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• USS Puffer arrived at Fremantle, Australia, ending her first war patrol. ww2dbase [Puffer | CPC]
• US Army Colonel Lewis Pick assumed command of the Allied road building effort in India and Burma. ww2dbase [CPC]

• The F-5 aircraft flown by Lieutenant William Southard, escorted by two P-38 fighters, conducted a photographic reconnaissance mission over Rabaul, New Britain. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• 56 A6M fighters attacked Dobodura Airfield and Oro Bay in Australian Papua; 43 P-38 and 3 P-40 fighters rose to defend. The Japanese lost 8 A6M fighters and the Americans lost 4 P-38 and 1 P-40 fighters. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | Dobodura Airfield | Dobodura | CPC]

• US Marine Corps squadrons VMF-214 and VMF-221 conducted a fighter sweep over Kahili Airfield on Bougainville island in the morning. More than 30 A6M fighters of Japanese Navy Air Group 201 rose to defend. VMF-214 pilots would claim 9 Japanese aircraft shot down, while VMF-221 claimed 2; Japanese records would later reveal that only 2 aircraft were lost on this day. The Japanese pilots claimed 3 US aircraft shot down, but the Americans only suffered 2 aircraft lightly damaged and 1 aircraft heavily damaged and written off after its return. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | Kahili Airfield | Buin, Bougainville | CPC]

• The two sections of the infamous Burma railway met south of the Three Pagodas Pass. Most of the Allied prisoners of war were then transferred to Japan. ww2dbase [AC]

• Shokaku sortied from Truk, Caroline Islands to Eniwetok, Marshall Islands with Combined Fleet under Admiral Koga's command in response to US Task Force 16 carrier raids on Wake Island. ww2dbase [Shokaku | Truk | CPC]
• Yamato sortied from Truk to Brown Atoll, Eniwetok in response to radio traffic that suggested a potential American strike on Wake Island. ww2dbase [Yamato | Truk | CPC]

• Kamoi arrived at Surabaya, Java, Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Kamoi | Surabaya, Java | CPC]

• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: About 0010, a small float-type monoplane was picked up by the searchlight of NAS, Barber's Point. The plane, presumably a Japanese reconnaissance plane, attempted to dodge the searchlights, and sped out to sea at a low altitude [an E14Y "Glen" floatplane was launched from submarine I-36 120 miles south-southwest of Oahu and failed to return]. One staff officer of Task Group 19.13 on board. ww2dbase [E14Y | Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]

• USS Ranger and the Royal Navy Home Fleet sortied from Akureyri, Iceland on an Arctic patrol that extended 750 miles north of Iceland. ww2dbase [Ranger | Akureyri | DS]

• The British 42nd Armoured Division was disbanded; its infantry formations being assigned to the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division and its armoured formations to the 79th Armoured Division. ww2dbase [AC]

• The civilian Roane-Anderson Company, a subsidiary of the Turner Construction Company, took over the responsibility of administering the community in Tennessee, United States in which the workers at Site X of the Manhattan Project resided. ww2dbase [Clinton Engineer Works | Oak Ridge, Tennessee | CPC]
• USS St. Louis put to sea for full power trials before returning to San Francisco Bay, California. ww2dbase [St. Louis | San Francisco, California | DS]

• USS Scorpion refueld at Midway Atoll. ww2dbase [Scorpion | Midway Bases | Midway | CPC]

17 Oct 1943 Interactive Map