Air Operations, Bismarcks

V Bomber Command B-25s and 22nd Medium Bomb Group B-26s attack Cape Gloucester.

Air Operations, CBI

• 4 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s attack shipping at Amoy and the airfield there.

Air Operations, East Indies

3 V Bomber Command B-25s mount harrassment attacks at Dili and Lautem, Timor.

Air Operations, Europe

A force of 291 Flying Fortresses from 8th Air Force is sent to attack the German ball-bearing works at Schweinfurt. 228 planes drop 483 tons of bombs on target. They do considerable damage to the target but lose 60 planes with a further 140 damaged making the day become known as 'Black Thursday'. Most of the losses occur during the 400-mile round trip unescorted from Aachen. The 8th Air Force has lost a further 88 aircraft in the last week. These losses are intolerable and the USAAF abandons long-range, unescorted daylight attacks for the time being. They are not equipped to attack by night. The theories of the American airmen have been disproved on two counts. Bombers cannot fight their way to the target without prohibitive casualties and even carefully selected targets like Schweinfurt offer no great gains. Production in Germany is quickly switched to other areas, extra supplies are brought from Sweden and in any case an investigation ordered by Speer shows that stocks of ball bearings will last for several months.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command B-25s and 22nd Medium Bomb Group B-26s attack Alexishafen.

Air Operations, Solomons

• One XIII Bomber Command B-24 attacks barges near Taiof Island.
• 1 VMF-214 F4U downs 1 A6M Zero near Vella Lavella at 1345 hours.

Eastern Front

After intense and bitter fighting Malinovsky's troops, the Southwest Front, capture Zaporozhye, an important Ukrainian industrial center south of Dnepropetrovsk. Further south the troops of Tolbukhin's South Front are fighting in the suburbs of Melitopol and farther south still they cut the railroad leading to the Crimea from Melitopol. The Russian aim is to cut off the German 17th Army, just evacuated from the Taman peninsula, in the Crimea. They have cut the Melitopol-Crimea railway in 2 places.

After a bloody, 4-day battle Zaporozhe falls to the 8th and 3rd Guards and 12th Armies, while the continuing threat to the dam poses by the 12th Army compels the Germans to abandon their bridgehead. Heavy fighting at Melitopol continues as the 6th Army fights vigorously.

The Stavka prepares to launch a major assault aimed at breaking through the German defenses on the west bank of the river line and crushing the 8th and 1st Panzer Armies. The Southwest Front is to attack between Zaporozhe and Dnepropetrovsk to pin the 1st Panzer frontally while the Steppe Front breaks through at the junctin of the two armies. For the operation the Steppe Front has the 5th Guards, 7th Guards, 57th and 5th Guards Tank Armies near Dnepropetrovsk and the 53rd, 4th Guards and 52nd Armies near Kremenchug. In defense the 1st Panzer Army deploys the XL and LVII Panzer Corps, XVII, XXX and LII Corps.

Italy

The battle on the Volturno goes on. Gen Clark, Commander of the US 5th Army, shifts eastward the line between his 2 corps, The British X and American VI, so altering his plan of attack. The operation is made necessary by the failure of the British 56th Div to break through toward Capua. Clark's move enables the 56th Div to use one of the bridges built over the Volturno by the American 3rd Div and so cross the river upstream of Monte Triflisco.

Meanwhile the American 3rd Div, which has secured a bridgehead nearly 4-1/2 miles deep during the morning, directs its attacks on Dragoni, together with the 34th Div. The American V Corps continues to advance, especially on their right, astride the Volturno toward the Venafro-Isernia sector, taking the upper Volturno valley. The British 56th Div crosses the river east of its previous position and also pushes forward. In the 8th Army sector 1st Canadian Div takes Campobasso.

Occupied Philippines

The Philippines is declared an independent republic under Japanese tutelage.

Occupied Soviet Union

The inmates of Sobibor extermination camp revolt. Several Ukrainian guards and 11 SS men are killed and some 300 prisoners manage to escape, most of whom are killed by their pursuers. Those who had refused to join the revolt are all murdered. After the uprising the Germans abandon the idea of turning Sobibor into a concentration camp and close it down.

Scenes from October 14, 1943

Information on this photo of tragic devestation indicates it is the wreck of Thunderbolt 42-7908 which crashed at Brentwood in Essex on 14 October 1943.

Crash of a P-47 Thunderbolt

The site of the 14 October 1943 crash of B-17F 'Cat O'Nine Tails' in the back yard of the home of John T. Gell in Risley, Bedfordshire, England. (Air Force Photo by Staff Sgt Javier Cruz).

Crash of a B-17F 'Cat O'Nine Tails'

B-17s over Schweinfurt, 14 October 1943

Bombs from the first wave of B-17s falling on Schweinfurt on 'Black Thursday'. Bombs are hitting the Kugelfischer and VKF-Werk I factories and the railroad marshalling yards just west of the downtown area, but are also falling on residential areas north and west of downtown, and some bombs are falling very wide of the mark south of the Main River and downriver to the southwest (at the lower left corner). (US National Archives)

Bombs Falling on Schweinfurt

The factory areas and city burn after the 'Black Thursday' attack of 14 October 1943.

Areas of Schweinfurt Burning

Bombers lost and damaged during the attacks ... a B-17 trails smoke from its damaged No. 3 engine.

B-17 Trailing Smoke

'Lazy Baby' of the 305th Bombardment Group, which was shot down on 14 October 1943.

B-17 'Lazy Baby'

Administration buildings of the Kugelfischer factory on fire on 14 October 1943.

Kugelfischer Factory on Fire