1 Oct 1943



- American submarine USS Halibut tested a torpedo equipped with newly designed contact exploder. ww2dbase [Halibut | CPC]
- The US Navy Pacific Fleet deployed its first submarine wolfpack. ww2dbase [CPC]
- U-52 was decommissioned from service. ww2dbase [U-52 | CPC]
- Just before midnight 10 miles northwest of Kolombangara, destroyer USS Saufley fired on a group of 10 Japanese barges, sinking 9. Minutes later, Saufley began steaming farther up the "Slot" at high speed on a report of Japanese destroyers. While underway, a Japanese airplane came up on Saufley from dead astern and dropped three bombs that exploded within 25 feet of the destroyer's port side. Saufley's hull above the waterline and superstructure were penetrated by bomb fragments in about 30 places and 13 men were injured. Saufley's gunners fired on the aircraft as it passed overhead and reported that the plane spiraled into the water, but this was never confirmed. Two of the injured men, one of them the ship's doctor, later died of their wounds. ww2dbase [Saufley | New Georgia Sound, Solomon Islands | DS]
- 220 Danish Jews were arrested by the Gestapo. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]
- Oberleutnant zur See Günter Leupold was made the commanding officer of U-1059, replacing Herbert Brüninghaus. ww2dbase [U-1059 | CPC]
- Troops of German 1st Mountain Division massacred 87 people in the village of Lingiades, Greece in reliation of the assassination of Oberstleutnant Josef Salminger by Greek partisan fighters. ww2dbase [Lingiades | CPC]
- A Chinese heavy mortar regiment arrived at Ramgarh Training Center in India for training. Additionally, Chinese 1st Provisional Tank Group was formed at Ramgarh under the command of US Army Colonel Rothwell Brown; it consisted of 1,800 Chinese officers and men and 231 US officers and men, operating between 100 to 125 US-built M3A3 Stuart light tanks. ww2dbase [Ramgarh Training Center | Ramgarh, Bengal Presidency | CPC]
- The Viscount Wavell, Archibald Wavell, was made the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, succeeding the Marquess of Linlithgow, Victor Hope. ww2dbase [Archibald Wavell | CPC]
- Japanese submarine I-10 (Commander Kinzo Tonozuka) attacked an Allied convoy traveling toward Aden in the Gulf of Aden with three torpedoes, sinking Norwegian armed merchant Storviken (carrying coal) with two hits. Two crewmen were taken aboard I-10 as prisoners of war, including Finn Kjellevik, who had previously survived a sinking by German submarine U-375 in Jul 1942. ww2dbase [Gulf of Aden | CPC, HM]
- Allied troops reached Naples, Italy at 0930 hours, which had already been taken over by Italian resistance fighters. The arriving troops found the port facilities were destroyed by the Germans. ww2dbase [Naples Uprising | Napoli, Campania | TH, CPC]
- USS Pompon attacked a Japanese transport in the South China Sea; all 4 torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [Pompon | South China Sea | CPC]
- USAAF Bombardment Squadron departed Edinburgh Field in Trinidad. ww2dbase [Carlsen Field | Chaguanas | CPC]
- In the Kara Sea off northern Russia, German submarine U-703 sank freighter Sergei Kirov of Soviet convoy VA-18 and U-960 sank escort vessel T-42. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | CPC]




1 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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