October 2
Eastern Front, Poland
After a bitter two-month battle, the last Poles in Warsaw surrender. The Germans evacuate the entire remaining population and begin the systematic destruction of anything left standing. Polish deaths number 150,000, while the German commander, SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, claims he has lost 26,000 men.

October 3
Air War, Britain
The German bombardment of Britain with V2 long-range heavy rockets has resumed from new launch sites dotted across Holland.

Landing craft and vehicles of the Canadian First
Army engaged in clearing the Scheldt estuary
near Antwerp

A German V2 rocket is readied for launch
ferom a site in Holland

October 4
Mediterranean, Greece
Determined to prevent a communist takeover in Greece, Winston Churchill launches Operation Manna. British troops land at Patrai in the Peloponnese as German forces pull back.

October 9
Western Front, Belgium
Although the Allies captured Antwerp on September 4, they have not been able to use the great port because there are German units on both sides of the Scheldt estuary. Therefore, the Canadian First Army commences operations to eradicate the enemy presence in this area.

Pacific, Iwo Jima
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander of all Allied forces in the Central Pacific, informs Lieutenant General Holland M. 'Howling Mad' Smith, one of the leading exponents of amphibious warfare and commander of all US Marines in the Pacific, that the island of Iwo Jima will be his next target and that Smith will lead the invasion with three US Marine divisions. The island is within bombing range of the Japanese mainland.

October 10-29
Eastern Front, Hungary
A massive tank battle rages around Drebrecan between two panzer divisions of Germany's Army Group Southern Ukraine, commanded by General Johannes Friessneer. The German forces have cut off three Soviet tank corps of Marshal Rodion Malinovsky's 2nd Ukrainian Front. The Soviets lose many tanks in the initial German attacks, but fresh Soviet units tip the scales against the Germans, who do not have the forces to fight attritional battles. Farther south, the German Army Group E leaves Greece.

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