Air Operations, Bismarcks

• 46 V Bomber Command B-24s escorted by 57 V Fighter Command P-38s attack targets in the Rabaul area targets with 115 tons of bombs and claim an estimated 45 aircraft destroyed on the ground at the Vunakanau airfield.
• RAAF Beauforts mount the first of an ongoing regime of torpedo attacks against shipping at the mouth of Simpson Harbor.
• V Fighter Command P-47s attack shipping in Hansa Bay and strafe ground targets around Cape Gloucester.
• 8th, 49th, and 475th Fighter group P-38s down 18 Japanese fighters over the Rabaul area between 1220 and 1305 hours.
• During the night, RAAF Catalinas mount the first in a regular schedule of night harrassment missions against Kavieng.

Air Operations, CBI

• 2 11th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s attack the airfield at Fort Bayard Airdrome.
• 9 14th Air Force P-40s attack a train near Chiuchiang.

• 14 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s and 16 P-40s attack smelters at Quang Yen.

Air Operations, East Indies

• 380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the airfield at Selaroe Airdrome.
• V Bomber Command B-25s sink a ship off Tanimbar Island.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command B-24s attack the Waroe Bay area, and 17 B-25s attack the Madang area.

Air Operations, Solomons

• 40 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s and 22 Navy F6Fs attack the airfield at Buka. 9 B-25s follow up with an attack on aircraft parked at Buka with parachute-fragmentation bombs. Buka is next hit by 21 XIII Bomber Command B-24s. Next to hit Buka are 11 B-24s and 24 AirSols fighters.
• 12 Navy PVs and 1 B-25 attack aircraft parked at the Bonis airfield on Bougainville with parachute-fragmentation bombs.

Eastern Front

Army Group Center, now commanded by Field-Marshal Ernst Busch in succession to Gunther von Kluge, fights with great vigor to hold up the enemy near the Orsha River with 4th Army and in front of Vitebsk with the 3rd Pzr Army. The German forces between Orsha and Vitebsk come under renewed pressure from the Soviet armies. The brunt of the attacks is borne by Gen Gotthard Heinrici's 4th Army but he expertly organizes the defense to repel them. His performance in these and later battles earns him the reputation as probably the best defensive tactician in the German army.

Gen Busch is appointed commander of Army Group Center. Kluge had been injured in a crash and was invalided until the middle of 1944. As if to give Busch his baptism of fire, the West Front renews its attacks around Orsha and the 1st Baltic Front around Vitebsk.

Italy

Canatlupo is taken by troops from XIII Corps of 8th Army. The port of Mondragone is captured by 5th Army(30th?).

Pacific

U.S. submarines begin mining the waters off French Indochina. Grenadier places 32 mines outside Haipong. Within a few days the Hainan Strait and the approaches to Saigon are also sown with mines.

Scenes from October 29, 1943

Gunner V.C. Northey, 5th Battery, 2nd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Regiment of Canadian Artillery (R.C.A.). October 29, 1943, Campobasso, Italy.

Anti-Aircraft Battery in Italy

Soldiers of the 34th Infantry Division pull themselves across the Volturno River in Italy, October 1943.

34th Infantry Division Soldiers Crossing the Volturno