Air Operations, Bismarcks

• Following agreement by Gen Douglas A. MacArthur to provide distant air support for the upcoming SoPac invasion of Bougainville, the 5th Air Forcce opens a major offensive campaign to neutralize or cripple Japanese air power at Rabaul’s four active airfields and Japanese naval power based at Rabaul’s superb harbor. In the initial attack, a record 349 USAAF and RAAF bombers and fighters—87 B-24s, 114 B-25 strafers, 12 RAAF Beaufighters, 125 P-38s, and 11 weather and reconnaissance aircraft—cause extensive damage to Rabaul’s aviation facilities and shipping, and more than 50 Japanese aircraft are destroyed on the ground. 4 B-24s and 1 B-25 are lost.
• 475th Fighter Group P-38s down 1 Ki-43 'Oscar' fighter and 1 G4M 'Betty' bomber over Rabaul between 1040 and 1050 hours. 1 8th Fighter Group P-38 downs 1 A6M Zero over Rabaul at 1210 hours.

Air Operations, CBI

• 5 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack rail yards and warehouses Myitkyina.

Air Operations, East Indies

V Bomber Command B-25s mount small attacks against Timor and other areas.

Air Operations, New Guinea

A 348th Fighter Group P-47 downs a Ki-46 'Dinah' reconnaissance plane over Wewak at 1300 hours.

Air Operations, Pacific

The U.S. 5th Air Force opens an offensive to isolate Rabaul and neutralize the Bismarck Archipelago. 350 Allied planes raid Rabaul dropping 20,500 tons of bombs inflicting heavy damage. 4 planes are lost.

Air Operations, Solomons

2 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s skip-bomb 2 ships in Matchin Bay.

Diplomatic Relations

(8th?)Portugal agrees to permit the Allies use of the Azores as a base for the protection of convoys.

Italy

During the night 5th Army starts its attacks on the Volturno line on a front of 40 miles. On the left are the 3 divs, 46th, 56th and 7th Arm, of McCreery's X Corps. Between the coast and Capua 46th and 7th Arm make some progress but are held by German counterattacks. Around Capua 56th Div can make no ground at all. The American VI Corps of Gen Lucas does rather better. All 3 divs, 3rd, 34th and 45th, make good advances.

The German defense is energetically conducted throughout and in any case the river, swollen by recent rain, and the roadless hills would have been formidable obstructions. The combination of bad weather, inadequate roads and German demolitions means that, until the ground hardens in the spring, the Allied advance must hinge around the 3 or 4 major roads. Moreover the 3 German formations given the task of defending the Volturno line

the 15th Pzr Div, the Hermann Göring Pzr Div and the 3rd Div, making up Gen Hans Hube's XIV Pzr Corps

put up stiff resistance to Gen Clark's Allied units.

In British X Corps sector, on the left of the Anglo-American front, while the 46th Div tries to break through toward Cancello, the 7th Arm Div and 56th Div, on the center and right, carry out some diversionary activities in the direction of Grazzanise and Capua. The 46th Div succeeds in establishing a bridgehead in the coastal sector, and the 7th Arm Div takes several places on the way to Grazzanise, but the 56th Div is pinned down and cannot push on beyond Capua.

The US 3rd and 34th Divs of the VI Corps succeed in crossing the Volturno on the right of the front. The first takes Mounts Majulo and Caruso and the Caiazzo plain to where the Calore River flows into the Volturno. On the extreme right the American 45th Div takes Monte Acero when units of the German 26th Pzr Div retire.

Italy declares war on Germany at 3:00p.m. Italy has the somewhat hybrid status among the Allies of 'co-belligerent'.

New Britain

In a surprise attack 349 planes of 5th Air Force drop 350 tons of bombs on Rabaul. Many of the defending aircraft are shot down and 3 destroyers and several merchant ships in the harbor are damaged.

Scenes from October 12, 1943

12 October 1943 Lt John Ko, of the Japanese American Battalion, 100th, on reconnaissance, preparatory to going into battle against the Germans in Italy.

Japanese American on Reconnaissance

American infantrymen in an assault boat haul themselves across the Volturno River in mid-October 1943 during the first major river crossing in Europe by Allied troops.

Americans Cross the Volturno River

Flight deck crews of USS Saratoga spotting SBD-5 Dauntless dive bombers of VB-12 squadron, October 1943.

Flight Deck Crews on the Saratoga

The Volturno River 12 – 16 October 1943: Men of the Cheshire Regiment carry boxes of ammunition up the steep bank after the crossing of the Volturno. Their assault boats are in the background.

British Soldiers Across the Volturno

Operations of the 3rd Infantry Division in the first Crossing of the Volturno River 12-14 October 1943, Naples Foggia Campaign, Italy. (Major Ronald A. Kapp)

First Crossing of the Volturno River

Infantry of the 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers advance through the mud in the Volturno area.

British Infantry in Volturno Area

Infantry of the 7th Queen's Regiment and a Stuart tank in Grazzanise, 12 October 1943.

British Infantry in Grazzanise

Firing at night from a captured airfield near Grazzanise, 12 October 1943.

Night Action near Grazzanise