October 1943

October 1, 1943 (Friday)

• The U.S. Fifth Army captured Naples. Before retreating, the German Army laid waste to the city, damaging or destroying the cultural landmarks, including the University of Naples and the Teatro di San Carlo. More than 200,000 books, many of them priceless, were soaked in gasoline and burned.
• W. Averell Harriman, a wealthy American capitalist, was named as the new U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union.
• The musical film Sweet Rosie O'Grady, starring Betty Grable, was released.
• Born:
• *Jean-Jacques Annaud, French film director known for Quest for Fire and The Bear; in Juvisy-sur-Orge
• *Jerry Martini, saxophonist for Sly and the Family Stone; in Denver
• *Muneji Munemura, Japanese Greco-Roman wrestler, gold medal winner at the 1968 Olympics; in Niigata
• *Jakob Finci, Jewish leader in Bosnia and Herzegovina and diplomat; on Rab, Croatian SR, Yugoslavia
• *José Santacruz Londoño, Colombian drug lord, in Cali
• *Ann Wolpert, American digital librarian
• *Willie L. Williams, Los Angeles Police Department chief, 1992-1997; in Philadelphia
• *Patrick D'Rozario, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dhaka and highest Catholic church official in Bangladesh; in Padrishibpur, Barisal, British India.
• Died: Don Scott, 25, American college football All-American who passed up a professional football career to volunteer for the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, was killed along with his crew mates when his B-26 bomber crashed.

  October 2, 1943 (Saturday)

• A decree by the government of Japan eliminated the student exemption from induction into the Empire's armed forces.
• The Tudor Vladimirescu Division was created by the Soviet Union, from Romanian prisoners of war who were given the choice of "volunteering" to fight against Nazi Germany, or to remain incarcerated.
• The government of Sweden issued a proclamation welcoming all refugees from Denmark to the kingdom, which had remained neutral during the war.
• In Nazi-occupied Poland, Governor Hans Frank issued a decree implementing the creation of Standgerichte, a special court operated by members of the Gestapo, with authority to carry out its sentences immediately. Hundreds of citizens in Kraków, who had been jailed and were awaiting trial, were indicted, tried and executed in the first sessions of the Standgericht.
• The Second Battle of Smolensk ended in Soviet victory.
• Born:
• *Franklin Rosemont, American surrealist artist; in Chicago
• *William Margold, American pornographic film actor and director; in Washington, D.C.
• *Mary Sue Coleman, American university administrator who served as president of the University of Iowa and the University of Michigan
• Died:
• *Ambrose Tomlinson, 78, white American Pentecostal minister who founded the Church of God of Prophecy
• *R. Nathaniel Dett, 60, black Canadian musical composer
• *Carlos Blanco Galindo, 61, President of Bolivia 1930 to 1931
• *I. B. Perrine, 82, Idaho businessman and farmer credited as the founder of Twin Falls, Idaho.

  October 3, 1943 (Sunday)

• An experimental television program, The Bureau of Missing Persons, premiered on the DuMont Television Network. A forerunner of the 1990 premiere of America's Most Wanted, the show, hosted by NYPD Captain John J. Cronin, showed photographs of missing persons and invited the few television set owners, in New York City, to call the local police for any clues in identification.
• After General Henri Giraud stepped aside as a co-director, General Charles de Gaulle became the sole leader of France's Committee for National Liberation, which would form the basis of the nation's post-war government.
• SS General Dr. Werner Best declared Denmark to be judenfrei, although most of the nation's Jews had learned of the impending mass arrests and were in hiding, awaiting the chance to flee to Sweden.
• The United States agreed to loan Saudi Arabia two million dollars' worth of silver in order for the Saudis to create a stable currency.
• British Commandos began Operation Devon, an amphibious landing at the town of Termoli on the Adriatic coast of Italy.
• The Battle of Kos began for the island of Kos in the Aegean Sea.
• Nazi Wehrmacht forces committed the Lyngiades massacre in northwest Greece as an arbitrary reprisal against Greek partisan guerrillas.
• The American destroyer USS Henley was torpedoed and sunk at Finschhaven, New Guinea by the Japanese submarine Ro-108.
• The British destroyer Usurper was sunk in the Gulf of Genoa by the German anti-submarine vessel UJ 2208.
• Born:
• *Aaron Latham, American journalist and screenwriter, in Spur, Texas
• *Yohji Yamamoto, Japanese fashion designer in Europe and Asia; in Tokyo

  October 4, 1943 (Monday)

• Heinrich Himmler delivered the first of the two Posen speeches to assembled SS officers and German administrators in the German city of Posen. "What happens to the Russians, what happens to the Czechs, is a matter of utter indifference to me," he said. "Such good blood of our own kind as there may be among the nations we shall acquire for ourselves, if necessary by taking away the children and bringing them up among us. Whether the other races live in comfort or perish of hunger interests me only in so far as we need them as slaves for our culture." He added, "We shall never be rough or heartless where it is not necessary; that is clear. We Germans, who are the only people in the world who have a decent attitude to animals, will also adopt a decent attitude to these human animals...I shall speak to you here with all frankness of a very serious subject. We shall now discuss it absolutely openly among ourselves, nevertheless we shall never speak of it in public. I mean the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish race...."
• In an attack by 406 bombers of the Royal Air Force on the city center of Frankfurt, a children's hospital on Gagernstrasse suffered a direct hit on its air-raid shelter. There were 529 civilian deaths, including 90 children, 14 nurses and a doctor.
• The Battle of Kos ended when the German Army conquered the Greek island of Kos, took the 4,423 Italian and British troops there prisoner, then carried out Adolf Hitler's order to execute any Italian officers who had switched allegiance from the Axis to the Allies. Colonel Felice Leggio and 100 of his fellow officers were shot in groups of ten, then buried.
• The island of Corsica, seized by Italy and Germany from France in the 1940 conquest, was liberated by the Allies after a battle of 25 days.
• The Battle of Dumpu ended in Allied victory.
• The Battle of Drashovica ended in victory for the Albanian resistance fighters.
• American carrier-based aircraft carried out Operation Leader, an attack on German shipping along the coast of Norway.
• The German submarines U-279, U-389, U-422 and U-460 were all depth charged and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by Allied aircraft.
• Bing Crosby first recorded his second-most famous Christmas song, "I'll Be Home for Christmas", parenthetically titled "".
• Born:
• *John Bindon, English gangster and actor, in Fulham
• *H. Rap Brown, African-American radical, founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and convicted murderer, as Hubert Gerold Brown, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

  October 5, 1943 (Tuesday)

• American bombers were able to attack Wake Island, under control of the Japanese, for the first time since an abortive attempt in 1942.
• The Japanese ocean liner Hondon Maru was supposedly sunk by a torpedo, while traveling from Japan to Korea, killing 544 of the 616 people on board, according to a news broadcast made two days later on Tokyo radio. American reports noted that "The vessel is not listed in Lloyd's Register" and questioned its veracity.
• Theodore Morde of Reader's Digest met with Franz von Papen, the German ambassador to Turkey, in what would be described later as "a crazy attempt at personal diplomacy". At the request of OSS chief William J. Donovan, without the knowledge of President Roosevelt, Morde attempted to persuade Papen to lead a coup to overthrow Adolf Hitler, with Papen to be the new leader of Germany. Papen declined the offer.
• In the 1943 Negro World Series, the Homestead Grays of Pittsburgh, champions of the Negro National League, defeated the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League, 8-4, to win the Series in seven games. The contest, played in Montgomery, Alabama, was actually Game 8, but Game 3 had ended with the score tied in extra innings. Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard and Vic Harris led the Grays in hitting.
• A Serbian and former Yugoslav news agency, Tanjug was founded in Belgrade.
• Born: Steve Miller, American rock guitarist who founded the Steve Miller Band; in Milwaukee
• Died: Leon Roppolo, 41, American jazz clarinetist

  October 6, 1943 (Wednesday)

• American and Japanese ships fought the naval Battle of Vella Lavella, after nine Japanese destroyers arrived to evacuate troops from New Georgia island. Six U.S. Navy destroyers intercepted the Japanese, and the battle lasted two days, with the loss of one ship on each side. The evacuation of the Japanese was completed by October 8, and the recapture of the island ended the second phase of Operation Cartwheel.
• Heinrich Himmler gave the second of his two Posen Speeches, outlining the carrying out of the Holocaust to the assembled SS officers. The text of the speech would not be published until 1974. In his address, Himmler said, "The question will be asked: 'What about women and children?' I did not consider myself entitled to exterminate the men, to kill them or have them killed, and then allow their children to grow up to revenge themselves on our own sons and grandsons. The painful decision had to be taken, to remove this people from the face of the earth..."
• British Commandos completed Operation Devon successfully.
• In an effort to intercede against the genocide of Jews in much of Europe, 400 rabbis marched in Washington, D.C. demanding action from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.