Air Operations, Bismarcks

• 348th Fighter Group P-47s attack barges and ground targets at Talasea.
• V Fighter Command P-40s attack the Gasmata area.
• More than 170 Japanese Navy carrier aircraft—40 B5N 'Kate' dive bombers, 45 D3A 'Val' dive bombers, 82 A6M Zeros, and 6 reconnaissance planes—are ordered to depart their ships to bolster the 373 Japanese Navy and Army aircraft already at Rabaul. All the carrier aircraft will arrive by November 1.

Air Operations, CBI

• 7 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Mangshih.
• 3 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s and 7 449th Fighter Squadron P-38s attack Fort Bayard.
• 2 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s attack shipping in the South China Sea.
• 6 P-40s attack a warehouse and revetments at Yoyang.

Air Operations, New Guinea

348th Fighter Group P-47s strafe coastal tagets around Sio.

Air Operations, Solomons

19 AirSols TBFs, 38 SBDs, and 46 fighters attack the Kara airfield on Bougainville followed by 19 XIII Bomber Command B-24s attacking the same target. 21 TBFs, 38 SBDs, and 32 fighters attack the airfield at Ballale.

Battle of the Atlantic

The German submarine U-220 is sunk by aircraft (VC-1) from the US escort carrier Block Island (CVE-21) in the North Atlantic area.

Eastern Front

As Russian advances continue, Berlin radio admits 'the main German defenses have been broken'.

The IV Corps of the 6th Army launches a counterattack from Nikopol against the flank of 4th Ukrainian Front.

New Zealand, Home Front

Butter is rationed.

United States, Home Front

530,000 coal miners go on strike. On November 1 Roosevelt commandeers the mine. The strike ends 2 days later.

Scenes from October 28, 1943

A small truck hauls 1,000 lb bombs in front of a Marine TBF-1C Avenger on Munda Island, October 28, 1943. The airfield fell into Allied hands in August and was immediately turned against its former owners. (Source: "Air War Over The Pacific" by Robert C. Stern)

Action at the Airfield on Munda