Air Operations, North Africa

British bombers raid Benghazi and Tripoli.

Baltic Sea

The Soviet submarine SC-323 sinks the German steamer Baltenland (3724t) off the coast of Sweden.

Battle of the Atlantic

The British destroyer HMS Cossack is torpedoed by U-563 in the north Atlantic. She founders under tow on 26 October.

Eastern Front

The Soviet command system is reorganized. Zhukov takes over responsibility for the northern half of the front and Timoshenko for the south . In the south von Rundstedt's forces are making spectacular progress. The German 6th and 17th Armies carry out a brilliant turning maneuver to attack Kharkov.

In reprisals for the assassination of a Rumanian general at Odessa, 19,000 Jews are rounded up and shot in the city and a further 40,000 are taken to a collective farm and massacred.

Malaya Vyshera falls to the XXXVIII Corps.

German forces break into Naro-Fominsk and fight for control of the southern half of the town.

The 6th and 17th Armies, having failed to penetrate into Kharkov, begin to develop attacks around the city in and effort to envelop the 21st and 38th Armies. The battle for the Perekop continues as the LIV Corps launches repeated frontal attacks against the 51st Army.

Stug III Ausf. B from Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 197, commanded by Capt Kurt von Barisani, provided close fire support for a Sd.Kfz. 250/1 (Sonderkraftfahrzeug 250; 'special motor vehicle') and grenadiers of the 57th Infantry Division during street fighting in Kharkov. 23 October 1941.

Street Fighting in Kharkov

Following the disasters of the previous few weeks, the Stavka establishes 2 new operational commands. The 2 areas, Northern under Zhukov's command, cover the line from Leningrad to the Moscow axis and the Southern under Marshal Timoshenko, cover the Ukraine.

Zhukov has already repelled the Germans before Leningrad and is back in favor with Stalin, having been transferred to the Moscow sector to prevent the German capture of that city.

Malta

The Italians stage another air raid hitting Micabba airfield and the airport installations at Valletta.

Mediterranean

• The British submarine Truant sinks the Greek steamer Virginia S. (3885t) in the Ionian Sea west of Kerkira, Greece.
• The British steamer Empire Guillemot (5641t) is sunk by Italian bombing off La Galita Island near Cape Bon with the loss of 11 of her crew. 33 survivors are taken prisoner.
• The Italian steamer Achille (2415t) is sunk by British bombing northwest of Trapani, Sicily.

Occupied Soviet Union

In retaliation for a bomb attack against the Romanian garrison in Odessa, 34,000 of the city's Jews are murdered either by shooting or being herded into building which are then set on fire. Odessa is now the administrative seat of Transnistria (the Ukraine between the Bug and the Dniester) under Romanian command.