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• Oberleutnant Walter Nowotny, Commanding officer of the I/JG54 group, became the first pilot in the world to achieve 250 kills, for which feat he would receive Germany's second highest award, Diamonds to his Knight's Cross medal, awarded to him by Adolf Hitler. ww2dbase [AC]
• USS Pompon attacked a Japanese oiler in the Gulf of Siam; all 4 torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [Pompon | CPC]
• German troops cleared the Zaporozhe bridgehead, retreating across the Dneiper River in southern Ukraine. ww2dbase [TH]
• Submarine Segundo was laid down. ww2dbase [Segundo | CPC]
• Natoma Bay was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Natoma Bay | CPC]
• Canberra (Baltimore-class) was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Canberra (Baltimore-class) | CPC]
• USS Dorado failed to arrive at the Panama Canal Zone, and aircraft were launched to search, without success, for the submarine. Early suggestions that she was sunk in error by a US Mariner aircraft was later concluded as incorrect, and it seemed likely that her loss was attributable to an unknown accident on board or to a German naval mine. ww2dbase [Dorado | AC, CPC]

• US 8th Air Force launched 291 B-17 bombers and 60 B-24 bombers to attack the Schweinfurt ball bearing plants in Germany; the 60 B-24 bombers were diverted to another target. 77 American bombers and 1 escorting fighter were lost, while 38 Luftwaffe fighters were shot down the defense. 122 American bombers returned to base in bad condition but they were able to be repaired. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Schweinfurt Ball Bearing Factories | Schweinfurt, Mainfranken | TH]

• USS Corvina arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Corvina | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]
• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Four officers and 267 men of Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 552 (CBMU-552) on board. ww2dbase [Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]
• USS Corvina arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• USS Grayback sank a Japanese passenger-cargo ship in the East China Sea, hitting her with 1 of 4 torpedoes. ww2dbase [Grayback | East China Sea | CPC]

• Japan declared the independence of the Philippines. As with other territories however the independence was nominal and civil freedoms muted. ww2dbase [AC]

• Prisoners at Sobibór concentration camp in occupied Poland, led by Byelorussian Jew Alexander Pechersky, killed 11 SS officers and seized the armory. 158 prisoners were killed during this action. Of those who succeeded in escaping, 53 were killed outside the camp, and 107 were captured and executed. Only 58 avoided capture; many of them would join partisan units. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Sobibór Concentration Camp | Sobibór, Lublin | CPC]

• Composite Squadron VC-41 reported aboard USS Corregidor at San Diego, California, United States. ww2dbase [Corregidor | San Diego, California | DS]

14 Oct 1943 Interactive Map