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17 Oct 1943
  • USS Puffer arrived at Fremantle, Australia, ending her first war patrol. ww2dbase [Puffer | CPC]
  • US Army Colonel Lewis Pick assumed command of the Allied road building effort in India and Burma. ww2dbase [CPC]
Australian New Guinea Australian Papua British Western Pacific Territories
  • US Marine Corps squadrons VMF-214 and VMF-221 conducted a fighter sweep over Kahili Airfield on Bougainville island in the morning. More than 30 A6M fighters of Japanese Navy Air Group 201 rose to defend. VMF-214 pilots would claim 9 Japanese aircraft shot down, while VMF-221 claimed 2; Japanese records would later reveal that only 2 aircraft were lost on this day. The Japanese pilots claimed 3 US aircraft shot down, but the Americans only suffered 2 aircraft lightly damaged and 1 aircraft heavily damaged and written off after its return. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | Kahili Airfield | Buin, Bougainville | CPC]
Burma
  • The two sections of the infamous Burma railway met south of the Three Pagodas Pass. Most of the Allied prisoners of war were then transferred to Japan. ww2dbase [AC]
Caroline Islands
  • Shokaku sortied from Truk, Caroline Islands to Eniwetok, Marshall Islands with Combined Fleet under Admiral Koga's command in response to US Task Force 16 carrier raids on Wake Island. ww2dbase [Shokaku | Truk | CPC]
  • Yamato sortied from Truk to Brown Atoll, Eniwetok in response to radio traffic that suggested a potential American strike on Wake Island. ww2dbase [Yamato | Truk | CPC]
Dutch East Indies Hawaii
  • Barbers Point Naval Air Station: About 0010, a small float-type monoplane was picked up by the searchlight of NAS, Barber's Point. The plane, presumably a Japanese reconnaissance plane, attempted to dodge the searchlights, and sped out to sea at a low altitude [an E14Y "Glen" floatplane was launched from submarine I-36 120 miles south-southwest of Oahu and failed to return]. One staff officer of Task Group 19.13 on board. ww2dbase [E14Y | Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]
Iceland
  • USS Ranger and the Royal Navy Home Fleet sortied from Akureyri, Iceland on an Arctic patrol that extended 750 miles north of Iceland. ww2dbase [Ranger | Akureyri | DS]
United Kingdom
  • The British 42nd Armoured Division was disbanded; its infantry formations being assigned to the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division and its armoured formations to the 79th Armoured Division. ww2dbase [AC]
United States
  • The civilian Roane-Anderson Company, a subsidiary of the Turner Construction Company, took over the responsibility of administering the community in Tennessee, United States in which the workers at Site X of the Manhattan Project resided. ww2dbase [Clinton Engineer Works | Oak Ridge, Tennessee | CPC]
  • USS St. Louis put to sea for full power trials before returning to San Francisco Bay, California. ww2dbase [St. Louis | San Francisco, California | DS]
US Pacific Islands Photo(s) dated 17 Oct 1943
Two wrecked Japanese Daihatsu-class landing craft at Scarlet Beach, Finschhafen, New Guinea, 17 Oct 1943, photo 1 of 2Two wrecked Japanese Daihatsu-class landing craft at Scarlet Beach, Finschhafen, New Guinea, 17 Oct 1943, photo 2 of 2Wounded German prisoner of war near the Volturno River, Italy, 17 Oct 1943

17 Oct 1943 Interactive Map

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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Famous WW2 Quote
"I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil."

General Douglas MacArthur at Leyte, 17 Oct 1944


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