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• Commander John Ailes III became the commanding officer of USS Cassin Young. ww2dbase [Cassin Young | CPC]
• British troops occupied Salonika, Greece in order to prevent Greek Communists from taking over in the vacuum left by the retreating Germans. ww2dbase [TH]
• British troops established a bridgehead over the River Maas south of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. ww2dbase [TH]
• Canadian troops reached Walcheren, the Netherlands. ww2dbase [Battle of the Scheldt Estuary | TH]
• Bernard Montgomery was awarded the Virtuti Militari V Class of Poland. ww2dbase [Bernard Montgomery | CPC]
• Lieutenant Commander Miles Permenter Refo III was named the commanding officer of USS Hoe. ww2dbase [Hoe | CPC]
• The US submarine Nautilus finished off the abandoned US submarine Darter with her 6-inch guns. The Darter had foundered on Bombay Shoal, Spratly Islands off Palawan, Philippine Islands on 25 Oct 1944 whilst in pursuit of the damaged Japanese cruiser Takao. All Darter's crew were rescued by the US submarine Dace. ww2dbase [Darter | AC]
• The first manned flight of the prototype Ohka aircraft was conducted; the aircraft was equipped with two wing-mounted rockets and no fuselage-mounted rockets. ww2dbase [MXY7 Ohka | CPC]
• USS Guitarro fired eight torpedoes at 0847 hours at the Japanese convoy that she had been attacking since the previous day; six torpedoes made contact, and Guitarro claimed three sinkings, although only one sinking was confirmed. ww2dbase [Guitarro | CPC]
• USS Gabilan sank oceanographic research vessel Kaiyo No. 6 in Japanese home island waters, hitting her with 1 of 4 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Gabilan | CPC]
• Rear Admiral Walden Ainsworth assumed the duties as Commander, Cruisers and Commander, Destroyers, Pacific Fleet. ww2dbase [Walden Ainsworth | DS]

• Robert von Greim was mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht radio report. ww2dbase [Robert von Greim | CPC]

• USS Kete departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her first war patrol. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Kete | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]
• USS Astoria arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Astoria (Cleveland-class) | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Japanese Navy landing ship No. 163 was completed and was transferred to the Army as SB No. 102. ww2dbase [No. 101/103-class | CPC]

• USS Yorktown (Essex-class) arrived at Eniwetok, Marshall Islands. ww2dbase [Yorktown (Essex-class) | Eniwetok | DS]

• USS Sterlet attacked Japanese tanker Takane Maru after sundown 115 miles southeast of Kyushu, sinking her with six torpedoes. She shared the credit with USS Salmon and USS Trigger, which had damaged the tanker the day before. ww2dbase [Salmon | Trigger | Sterlet | CPC]

• 14,000 Jews were transported from Slovakia to Auschwitz Concentration Camp in occupied Poland. ww2dbase [Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Oswiecim | CPC]

• A German V-2 rocket hit Swedish Yard of Surrey Commercial Docks in Bermondsey, London at 0256 hours, damaging several wheat containers. Another rocket hit the Royal Victoria Dock at Earlham Grove, West Ham in the afternoon. ww2dbase [Vergeltungswaffe 2 | V-Weapons Campaign | London, England | CPC]
• Allied convoy JW-61A departed Liverpool, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | Liverpool, England | CPC]
• V-1 flying bombs struck Britain. Fifteen people were killed in the south eastern counties and a further three were killed in West Ham, London. At 0650 hours a V-1 flying bomb struck the Marie Hotel at Coulsdon, London; the hotel was used as an old people's private hotel; seventeen of the residents were killed and ten more seriously injured. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Vergeltungswaffe 1 | London, England | HM]

31 Oct 1944 Interactive Map