Air Operations, CBI

• 2 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s and 4 23rd Fighter Group P-40s attack a Japanese gunboat at Fort Bayard.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-24s and B-25s mount several light raids.
• A 475th Fighter Group P-38 downs a G4M 'Betty' bomber near Finschhafen at 0845 hours.

Air Operations, Solomons

• 16 XIII Bomber Command B-24s, escorted by nearly 30 AirSols fighters, attack the Kahili airfield on Bougainville.
• 6 B-25s attack Kakasa.
• A VMF-222 F4U downs an A6M Zero near Vella Lavella at 1530 hours.
• A P-38 with the 347th Fighter Group’s 339th Fighter Squadron downs 2 A6M Zeros between Kahili and Vella Lavella between 1525 and 1540 hours.

Eastern Front

The Soviet government announces that the Red Army is advancing on Kiev in the Ukraine and on Vitebsk, Gomel and Mogilev in Belorussia. September has seen the liberation of large regions. October will see the crossing of the Dniepr, but also much more determined resistance by the Germans. The Soviets take Krichev on the River Sozh.

In the siege of Leningrad 11,394 shells fall on the city in September killing 124 and wounding 468.

The Germans have retreated behind the Dnieper, and the Red Army has again achieved great successes, liberating many towns and inflicting losses of 230,000 on the Germans. However, the Red Army's tactics have left a lot to be desired, often relying on mass to achieve results. The cost has again been high: in five days the Voronezh, Steppe and Central Fronts have suffered a staggering combined total of 102,500 killed and missing.

Army Group South has completed the evacuation of 200,000 wounded soldiers west over the Dnieper River.[MORE]

Italy

Despite the truce heavy fighting continues in Naples. About 11:00a.m. comes the news that the Allies are at the gates in the southern part of the city.

Advance units of X Corps reach the outskirts of Naples. The British V Corps has surrounded Vesuvius. Inland the VI Corps Americans take Avellino.

Badoglio forms a new Cabinet, composed, with one exception, of top-ranking military and naval officers.

Occupied Denmark

Atomic physicist Niels Bohr escapes to Sweden. The Nazis begin rounding up Danish Jews.

Pics from September 30, 1943

A wounded German soldier discovered by American troops in a barn near Naples, September 30, 1943.

Wounded German Soldier Discovered by Americans

In use since 1943 the 'Squid' was the most deadly weapon against U-boats. The launcher was firing three standard depth charges in the travel direction of the escort ship, where the exact position of the target is still located by the Asdic device.

The 'Squid'

Loading a Nebelwefer rocket launcher in the mountains between Naples and the Gulf of Salerno.

Loading a Rocket Launcher