Air Operations, Europe

The RAF makes a night raid on Kassel, the center of German locomotive and armored vehicle production.

In the first British use of American B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, 2 are lost and 3 badly damaged in an aborted mission over Norway. This sets many British officials against the aircraft which goes on to become the star of the US 8th Air Force's deployment in the UK.

Baltic Sea

The Germans launch Operation BEOWULF, an amphibious assault against the Estonian Islands, which are defended by 23,600 troops and 140 artillery pieces of the 8th Army. In the first part of the operation the 389th Infantry Regt attacks the island of Vormsi, taking 200 Soviet prisoners in the process. However, it will take until October 21 before all the Estonian Islands are in German hands. They will remain so until November 1944.

Battle of the Atlantic

• The British mine destructor ship Corfield sinks on a mine 2 miles south of the Humber Light Vessel. There are no casualties.
• The Italian submarine Maggiore Barraca is sunk by the British destroyer Croome by gunfire and ramming east of the Azores. 34 of her crew are picked up.

Eastern Front

Between Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega the continuing Finnish attacks cross the Svir and take Lodenoye Pole, cutting the Leningrad-Murmansk railway line at Lodenoye Pole south of Murmansk. The city's central food store is destroyed in an air raid. At this time of year it is still possible to use Archangel as the entrepôt for British and American supplies to the Soviet Union but later in the winter the Soviets will be unable to fulfill their promise to attend to the icebreaking. It will, therefore, be necessary to build a railroad track to Murmansk.

The gasoline storage tanks in front of Leningrad burn for many days after being hit by German aircraft.

Gasoline Storage Tanks Burning

The Germans reach Vyazma 150 rail miles from Moscow. There is heavy fighting between there and Bryansk.

Leningrad's Connection to Soviet Interior Severed

Leningrad was one of the prime objectives of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. On September 8, 1941, the German 4th Panzer Army severed the city’s land contact with the Soviet interior by taking Shlisselburg but not the Oreshek Fortress which though was heavily damaged during the siege. The Finns, allied with the Germans, advanced to recover Karelia, which had been lost to the Soviets in the recent Russo-Finnish War. Having recovered this territory, however, Finnish forces did not push on to the city itself. Had they done so, Leningrad would probably have fallen early in the campaign.

Dietl's attack against Murmansk grinds to a halt. Finnish force captre Lodenoye Pole and sever the Leningrad to Murmansk rail line. The Soviet 48th Army is shattered around Lake Ladoga, allowing the 20th Motorized and 12th Panzer Divs to capture Schlusselburg and sever the last link out of Leningrad.

The German XIII Corps captures Chernigov, and the Soviet Western Front ceases offensive operations and goes over to the defensive.[MORE]

Germany, Policy

An OKW directive on the treatment of Red Army prisoners of war declares that they have forfeited every claim to be treates as an honorable enemy, and that the most ruthless measures are justified in dealing with them.

Gulf of Finland

The Russians begin a regular supply run to the besieged garrison of Hangö using submarines. These will continue until November.

Mediterranean

A further 69 Hurricanes are flown to Malta in 2 operations by Force H, involving first the Ark Royal alone and then both the Ark Royal and Furious.

Occupied France

There are serious civil disturbances in Paris leading to the arrest of about 120 Jewish 'hostages'.

Soviet Union, Home Front

The Supreme Council decrees the removal of the entire population (about 600,000) of the German Volga Republic to Asiatic Russia as a precaution against possible sabotage and wrecking.