Air Operations, Carolines

8 30th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the Yap Atoll.

Air Operations, CBI

• 5 10th Air Force B-25s attack rail facilities and a motor pool at Kyaukme.
• 2 B-25s attack a motor pool at Namhsim.
• 1 B-25 attacks a rail line at Nawngpeng.
• 20 10th Air Force P-47s attack Japanese Army troops at Kyungyi and Nanhlaing.
• 16 P-47s support Allied ground forces around Henu and Mawlu.
• 7 P-47s attack a bridge at Panghkam.
• 4 P-47s attack a bivouac at Indaw.

• 6 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s and 11 14th Air Force P-51s attack Mengshu.
• 3 B-25s attack a bridge at Lohochai.
• More than 50 P-51s and P-40s attack occupied towns in the Mengshu area.
• More than 40 P-51s and P-40s attack various targets in east-central and southern China.

Air Operations, East Indies

• FEAF B-24s and P-38s attack shipping around Makassar, Celebes.
• B-25s, A-20s, and fighter-bombers attack the town area at Amboina Town, oil stores at Boela, Ceram, and two airfields and targets of opportunity on Amboina, Boroe, and Ceram.
• Fighter-bombers attack Japanese Army bivouacs across Halmahera.
• 347th Fighter Group P-38s down 6 Japanese Army fighters near the Boeloedowang airfield on Celbes between 1010 and 1040 hours.

Air Operations, Europe

• 112 Lancasters of No. 5 Group attack the Flushing battery positions, but visibility is poor and the bombing is scattered.
• 4 Lancasters are lost.

• There are 6 Ranger patrols and 4 RCM sorties.
• There are no losses.

• 1,055 aircraft including 561 Lancasters, 463 Halifaxes,and 31 Mosquitos, are sent to Essen. This is the heaviest raid on this target so far in the war and the number of aircraft sent is also the greatest number to any target to this point. These new records are achieved without the Lancasters of No. 5 Group being included. 4,538 tons of bombs are dropped. More than 90 per cent of this tonnage is high explosive including 509 4,000-pounders because it is now considered that most of the burnable buildings in Essen have been destroyed in earlier raids.
  The greater proportion of high explosive, against all the trends in earlier area-bombing raids, is now quite common in attacks on targets which have suffered major fire damage in 1943. However, incendiaries start fires in vast slag heaps, which are still smouldering in the late 1940s.
• 5 Lancasters and 3 Halifaxes are lost.

• 38 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin, 10 to Wiesbaden and 2 to Aschaffenburg, 1 Hudson is on a Resistance operation, and there are 50 Mosquito patrols and 41 RCM sorties.
• There are no losses.

Air Operations, Japan

In the Kurile Islands, 5 28th Composite Group B-25s attack the Asahi Bay area, 3 B-24s attack Kashiwabara, and 3 B-24s attack Otomari.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command A-20s support Allied ground forces along the Orai and Sawar rivers.
• V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack Sagan.

Air Operations, Philippines

• FEAF B-25s attack shipping in the Sulu Archipelago.
• Task Group 77.4 carrier aircraft support US 6th Army ground forces on Leyte.
• 2 VF-35 F6Fs down a D3A 'Val' dive bomer near Leyte at 0605 hours.

Battle of Leyte Gulf

Kurita's Center Force is sighted off Palawan in the early hours by 2 US submarines. 2 heavy cruisers, the Atago and the Maya, are sunk in the subsequent attacks by US submarines Dace (SS-247) and Darter (SS-227), and one more is damaged and forced to retire. One of the submarines is lost but because of their reports the 3 remaining groups of TF 38 east of the Philippines prepare to attack when the Japanese squadron is in range.

Diplomatic Relations

(22?) Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union recognize de Gaulle's administration as the Provisional Government of France.

Eastern Front

In the far north the Russians complete the clearance of the Petsamo region. The Russians now hold a 137-km front in East Prussia.

The III Panzer Corps is redeployed into Hungary and commits to protect the rear of the 8th Army. The XVII and XXIX Corps are fighting west to avoid encirclement east of Nyireghaza.

Germany, Home Front

The German news bureau reports vast numbers of volunteers flocking to joint he Volkssturm territorial army, including boys and men younger and older than the specified age groups.

Italy

In the western sector the position of the Allied divisions remains substantially unchanged. The 5th Army captures Monte Salvaro. In the east, where the units of the British 8th Army are operating, the bridgeheads over the Savio River are reinforced.

Philippines

The battles on Leyte continue. In a solemn ceremony at Tacloban, MacArthur re-installs the legitimate government of the Philippines under the presidency of Sergio Osmena.

North of Tacloban the 1st Cav Div exerts powerful pressure against part of the Japanese 16th Div to drive them out the northwest part of the island and liberate the San Juanico Strait, between Leyte and the neighboring island of Samar, so as to hinder enemy moverment between the 2 islands.

In the southern sector, where the US XXIV Corps is in action, the 96th Inf Div is short of supplies. The 7th Div, supported by a tank battalion, continues to advance inland toward Burauen, near to which are San Pablo airport and other landing grounds. The tanks get as far as Burauen; the infantry occupy Julita and San Pablo and take the airport.

Adm Onishi, CinC Japanese Naval Air Fleet, forms the Kamikaze corps from 210 Air Wing stationed at Clark Field, south of Manila.

Western Front

On the left flank of the British I Corps, the 4th Arm Div moves off westward toward Bergen-op-Zoom, to close off the isthmus of South Beveland, along which the Canadian 2nd Div is preparing to advance.

The advance toward St Dié by the 3rd Div, VI Corps, is effectively opposed by units of Friedrich von Wiese's German 19th Army. On the right flank of the VI Corps, the US 36th Div is advancing east of Bruyéres toward Biffantoaine.

Images from October 23, 1944

2nd Army advance on Hertogenbosh: troops and assault engineers approaching Nuland, 23 October 1944

Moving Toward Nuland

Infantry of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 53rd Division, in forward positions outside Heike on the road to Hertogenbosch in Holland, 23 October 1944

British Infantry Outside Heike

Partisans in Belgrade, October 1944

Yugoslav Partisans on the March near the city of Újvidék (Novi Sad), October 1944

A.E. Hollings of the 4th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, oils his rifle; Ossendrecht, Netherlands, 23 October 1944

Cleaning His Rifle

Churchill AVRE towing a sled with fascines, and another carrying a fascine, moving up for 53rd Division's attack west of Oss in The Netherlands, 23 October 1944

Churchill Tanks Moving Up To Attack

Churchill tanks and infantry move forward during the attack towards Hertogenbosch, 23 October 1944.

Moving Up Toward Hertogenbosch

Convoy of Allied Trucks Crossing Bridge in Italy, 23 October 1944

A rare photo of 'Ram' Kangaroo armoured personnel carriers of the 1st Canadian Armoured Personnel Carrier Squadron taken on 23 October 1944, carrying British troops of the 2nd Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders, 152nd (Highland) Infantry Brigade, of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division. (Courtesy Ed Storey)

'Ram' Kangaroo Armored Personnel Carriers

Flamethrowers drove to Bruggen and put some farms on fire. The night before the Germans have offered mucht resistance but had disappeared to that the 160th Bridgade could advance from Kruisstraat into Rosmalen

Firing Some Farms

The staff car of Lt-Gen Neumann after heavy artillery fire on the Hinthammerpark and his command post. This artillery attack started on the 23rd at 2000 hours and without pausing ended 0440 hours on the 24th.

Staff car of Lt-Gen Neumann

A Japanese cruiser is under attack and severely damaged in the Sibuyan Sea in the Philippines, 23 October 1944

Japanese Cruiser Under Attack