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• Japanese freighter Arisan Maru, carrying 1,782 Allied prisoners of war, was sunk by an American submarine. Only 9 POWs survived the sinking. ww2dbase [Arisan Maru | CPC]
• Shoji Nishimura passed away. ww2dbase [Shoji Nishimura | CPC]
• Toshihira Inoguchi passed away. ww2dbase [Toshihira Inoguchi | CPC]
• USS Croaker attacked a Japanese convoy; firing a total of 13 torpedoes, 6 of them made contact, damaging two ships and sinking one freighter. ww2dbase [Croaker | CPC]
• Oberleutnant Alfred Veith of the German Kampfgeschwader 55 wing was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Winston Churchill informed Lieutenant General Sir Oliver Leese that he had been appointed as the new Commander of 11th Army Group. ww2dbase [Oliver Leese | AC]

• Two new Stafflen (squadrons) were now introduced into operations with German Air Force III/KG3, with the group having bourne the brunt of the past weeks' action. Two of the new Heinkel bombers were shot down on their first night. Flight Lieutenant Desmond Tull DFC, flying a Beaufighter aircraft of the Fighter Interception Unit (FIU) shot down the first 60 miles east of Great Yarmouth, England, United Kingdom; this was Tull's 9th victory. The other was attacked by Flight Officer Bill Beadle (HK310/VA-J) of 125 Squadron; the German pilot nursed his badly damaged aircraft back with a dead crewman; the aircraft was a total loss after catching fire on the runway. ww2dbase [North Sea | HM]

• USS Tang attacked an escorted Japanese convoy in the Taiwan Strait off the island of Niushandao, China, sinking five transports and tankers and one destroyer; among the sunken were, Kogen Maru and Matsumoto Maru. ww2dbase [Tang | Niushandao, Fujian | CPC]

• USS Yorktown (Essex-class) departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for Eniwetok, Marshall Islands. ww2dbase [Yorktown (Essex-class) | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | DS]

• Japanese battleship Musashi was lost in the Battle of Sibuyan Sea to overwhelming American air power. ww2dbase [Philippines Campaign, Phase 1, the Leyte Campaign | Musashi | Sibuyan Sea | CPC]
• Nachi departed Coron, Palawan, Philippine Islands. At 0427, she fired eight torpedoes at a radar target in Surigao Strait, scoring no hits. Two minutes later, she collided with cruiser Mogami, forcing the force to retire. ww2dbase [Nachi | CPC]
• As Kurita’s Center Force transited the Tablas Strait in the Philippines they came under attack from aircraft from carriers USS Essex and USS Lexington (Essex-class). Kumano received a bomb hot (a dud) to the roof of number 4 turret causing no damage. ww2dbase [Philippines Campaign, Phase 1, the Leyte Campaign | Kumano | Tablas Strait | DS]
• While withdrawing, damaged cruiser Kumano is again attacked in Tablas Strait, this time by aircraft from USS Hancock. Kumano was hit by two 1,000lb bomb hits and a near miss caused flooding that disabled several boilers. The cruiser went dead in the water. After emergency repairs, Kumano makes 10 knots, then is towed by cruiser Ashigara, and enters Coron Bay. ww2dbase [Philippines Campaign, Phase 1, the Leyte Campaign | Kumano | Tablas Strait | DS]

24 Oct 1944 Interactive Map