Damaged Japanese cruiser Kumano bombed by planes of Task Force 38 on 26 October 1944,
The Battle of Leyte Gulf ended as a complete Japanese defeat, effectively ending the Imperial Japanese Navy as a cohesive force. On this day the Japanese lost the cruisers Abukuma, Kinu and Noshiro, destroyers Hayashimo, Nowaki and Uranami and submarine I-26.
Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria's youngest child, died at age 87.
Gertrude Tompkins Silver and the P-51D she was flying disappeared in a delivery flight from Los Angeles to Newark, NJ.
She was 33 years old and had jointed the WASPs after a boyfriend died fighting in the RAF. She was the only WASP pilot to be classified as missing during the Second World War.
Sarah Sundin notes in her blog:
German 20th Mountain Army begins scorched-earth retreat in Finnmark region of northern Norway; 43,000 will be evicted & evacuated, their homes destroyed.
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