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• U-530 was commissioned into service under the command of Kapitänleutnant Kurt Lange and was assigned to the 4. Unterseebootflottille (4th Submarine Flotilla). ww2dbase [U-530 | CPC]
• Before dawn, six Japanese destroyers landed 1,000 troops on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Guadalcanal Campaign | CPC]
• Chiang Kaishek agreed to fully commit to a campaign in Burma if the United Kingdom did the same and that the Allies had naval and air superiority in the Bay of Bengal. ww2dbase [Chiang Kaishek | CPC]
• USS Finback attacked a Japanese convoy of four transports and a patrol vessel east of Taiwan, damaging one transport with 2 of 4 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Finback | CPC]
• USS Nicholas guided another convoy of men and materiel into the Solomon Islands but paused short of Guadalcanal as Japanese ships bombarded Henderson Field. ww2dbase [Nicholas | Guadalcanal Campaign | DS]

• Comandante Cappellini sighted an Allied Sunderland aircraft in the Atlantic Ocean at 1012 hours; she submerged to avoid detection. At 1632 hours, she sighted a biplane aircraft, and she again submerged. ww2dbase [Comandante Cappellini | CPC]

• USS S-44 arrived at Brisbane, Australia, ending her fourth war patrol. ww2dbase [S-44 | Brisbane, Queensland | CPC]
• USS S-43 arrived at Brisbane, Australia, ending her third war patrol. ww2dbase [S-43 | Brisbane, Queensland | CPC]

• A British force consisted of five destroyers and eight torpedo boats intercepted a German attempt to break auxiliary cruiser Komet into the Atlantic Ocean via the English Channel. Komet was sunk northeast of Cherbourg, France; all aboard were killed in the sinking. Of the German escorts (torpedo boats T4, T10, T14, and T19), T10 was damaged after being hit by six shells, one of which detonating a depth charge; 11 were killed and 11 were wounded. ww2dbase [T10 | T4 | T14 | T19 | Komet | Basse-Normandie | CPC]

• British Lieutenant Commander William Stephens and three pals escaped the notorious Colditz Castle in Saxony, Germany, prompted by signals from an orchestra conducted by legless RAF ace Douglas Bader, and with fake identifications fled Germany by trains and on foot. ww2dbase [Douglas Bader | Colditz, Sachsen | AC]
• Canadian Flying Officer Hank Wardle and British officers Major Ronnie Littledale, Captain Pat Reid, and Lieutenant-Commander Billie Stephens escaped from Oflag IV-C prisoners of war camp at Colditz Castle in Germany. All four would make it to Switzerland. ww2dbase [Colditz Castle | Colditz, Sachsen | CPC]

• USS Skipjack sank Japanese ship Shunko Maru south of the Palau Islands, hitting her with both torpedoes fired. She fired an additional torpedo at another Japanese ship; the torpedo missed the target. ww2dbase [Skipjack | CPC]

• The German assault on the Stalingrad Tractor Factory in Stalingrad, Russia was aided by more than 2,000 sorties by aircraft of Luftflotte 4. ww2dbase [Battle of Stalingrad | Stalingrad Tractor Factory | Stalingrad | TH, CPC]
• The German offensive in the Caucasus region of southern Russia was suspended with the exception of 17th Army's attacks near Tuapse on the coast of the Black Sea. ww2dbase [Caucasus Campaign | Tuapse, Krasnodar Krai | CPC]
• The Soviet GKO ordered all males between the ages of 15 and 55 living in the Soviet Union who were ethnic Romanians, Hungarians, and Italians to be rounded up and employed as slave laborers. Ethnic Germans in Soviet territory had already been subjected to this persecution. ww2dbase [CPC]

14 Oct 1942 Interactive Map