18 February 1939

February 18th, 1939 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Heart of Midlothian draw 2-2 with Celtic.

FRANCE: Destroyer FS Mameluk launched.

U.S.A.: National radio station NBC broadcasts an evening of music from the Finnish composer Sibelius, conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

18 February 1940

February 18th, 1940 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: The British government presses Norway to intern the Altmark.

FRANCE: Paris: The French government agrees to allow the reconstitution of the Polish Air Force on French soil.

A German infantry detachment, with heavy mortar support, makes an unsuccessful raid on a French outpost near the Moselle River.

GERMANY: OKW issues Führer Directive #10 for the Conduct of the War. This directive deals in detail with the 'Case Yellow' plan for the German offensive in the west. It was revised several times and much of the text has been lost.
Surviving fragments of the final version reveal the change in emphasis of the German attack from the north to the centre through the Ardennes. The aim is to cross the Meuse near Sedan and drive to the Somme estuary, destroying a large part of the Anglo-French army and denying the Dutch and Belgian coasts to the enemy. (Marc Roberts)

CHINA: Japanese forces engaged in the city of Nanning are compelled to withdraw after heavy fighting.

U.S.A.: The Secretary of State, Cordell-Hull, applied the American "moral embargo" to Russia.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: In operations against Norway/UK convoys the German battle cruisers Gneisenau, Scharnhorst and the pocket battleship Admiral Hipper make an unsuccessful sortie against convoy HN12 as part of Operation Nordmark. It is the escort of U-boats though which make the attack and the D class destroyer HMS Daring is torpedoed and sunk by U-23 40 miles east of Duncansby Head at 58 38N 01 40W. There are 15 survivors, who are rescued by HM Submarine Thistle. Another 12 merchant ships are sunk by the submarines. The commander of U-23 was Leutnant zur See Otto Kretschmer, who went on to become the German tonnage sinking king of WW2. (Alex Gordon and Jack McKillop)(108)

At 0926, SS Ameland had just passed the Maasbank-buoy and was hit by a torpedo from U-10. She began to sink and the 48 crewmembers (3 of them injured) abandoned the ship. The master A. Kokke returned to rescue the documents and the ship sank later by the stern. The survivors were picked up by the Dutch SS Montferland and were transferred to the tug Zwarte Zee. The wounded men were brought to Vlissingen and the crew was put ashore in Maassluis.

SS El Sonador sunk by U-61 east of the Shetlands.

SS Sangstad sunk by U-61 at 59.00N, 00.25E .

At 0420, SS Banderas was torpedoed and sunk by U-53 eight miles NW of Cabo Villano.

At 0823, SS P.L.M. 15 in Convoy 10-RS was hit amidships by one torpedo from U-37 and sank immediately.

At 0045, SS Ellin was torpedoed by U-37 and sunk 25 miles NW of Cape Finisterre.

18 February 1941

February 18th, 1941 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

Destroyer HMS Gurkha commissioned.

Corvette HMS Veronica commissioned.

GERMANY:

U-502 launched.

U-203 commissioned.

FINLAND: Chief of Staff of the German Norwegian Army Oberst Erich Buschenhagen arrives for a two-week visit in Finland. He meets the Finnish military leadership, and the purpose is to probe the possibility of Fenno-German military cooperation.

U.S.S.R.: Commander Pavlov asks for road-building operations in the western USSR to be speeded up.

LIBYA: Benghazi: Italian planes bomb the port so badly that Britain has to abandon it for supply purposes.

EGYPT: General Thomas Blamey, General Officer Commanding I Australian Corps, meets with General Archibald Wavell, Commander in Chief, Middle East Command. Wavell explains the composition of a force designated “Lustreforce” intended for operations in Greece. The force is to consist of the New Zealand Division, the Australian 6th and 7th Divisions, HQ of the I Australian Corps, the 1st Armoured Brigade and an Independent Polish Brigade Group.

ETHIOPIA: South African forces advancing from Kenya attack the town of Mega which is quickly captured along with 1,000 prisoners.

SINGAPORE: Australian troops, 12,000 strong, arrived in Singapore today the reinforce the British garrison. Already the 11th Indian Division has arrived in the theatre, and the III Indian Corps headquarters under Lieutenant-General Sir Lewis Heath is due to be set up in May.

The build-up of British strength is in response to the growing menace of Japanese military expansion to the south. Nazi Germany has been urging the Japanese to attack Singapore at once.

The southward advance of Japan continues to cause anxiety in Australia at a time when the greater part of the Australian forces are engaged in the Middle East. The Singapore base is regarded by Australians as the keystone of defence against Japan, and Britain has assured Australia that if a Japanese attack appeared imminent, a British battlefleet would be sent at once to Singapore.

However, the clear need exists for an army and air force strong enough to hold out in Singapore and Malaya until the fleet arrived. Australia decided therefore to contribute a brigade of infantry to the garrison.

U.S.A.: Admiral King states that the American security zone has been extended eastwards as far as longitude 26 W. This is more than 2,300 miles from the American coast at New York and only 740 miles from the coast of Europe at Lisbon, and it includes the Azores.

ATLANTIC OCEAN:

At 0227, SS Black Osprey, a straggler from Convoy HX-107, was torpedoed and sunk by U-96 south of Iceland. The master and 24 crewmembers were lost. 11 crewmembers were picked up by the Norwegian SS Mosdale and landed at Barry.

MS Seaforth sunk by U-103 at 58.48N, 18.17W.

18 February 1942

February 18th, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Westminster: Miners are exempted from soap rationing.

Destroyer HMS Wilton commissioned.

NORTH SEA: Minesweeping trawler HMS Botanic sunk by German aircraft.

FRANCE: During the night of the 18-19th, six RAF Bomber Command aircraft drop leaflets over Paris and Lille.

THE NETHERLANDS: During the night of the 18-19th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 25 Hampdens on a mining mission over the West Frisian Islands.

GERMANY: U-259 commissioned.

BURMA: Japanese forces cross the Bilin river, and Britain orders Rangoon to be evacuated.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: A British volunteer party from Batavia, Java, sails to Oosthaven, Sumatra, retrieved valuable aircraft spares and technical stores and destroyed what was left, including the harbor facilities without interference from the Japanese.
     The air echelon of the USAAF 5th Air Force’ 91st Bombardment Squadron (Light), begins operating from Malang, Java, with A-24 Dauntlesses; the ground echelon is on Bataan, Luzon, Philippine Islands.
     Against the wishes of Lieutenant General John Lavarack, General Officer Commanding I Australian Corps, General Archibald Wavell, Commander in Chief American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, orders the Australian Imperial Force troops on the fast passenger liner SS Orcades to disembark at Batavia, Java. The next day, Wavell informs Australian Prime Minister John Curtin that these troops are need for airfield defence and are being disembarked.
     USAAF 5th Air Force P-40 pilots attack nine Japanese bombers over Soerabaja, Java, shooting down six of the bombers for the loss of one P-40. Three Japanese fighters are also shot down in separate engagements over Soerabaja.

On Timor island the Japanese land at Dilli. Twenty men of the 2/2nd A.I.F. Independent Company blow up the airstrip and fight their way back into the hills to join the other units of the garrison to start a bitter guerilla war against the Japanese. (Michael Alexander)

Submarine HNLMS K VII sunk by Japanese aircraft at Surabaya. All hands lost.

The Battle of the Badung Strait

During the day a small Japanese Navy convoy under Rear-Admiral Kubo Kyuji flying his flag on the light cruiser Nagara, with seven destroyers (Hatsushimo, Nenohi, Wakaba, Asashio, Oshio, Arashio, and Michishio), escorted the transports Sasego Maru and Sagami Maru to Bali (East of Java), where they landed one reinforced battalion of IJA troops to capture seize the airfield there. Throughout the day Kubo's force was subjected to a large number of air attacks by US and Dutch aircraft. However, despite glowing reports of damage, only one hit was scored on Sagami Maru, temporarily disabling her engines. As dusk approached, Kubo began withdrawing his force in three elements. His flagship, with Hatsushimo, Nenohi, and Wakaba sortied immediately. Sasego Maru, escorted by Arashio and Michishio followed some time later at a much slower speed, while Sagami Maru, under the protective eyes of Oshio and Asashio would leave as soon as temporary repairs were completed.

When the Japanese convoy force had been sighted on 17 February by ABDA search planes, the sighting could not have come at a worse time. The Allied warships of ABDA's Combined Striking Force had just returned from a sortie and had been forced to separate to several Dutch ports for fuel and maintenance. None the less, Schout-bij-Nacht [Rear-Admiral] Karel Willem Frederick Marie Doorman, KM immediately issued orders for all of his available ships to sortie. His hastily worked out plan was to see a sustained attack in three waves. First, in would be Doorman's main force, consisting of the Dutch light cruisers De Ruyter and Java and three destroyers, the Dutch Piet Hein along with USS Pope and USS John D. Ford. The second wave would be composed of four American Destroyers, USS Stewart, USS Parrott, USS John D. Edwards, and USS Pillsbury supported by the Dutch light cruiser Tromp. The third wave was composed of seven Dutch motor torpedo boats, TM-4, TM-5, TM-7, TM-9, TM-10, TM-11, and TM-12. Doorman hoped for great things as, for the first time in the campaign, the Allied forces would be numerically and qualitatively superior to the Japanese.

In the event, the Battle of Badung Strait could not have gone much worse. By 2220 ,when Doorman arrived, the only Japanese ships in the immediate area were the damaged Sagami Maru, and her two escorts. In a very confusing action, the Dutch cruisers steamed merrily through the strait seeing little, only Java engaging, albeit briefly. However, his trailing destroyers found themselves in a regular brawl form which only two emerged, Piet Hein being disabled by gunfire and then sunk by a torpedo from Asashio. meanwhile, the other Japanese forces turned about to offer support to their colleagues.

Following in roughly two hours later the US destroyers, supported by Tromp, found themselves in an old fashioned gunfight, first with Asashio and Oshio, and then with Michishio and Arashio. Again, the results did not favour the Allies. Tromp, battered by 18 shells by the time the action was over, would have to leave the campaign for Australian dockyard at Sydney. However, the US destroyers earned some measure of revenge, knocking about Oshio and plastering Michishio, which which went dead in the water with her entire powerplant "hors de combat". She had to suffer the indignity of being towed home and was not fully repaired until October.

The finishing touches on this less than spectacular affair were applied by the Dutch MTBs, which sailed straight through the center of the Strait without seeing a thing! Thus ended the Combined Striking Force's best opportunity to inflict some real damage on the Japanese Navy. (Mark E. Horan)

More...

SINGAPORE: British and Australian POWs are forced to sweep the streets, while Japanese newsreel cameras roll, showing Western weakness. Singapore is re-named "Shonan," meaning "Bright South," and Japanese troops start removing British statues, signs, and memorials.

AUSTRALIA: U.S. Major General George H. Brett, acting in his capacity as deputy commander of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, cables the U.S. War Department with his assessment that the only way to save Java is to mount an immediate ground and air offensive in Burma and China. Therefore, he orders Major General Lewis H. Brereton, Commanding General USAAF 5th Air Force, to travel to India to oversee the building of an air force there. Brett also advises that an American buildup in Australia should be implemented at once.

Destroyer HMAS Bataan laid down.

Minesweeper HMAS Wallaroo launched.

NEWFOUNDLAND: The USN destroyer USS Truxtun (DD-229) and stores issuing ship USS Pollux (AKS-2) run aground during storm near Placentia Bay; the former just east of Ferryland Point and the latter off Lawn Point. Minesweeper USS Brant (AM-24) arrives on scene and contributes rescue parties as well as brings medical officer and corpsmen from destroyer tender and Support Force flagship, the destroyer tender USS Prairie (AD-15). The tragedy produces deep admiration for the lifesaving efforts of the local population. "Hardly a dozen men from both ships would have been saved," one observer writes later, "had it not been for the superb work of the local residents." Many men jeopardize their own lives frequently to save the American sailors; several hang by lines over the cliffs to keep survivors from dragging over sharp rocks as they are pulled up from the beach below; others go out in a dory, risking swamping several times in the rough waves; after working all day rescuing USS Truxtun's people, some of the local inhabitants then toil all night rescuing USS Pollux's men with a stamina that defies description. Though poor, the men, women, and children of the town of St. Lawrence turn out to outfit the "survivors with blankets, warm clothes, boots, fed them, cleaned them up as best they could and turned them in their own beds." Subsequently, they turn a deaf ear to offers to pay for food and clothing used in succouring the shipwrecked Americans.

CANADA: Training ship HMCS Skidegate paid off.

U.S.A.: Washington: Internment camps are being prepared in Arkansas and Texas to house thousands of Japanese-Americans, many of them second-or third-generation citizens who are to be moved from the west coast as an anti-invasion measure.

The decision was taken at a meeting at the attorney-general's home between officials of the justice and war departments. The president took no part.

The army is keen to relocate all Japanese. When the assistant secretary of war, John J. McCloy, questioned the legality of the move, a senior officer on the coast, General John de Witt, told him: "Out here, Mr. Secretary, a Jap's a Jap".

GULF OF MEXICO: The Free French submarine Surcouf, the world's largest, sinks in a collision with a US merchant ship near the entrance to the Panama Canal. There are no survivors of the 130-man crew.

A Brazilian freighter SS OLINDA is stopped by German submarine U-432 with a shot across the bow. After questioning the crew, the ship is shelled, torpedoed and sunk by about 78 miles (126 kilometres) northeast of Norfolk, Virginia at 2100.

CARIBBEAN SEA: A U.S. ship, the 2,340-ton Matson freighter Mokihana,is torpedoed by German submarine U-161 while lying at anchor at Port of Spain, Trinidad; there are no casualties among the 36-man merchant crew or 9-man Armed Guard. The ship stays afloat and is repaired. (Jack McKillop and Keith Allen)(279)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS Somme sunk by U-108 at 35.30N, 61.25W.

18 February 1943

February 18th, 1943 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: After a tumultuous debate MPs voted by 335 to 119 today in favour of the Beveridge plan for post-war social security - but in principle only so far. For the first time since the coalition government was formed there was a massive split between the Tories and Labour. The Tories warned against sudden imposition of high taxation on the middle classes in order to finance a welfare state. Labour demanded at least an immediate first instalment to show that after victory Britain really would be a land fit for heroes.

Rescue tug HMS Tancred commissioned.

Frigate HMS Bazely commissioned.

GERMANY: Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders

Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie, the leaders of the German youth group Weisse Rose (White Rose), are arrested by the Gestapo for opposing the Nazi regime.

The White Rose was composed of university (mostly medical) students who spoke out against Adolf Hitler and his regime. The founder, Hans Scholl, was a former member of Hitler Youth who grew disenchanted with Nazi ideology once its real aims became evident. As a student at the University of Munich in 1940-41, he met two Roman Catholic men of letters who redirected his life. Turning from medicine to religion, philosophy, and the arts, Scholl gathered around him like-minded friends who also despised the Nazis, and the White Rose was born.

During the summer of 1942, Scholl and a friend composed four leaflets, which exposed and denounced Nazi and SS atrocities, including the extermination of Jews and Polish nobility, and called for resistance to the regime. The literature was peppered with quotations from great writers and thinkers, from Aristotle to Goethe, and called for the rebirth of the German university. It was aimed at an educated elite within Germany.

The risks involved in such an enterprise were enormous. The lives of average civilians were monitored for any deviation from absolute loyalty to the state. Even a casual remark critical of Hitler or the Nazis could result in arrest by the Gestapo, the regime's secret police. Yet the students of the White Rose (the origin of the group's name is uncertain; possibly, it came from the picture of the flower on their leaflets) risked all, motivated purely by idealism, the highest moral and ethical principles, and sympathy for their Jewish neighbours and friends. (Despite the risks, Hans' sister, Sophie, a biology student at her brother's university, begged to participate in the activities of the White Rose when she discovered her brother's covert operation.)

Today Hans and Sophie left a suitcase filled with copies of yet another leaflet in the main university building. The leaflet stated, in part: "The day of reckoning has come, the reckoning of our German youth with the most abominable tyranny our people has ever endured. In the name of the entire German people we demand of Adolf Hitler's state the return of personal freedom, the most precious treasure of the Germans which he cunningly has cheated us out of." The pair were spotted by a janitor and reported to the Gestapo and arrested. Turned over to Hitler's "People's Court," basically a kangaroo court for dispatching dissidents quickly, the Scholls, along with another White Rose member who was caught, were sentenced to death. They were beheaded--a punishment reserved for "political traitors"--on February 23, but not before Hans Scholl proclaimed "Long live freedom!" (Randall Stegner) More...

Berlin: In the shadow of the Stalingrad disaster, Goebbels today organized a morale-boosting rally in Berlin's Sportpalast, with a well-drilled crowd roaring "Yes! Yes!" as he called for total war and asked them to reaffirm their faith in the Fuhrer. "The British assert that the German people have lost faith in victory," he said. "Are you determined to follow the Fuhrer through thick and thin and shoulder even the heaviest burden?" On cue came the response: "Yes!"

The exact timing of the rally was concealed to prevent an RAF raid.

The German home radio said it would begin at 8.15pm; but two hours before that time the foreign service was broadcasting long extract's from Goebbels's speech.

A significant passage in the speech was deleted by the official German news agency. This read: "We have always estimated high the danger which threatens us from Russia, but not, unfortunately, high enough. Accordingly, we tried to conduct the war, one might say, with the left hand. The result is unsatisfactory. We must therefore wage the war with the life of the whole German people."

Generalmajor Ferdinand Schorner of the 40th Panzer Corps is put in charge of the National Socialist Leadership Corps. (Gene Hanson)

U-240 launched.

U-343 and U-964 commissioned.

TUNISIA: Sbeitla falls to the Germans.

BURMA: British and Gurkha troops operating behind Japanese lines today had their first encounter with the enemy since they crossed into Burma ten days ago to attack railways and other communications in Japanese-held territory. The troops, who detoured south after a skirmish at Mainyaung, are members of the 77th Indian (or Long Range Penetration) Brigade, led by Brigadier Order Wingate and known as "Chindits" after Wingate misheard an officer use the Burmese word for lion (Chinthe). The 3,000-strong Chindits were originally intended to support other major operations. Now they are to act alone as jungle guerrilla fighters.

SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC: General Krueger's 6th Army becomes operational in the SWPOA.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: Admiral McMorris leads a US naval force of 2 cruisers and 4 destroyers in shelling Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands.
This was Task Group 8.6 (TG 8.6) consisting of the TG flagship, the light cruiser USS Richmond (CL-9), the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35) and the destroyers USS Bancroft (DD-598), USS Caldwell (DD-605), USS Coghlan (DD-606), and USS Gillespie (DD-609). The ships steam past Holtz Bay and Chichagof Harbor looking for Japanese shipping. Chichagof Harbor is bombarded for ten minutes from 10,000 to 12,000 yards (9.1 to 11.0 km) and then Holtz Bay is shelled for eleven minutes from 9,000 to 11,500 yards (8.2 to 10.5 km). Japanese casualties on Attu are 22 to 23 killed and one wounded. The destroyer USS Coghlan (DD-606) also bombards Gibson Island which guards Chichagof Harbor. After the bombardment, USS Indianapolis and the destroyers Coghlan and Gillespie make a sweep 100 miles (161 km) southwest of Attu and sink the Japanese transport Akagane Maru.

SOUTHERN OCEAN: South of Australia, the RAN heavy cruiser HMAS Australia and three U.S. destroyers of Task Force 44.3 cover the passage of a five-ship convoy transporting the 30,000 troops of 9 Australian Division to Sydney, New South Wales.

The German auxiliary cruiser Michel (Schiffe 28) arrives at Singapore; the next day she turns over to the Japanese the merchant and Armed Guard sailors who had been captured when she sank the U.S. freighter SS Sawokla on 29 November 1942.

U.S.A.: Washington: The House of Representatives applauds Madame Chiang Kai-shek when she calls for a Japanese defeat.

Seattle: 31 die when a B-29 Superfortress bomber crashes on a test flight.

Admiral Nimitz issues a Secret-level assessment of the naval actions of 12-15 November, 1942, off Guadalcanal. This is by no means a whitewash; he is critical of the U.S. Navy's tactical failings, and does not shy from mentioning some of the most painful aspects of the first action, such as the failure to rescue most of the USS JUNEAU's survivors, and the strong likelihood that USS ATLANTA was mauled by friendly fire. But his overall verdict on the battle is that Callaghan's force "probably saved Henderson Field." (Keith Allen)

Destroyer USS Ingersoll laid down.

Minesweeper USS defence launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0315, MS Brasiloide was torpedoed by U-518, broke in two and sank at 12.38S/37.57W.

18 February 1944

February 18th, 1944 (FRIDAY)

FRANCE: Amiens: Nineteen RAF Mosquito VIs of Nos. 21, 464 and 487 Squadrons flew out of winter snow at treetop height today to hurl 500-pound bombs against the walls of Amiens jail. The explosions blasted gaps in the western outer wall, which is 20 feet high and three feet thick, and sliced open the main prison block.

This was the top-secret Operation JERICHO, to snatch Resistance leaders 24 hours before they were due to face a firing squad. Their message to rescuers led by the Australian Group-Captain P. Charles Pickard was "better blown up by British bombs that shot by Nazis."

The first three bombers missed the outer wall. The next two lowered their aim and scored as the next pair hit the guards' dining room. Finally, there was uproar as the main block was bombed in an effort to blast open cell doors without bloodshed.

But this ambitious operation has had one embarrassing result. Of 258 men freed, 179 are criminals. Some 56 Resistants died, many shot by guards as they ran for the gap. The most valuable man to get out was Louis Vivant, the Maquis leader in the Somme, but the 74 men left in the prison include the prominent patriot, Dr. Mans. The RAF dead include Pickard himself, a veteran of many special operations, including the Bruneval raid, and a "star" in the 1941 film Target for Tonight. (22)

ITALY: Anzio: At 0658, light cruiser HMS Penelope was hit by one torpedo from U-410 (Oberleutnant zur See Horst-Arno-Fenski) and sank rapidly after being hit at 0716 by a coup de grâce 35 miles west of Naples at 40 55N 13 25E. There are 415 casualties, but 85 survivors. She was returning from bombarding enemy positions during the Operation Shingle, the landings at Anzio, in which she was part of the Gunfire Support Group TG 81.8, comprising of light cruiser USS Brooklyn and destroyers USS Woolsey, Mayo, Trippe, Ludlow and Edison. (Alex Gordon and Dave Shirlaw)(108)

U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Gen Ivan S Konev, the commander of the Second Ukrainian Front, is promoted to marshal of the USSR for driving the Germans out of Korsun. General Eisenhower is awarded the Order of Suvorov, First Class.

Soviet forces takes Staraya-Russa and Shimsk.

MARSHALL ISLANDS: US forces land on Engebi Island.

In Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the 22d Marine Regiment lands on Engebi Island at the northern tip of the atoll at 0845 hours. This is part of Operation CATCHPOLE. There are over 1,200 Japanese Okinawans and Koreans on the island. Organized resistance ceases at 0800 hours local tomorrow; only 16 of the occupiers are captured. American casualties are 85 KIA and MIA and 521 WIA.

CAROLINE ISLANDS: Task Force 58 (TF 58) under Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance repeats a strike on Japanese installations and vessels at Truk; TF 58 planes sink destroyer HIJMS Fumizuki; submarine chaser Ch 29; and motor torpedo boat Gyoraitei No.10.

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: Destroyer Squadron 23 or Task Group 39.4 under Captain Arleigh A. Burke bombards Japanese positions at Kavieng on New Ireland Island; on New Britain Island, Destroyer Squadron 12 under Captain Rodger W. Simpson shells Rabaul, Japanese installations on the Crater Peninsula, and bivouac and supply areas at Vunapope and Cape Gazelle.

In the Indian and Pacific Oceans, 4 Japanese ships are sunk by an RN submarine and USAAF and USN aircraft.

CANADA:

Minesweepers HMCS Thunder, Mulgrave, Bayfield and Georgian departed Halifax for Devonport via the Azores.

Corvette HMCS Trentonian departed Halifax for workups at Bermuda.

Corvette HMCS Riviere Du Loup returned to Halifax from workups at Bermuda.

U.S.A.:

Minesweepers USS Success and Superior laid down.

Destroyer escort USS Tabberer launched.

Frigate USS Pocatello commissioned.

Escort carrier USS Petrof Bay commissioned.

Minesweeper USS Opponent commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-406 is sunk in position 48.32N, 23.36W, by depth charges from the British frigate HMS Spey. 12 dead and 45 survivors. (Alex Gordon)

U-7 sank west of Pillau, in position 54.52N, 19.30E in a diving accident. 29 dead (all hands lost).

18 February 1945

February 18th, 1945 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Spur commissioned.

GERMANY: The British XXX Corps attack Goch.

The Seigfried line is breached by the US 3rd Army.

Wenck's offensive east of Berlin starts to falter.

BALTIC SEA: U-2344 sank north of Heiligendamm in position 54.16.5N, 11.48.5E after collision with U-2336. 11 dead and 3 survivors.

EASTERN FRONT: General Ivan Cherniakhovsky, Commander of the 3rd Byelorussian Front, dies of wounds; Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky succeeds him.

At 39, Cherniakovsky is the youngest Army General in the Red Army. (Steen Ammentorp)

The VOLCANO ISLANDS (Iwo Jima) receive another carrier raid from US naval forces.
This was Task Group 52.2 (TG 52.2) with the escort aircraft carriers:

Task Unit 52.2.1, Carrier Division 26 (CarDiv 26)

USS Natoma Bay (CVE-62) with Composite Squadron Eighty One (VC-81)

USS Petrof Bay (CVE-80) with VC-76

USS Sargent Bay (CVE-83) with VC-79

USS Steamer Bay (CVE-87) with VC-90

USS Wake Island (CVE-) with Composite Spotting Squadron One (VOC-1)

Task Unit 52.2.2, CarDiv 29

USS Bismarck Sea (CVE-95) with VC-86

USS Lunga Point (CVE-94) with VC-85

USS Makin Island (CVE-93) with VC-84

Task Unit 50.7.1

USS Anzio (CVE-57) with VC-82

TG 52s aircraft only fly 28 sorties against beach defenses on Iwo Jima due to low clouds and occasional rain. Task Force 58 arrives from Japanese waters but they are too late to mount any major attacks but TG 58.4, the carriers Randolph, Yorktown and the light carriers Cabot and Langley, are able to attack Chichi Jima, sending up 318 sorties. The only aerial victory is scored by a Fighting Squadron Thirty (VF-30) pilot in Belleau Wood who shoots down a Kawasaki Ki-45 Army Type 2 Twin-engined Fighter Toryu (Dragon Killer), Allied Code Name "Nick."

The Seventh Air Force's VII Bomber Command dispatches 36 B-24s to attack Iwo Jima but they are recalled due to total cloud cover over the target

It was a big day for Rodgers supporting ships. Weakened by a last-minute diversion to Task Force 58 of two 16-inch gun battleships and a cruiser, his force included only five old battleships and six cruisers. In spite of difficulties in observing results of their fire, these ships did an excellent job in destroying defence positions, concentrating especially on the landing beach areas. Their force was too light, though, and the period of preparatory fire too short so that a great majority of the defence installations remained intact.

During the night, several Japanese bombers attack the US Navy's ships offshore and damage a troop transport, a minesweeper and a tug; two men are killed and 31 wounded on the transport; five men are killed and nine wounded on the minesweeper; and 42 men are killed and 29 wounded on the tug.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Gearing launched.

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