Air Operations, CBI

• 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s and 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack rail yards at Naba.
• 7 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Htawgaw.

• The 311th Fighter-Bomber Group’s 530th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, in P-51As, mounts its first combat sorties along the Hump ferry route from the airfield at Kurmitola, but there are no contacts.

Air Operations, East Indies

6 380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Ternate Island in the Molucca Islands—a 2,200-mile round trip.

Air Operations, Europe

• 8 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin, 2 to Aachen, 2 to Hamborn, 54 Stirlings and Wellingtons lay mines in the Frisians and off the Biscay ports and there are 16 OTU sorties.
• There are no losses.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• 7 V Bomber Bomber Command B-25s attack the airfield at Boram and Wewak at low level.
• 18 B-25s and 3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s attack Sattelberg.
• Japanese aircraft on their way to attack shipping in Oro Bay are intercepted by 40 475th Fighter Group P-38s and 18 Japanese aircraft attacking Finschhafen are intercepted by 4 35th Fighter Group P-39s. 49th and 475th Fighter group P-38s down 24 A6M Zeros, 1 Ki-43 'Oscar' fighter, and 1 Ki-61 'Tony' fighter over Buna and Cape Ward Hunt between 1015 and 1040 hours. 35th Fighter Group P-39s down 5 Ki-48s and 1 Ki-43 'Lily' bomber off Finschhafwen at 1100 hours.

Air Operations, Solomons

• The sustained aerial offensive against Japanese bases in the Bougainville area opens with an attack by Marine Corps SBDs and TBFs against the Kahili airfield on Bougainville. 6 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s and 21 Marine Corps F4Us, sweep the airfield at Ballale.
• When the F4Us are engaged over the airfield at Ballale by as many as 40 A6M Zeros at 1650 hours, 14 of the Zeros are downed. 1 F4U is lost in an operational accident.

Eastern Front

The Soviets break the German line around Kremenchug and push forward toward Krivoy Rog. The objective is still to cut off the Crimea. Troops of the Central Front under Rokossovsky cross the Dniepr south of Gomel and take Loyev.

Fighting flares up around Vitebsk as the 43rd Army drives a deep salient in the junction of IX and LIII Corps. The LIII Corps, recently moved to reinforce this sector, fights around the town. On the southern flank of Army Group Center the Central Front crosses the Dniepr near Loyev and gains a significant bridgehead.

Inconclusive fighting continues at Veliki Bukrin as the Stavka considers calling off the attack. With the Lyutezh bridgehead now established to the north, the Soviets will be able to turn the northern wing of Army Group South, but it will take time to redeploy forces into this sector. Farther south the 8th Army and 1st Panzer Army are forced back as the Steppe and Southwest Fronts exploit the hole blown in the German line. Forward elements of the Steppe Front push toward Krivoi Rog.

German Raiders

The last operational German auxiliary cruiser, Michel, is sunk by the US submarine Tarpon (SS-175) off Chichi Jima, Bonin Islands. Michel has sunk 17 ships during its cruise. It is the last of the 10 armed merchantmen which the German navy employed during the war. Beginning in February 1940, when the first one put to sea, they were a scourge to Allied merchant vessels. Each was equipped with 6 to 8 powerful guns and torpedo tubes. Some even had 1 or 2 of their own reconnaissance planes. Raiders only attacked ships operating alone. With the exception of 1 raider captain, Helmuth von Ruckteschell who was later tried as a war criminial, the officers commanding these ships always operated within the rules of warfare and international law. In all, the raiders accounted for a total of 133 ships of 830,000 tons.

Italy

Units of the American 3rd Div take Liberi and Alvignano. Elements of the American 34th Div occupy Alvignano.

Mediterranean

The British submarine Trooper is presumed lost on a patrol east of Leros probably due to mining. She had departed Beirut 26 September and due back this date. The entire crew of 63 is lost.

Norway

Allied destroyers land Norwegian troops on Spitzbergen.

Pacific

There is an exchange of Japanese and Allied civilian internees aboard the liners Teia Maru and Gripsholm at Marmagao, Portuguese India.

Scenes from October 17, 1943

A Sherman tank of 4th County of London Yeomanry fording the Volturno river at Grazzanise, 17 October 1943.

Another Tank Crossing the Volturno

Wrecked Japanese barges at Scarlet Beach following a failed Japanese attack, 17 October 1943, after the Australians landed at Finschhafen, New Guinea.

Wrecked Japanese Barges at Scarlet Beach