SS-363) sinks an armed cargo ship and two cargo ships at 15-15 N, 119-56 E. (Skip Guidry)
LT Hugh D. O'Neill of VF (N)-75 destroys a Japanese aircraft during night attack off Vella Lavella in first kill by a radar-equipped night fighter of the Pacific Fleet.
Admiral Richmond K. Turner, commander of Amphibious Force Pacific Fleet and the Northern Attack Force (Task Force 52), begins rehearsals for Operation GALVANIC the invasion of the Gilbert Islands, off Hawaii.
Task Force 31 units rendezvous west of Guadalcanal, then sail for Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. Japanese airfields on southern Bougainville are now unserviceable.
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Chedabucto declared a constructive total loss. Lost in a collision with the cable vessel Lord Kelvin 30 miles off Rimouski, Province of Quebec. One officer was lost with the ship.
U.S.A.:
Destroyer USS Irwin launched.
Destroyer escorts USS Bowers, Stern and Swearer launched.
Submarine USS Sea Lion launched.
Destroyer minelayer USS Gwin laid down.
The escort aircraft carrier USS Tripoli (CVE-64) is commissioned at Astoria, Oregon. The USN now has 29 CVEs in commission.
Destroyer escorts USS Spangler and George commissioned.
Minesweeper USS Candid commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-584 (Type VIIC) is sunk in the North Atlantic, about 662 nautical miles north-northeast of the Azores, at position 49.14N, 31.55W, by a Mk. 24 Fido acoustic homing torpedo from three TBF Avengers of Composite Squadron Nine (VC-9) of the US escort carrier USS Card (CVE-11). All 53 crewmen are lost. (Previously, in June 1942, U-584 had landed a saboteur team of 4 men on the shores just south of Jacksonville, Florida; one of two such teams that landed within a week of each other on the US east coast. The boat then returned safely to Brest on 22 July.)
U-732 (Type VIIC) is sunk in the mid-Atlantic near Tangier, about 8 nautical miles north-northwest of the Tangier Zone at position 35.54N, 05.52W, by depth charges from the British anti-submarine trawler HMS Imperialist (FY 126) and the destroyer Douglas (D 90). 31 dead, 18 survivors. The surface vessels are escorting slow convoy MKS-28 (Mediterranean to U.K.) and SL-138 (Sierra Leone to U.K.)
U-306 (Type VIIC) is sunk in the North Atlantic about 533 nautical miles north-northeast of the Azores, at position 46.19N, 20.44W, by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS Whitehall (D 94) and the corvette HMS Geranium (K 16). 51 dead (all crew lost). (Alex Gordon)
U-262 sank SS Hallfried in Convoy SL-138.
U-68 sank SS New Columbia.
In the Caribbean Sea, USN non-rigid airship (blimp) K 94, en route from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to San Juan, Puerto Rico, catches fire and crashes 35 miles north of Cape Borinquen, Puerto Rico.
GLOBAL: Despite, or perhaps because of, the increasingly sophisticated savagery of the war that now encircles the globe, medical treatments are being developed to halt diseases and infections of all kinds.
Countless lives are being saved by a new wonder drug known as penicillin. This is a type of mould, commonly found on old bread, which destroys a host of bacteria. It was discovered by accident by the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming in 1928, but its crucial healing ingredient was only isolated in 1940. Now the drug is being given to war casualties by the thousand. One of its most valuable properties is to combat blood poisoning from infected wounds. Inoculations are also being widely used to prevent the spread of the disease.
In Germany there is a national institute working on ways of curbing infections such as typhus which reached epidemic proportions in the 1914-18 war. It Italy the use of the drug atebrine against malaria has reduced mortality by as much as 70% in some areas. Training for medical workers has also reduced the number of dead. While battle goes on around them, doctors crawl out to injured men to give them blood transfusions.