Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 250+ aircraft attack on Walcheren targetting gun batteries dominating the approaches to the port of Antwerp. Also targeted was the sea wall around the island to flood the island of Walcheren and many German gun positions. Sea wall breached in many places causing the flooding desired.
The Eastern Front: The Battle of Tornio began between German and Finnish forces.
The Italian Campaign: American forces captured Monte Battaglia on the Gothic Line in Italy, helped by the Italian partisans.
The Western Front: Canadian forces take Calais

The Putten Raid: A civilian raid conducted by Nazi Germany in the occupied Netherlands, during which a total of 602 men – almost the entire male population of the village – were taken from Putten, in the central Netherlands, and deported to various concentration camps inside Germany. Only 48 returned at the end of the war. The raid was carried out as a reprisal for a Dutch resistance attack on a vehicle carrying German personnel.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 1,100+ aircraft attack 4 assigned targets at Bettenhausen ordnance depot, Henschel plant and other Kassel areas, Cologne motor works, Hamm railway marshalling yards, and several targets of opportunity in these areas.
The Eastern Front: The Warsaw Uprising was put down after two months by German occupation forces.

The Western Front: The Battle of Aachen began between American and German forces in and around Aachen, Germany.
The Western Front: The Battle of the Scheldt began in northern Belgium and the southwestern Netherlands.

In Lenno, on Lake Como, some partisans attempted to kidnap Guido Buffarini Guidi, the fascist Italian Social Republic's Minister of the Interior. The action ends tragically, with the deaths of five partisans.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 100+ aircraft continue armed reconnacence over wide expanses of China S of the Yangtze, attacking rivercraft, road traffic, troops, town areas, and other targets of opportunity.
The Eastern Front: Finnish forces capture Taivalkoski in northern Finland.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 140+ aircraft attack on Bergen, Norway. Targets include U-Boat pens & individual U-boats.

Milan Nedić's collaborationist puppet government of the Axis powers, the Government of National Salvation in Nazi-occupied Serbia, was disbanded.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 1,100+ aircraft attack 4 assigned targets at Bettenhausen ordnance depot, Henschel plant and other Kassel areas, Cologne motor works, Hamm railway marshalling yards, and several targets of opportunity in these areas.
The Eastern Front: The Warsaw Uprising was put down after two months by German occupation forces.
The Western Front: The Battle of Aachen began between American and German forces in and around Aachen, Germany.
The Western Front: The Battle of the Scheldt began in northern Belgium and the southwestern Netherlands.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 220+ aircraft attack on Wilhelmshaven.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 530+ aircraft attack on Saabrucken, Germany. Devastating raid on target
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 900+ aircraft strike 4 primary targets (a railway marshalling yards and 4 airfields) in NW Germany and several secondary targets and targets of opportunity (railway marshalling yards, airfield, city areas) in the same area, especially around Dusseldorf and Cologne.
Five pilots of No. 401 Squadron RCAF participated in the shooting down of a Messerschmitt Me 262 over the Netherlands, marking the first time that a jet fighter had been shot down by enemy fire.
Sec of the Treasury Morgenthau and Lord Keynes begin a series of talks on the course of Lend-Lease between V-E and V-J Days.
Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese forces captured Fuzhou, the last seaport under Chinese control.
The Eastern Front: The Battle of Memel begins
The Italian Campaign: American forces launch an attack towards La Spezia.

Baseball World Series Game 2: St Louis Browns 2-3 St Louis Cardinals, Sportsman's Park, St Louis. 1-1
Reichsminister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels announces a reduction in German food rations.

Milan Nedić, president of the Serbian collaborationist puppet state of the Axis powers, the Government of National Salvation, flees from Belgrade in Nazi-occupied Serbia by air together with other Serbian collaborators and German officials, via Hungary to Austria.
The Dumbarton Oaks Conference concludes. The international conference at which proposals for the establishment of a "general international organization", which was to become the United Nations, were formulated and negotiated. The conference was led by the Four Policemen – the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 250+ aircraft attack on Synthetic-oil plants at Sterkrade & Scholven/Buer
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 240+ aircraft attack on Bremen, Germany. Severe damage to the Siemens Schuckert electrical works. The transport network is described as seriously disrupted. RAF decided that this raid had finished off Bremen & they never returned to the city
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 530+ aircraft attack on Dortmund, Germany. Severe damage to the target
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid of 1,200+ aircraft attacked 11 primary targets, including oil plants, aircraft factories, ordnance facilities, and Luftwaffe training school, in N Germany, and 19 targets of opportunity including airfields at Stralsund and Stade.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 300+ aircraft hit railway marshalling yards, barracks, and ammo dump at Hengelo and Duren and bridges at Arnhem and Aldenhoven.
The Eastern Front: The Battle of Debrecen begins in Hungary.

Baseball World Series Game 3: St Louis Cardinals 2-6 St Louis Browns, Sportsman's Park, St Louis. St Louis Browns 2-1

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 120+ aircraft attack on Walcheren. Targeting the sea wall around the island.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 340+ aircraft attack on Emmerich, Germany. The attack used to protect the eastern flank of Nijmegan occurred during Operation Market Garden.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 350+ aircraft attack on Kleve, Germany. The attack used to protect the eastern flank of Nijmegan occurred during Operation Market Garden.
Allied Bomber Offensive: The British 617 Squadron daytime attack the Kembs Dam France on the Rhine, just north of Basle, Switzerland. The target was the lock gates which were hit by tallboy bombs. The locks destroyed releasing vast quantities of water that could not be used to later stop an American advance onto the Rhine.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 1,300+ bomb 5 synthetic oil plants, an armament, a tank, and an aero engine works in C and NE Germany, plus 16 identified and 19 other unidentified targets in the area.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 330+ aircraft attack railway marshalling yards at Nove Zamky and Komarom and airfield at Gyor.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 350+ aircraft bomb Lobau and Schwechat oil refineries and Winterhafen oil depot
The Eastern Front: Soviet forces began the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive against Axis forces in Finland and Norway.
The Italian Campaign: British forces launch an offensive beyond the river Rubicon.

Baseball World Series Game 4: St Louis Cardinals 5-1 St Louis Browns, Sportsman's Park, St Louis. 2-2
Sonderkommando revolt: The Sonderkommando (Nazi death camp prisoners deployed to remove corpses from the gas chambers and burn them) at Auschwitz-Birkenau revolted with makeshift weapons. Three SS guards were killed, but more than 200 members of the Sonderkommando died in the fighting. Hundreds of prisoners escaped but were all soon captured and executed.

The Eastern Front: The Battle of Tehumardi was fought at night on the Estonian island of Saaremaa between retreating German troops and a Soviet Estonian rifle division. Both sides fought blindly, firing into the darkness or feeling for the enemy by touch.
The Eastern Front: The Battle of Tornio ends in German retreat.
The Eastern Front: The Battle of Turda ends in a Romanian-Soviet victory.
The Western Front: Battle of the Nijmegen salient ends - the Germans were unable to recover lost ground taken by the Allies during Operation Market Garden.
The Western Front: The Battle of Crucifix Hill was fought outside the German village of Haaren, resulting in an American victory.

Baseball World Series Game 5: St Louis Cardinals 2-0 St Louis Browns, Sportsman's Park, St Louis. St Louis Cardinals 3-2

The Fourth Moscow Conference begins. Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and American ambassador W. Averell Harriman met to discuss the future of Europe.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 240+ aircraft attack on Bochum, Germany. Severe damage was caused to the town.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid of 1,000+ aircraft struck 2 railway marshalling yards and an engine plant at Mainz, and hit Koblenz, Gustavsburg, Schweinfurt, and 2 targets of opportunity in W Germany.
The Western Front: During the Battle of the Scheldt, the Canadian forces make an amphibious landing on the south bank of the Western Scheldt.

Baseball World Series Game 6: St Louis Browns 1-3 St Louis Cardinals, Sportsman's Park, St Louis. St Louis Cardinals win World Series 4-2

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 170+ attack 4 railway marshalling yards at Treviso and Mestre and bridges at Susegana and San Dona di Piave plus rail lines in surrounding areas.
The Eastern Front: A delegation of Austrian industrialists and officers asked Reichsstatthalter Baldur von Schirach to declare Vienna an open city.
The Italian Campaign: British forces pass the Rubicon and capture Longiano and Savignano
The Italian Campaign: German forces stop the offensive of the Americans on the Bologna Apennines in Livergnano
The Italian Campaign: In Genoa, the explosion of a German ammunition deposit in the San Benigno quarter (caused by lightning or, according to some never-confirmed theories, by a partisan attack) caused hundreds of deaths. The victims included German soldiers, Genoese civilians living in the area and refugees in air-raid shelters.
The Italian Campaign: In Piedmont, a coalition of "blue" (monarchist) and "red" (communist) partisans occupy Alba, without fighting; The town became the most important urban centre freed by the Resistance's forces, before being reconquered by the Fascists a month later.
The Burma Campaign: Allied commando unit Z Special Unit began Operation Rimau, an attack on Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbor.

The Romani Holocaust 'Porajmos': 800 Romani children are murdered at Auschwitz

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 250+ aircraft attack on River Scheldt gun batteries. Attack on Fort Frederik & Fort Hendrik battery positions.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 130+ aircraft bomb Wesseling synthetic oil plant and Koblenz railway marshalling yards.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 180+ aircraft bomb Vienna  S ordnance depot, Graz motor works, S and SW areas of Vienna, towns of Hirtenberg and Enzesfeld, railway marshalling yards at Zeltweg, Dravograd railroad bridge on Yugoslav-Hungarian boundary, railroad and highway bridges at Cesara, and Trieste harbour.
The Eastern Front: A secret Hungarian delegation signed a ceasefire agreement in Moscow. Hungary agreed to declare war on Germany and give up all territory gained since 1937.
The Eastern Front: Soviet forces capture Cluj, Romania and Szeged, Hungary

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 250+ aircraft attack on Wanne-Eickel, Germany. The main target the GAVEG chemical factory was destroyed
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 160+ aircraft strafe mainline railroad and Danube R traffic in ViennaGyor-Budapest areas and strafe Seregelyes airfield, disrupting traffic and destroying many enemy aeroplanes.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 500+ aircraft attack railway marshalling yards at Osnabruck, aircraft industries at Bremen, and targets of opportunity including Diepholz airfield.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 700+ aircraft attack in support of American forces, pound ammo and fuel dumps and depots, bivouac area, barracks, vehicle repair shop, munitions factory and targets of opportunity in Bologna area. (Operation PANCAKE) supporting the US Fifth Army offensive in that sector. 160 P-51’s strafe mainline railroad and Danube R traffic in ViennaGyor-Budapest areas and strafe Seregelyes airfield, disrupting traffic and destroying many enemy aeroplanes.
The Eastern Front: Operation Manna is the codeword for an operation by the British and Greek forces to land in Greece near the capital Athens
The Eastern Front: The Battle of Rovaniemi began between German and Finnish forces.
The Italian Campaign: American forces are stopped at Mount Cavallara; the offensive towards Bologna was temporarily suspended 12 miles short of the city

Allied Bomber Offensive: British RAF Bomber Command commander Arthur 'Bomber' Harris & American Eight Army Air Force commander Carl 'Tooey' Spaatz ordered commence Operation Hurricane a 24-hour bombing operation to "demonstrate to the enemy in Germany generally the overwhelming superiority of the Allied Air Forces in this theatre and "cause mass panic and disorganization in the Ruhr, disrupt frontline communications and demonstrate the futility of resistance"
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 130+ attack numerous armed reconnacence missions throughout S China and into W Burma attack troop areas, rivercraft, town areas, bridges, trucks, and other targets of opportunity.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 650+ aircraft bomb oil refineries at Blechhammer and Viennairfieldloridsdorf, motor works, locomotive shops, and railway marshalling yards at Vienna, Graz, Banhida, Szekesfehervar, Papa, Hranice and Mezirici. Some of the escorting fighters strafe railroads, roads, and airfields in areas of Balaton and Neusiedler Lakes, Vienna, and Prostejov. Other fighters strafe roads, railroads, and Danube R traffic in Vienna-GyorBudapest areas.
The Eastern Front: British and Greek forces liberate Athens from German occupation.

The Eastern Front: The Battle of Rovaniemi in Finland ends in a German retreat.
Germans launched V-1 and V-2 flying bombs at Antwerp in an attempt to deny the use of its crucial port to the Allies.

<strong>Operation Valkyrie:</strong> General Erwin Rommel is forced to commit suicide by cyanide poisoning for his part in the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler

Allied Bomber Offensive: Operation Hurricane. Heavy day-time British air raid, 1,010+ aircraft attack on Duisburg, Germany. The attack overwhelmed the German Flak positions & Severe damage was caused to the city.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Operation Hurricane. Heavy night-time British air raid, 230+ aircraft attack on Brunswick, Germany. Severe damage was caused to the city.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Operation Hurricane. Heavy night-time British air raid, 450+ aircraft attack on Duisburg, Germany. Severe damage was caused to the already burning city. All mines & coke ovens in the city lay silent.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Operation Hurricane. Heavy day-time American air raid 1,100+ aircraft bomb 7 railway marshalling yards at Saarbrucken, Kaiserslautern, and Cologne, city of Euskirchen, and targets of opportunity in the Cologne area.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 100+ aircraft bomb aircraft plant at Okayama, Japan
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 100+ fighter bombers pound troop concentrations, gun positions, supplies, bridges, roads, and rail lines S of Bologna where hard fighting is taking place in Monterumici, Livergnano, and Gesso ridge areas.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 310+ attack despite being hampered by bad weather, bomb oil refineries at Blechhammer and Odertal, and several targets of opportunity including railway marshalling yards at Bratislava, Nove Zamky, Komarom, Komarom and Nove Zamky railroad bridges, Borzavar industrial area, and Ugod military garrison.
The Eastern Front: German forces withdrew from Niš.
The Italian Campaign: German and Fascist troops reconquered Domodossola, which for forty days had been the capital of an independent republic, ruled by the partisans and the antifascist parties.

Wartime Football International: England 6-2 Scotland, Wembley Stadium, London

Allied Bomber Offensive: The British 617 Squadron daytime attack the Sorpe Dam, Germany. The original Dambusting Raid in May 1943 had failed to break the Sorpe Dam. This time they attacked the dam with tallboy bombs. No breach was made in the dam so it survived this latest attack.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 500+ aircraft attack on Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Severe damage was caused to the business & residential areas.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 1,000+ attack 9 railway marshalling yards and gas unit plants in and around the general area of Cologne, along with several other targets including oil facilities at Reisholz and Monheim.
The Eastern Front: Soviet forces capture Riga
The Eastern Front: The ceasefire between Hungary and the Soviet Union was publicized. Regent of Hungary Miklós Horthy made a radio broadcast announcing that he had made a separate peace with the Soviet Union withdrawing Hungary from the war.] Germans respond immediately with Operation Panzerfaust the overthrow of the Hungarian Government in Budapest

Regent of Hungary Miklós Horthy was forced out of office and replaced by Ferenc Szálasi of the fascist Arrow Cross Party.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 600+ aircraft hit tank factory, tank assembly plant, and aero-engine works at Steyr, benzol plant and ordnance depot at Linz, plus alternate targets and targets of opportunity in Austria, including Graz Neudorf aircraft engine factory, Trieben, Linz, Graz, Villach, Salzburg (destroying the dome of the cathedral & Mozart family home), Klagenfurt, Spittal a der Drau and Zeltweg railway marshalling yards, town of Sankt Veit a der Glan, Brux synthetic oil refinery, and armament works in Plzen.
The Eastern Front: Albanian partisans liberate Vlorë.
The Eastern Front: Soviet forces began the Gumbinnen Operation, attempting to penetrate the borders of East Prussia.
The Italian Campaign: With the Gothic Line now penetrated, American forces launched a new offensive toward Bologna to take the city before the onset of winter.

The Pacific Campaign: The Battle of Leyte began when American forces and Filipino guerrillas under the command of General Douglas MacArthur launched an amphibious invasion of the Gulf of Leyte in the Philippines.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid of 1,200+ aircraft attacked 5 railway marshalling yards and 2 targets of opportunity at Cologne.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 330+ attack Blechhammer S oil refinery and industrial area of Vienna, plus alternate targets and targets of opportunity including railway marshalling yards at Banhida, Nagykanizsa, Szombathely, Strass, Graz, and Maribor, railroad bridge at Maribor, rail line at Furstenfeld, and targets of opportunity scattered throughout the Balkans.
The Eastern Front: Rival partisans in Athens began fighting each other, and the British watched on.

Germany announced the formation of the Volkssturm, a national militia.
Operation Valkyrie: Erwin Rommel was given a state funeral in Ulm. German military personnel and Nazi officials attend.
The exiled Greek government returned to Athens.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 250+ aircraft attack on Bonn, Germany. Serious damage was caused to the town.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 450+ aircraft attack Kassel aircraft plant, motor plant and railway marshalling yards at Cologne, and chemical works at Leverkusen, along with nearby targets of opportunity.
The Italian Campaign: British forces capture Galeata.

The Fourth Moscow Conference ends.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 260+ aircraft attack on Nuremberg, Germany. Severe damage was caused to the industrial & residential areas.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 500+ aircraft attack on Stuttgart, Germany. Severe damage was caused to the Bosch factory.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 900+ aircraft attack Gustavsburg diesel engine and armoured vehicle plant, Mainz railway marshalling yards, arty tractor plant at Mannheim, and several nearby towns and targets of opportunity.
The Western Front: The American forces capture Bruyères in the Vosges mountains.

The Cuba-Florida Hurricane made landfall at Sarasota, Florida and moved north. A total of 300 people were killed in the storm.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 480+ aircraft oil refinery at Brux, oil storage at Regensburg, airfield at Bad Aibling, railway marshalling yards at Rosenheim and Innsbruck, motor transport, armament plants, and ordnance works at Milan, plus scattered targets of opportunity.
The Eastern Front: The Belgrade Offensive ended in a Partisan/Soviet victory when the capture of Belgrade itself was completed.

The Pacific Campaign: The Philippines Campaign began. Douglas MacArthur made a speech from a portable radio set at Leyte that began: "This is the Voice of Freedom, General MacArthur speaking. People of the Philippines: I have returned."

The Western Front: Operation Pheasant began - an offensive in the Netherlands which supported the ongoing Battle of the Scheldt

The Cleveland East Ohio Gas explosion killed 130 people and destroyed a one-mile square area of the east side of Cleveland, Ohio.

Despite heavy rain, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt rode in an open car through 51 miles (82 km) of New York City streets on his way to make a speech at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. With a little over two weeks left to go in the presidential election campaign, Roosevelt's ride through the city in the pouring rain without any proper covering was an attempt to show that he was still healthy.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 130+ aircraft attack shipping, gun positions, troop areas, bridges, town areas, road traffic, and other targets of opportunity around Yuma, Takhing, Dosing, Konghow, Shawan, Kuanyang, Kweiping, Tungpingchi, Tingka, Muse, Wan Lai-Kam, Shekpo, Menghsu, and Amoy.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 200+ attack railway marshalling yards at Gyor and Szombathely. Pulls strafe attack on Szombathely and Seregelyes airfields and rail lines between Sajoszentpeter to Ipolyszog.
The Eastern Front: Axis forces established the Syrmian Front, a line of defence on the Eastern Front northwest of Belgrade.
The Western Front: the first German city captured. The Battle of Aachen ends in American victory when the last German garrison in Aachen surrendered.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 100+ aircraft attack on Neuss, Germany.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 1,000+ aircraft attack 2 military vehicle plants at Brunswick and Hannover, 2 railway marshalling yards at Hamm and Munster, and 11 targets of opportunity.
The Eastern Front: Soviet forces reach the Norwegian border.
The Eastern Front: The main offensive in the Battle of Memel ends in Soviet victory.
The Pacific Campaign: The Battle of Angaur ends in American victory.

The Pacific Campaign: The Battle of Leyte Gulf began between U.S./Australian and Japanese forces at Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, possibly the largest naval battle in history.

Japanese warships Musashi, Yamato, Mogami and Nagato

The Allies recognized the Provisional Government of the French Republic as the legitimate government of France.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 100+ aircraft attack on Walcheren. The target was the Flushing battery positions but poor visibility was poor & bombing was scattered.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 1,000+ aircraft attack on Essen, Germany. Severe damage was caused to the already bombed city.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 500+ aircraft bomb Skoda armament works at Plzen, Rosenheim railway marshalling yards, Plauen industrial area, Munich aeroplane engine plant, Augsburg diesel engine factory, and Regensburg oil storage depot, and comm targets in N Italy including railway marshalling yards at Bressanone, bridges at or near Casarsa della Delizia, Pordenone, Santo Stino di Livenza, and Maniago, and rail line running N to Brenner area.

The most intense fighting of the Battle of Leyte Gulf was waged, including the Battle of Samar in the centermost action.

Torpedoed & bombed by Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber & Curtiss SBSC-3 Helldiver dive bombers aircraft from American warships Essex, Franklin & Intrepid, in the Sibuyan Sea, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Bomb ruptures steam pipes in the No: 2 engine room filling the boiler room with superheated steam, driving out the crew & the loss of one propeller shaft. Torpedoes hit jamming her main armament director, flooding her hydraulic machinery rooms, rupture her fuel tanks & engine rooms. The ship was trailing oil & falling behind making only 18 knots. Repeated bomb & torpedo attacks flood more of her engine spaces limiting her speed to 8 knots. The crew tried to beach her on a nearby island, but her engines failed. The ship eventually capsizes to port & sank. 1023 dead, 1376 survivors 12.50N 122.35E 24/10/1944

Damaged by bombs from Curtiss SB2C Helldiver dive bomber aircraft from American warship Essex, during the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea. The ship was hit by 14 armour-piercing bombs, damaging her port bow, anchor deck, and port chain locker, her mess deck was wrecked & side plates were blown out of her port side. Her No. 1 turret was also hit. The ship remained operational despite taking on 3,000 tons of water, a 5-degree list to port & down by the bow by 3' 24/10/1944. Ship remained operational

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 300+ fighter bombers attack targets in support of American forces S of Bologna and hit shipping in Turin-Genoa and E Po Valley areas, destroying 14 locomotives and over 100 railroad cars.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 400+ aircraft attack aircraft and ground targets in the Hannover-Kassel area.
The Eastern Front: The Riga Offensive ends in Soviet victory.
The Pacific Campaign: The Japanese hell ship Arisan Maru was torpedoed and sunk in the South China Sea by an American submarine. Only nine of the 1,781 Allied and civilian prisoners of war survived.

Damaged by torpedoes from the American warship Melvin, in a night attack during the Battle of Surigao Strait. The first torpedo hits below the No. 1 turret & the second torpedo starts a fire in her boiler room. Many of her hull rivers are popped causing serious flooding. Her speed drops to 10 knots, she drops out of formation & reserves course back down the straits. The ship sinks by the bow capsizing as she goes down 10.25N 125.23E 25/10/1944

Bombed & torpedoed by aircraft from American warships Intrepid, San Jacinto, Lexington & Cowpens, 220 miles ENE of Cape Engano, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The ship was hit by 9 bombs & 7 torpedoes, the ship rolled over to port before sinking stern first, with 842 dead, and 892 survivors 19.20N 125.51E 25/10/1944

The Allies officially recognized the Italian government under Ivanoe Bonomi.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 240+ aircraft attack on Homberg, Germany.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 770+ aircraft attack on Essen, Germany. Severe damage was caused to the Krupp steelworks.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raids of 1,200+ attack 3 oil refineries, Neumunster airfield and aircraft repair works, synthetic oil targets at Gelsenkirchen and Scholven/Buer, and several other targets including railway marshalling yards at Munster and Hamm.
The Pacific Campaign: Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive: the 14th Army of the Soviet Karelian Front captured the Norwegian town of Kirkenes.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends in a decisive Allied victory. 

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 240+ aircraft attack on Leverkusen, Germany.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 1,100+ attack synthetic oil plant at Bottrop, ordnance and storage depot at Bielefeld, aircraft repair works and railway marshalling yards at Munster, military vehicle plant near Hannover, aqueduct and Mittelland Canal at Minden, and other targets including the city of Hannover.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid attack naval force of 2 battleships, 5 carriers, and 5 destroyers W of Panay I. P-38 hit vehicles in the Davao area and B-25’s bomb Iligan. Hits are claimed on a battleship and 2 carriers. P-40’s attack targets of opportunity in Dodinga-Kaoe Bay area, Djailolo, supply area S of Galela, and guns S of Doro. A-20’s and B-25’s bomb Urarom.

The Eastern Front: German forces capture Banská Bystrica, the centre of anti-Nazi opposition in Slovakia, bringing the Slovak National Uprising to an end.
The Eastern Front: The Gumbinnen Operation ends in Soviet failure due to strong resistance by the Germans

Bulgaria signed an armistice with the Western Allies.
Charles de Gaulle orders the French Resistance to disarm.
The Slovak National Uprising was put down by Axis forces.

RAF Bomber Command carried out Operation Obviate aimed at sinking the German battleship Tirpitz at Tromsø. The attack was foiled by cloud cover and the bombs caused only minor damage.
Allied Bomber Offensive: British daytime air raid, 40+ aircraft attack on the German warship Tirpitz. Bombers armed with tallboy bombs failed to hit the target because it was successfully covered by a smoke screen that had covered the warship in the nick of time.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time British air raid, 360+ aircraft attack on Walcheren. Good visibility & targets hit.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 160+ aircraft bomb Munich W railway marshalling yards.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid 170+ aircraft bomb rail bridges at Mayen, KonzKarthaus, Ellern and Moerdijke
The Eastern Front: Soviet and Romanian forces began the Budapest Offensive.
The Eastern Front: The Battle of Debrecen ends inconclusively.
The Eastern Front: The Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive ends in Soviet victory.

Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler orders the closure of gas chambers at Auschwitz and other extermination camps.

The Eastern Front: The last German forces evacuate Salonika ahead of the arrival of a force of the British Special Boat Service. German vessels in the port were also scuttled, removing the last German naval presence in the Aegean Sea.
Allied Bomber Offensive: 25 British Mosquito planes carried out the successful Aarhus Air Raid targeting the Gestapo headquarters at Aarhus University in Denmark.

French serial killer Marcel Petiot was apprehended at a Paris Métro station when he was recognized despite having grown a beard. He would be found guilty of killing 26 people & was was executed by guillotine at La Sante Prison, Paris 25/05/1946