Sorry I'm so late on the posting of October's Time Line battles but I have been way to busy for a retired guy! I have selected all of the October battles from my dad's scrap book as a quick reference for you.
If you find this Time Line interesting you can purchase my book "Gibbon's Secrets" and have all of "A Boy's Memories of the 40's". The book is available at Author House, my publisher, or at the following: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Indigo Bridge Book Store @ Lincoln's Haymarket, or any local book store can order it for you.
1940
October 16th 1940 - Over 16,000,000 men register for the U.S. draft.
October 31st 1940 - This day marks the end of the continuous Luftwaffe raiding campaign against Britain. British forces land on the Greek Island of Crete, a strategically important island, and began to mine the waters off of Greece.
1941
October 31st 1941 - The German U-boat U-522 sank the first WWII US warship; the destroyer USS Reuben James.
1942
October 6th 1942 - Paving operations were initiated for the Kearney Army Air Base runways, with Reg Phelps hauling the first load of gravel for the paving mix.
October 7th 1942 - On Guadalcanal, the US 1st Marine Division breaks out from the beachhead to create a larger safety zone around the airstrip at Henderson Field.
October 11th 1942 - The build-up for the "Battle of Guadalcanal" continues, with the Americans landing 3,000 men ashore and the Japanese landing artillery, tanks, and other material but they lose more ships in the operations.
October 24th 1942 - "The Battle of Santa Cruz" starts on October 24th, as a long range naval battle between American and Japanese forces. The battle continues through October 27th, with the Japanese sustaining heavy losses on Guadalcanal.
1943
October 1st 1943 - The US 5th Army, commanded by Lt-General Mark Clark captures Naples Italy.
October 4th 1943 - French troops captures Corsica with the help of local guerrillas and the Germans evacuate Sardenia.
October 6th 1943 - Allies with the US 5th Army took Caserta and Capua and the British Army advances up the east coast of Italy. The German retreat continues and the Allies progress with little opposition.
October 15th 1943 - "The Volturno Line" in Italy is breached, the Germans make a fighting withdrawal to the the defensive lines, the "Barbara Line" and the "Bernhard Line", while creating substantial defenses on the "Gustav Line" behind rivers Garigliano, Rapido and Sangro.
1944
October 2nd 1944 – The Warsaw Resistance Army surrenders to German forces, after 2 months of heavy fighting which is a Polish disaster.
October 7th 1944 – “The Battle of Aachen” is the first German city to fall. The offensive of the American 1st and 9th Armies to the Rur, which included the battle of the Hurtgen Forest, “Operation Queen”, the largest aerial close support operation of the war against the German lines east of Aachen; a total of 2,807 planes dropped 10,097 tons of bombs.
October 18th 1944 - Volkesturm formed. These last-ditch defenders of the Reich were men aged from sixteen to sixty and were organized in their own districts, with few uniforms, and with any weapons they could find. They were under the leadership of any available officers, from the SS, SA, NSKK or Hitler Youth. Units of this home defense force varied greatly in quality. Young boys of the Hitler Youth were reputed to have fought with great ferocity.
October 23rd 1944 – “The Battle of Leyte Gulf” is the biggest naval battle to date, resulting in heavy Japanese Naval losses and the sinking of the U.S. aircraft carrier, “USS Princeton”. Admiral Kinkaids’s U.S. 7th Fleet escorts the first landing-parties from General Krueger’s 6th Army on Leyte. There was little resistance from Japanese 16th Division; the first day about 130,000 U.S. troops came ashore.
October 25th 1944 – Russians invade Norway, captures Kirkenes.
October 29th 1944 – Auschwitz’s last gassing.
