Air Operations, Aleutians

12 Japanese Navy bombers based in the Kurile Islands attack Attu.

Air Operations, CBI

• 4 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s attack shipping between Amoy and Quemoy Island.
• 14th Air Force P-40 fighter-bombers attack a barracks and fuel dump at Mangshih.
• 1 B-25 crashes into a hill and 1 P-40 is downed by ground fire.

Air Operations, East Indies

380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Makassar, Celebes.

Air Operations, Europe

The 8th Air Force raids Gdynia.

• 6 Mosquitos attack Berlin without a loss.

Air Operations, New Guinea

3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s and RAAF aircraft attack Japanese Army defenses at Finschhafen and Sattelberg.

Air Operations, Solomons

• 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s and XIII Fighter Command P-40s attack barges and troops in western Choiseul.
• Airsols F4Us and P-39s attack a radar station and gun emplacements on Poporang Island.

Eastern Front

The North Caucasus Front of Gen Ivan E. Petrov wipes out all remaining resistance by the Germans in the Taman peninsula, between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Petrov's forces complete the occupation of the Kuban, but most of 17th Army is to be sent to join the right of the German line to the south of Zaporozhye and will, in fact, be too late to move out of the Crimea when the front around Melitopol is broken in the next few days.

The long and bitter campaign in the Kuban ends as the 17th army withdraws to the Crimea. Hitler now detaches 8 divisions from the 17th Army, distributing them to more needy sectors to the north. The fighting in the peninsula has cost the North Caucasus Front 13,900 killed and missing and 50,000 wounded.

The South Front unleashes a massive arty barrage upon the 6th Army, followed by an infantry and armored attack. Hollidt's forces put up fierce resistance, bringing the initial Soviet attack to a halt. However, with numbers on their side, the South Front repeat its attacks.

The German positions at Melitopol and the Nogaisk Steppe are the final defense line before the Dniepr River. If they fall, the subsequent retreat would leavd the 17th Army isolated in the Crimea. Having just escaped from one pocket the 17th seems about to become hemmed into another.

Mediterranean

• Stukas sink the British destroyer Panther with the loss of 36 of her crew and severely damage the cruiser Carlisle in the Scarpanto Strait.
• The US destroyer Buck (DD-420) is sunk by a submarine torpedo in the Italian area.

Scenes from October 9, 1943

A Douglas-built B-17F-50-DL Flying Fortress, 42-3352, Virgin’s Delight, 410th Bomb Squadron, 94th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force, over the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter factory, Marienburg, Germany, 9 October 1943. (U.S. Air Force)

B-17F over Marienburg, Germany

Strike photo from the US 8th Air Force bombing mission to Marienburg, Germany, October 9, 1943.

Bombing of Marienburg, Germany

9th FS P-38 Lightning Flightline at Dobodura 9 October, 1943

Small Japanese craft flee from larger vessels during an American aerial attack on Tonolei Harbor, Japanese base on Bougainville Island, in the Central Solomon Islands on October 9, 1943. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)

Air Attack on Japanese Base on Bougainville