Pages of History (October): Pacific Ace

October 1st — October 4th

Battle of the Scheldt

From October 2nd to November 8th 1944, Canadian troops fought a series of military operations along the Scheldt River on the border between Belgium and the Netherlands to secure Allied supply lines through the port of Antwerp. Due to Allied strategic errors, the battle began too late. The Germans were reinforced and ready to defend themselves, making it become the longest and bloodiest engagement for the Canadian Army in the war.

October 5th — October 8th

Battle of Vella Lavella (naval)

In October 1943, Japan was evacuating its garrisons from the Solomon Islands. On October 6th, 600 Japanese soldiers remained on the northern part of the island of Vella Lavella, boarding barges guarded by 9 destroyers. The Americans sent 6 of their own destroyers to intercept the evacuation, but they were unable to stop it. As a result of the battle, both sides lost one destroyer each.

October 9th — October 12th

Orsha Operation

From October 12th to December 2nd, 1943, the USSR conducted an unsuccessful offensive operation near the city of Orsha in Belarus. The troops, exhausted by the just-completed Smolensk operation, were not ready to overcome the well-organized multi-echelon defense of the Wehrmacht and suffered huge losses of more than 100,000 soldiers, 25,000 of which were killed. Following the operation, the commander of the Western Front, General Vasily Sokolovsky, was removed from his position.

October 13th — October 17th

Gumbinnen Operation

On October 16th, 1944, Soviet troops launched an offensive into East Prussia, where the Wehrmacht held a strong defense. By October 22nd, the Red Army had taken Goldap and Gumbinnen, but within days it had lost both cities and was pushed back. Both sides suffered significant losses.

October 17th — October 20th

Battle of Leyte

At dawn on October 17th 1944, American forces began landing in the Philippines. The Leyte garrison, consisting of tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers, held out until the end of the year, with individual guerrillas continuing to resist until the end of the war.

October 20th — October 23rd

Second Battle of El Alamein

On October 23rd 1942, the decisive battle of the North African campaign of World War II began. In 13 days of intense fighting, Allied forces under the command of Bernard Montgomery defeated the Italo-German group of Erwin Rommel, pushing them out of Egypt and Libya into Tunisia and putting an end to the threat of the Axis reaching the Middle East.

October 23rd — October 27th

Battle of Henderson Field

On August 7th 1942, the Americans captured the Henderson Field airfield on Guadalcanal. Japanese troops made several attempts to recapture it, the last of which occurred on October 23rd-26th: infantry with air and sea support unsuccessfully attacked Henderson Field. In three days, Japan lost 2-3 thousand soldiers, a cruiser and 14 aircraft.

October 28th — October 31st

Budapest Operation

After Romania went over to the Allies, the USSR turned its attention to their next strategic target: Hungary. Hitler considered its retention to be the most important task and spared no resources for this purpose. Soviet and Romanian troops began their offensive on October 29th, but they reached Budapest itself only two months later, and took it only by mid-February.