October 14
1939: U-47 (Kapitanleutnant Prien) enters the British naval base of Scapa Flow and sinks the battleship Royal Oak.
1941: German troops capture Rshev, 100 miles W of Moscow.
1942: In the northern part of Stalingrad, units of 6.Armee (von Paulus) advance in bitter fighting and surround the heavily defended Tractor Factory, following a series of devastating attacks (over 3,000 sorties) by bombers of Luftflotte 7 (von Richthofen).
1943: The US 8th Air Force delivers a heavy attack against the ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt but at a heavy price: of the original force of 291 B-17's, 198 are either shot down or damaged beyond repair, while the Luftwaffe lost about 40 fighter planes. German forces evacuate the Zaporoshe bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Dnepr river.
Source:
http://www.feldgrau.com/october.html
1914: Plymouth England - First Canadian Contingent arrives at Plymouth with 33,000 men, 7,000 horses and 144 pieces of artillery travelling in 32 ships; convoy escorted by 10 British warships was the largest armed force ever to cross the Atlantic by that date; troops soon move to camps on Salisbury Plain before seeing action in World War I.
1943: Campobasso Italy - First Canadian Brigade push north to Potenza; occupy Campobasso, turning it into a 'Canada Town' recreation centre.
1944: Duisburg Germany - RCAF's No. 6 Group attacks Duisburg twice in 16 hours; total of 501 bombers.
Source:
http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day
1944: German Gen. Erwin Rommel, nicknamed "the Desert Fox," is given the option of facing a public trial for treason, as a co-conspirator in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, or taking cyanide. He chooses the latter.
Source:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-desert-fox-commits-suicide