Budapest, October 15th, 1944
Admiral Miklos Horthy, proclaimed over the radio that Hungary had signed a separate peace with the United Nations. But after what had happened in Italy, Turkey and Bulgaria the Germans would not be caught by surprise and unlike Romania were properly prepared. As soon as Horthy made his announcement the German army was on the move. Within two days Hungary would have a new government under the Nazi Arrow Cross under Ferenc Szalasi and would remain in the war on the German side.
Leyte gulf, October 17th, 1944
The Americans, and a certain Douglas McArthur had promised back in 1942 to be back. Now they were back and were back in style with nearly 600 ships and over 300,000 men as seven US Army divisions begun landing on the island. Three days later McArthur would proclaim as much over the radio from the beach of Leyte to the people of the Philippines. But the Imperial Japanese Navy would not let the ladings go unchallenged as nearly the entire surviving Combined fleet would sail to attack the landings. Over the coming days this would evolve into the largest battle in world's history.
Germany, October 21st, 1944
Aachen became the first major German city to be captured by the Allies.
Palawan Passage, October 23rd, 1944
The heavy cruisers Maya and Takao were torpedoed and sunk by the pair of USN submarines patrolling the passage. But the remaining Japanese force with the battleships Yamato, Musashi, Shinano, Nagato and Mutsu, 7 heavy and two light cruisers and 15 destroyers continued on their way to Leyte. Their position though was now known to the USN.
Italy, October 23rd, 1944
Ferrara, was liberated by the British 8th Army.
Sibuyan Sea, October 24th, 1944
Repeated attacks by USN carrier aircraft sunk the battleship Shinano and heavily damaged the heavy cruiser Chokai. But the Japanese would be spared further attacks as the Americans detected further to the north what appeared to be the main Japanese striking force with four aircraft carriers and two battleships partially converted to carriers were detected and the Americans also had to deal with air strikes from land based aircraft which sunk USS Cabot. But the detection of the Japanese carrier force and reports that the Japanese battleships after temporarily changing course had again resumed their course towards Leyte would cause a crisis on the American side. Finally a task force under vice admiral Lee would be dispatched to cover San Bernandino strait, just as the bulk of the US 3rd fleet sailed north to take on the Japanese carriers.
Surigao strait, October 25th, 1944
The Japanese Southern striking force with the battleships Fuso and Yamashiro, the cruiser Mogami and 4 destroyers, was engaged by the US 7th Fleet. Faced with half a dozen American battleships, most lost at Pearl Harbor and recover afterwards, eight USN and RAN cruisers and 28 destroyers, not a single Japanese ship would survive the engagement.
San Bernandino strait, October 25th, 1944
The Japanese battleships returned fire against their American counterparts. Thanks to radar the four USN battleships engaging the Japanese, USS Washington, USS New Jersey, USS Iowa and USS Alabama had opened fire first and much more accurately than the Japanese could hope. But the Japanese had advantages of their own, as Yamato and Musashi were too difficult to damage even by battleship standards, and were determined to push their way through. And with 8 cruisers and 11 destroyers engaging 5 USN cruisers and 14 destroyers both sides were much more evenly matched than Lee would had liked. The resulting engagement would cost the Americans USS Alabama, USS New Orleans and four destroyers with USS Washington, USS New Jersey and USS Vincennes damaged, severely in the case of Washington, less so in the case of the other ships. But the Japanese would lose Musashi, Nagato, Mutsu, three heavy cruisers and five destroyers with Yamato escaping damaged.
Cape Egano, October 25-26th, 1944
What admiral Halsey in command of the US 3rd Fleet had thought the decisive battle had proven, no more than a diversion on the Japanese part as the Japanese carriers barely had more than a hudrend planes available. That had not stopped the Americans from attacking and sinking all four Japanese carriers of course...
Norway, October 25th, 1944
Kirkenes was liberated by the Soviet 14th army. Further south, the Swedish advance against Trondheim, initially slow had much increased her pace after being reinforced by three battalions of L60 tanks, the machines would had been obsolete in most European battlefields but not in Norway where the German army was rather deficient in anti-tank guns. Trondheim would be surrounded by October 26th but the Germans would refuse to surrender prolonging the battle into November...
Slovakia, October 27th, 1944
The Slovak uprising was suppressed by the Germans.
Hungary, October 29th, 1944
The Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts attacked towards Budapest...
Ancona, Italy, October 30th, 1944
The last units of the 3e Division Blindee, landed in Italy. Over the past month all four divisions of the French Armee d' Orient had been withdrawn from Yugoslavia, where it would had been difficult to keep them in supply and instead sent to Italy reconstituting the French expeditionary force there. They were hardly the only reinforcements sent to Italy, as more the Irish and the Greek expeditionary forces had now grown to over 40,000 men each. More Greek units were expected as the Yugoslavs grew in numbers, the Royal army already had 6 active divisions and was forming a second armored division, and the communists, helped by abundant German war spoiils and Soviet aid by now had over 200,000 regular troops in addition to the hundreds of thousands of partisans fighting in Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia.
Sofia, October 31st, 1944
Prime minister's Konstantin Muraviev's offer for Bulgarian army participation in the war against Germany had been politely refused by the Western Allies, citing supply difficulties. The Soviets were more amenable to the idea but there were still problems. First the British and the Americans, on Greek and Yugoslav insistence, would not allow the Bulgarian army to mobilize again even to fight by their side. Second the Bulgarian public was anything but happy to see more fighting given the massive casualties already suffered. And last Muraviev had no intention to denude his government entirely of troops lest IMRO or the communists got ideas...
