Air Operations, CBI

• Several 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s and 14th Air Force P-40s attack a foundry at Shihhweiyao.
• During the morning, 10 23rd Fighter Group P-40s intercept approximately 50 A6M Zeros west of Kweilin and force the Japanese aircraft to withdraw. A 74th Fighter Squadron P-40 downs 1 Zero over Kweilin.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• 43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack the road to Bogadjim.
• V Bomber Command B-24s attack the Babo area and B-25s attack barges and Japanese-held villages in the Madang area.
• A 49th Fighter Group P-38 downs a K-46 'Dinah' reconnaissance plane near Madang at 1845 hours.

Battle of the Atlantic

U-389 is sunk by an RAF Hudson with rockets.

Britain, Home Front

Churchill announces the surrender of additional Italian ships at Malta.

Central Pacific

Over the next 2 days Wake Island, the island that Adm Sadamichi Kajioka rechristened 'Island of Birds' when he officially took possession of it in the name of the Japanese Emperor on December 23, 1941, is shelled and bombed by ships and planes from Adm A. E. Montgomery's Task Force 14. There are 6 carriers, 7 cruisers and 25 destroyers in this force. The carrier aircraft fly 738 sorties. 26 aircraft are lost.

The Commander-in-Chief in the Pacific, Nimitz, issues the directives for the coming offensive in the Central Pacific. Vice-Adm Spruance is to direct the landings on Makin, Tarawa and Abemama Islands in the Gilberts, protecting the landing forces by all available means and neutraling the Japanese bases on the Marshall Islands and Nauru during the operation, which is timed to start on the 19th, but later pushed back to the 20th.

Corsica

Before the Italian Armistice was signed, about 15,000 Corsican patriots were secretly armed by the Allies. On September 8, when news of the Italian surrender was received, there was a general rising. Vichy officials were arrested in almost all towns and villages. There were clashes with Germans troops in the mountains near Sarterne and the enemy was forced to withdraw to Bastia and Boniface. General Giraud broadcast a message to the German High Command in Corsica declaring that anyone wearing a white brassard on his arm embroidered with a Moor's head (part of the arms of Corsica) must be considered as a regular soldier of the French Army and not treated as an armed civilian if captured. By September 21 the western half of Corsica was in French hands. German bases on the island, including the important airfield at Bastia, were heavily bombed by the Allied air forces. The food shortage, already very serious, was further intensified when the Germans set fire to about 1,000 acres of crops and farmsteads. By October 5 the enemy was finally cleared from Corsica. The recapture of Corsica was important not only because it might be used by the enemy as a U-boat base but it gave the Allies an important base for air and amphibious operations.

Eastern Front

Bitter fighting rages at Dnepropetrovsk as the 8th Guards Army, recently committed to the fighting from the Steppe Front reserve, forces a crossing of the Dniepr south of the town. Farther north, attacks by the 60th and 13th Armies make progress north of Kiev. These 2 units are also transferred to the Voronezh Front from the Central Front.

Germany, Policy

Stuka units are redesignated Schlachtgeschwadern and restritcted to low-level night ground-attack duties over the Russian Front.

Germany, Politics

Germany annexes Trieste, Istria and the South Tyrol.

Italy

5th Army takes Aversa and Maddaloni. Forward units of X Corps reach the Volturno. On the Adriatic coast, where the XIII Corps of the British 8th Army is operating, fighting continues around the Biferno bridgehead near Termoli. In the battle around Termoli, 16th Pzr comes into action and for a time pushes the British back.

Scenes from October 5, 1943

October 5, 1943: Sturmbannführer-SS Hubert-Erwin Meierdrees receives the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross from Adolf Hitler personally for his many battle exploits. Meierdrees served with the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and the SS-Verfügungs-Division before joining the SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf, with which he served until he was KIA in January 1945 when his Panther tank exploded following a direct hit.

Meierdrees Receives Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross

Oct. 5, 1943: US naval aircraft bomb Wake Island, destroying 61 Japanese planes.

US Naval Air Bomb Wake Island

A U.S. Navy Dauntless from the USS Yorktown (CV-10) flies over Wake during the devastating raid of 5 October 1943. Admiral Sakaibara saw this operation as an indication that an invasion was imminent and ordered the execution of the 98 Americans "to eliminate any threat they might pose

US Navy Dauntless Over Wake Island

This photograph shows remains of German war material at Bastia in Corsica after the enemy had left the island.

Remains of German War Material on Corsica