The Chinese Eighth Army fights, prior to World War II, along the Great Wall of China. Wikipedia.
By Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
Forces of the Chinese Communist Eighth Route Army Tsingtao, China, on October 19, 1945, attack vehicles and outposts of the U.S. 6th Marine Division. Nearby, aircraft of the U.S. 1st Marine Division are fired upon by Communist Chinese small arms. The two Marine divisions are in northern China to assist the Nationalist government re-establish control of areas that had been taken by the Japanese. (Some Japanese units are still fighting against the Chinese and the Americans.)
On October 20, the Egyptian, Iraqi, Lebanese and Syrian governments warn the Truman administration that growing Jewish immigration and creation of a Jewish state in Palestine would lead to war in the region. Indonesian separatist leader Sukarno appeals to the U.S. to stop providing aid to colonial forces in the islands.
The former U-boat pens in Hamburg, Germany, are blown up on October 21 by British military engineers, ironically using German explosives. In France, women are permitted to vote for the first time.
Rómulo Betancourt Bello is elected provisional president of Venezuela on October 22. His administration: declares universal suffrage, institutes widespread social reforms, secures half of the profits made by foreign oil companies for Venezuela and takes responsibility for the legal protection and resettlement of tens of thousands of European refugees who fled from World War II and who cannot or will not return home. Many scholars consider Betancourt the founding father of modern Venezuela.
All-star UCLA athlete Jackie Robinson signs a professional baseball contract on October 23 with the Brooklyn Dodgers’ minor-league team, the Montreal Royals of the International League. Robinson is the first black athlete to win varsity letters in four sports at UCLA: baseball, basketball, football and track.
The United Nations formally and officially comes into being on October 24, when the 29th nation — the U.S.S.R. — ratifies the UN Charter. In Norway, traitor and Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling is executed by a firing squad. In Czechoslovakia, President Edvard Beneš signs a decree nationalizing commercial banks, insurance companies and 27 other industries that employ 64% of the country’s workers.
On October 25, Gen. Rikichi Andō, commander of all Japanese troops on Taiwan, surrenders at Taipei to Gen. Chen Yi of the Nationalist Chinese Army, ending 50 years of Japanese rule on the island. In Tokyo, Gen. of the Army Douglas MacArthur orders the Japanese government to break diplomatic relations with all other countries, recall all its diplomats and turn over all diplomatic materials and records to the Allies. Japanese troops at Thaton, Burma, about 85 miles east of Rangoon, surrender to the British. The Soviet Union demands $79 million in reparations from Finland rather than the $50 million earlier agreed upon.
As Soviet and Japanese troops depart northeastern China, Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces rush in to occupy the area to prevent the Communists from taking over the region. Lt. Gen. Du Yuming, on October 26, 1945, is named commander of the Northeastern Provinces Security Command for the Chinese Nationalist Army. In Europe, communists and anti-communists battle in the streets of Sofia, Bulgaria.
In the Netherlands East Indies or Indonesia, depending on which side one favors, separatists riot and fight British security forces on October 27, beginning the Battle of Surabaya.
In Manila, the Philippines, the trial of Japanese Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita by a U.S. military tribunal begins on October 28. Yamashita, accused of permitting atrocities, had been the commanding officer of the Philippines region since October 1944. In northwestern France, an explosives magazine at Asnières-en-Bessin blows up, killing 41 people, including 30 German prisoners of war. The Czechoslovakian government orders the confiscation of all German and Hungarian property in the country.
At Gimbel’s department store in New York City on October 29, the first ball-point pens — Reynolds Rockets, manufactured by the Reynolds International Pen Company — go on sale, for $12.50 each. The first U.S. patent for the pen had been granted to its inventor, leather tanner John J. Loud, 57 years previously, in 1888. Indonesian leaders Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta arrive in Surabaya, Java, and negotiate a truce with the British military.
On October 30, the U.S. government announces the end of shoe rationing. SS Albert M. Boe — the last of 2,710 Liberty ships built in the U.S. between 1941 and 1945 — is delivered to the War Shipping Administration, at South Portland, Maine. Only hours after signing a cease-fire agreement with Indonesian leaders Sukarno and Hatta, British Brig. Gen. Aubertin Mallaby is attacked in his car and killed in a confused firefight between British and Indonesian troops. In retaliation, British planes bomb and strafe Surabaya and surrounding areas, causing many casualties.
German church representatives on October 31 are the first group of people given permission to travel freely within Germany’s four occupation zones. The film Spellbound, a psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck, premieres in New York City.
On November 1, over 1,000 operatives of the fledgling Jewish Resistance Organization sabotage 153 separate locations along the British railway system in Palestine, 50 alone between Acre and Gaza, a distance of about 105 miles. The coordinated attacks are synchronized to hinder a British response. Twenty-one German bankers are arrested on suspicion of committing war crimes. The Telechron Co. introduces its Model 8H59 “Musalarm,” the world’s first clock radio.
