Aegean

Over the next 3 days 3 Allied destroyers hit mines in the Aegean.

Air Operations, Bismarcks

More than 50 V Fighter Command P-40 fighter-bombers attack Gasmata.

Air Operations, CBI

• 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack a rail bridge spanning the Mu River near Monywa.

Air Operations, East Indies

11 380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack nickel mines at Pombelaa, Celebes.

Air Operations, Europe

• 569 aircraft are sent to Kassel. In this total are 322 Lancasters and 247 Halifaxes.
• The initial 'blind' H₂S marking overshoots the target, but 8 of 9 'visual' markers correctly identify the center of the city and place their markers accurately. Although German decoy markers may have drawn off some of the force, the main raid is exceptionally accurate and concentrated. The result is the most devastating attack on a German city since the July Hamburg firestorm raid. The fires are so concentrated that there is a firestorm but not as intense as the one in Hamburg. Two-thirds of Kassel, an important tank- and locomotive-manufacturing town, is destroyed by the raid. Industrial production is paralyzed for 3 months. One of the specific targets on this raid is the Fieseler aircraft factory which, according to British intelligence sources, is working on Peenemünde's rocket program. The factory is damaged and construction of the V-1 flying bomb delayed for some months.
• 25 Halifaxes and 18 Lancasters are lost.
• In a diversionary raid, 28 Lancasters and 8 Mosquitos are sent to Frankfurt. The bombing is scattered and 1 Lancaster is lost.

• 12 Oboe Mosquitos are sent to the Knapsack power station and 1 to Dortmund, 17 aircraft lay mines in the Frisians and off Texel and there are 10 OTU sorties.
• 1 Mosquito is lost.

It was on this night that an RAF ground radio station in England, probably the one at Kingsdown in Kent, started its broadcasts with the intention of interrupting and confusing the German controllers' orders to their night fighters. The Bomber Command Official History describes how, at one stage, the German controller broke into vigorous swearing, whereupon the RAF voice remarked, 'The Englishman is now swearing'. To this, the German retorted, 'It is not the Englishman who is swearing, it is me'.

A ritual carried out nightly on every Bomber Command station was the waving off of the crews as the began the night's operation over enemy territory. For many crews, this was their last sight of home.

Nightly Ritual for the Evening's Operation

Air Operations, New Guinea

• More than 20 V Bomber Command B-25s attack Wewak at low level and sink 2 freighters. 4 V Fighter Command P-39s and 2 RAAF aircraft strafe Madang.
• 475th Fighter Group P-38s down 1 A6M Zero and 2 Ki-61 'Tony' fighters in the Wewak area between 1020 and 1030 hours.

Air Operations, Pacific

The Japanese lose 123 aircraft during another massive US air raid on air facilities around Rabaul.

Air Operations, Solomons

• In one of AirSols busiest days of the war, 10 XIII Bomber Command B-24s and 20 Navy F6Fs attack the Kahili airfield on Bougainville. 9 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s and 12 F6Fs attack Poroporo, Choiseul. 9 B-24s and 8 F6Fs attack coastal targets on Choiseul. 12 B-24s and 16 XIII Fighter Command P-40s also attack the Kahili airfield. 24 AirSols TBFs, 48 SBDs, and 68 AirSols fighters continue the attack on the Kahili airfield. 24 fighters strafe the Kara airfield on Bougainville, where 16 airplanes are destroyed on the ground. 1 B-24 attacks a ship near Buka. 2 AirSols aircraft are lost in the day's action.
• 2 VF-40 F6Fs down 1 Ki-61 'Tony' fighter over Choiseul at 1055 hours. An 18th Fighter Group P-39 downs 1 A6M Zero over Kahili at 1250 hours.

Britain, Command

(23rd?)Gen Robert Laycock becomes the British Chief of Combined Operations, one of only 2 survivors from the 'Keyes Raid'.(see November 17, 1941)

Italy

8th Army comes into action once more. Near the coast 78th Div seizes a small bridgehead over the Trigno during the night. 5th Army is still fighting hard to make any sort of advance. Units of the 34th Div begin the attack on Sant' Angelo d'Alife, but are driven back.

Mediterranean

In the British Aegean Campaign while carrying out a diversion the Greek destroyer Adrias hits a mine off the east coast of Kaymnos and is beached at Gumushuk on the Turkish coast. 21 of her crew are killed and 21 wounded. Going to aid the Adrias the British destroyer Hurworth sinks on a mine east of Kaymnos with the loss of a number of officers and men. 85 survivors are rescued and taken to Budrun, Turkey.

Pacific

The Americans decide to drop a parachute battalion at Voza, in Choiseul Island, southeast of Bougainville, on the night of October 27. Minimum objective: diversionary attack; maximum: to establish a base for use against Bougainville.

Scenes from October 22, 1943

In a single deadliest raid on 22-23 October 1943, 150,000 inhabitants of Kassel were bombed-out, at least 10,000 people died, the vast majority of the city center was destroyed, and the fire of the most severe air raid burned for seven days.

Heavy Raid on Kassel