October 17th, 1944 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The Eighth Air Force flies Mission 681: 1,338 bombers and 811 fighters are dispatched on PFF attacks in the Cologne, Germany area; 4 B-17s and a P-51 are lost:
- 465 B-17s are dispatched to hit marshalling yards at Cologne/Eifeltor (216) and Cologne/Gremberg (34); targets of opportunity are Cologne/Kalk marshalling yard (151) and other (2); a B-17 is lost. Escort is provided by 274 P-47s and P-51s without loss.
- 453 B-17s are dispatched to hit marshalling yards at Cologne/Gereon (295) and Cologne/Kalk (142); 3 B-17s are lost. Escort is provided by 271 P-47s and P-51s; a P-51 is lost.
- 430 B-24s are dispatched to hit a chemical plant at Leverkusen but weather prevents the attack; targets of opportunity hit are the Cologne/Gereon (231) and Cologne/Kalk (179) marshalling yards. Escort is provided by 229 P-47s and P-51s.
FRANCE: The French War Ministry and the national Council for the Resistance agree on how to integrate the FFI into the regular army. Political loyalties of the various resistance groups have caused many problems with this process.
In U.S. Seventh Army’s XV Corps area, the 44th Infantry Division, untried in combat, closes in the Lunévile area. In the VI Corps area, the 45th and 36th Infantry Divisions are slowed by strong opposition as they continue to close in on Bruyéres.
In the French First Army’s II Corps area, the 3d Algerian Division and French 1st Armored Division make limited gains but at such high cost that General Jean de Lattre, Commanding General of the French First Army, calls a halt and the corps goes on the defensive. The Army commander decides to drive on Belfort in the I Corps zone.
WESTERN EUROPE: The Ninth Air Force clears all Rhine River rail and road bridges for attack; 2 days later Advance HQ prescribes bridges as having priority on the target list second only to rail lines. In Germany, 35 B-26s hit rail bridge at Euskirchen; fighters escort the bombers, fly armed reconnaissance in the Strasbourg-Colmar-Mulhouse area, attack railroads in the Allendorf an der Lahn-Gemunden area, and marshalling yard at Dielkirchen.
NETHERLANDS: Venray falls to units of the British Second Army's VIII Corps, Third Division, during their advance to Venlo.
GERMANY: The US 7th Army continues a battle against stiffening resistance around Lunëville and Breyres.
Ulm: Rommel is given a state funeral, and von Rundstedt gives the oration in Hitler's name, calling him "a tireless fighter in the cause of the Fuhrer ... imbued with the National Socialist spirit."
U-3525 laid down.
U-2514 commissioned.
One hundred fifteen USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombers attack the I.G. Farben South synthetic oil refinery at Blechhammer with the loss of five aircraft; two other aircraft hit targets of opportunity.
AUSTRIA: The USAAF Fifteenth Air Force attacks targets in the Vienna area: 62 bomb the industrial area, 26 bomb the Saurerwerke armament factory, 22 bomb the marshalling yard and 16 bomb the city. Other targets hit are: 25 bomb the railroad at Furstenfeld, six bomb the marshalling yard at Strauss, and individual aircraft bomb four targets. Twelve bombers are lost.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Seven USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombs hit two targets of opportunity with six bombing Ostrava Moravaska.
ITALY: General Mark Clark's Fifth Army is making a last effort to take Bologna and northern Italy but the offensive is crippled by torrential rains and manpower and ammunition shortages.
In the U.S. Fifth Army’s IV Corps area, a patrol of Task Force 92 reaches the crest of Mt. Cauala, during the night of 17/18 October. In II Corps area, a coordinated attack by Combat Command A, 1st Armored Division, and the 135th Infantry Regiment against the Monterumici hill mass makes little progress. The 91st Infantry Division takes Lucca and improves positions to the east. Particularly heavy German fire is directed against the Livergnano area. The 34th Infantry Division is clearing the slopes of Mt. Belmonte and takes the crest of Mt. della Vigna. In the British XIII Corps area, the 21st Brigade of the Indian 8th Division begins an assault on Mt. Pianoreno. The 1st Division's 66th Brigade attacks in the Mt. Ceco area.
In the British Eighth Army area, the Polish II Corps opens an offensive toward Forli in the evening, although all its forces have not yet assembled. The 5th Kresowa Division leads off, pushing toward Galeata from St. Piero in the Bagno area, its right flank protected by the British 1st Armoured Division. V Corps is meeting strong opposition at Acquarola and Celincordia.
Tactical operations by the Twelfth Air Force: Weather cancels all medium bomber operations and limits fighter-bombers to limited sorties in the battle area south of Bologna, hitting roads, rail lines and bridges; A-20s during the night of 16/17 October on armed reconnaissance over the Po Valley bomb targets of opportunity and cause explosions on northern edge of Ravenna.
GREECE: Rival partisans begin to fight each other and a bomb explodes during a victory parade.
The British Military Liaison Headquarters, Greece begins arriving in Athens to distribute relief supplies.
USAAF Fifteenth Air Force P-51 Mustangs escort several C-47s transporting personnel to Araxos Airfield south of Araxos.
HUNGARY: German forces successfully repulse heavy Soviet attacks near Debrecen.
The USAAF Fifteenth Air Force attack targets in Hungary: 15 bombers hit the marshalling yard at Nagykanizsa, six bomb the marshalling yard at Szombathely, and 14 aircraft hit targets of opportunity.
ROMANIA: USAAF Fifteenth Air Force P-51 Mustangs escort a B-17 Flying Fortress carrying a photo crew to Romania to photograph Ploesti.
YUGOSLAVIA: The USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombs four targets: 17 aircraft bomb the Southwest Marshalling Yard at Maribor and 17 hit the railroad bridge in the same city; two other aircraft hit targets of opportunity. Additionally, P-51 Mustangs escort a C-47 Skytrain picking up personnel at Valjevo Airfield.
During the night of 17/18 October, 74 RAF bombers of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group bomb the marshalling yard at Vinkovci.
U.S.S.R.: Soviet patrol craft BMO-527 sunk by.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Destroyer HMS Arrow destroyed by an accident at Taranto.
INDIAN OCEAN: British Task Force 63, including 2 carriers and 1 battlecruiser,
strike the Nicobar Islands as a diversion for the
coming US attack on Leyte.
These islands with be shelled today and tomorrow with additional air strikes on
the 19th. Despite the damage this action as a diversion fails.
BURMA: 15 Tenth Air Force P-47s bomb a supply area near Naba, hit Japanese HQ and a supply area near Mawhun, and bomb a supply base and permanent camp at Myazedi; 8 B-25s bomb Nawnghkio airfield and 3 attack bridges near Kawlin and Thityabin; an approach to the latter bridge is damaged. Transports fly almost 300 sorties to various points in the CBI.
CHINA: The Fourteenth Air Force dispatches 15 B-25s, 12 P-40s, and 10 P-51s to attack a supply depot at Tien Ho Airfield at Canton; 2 B-24s bomb a supply depot at Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong; 44 P-51s and P-40s on armed reconnaissance attack rivercraft, troop concentrations, villages, and other targets of opportunity around Kweiping, Tengyun, Mangshih, Tajungchiang, Wuchou, and Dosing; a runway at Tanchuk Airfield suffers considerable damage.
FORMOSA: The XX Bomber Command flies Mission 12 with B-29 Superfortresses operating from Chengtu. Ten B-29s bomb Einansho air depot on Formosa while 14 others bomb alternate targets. A B-29 is lost.
Submarine USS Escolar sunk by mine in the Yellow Sea.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The USN's Task Group 38.4 (Rear Admiral Ralph E. Davison) attacks Japanese installations at Legaspi and Clark Field on Luzon. Scheduled air strikes by escort aircraft carriers are postponed because of typhoon weather in the vicinity of the ships.
A USN force (Rear Admiral Arthur D. Struble) lands 500 army troops of the 6th Ranger Battalion on Suluan and Dinagat Islands at the entrance to Leyte Gulf to destroy Japanese installations that could provide early warning of U.S. forces entering the gulf. Unfortunately, the Suluan Island unit transmits a warning, prompting Admiral Toyoda Soemu, Commander in Chief Combined Fleet, to order operation SHO-1 for defending the Philippines against American invasion and bringing about a decisive battle.
The USN submarine USS Narwhal (SS-167) lands supplies on northwest coast of Tawi Tawi Island.
In the principal strike of the day almost 60 B-24s hit oil installations, barracks, and shore targets on Ilang and northern Davao Bay areas of Mindanano Island.
The IJN commander, Admiral Soemu Toyodo, orders 76 warships, including four carriers and nine battleships, to sail from Japan and Malaya for an all-out attack on the invasion force.
PACIFIC OCEAN: In the Java Sea, Dutch submarine HNMS Zwaardvisch torpedoes and sinks two Japanese ships, a minelayer and an auxiliary minelayer, about 126 nautical miles (233 kilometers) north-northeast of Surabaya, Java, Netherlands East Indies.
BONIN AND VOLCANO ISLANDS: 11 Seventh Air Force B-24s from Saipan attack shipping off Haha Jima Island, and the town of Okimura in the Bonin Islands; later, during the night of 17/18 October, a B-24 bombs an airfield on Iwo Jima.
NAURU ISLANDS: USAAF Seventh Air Force B-25s from the Gilbert Islands hit Nauru Island.
EAST INDIES: Far East Air Forces fighter-bombers and B-25s hit airfields, shipping and scattered targets of opportunity in the Halmahera Island area. In the Ceram Island-Ambon Island-Boeroe Island area A-20s, B-25s, and fighter-bombers continue to pound airfields and oil facilities.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: The USN's Special Air Task Force (STAG 1) (Commander Robert F. Jones), based on Stirling Island in the Treasury Islands, continues operations as Interstate TDR-1 target drones are launched against Japanese installations near East Rabaul on New Britain Island. One of the four hits the objective; a second hits a target of opportunity; a third is lost due to the failure of a vacuum tube in the drone receiver; a fourth may have been shot down (light and inaccurate antiaircraft fire is noted).
CANADA: Armed yacht HMCS Beaver paid off.
U.S.A.:
Frigate USS Covington commissioned.
Submarines USS Conger and Runner launched.
Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-203 was commissioned at New Orleans with LTJG F. S. Shine, USCG, as first commanding officer. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area including Hollandia. She was decommissioned 31 October 1945.