Air Operations, Bismarcks

49th Fighter Group P-38s down 2 A6M Zeros over Gasmata at 1000 hours.

Air Operations, East Indies

6 380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Boela, Ceram.

Air Operations, Europe

The 356th and 55th Fighter Groups, in P-47s and P-38s, respectively, make their combat debuts in a pair of fighter sweeps over the Frisian Islands.

XII Bomber Command B-25s attack the Megalo/Mikra and Salonika/Sedhes Airdromes.

NATAF attack aircraft attack a vast array of communications and transportation targets servicing the battle area, as well as tactical targets within the battle area, especially around the Volturno River.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• During the morning, in fear of an imminent invasion effort against Rabaul, approximately 100 Japanese aircraft are sent to attack shipping in Oro Bay, but they are intercepted by 59 V Fighter Command P-38s and 8 P-40s. In the action, V Fighter Command P-38s down 26 D3A 'Val' dive bombers, 1 B5N 'Kate' dive bomber, and 19 Ki-43 'Oscar' fighters over or near Oro Bay between 0805 and 0900 hours. 1 49th Fighter Group P-38 downs 1 A6M Zero north of Buna at 0900 hours. 1 P-38 is lost in the action.
• More than 70 V Bomber Command B-25s attack barges between Saidor and Sio.
• 49th Fighter Group P-38s and P-40s down 5 Ki-48 'Lily' bombers over Finschhafen at 1730 hours.

Air Operations, Solomons

• 21 XIII Bomber Command B-24s, 17 AirSols F4Us, and 12 XIII Fighter Command P-38s attack the Kahili airfield on Bougainville during the noon hour.
• 6 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack the airfield at Buka late in the evening.
• VMF-214 F4Us down 6 A6M Zeros between the Kahili and Ballale airfields at 1220 hours.

Battle of the Atlantic

The US freighter James Russell Lowell (7176t), in Convoy GUS-18, is torpedoed by U-371 off the coast of Algeria and abandoned. The British whaler Southern Sea rescued the 41-man crew and the 28-man Armed Guard.

Eastern Front

Around Veliki Bukrin the Voronezh Front launches a new assault with the 27th, 40th and 3rd Guards Tank Armies, but meet fierce resistance from the XLVIII Panzer Corps. The German defenses are very thin but hold the Soviets solidly. Fighting is intense as the Germans try to wear down the Soviet attack on its start lines.

The LVII Panzer Corps comes under sustained attack southeast of Kremenchug and breaks apart, the 5th Guards Army smashing the German forward positions. With the forward German defenses crushed, the Soviets introduce their armor, the 5th Guards Tank Army pouring into the rear of the 1st Panzer. The Soviet air armies provide crucial support, the 5th Air Army smashing German ground forces as the armies advance.

Italy

The battle on the Volturno goes on. In the US 5th Army's British X Corps area, the 56th Division crosses the river east of its previous position in the former VI Corps sector. The VI Corps' 3rd Division takes Cisterna, but elements are being strongly opposed near Villa and Liberi. Elements of the 34th Division (2nd Battalion, 135th Infantry) take Ruviano. The enemy withdraws from this area during the night. On the right flank of the VI Corps, the 45th Division finishes clearing to Titeno Creek and makes contact with the 34th Division across the Volturno to the left.

North of the Volturno Gen Hans Hube's German XIV Panzer Corps has established 3 fortified defensive lines: the so-called 'Barbara' line which goes from Monte Massico to the Matese hills by way of Teano and Presenzano: the 'Bernhard' ('Reinhard') line, much longer and stronger, consisting of a broad strip of fortified strongholds, from the mouth of the Garigliano to Castel di Sangro, relying on the natural defenses of the mountains, Difensa, Maggiore and Camino in the area between Presenzano and Sant' Ambrogio, and Monte Sammucro west of Venafro; and lastly, further north, the 'Gustav' line, the most solid of the 3 defensive lines, which follows the Garigliano and Rapido Rivers and takes in the natural fortification provided by Monte Cassino, then turning north through Roccaraso and Casoli to finish on the Adriatic coast south of San Vito. Behind these lines stands Gen von Vietinghoff's 10th Army, with Gen Hube's XIV Panzer Corps to the south and Gen Trangott Herr's LXXI Panzer Corps to the north.

In the 8th Army sector the Canadian 1st Division takes Vinchiaturo and Campobasso.

New Guniea

The Japanese mount an air attack on Allied positions in Oro Bay. The attacking aircraft take heavy losses. The attack is repeated on October 17 with the same results.

Pacific

• The headquarters of the US I Marine Corps issues directives for Operation GOODWOOD, the invasion of the Northern Solomons. The attacking force, Task Force 31 under the command of Rear-Adm Theodore S. Wilkinson, will land the Marines on October 27 on the Treasury Islands, where the enemy bases must be taken or neutralized in readiness for the main landing on Bougainville, which will take place on November 1. Possession of the island is a crucial step toward the Allied dominance of the Japanese base at Rabaul.
• The US submarine Pompano (SS-181) is reported as presumed lost in the Pacific Ocean area.
• The US submarine Tullibee (SS-284) attacks a 10-ship Japanese convoy sinking the transpsort Chicago Maru (5866t) off the northwest coast of Formosa.

Southeast Asia, Command

The British Gen Sir Henry Pownall is appointed Chief of Staff to Adm Mountbatten at SEAC. Gen Albert C. Wedemeyer, an American, is to be his deputy Chief of Staff.

Scenes from October 15, 1943

B-26 Bombs Nazi Installation

Troops Crossing the Volturno River

38th Fighter Squadron at Nuthampstead

Sherman Tank Crew Enjoying a Meal

Oscar Coen of the 334th Fighter Squadron

Canadian Tank Crew at Termoli