18 August 1939

August 18th, 1939 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Placards have been appearing in London with a simple but ambiguous question, 'What price Churchill?' Now The Times prints a letter signed by 375 academics urging the Prime Minister to include Churchill in his cabinet. As the Foreign Office learns that a German attack on Poland is threatened to take place in two weeks' time, Sir Nevile Henderson, the British Ambassador in Berlin, begs Chamberlain to write personally to Hitler.

Patrol vessel HMS Pintail is launched.

Light cruiser HMS Kenya laid down. (Daver Shirlaw)

GERMANY: Donitz despatches his 35 operational U-boats. 18 go to the eastern Atlantic and the remaining 17 are sent to the Baltic for operations against Poland and possibly Russia too.

U.S.S.R.: 1st Army Group in the Lake Khasan and Khalkin-Gol region of Siberia, under Corps Commander Georgi Zhukov, report a state of readiness after 57500 tons of supplies have reached them over dirt roads 465 miles from the Trans-Siberian railhead. There are ready to begin a counter-offensive against the Japanese.

18 August 1940

August 18th, 1940 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Battle of Britain: Do17s of KG 76 bomb Kenley and Biggin Hill, only two aircraft from 9.Staffel returning unscathed.
RAF Fighter Command:
First Luftwaffe intruders of the day were six reconnaissance aircraft including a Bf110 of LG 2 which was shot down at 31,000 feet over Manston.

Come midday and an enormous force, 350-strong was assembling. 10 and 11 Groups' squadrons were called to readiness. Three waves of raiders crossed the coast between North Foreland and Dungeness heading for targets south and south-east of London. They were first intercepted by 54 Squadron from its advanced base at Manston, soon joined by 70 fighters from nine other squadrons. One raid dropped 33 bombs on Deal.

Other raids attacked Biggin Hill ,Kenley and West Malling airfields. The West Malling gunners claimed two aircraft, but two hangars were hit and three Lysanders wrecked. Nine Do 17Zs of 9/KG 76 attacked Biggin Hill at low-level, strafing and bombing with mixed long and short-delay fused bombs, but 32 and 111 Squadrons shot down two, two crashed in the Channel and three force-landed in France, as the Dorniers left, three waves of Ju88s hit the stations landing ground. About 150 HE bombs were dropped with 60 hitting the airfield, the rest hitting the golf course. Some small anti-personnel bombs were also dropped on the gun sites, killing two men by a Bofors gun. Two of the Ju88s were destroyed, one by Flt. Lt. Stanford Tuck, forced by return fire to bale out of his 92 Squadron Spitfire.

Kenley was attacked shortly before West Malling. Nine Do17Zs of KG76 attacked the aerodrome from between 50 and 100 feet, followed Five minutes later the high level force arrived scoring hits on the Station Armoury, Sick Quarters and damaging six Hurricanes of 615 Squadron. Two of the low-flying element were brought down by Parachute and Cable rocket defences.. About 100 bombs were dropped. Twelve personnel died, 20 were injured. 615 Squadron responding to the raid was caught by the rear support Bf109s, and four aircraft shot down. One pilot was killed.

The afternoon phase began with six raids approaching east of the Isle of Wight just before 14:00. 70 Ju87s of StG77 accompanied by 24 Ju88s of KG54 attacked Poling CH radar station bringing down two pylons and disabling the station for a week, Ford naval air station was raided losing two hangars destroyed, a third of the quarters and killing 14, Gosport and finally Thorney Island where at 14:30 several Ju87s bombed a hangar and started a fire.

The Poling Stukas were intercepted by in turn 43, 152, 601 and 602 Squadrons with 234 Squadron taking on the top cover. In all 16 Ju 87s were shot down, two more crash landed and four were badly damaged, in addition to 8 escorting Bf109s shot down. The RAF lost four Spitfires and two Hurricanes.

At 15:30 a dozen Bf109s strafed Manston destroying two Spitfires, killing one man and injuring 15.

Two hours later 8 raids crossed over the Essex coast via the Blackwater and Thames estuaries. 54 and 151 Squadrons came into action to hinder the bombing of North Weald and Hornchurch.

During the night raids took place on South Wales, RAF Sealand (Chester), Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Another bomb at Hook, Hampshire, exploded killing five members of a bomb disposal squad dealing with it.

RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - Caproni aircraft factory at Milan and Aluminium factory at Rheinfehlen.
10 Sqn. Ten aircraft to Rheinfehlen. Very bad weather, eight bombed primary.
58 Sqn. Ten aircraft to Rheinfehlen. Six bombed primary, one bombed an alternative target.
77 Sqn. Four aircraft to Milan. Four bombed primary, one claimed a fighter destroyed.

In the heaviest day of fighting so far, the Luftwaffe loses 69 planes to the RAF's 33; another 29 RAF machines are wrecked on airfields.

L/Sgt William John Button (d. 1969), Royal Engineers, showed great coolness before and after a bomb on which he was working exploded, killing five sappers. (VC)

GERMANY: Berlin: Göring rebukes the Luftwaffe generals for their disappointing campaign, and the fighter ace, Adolf Galland asks for Spitfires in reply.

ETHIOPIA: Vickers Wellesley's of the RAF bomb Addis Ababa from Perim Island.

NORTH AMERICA: Canada and the USA set up a joint defence board to co-ordinate military decisions. US President Franklin D Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister W.L. MacKenzie King sign the Ogdensburg Agreement which provides for a Permanent Joint Board for the defence of the US and Canada.

U.S.A.: Walter P. Chrysler, the auto tycoon and founder of the Chrysler Corporation, dies at age 66. Chrysler had been president of the Buick Motor Company and resigned in 1919 to take control of the Maxwell Motor Company. In 1925, the company was renamed the Chrysler Corporation the manufacturer of Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto and Chrysler automobiles.

In a display of utter bad taste and stupidity, Jimmy Powers, the sports editor of the New York Daily News newspaper, writes that the bad play of baseball's New York Yankees can be attributed to "a mass polio epidemic" contracted from former Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig. Gehrig, who is suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and quit the game in 1939, and his former roommate, catcher Bill Dickey, sue the Daily News and the newspaper retracts the story on 26 September and apologizes.

Light cruiser USS Columbia laid down.

18 August 1941

August 18th, 1941 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The National Fire Service was inaugurated today. 118,000 strong, with 180,000 auxiliaries and 60,000 women, under Sir Aylmer Firebrace, a former London fire chief. Some 1,450 previous commands have been merged into 37 fire forces and 200 divisions. Fire drills have been standardised and emergency water tanks are now installed on bomb sites.

Destroyer HMS Mahratta laid down.

Destroyer HMS Badsworth commissioned.

destroyer depot ship HNLMS Colombia is commissioned.

GERMANY: Rastenburg: Hitler rejects proposals from General Franz Halder, the chief of staff, and Field Marshal Walter von Brauchitsch, the army C-in-C, for an attack on Moscow.
Hitler also orders the deportation of Berlin's remaining 76,000 Jews to ghettoes in Poland.

Hitler also orders that the systematic murder of the mentally ill and handicapped be brought to an end because of protests within Germany. This program had been initiated in 1939 and 50,000 German adults and children had been killed before it was terminated.

Cologne is raided by Blenheim's of No. 2 Group RAF. Today they are escorted by the Westland Whirlwind twin-engined fighter. (22)

U-188 laid down .

FINLAND: Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles informs the Finnish Ambassador Hjalmar Procope that Soviet Union is willing to discuss peace terms with Finland. The Soviets are even willing to modify the terms of the Peace of Moscow of 1940 (ending the Winter War) more advantageous to Finland. Welles stresses that he is merely passing the information on, not acting as an official middle-man. Stalin had earlier, on 4 Aug, written to Roosevelt that he would appreciate if Finland could be withdrawn from the war.

Procope replies by asking if the western powers are willing to give guarantees to Finland in the case Germany loses the war. Welles is unwilling to discuss the matter. In the end Finnish government is forced to give no definite answer to the tentave peace offer. As the German armies are advancing everywhere in the eastern front, there is perceived to be no sound basis for a peace between Finland and Soviet Union.

U.S.S.R.: The Soviet Southern Armies, under Budenny, begin a withdrawal behind the Dnieper. Gingisepp, on the Luga west of Narva falls to the Germans.

The German 1.Panzergruppe (von Kleist) establishes a bridgehead across the Dnepr at Zaporoshe. From Kairala in northern Finland, 20.Gebirgsarmee (Dietl) begins an offensive with the objective of capturing the vital Lend-Lease port of Murmansk.

Soviet destroyer Statny is mined and sunk in Moon Sound.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: RN Submarine P33 is believed to have been lost in a depth charge attack off Tripoli on this day. The only clues to her fate were reports of a severe depth charge attack by P.32 and HMS Unique which appeared to come from the area allocated to P.33. Subsequent attempts by P.32 to contact P.33 were unsuccessful.

After hearing the depth charge attack, which may have foretold the demise of P.33, RN submarine P.32 attempts to manoeuvre into a position to attack a convoy of five merchant ships under escort in the swept channel approach to Tripoli Harbour. Realising that they were not in a good position to carry out an attack Lt. D. A. B. Abdy (Later Lt.Cdr.) decided to run under a minefield, running at full speed for about ten minutes until he believed that he had reached the swept channel.

Periscope depth was ordered and P32 was just rising when she struck a mine forward on the port side. The explosion put out all the lights, the forward control door jammed, she took on a heavy list to port and sank to the bottom, 210' below the surface. In actuality, the whole of the boat forward of the control room had been destroyed, killing the eight crew members forward. The remaining 24 sought refuge in the after spaces. Once it was realised that the boat could not be saved or surfaced, the decision to attempt escape was taken. In Abdy’s opinion the engine room offered the brighter prospect of escape as he was concerned about the pressure being put on the forward control room door. However, taking into consideration the number of crew members in the engine room (23 besides himself) and the amount of time that P.32 had been submerged he decided to split the group up. The Coxswain (Petty Officer E. Kirk), and ERA Martin volunteered to join Abdy in an attempt to make what was believed to be the more dangerous escape via the conning tower.

Abdy and the coxswain escaped successfully but ERA Martin was dead on his arrival on the surface (in actuality, any successful escape, even with DSEA gear, was considered impossible beyond 150'). Both Abdy and Kirk were later picked up by an Italian naval vessel shortly after being spotted by an aircraft which had been searching the area after the mysterious explosion. When it was reported by Abdy that others would appear shortly, the Italians opted to remain for several hours but no other survivors were seen to escape. Adby and Kirk were made prisoners of war and eventually chosen for prisoner exchange in March 1943. Due to the belief that the escape hatch was a weak point during heavy depth charging (and the chance of escape from a sunk submarine in war time being considered remote), it was fairly standard for an iron bar to be welded over the escape hatches of HM submarines on active duty. It later came to light that, in all likelihood, this had been performed on P 32 during her last stop in port and that was the reason that no one emerged from the after portion of the boat. The truth of this thought has, to my knowledge, not been determined by divers... (Alex Gordon and Mark E. Horan)(108)

NORTH AFRICA: Tobruk: The eyes of the world have focused since April on this dusty, sand-blown seaport, much of it lying in ruins after four months of bombardment. In Berlin, the Göbbels propaganda machine has delighted in calling the Australian garrison "rats caught in a trap". It was not long before the Aussies themselves took up the title and were calling themselves "the Rats of Tobruk."

They beat off one massive German assault and have remained a major thorn in the flesh for Rommel, who desperately needs Tobruk's port facilities to ease his heavily-stretched supply lines. Despite the Luftwaffe's nightly bombings - the record so far is 21 raids between dusk and dawn - the real hazards for the garrison are boredom and monotony of a diet of bully beef, tinned stew and canned fruit supplemented by vitamin tablets. The local water, rationed to six pints a day per man, tastes foul.

For all the air-raids and frequent long-range bombardments, morale is good in Tobruk. The Aussies make their own bawdy stage entertainments, and their local newspaper Tobruk Truth, is printed each morning using BBC news.

Although the siege continues, night-time ferries have nonetheless brought in some supplies, and the Australians were delighted last night when Polish, British, South African and Indian troops broke through to join them after a daring naval operation in darkness.

CANADA: Minesweepers HMCS Fort William, Kenora and Milltown laid down Port Arthur, Ontario.

U.S.A.: President Franklin D Roosevelt announces that the U.S. is ferrying combat aircraft via Brazil and Africa to the British in the Near East. The company that will ferry the aircraft is Pan American Air Ferries, a subsidiary of Pan American World Airways. This activity resulted from a meeting between Juan Trippe, the head of PanAm, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in London in June 1941. Over dinner, Churchill asked if PanAm could fly aircraft and supplies to Cairo, Egypt, to counter the Germans in North Africa. On his return to the U.S., Trippe met with President Roosevelt and was told to set up the routes across Africa as soon as possible; the U.S. Government also provided money to assist in this effort. Pan American Air Ferries was established on 24 July 1941, all available pilots were hired, and the operation began shortly thereafter.

The government tasks the U.S. Coast Guard with enforcing laws to protect war-lanes in Alaskan waters.

Destroyer USS Badsworth is commissioned.

BRAZIL: A Panair do Brasil Lockheed 18-10 Lodestar, msn 18-2083, registered PP-PBD, crashes near Sao Paulo; all 8 aboard the aircraft are killed.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0250 U-38 sank the unescorted SS Longtaker. Hitting her in the bow and amidships.

18 August 1942

August 18th, 1942 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The government reveals that Churchill visited the Eighth Army in Egypt en-route to Moscow.

Bomber Command flies its last operation using the Bristol Blenheim IV. (22)

Gen. Sir Harold Alexander succeeded General Auchinleck as commander of British imperial forces in the Middle East.

Convoy SC-94 arrived in Liverpool after losing 11 merchantships totaling 53,412 tons. The material lost amounted to 31,250 tons of general cargo, 6,900 tons of grain, 4,000 tons of US Army stores, 4,000 tons of lumber, 4,000 tons of steel, 3,200 tons of pulp, 3,000 tons of food, 2,500 tons of iron ore, 2,000 tons of ammunition, plus a large amount of military transport vehicles carried as deck cargo. Sixty-one merchant sailors were lost.

Minesweeper HMS Lightfoot laid down.

GERMANY: Hitler issues a directive which gives more power to SS Special Units and orders harsher measures against partisan activity.

RAF Lancasters and the Halifaxes of No. 35 Sqn. and Short Stirlings of No. 7 Squadron, tonight take part in the first operations by the Bomber Command Pathfinder Force, with a raid on Flensburg. (22)

U-420 and U-732 launched.

U.S.S.R.: Black Sea Fleet and Azov Flotilla: Shipping loss: MS "TSch-405 "Vzrivatel"" - by field artillery, close to Eupatoria (later raised) (Sergey Anisimov)(69)

INDIA: Major General Clayton L Bissell becomes Commanding General 10th Air Force, relieving Brigadier General Earl L Naiden who now devotes full time to command of India-China Ferry Command under the 10th Air Force.

NEW GUINEA: Japanese reinforcements land unopposed at Basabua.

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Fremantle is launched.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Guadalcanal: The 900 men of the IJA 28th Regiment are landed at Taivu Point, east of the US Marine perimeter at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal. These men are commanded by Col. Ichiki. His orders are to attack the estimated 3,000 marines on Guadalcanal. If not successful in overrunning the airfield, he is to continue harassing raids to prevent completion of the field, while awaiting the arrival of further reinforcements. Col. Ichiki plans to attack on his second night and requests permission to occupy Tulagi. He is a member of the "Bamboo Spear Tactics" school within the Japanese Army.

8 IJN G4M "Betty" bombers based at Rabaul, attack Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. Marine AA gunners damage 5 of the attackers. Six IJN destroyers land the Ichiki Detachment of 900 men on Guadalcanal.

For a second consecutive day a single USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress of the Allied Air Forces attacks Kavieng, New Ireland Island; bombs fall in the airfield dispersal area.

The US submarines USS Argonaut (SS-166) and USS Nautilus (SS-168) evacuate the Marine raiders landed on Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands yesterday.

About 120 Marine Raiders, including their commander Lieutenant Colonel Evans F. Carlson, USMC, spend the night on Butaritari Island. The Marines are disorganized and many have lost their weapons and equipment attempting to reach the two submarines that landed them yesterday.

In the middle of the night a small Japanese patrol approaches the Marine perimeter; one Marine is wounded before three Japanese are killed.

With the enemy apparently still full of fight and his raiders disorganized and weakened, Carlson called another council of war. Without much input from the others, he decided to surrender. His stated reasons were concern for the wounded, and for the possible fate of the president's son, Major James Roosevelt, executive officer of the 2d Raider Battalion, (who was not present at the meeting). At 0330 Carlson sent his operations officer and another Marine out to contact the enemy. They found one Japanese soldier and eventually succeeded in giving him a note offering surrender. Carlson also authorized every man to fend for himself -those who wished could make another attempt to reach the submarines. By the next morning several more boatloads made it through the surf, including one with Major Roosevelt. In the meantime, a few exploring raiders killed several Japanese, one of them probably the man with the surrender note.

The situation changed during the morning. There were 70 Marines on the island and they equipped themselves with weapons lying about the battlefield. Patrols found 83 dead Japanese and 14 dead Americans; there was no organized resistance on the island. Japanese aircraft made four separate attack during the day, but they inflicted no losses on the raider force ashore. The two submarines, USS Argonaut (SS-166) and USS Nautilus (SS-168), were contacted and by 2300 hours, the remainder of the force was back aboard the ships. After returning to Pearl Harbor, it was determined that the casualties were 18 dead and 12 missing.

Only after the war would the Marine Corps discover that nine of the missing raiders had been left alive on the island. These men had become separated from the main body at one point or another during the operation.

With the assistance of the natives the group evaded capture for a time, but finally surrendered on 30 August. A few weeks later the Japanese beheaded them on the island of Kwajalein Atoll.

The raid itself had mixed results. Reports painted it as a great victory and it boosted morale on the home front. Many believed it achieved its original goal of diverting forces from Guadalcanal, but the Japanese had immediately guessed the size and purpose of the operation and had not let it alter their plans for the Solomons. However, it did cause the enemy to worry about the potential for other such raids on rear area installations.

On the negative side, that threat may have played a part in the subsequent Japanese decision to fortify heavily places like Tarawa Atoll, the scene of a costly amphibious assault later in the war. Despite the trumpeted success of the operation, the Navy never again attempted to use submarines to conduct raids behind enemy lines.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: In the Aleutian Islands, a US 11th Air Force B-24 Liberator takes oblique photos of Amchitka and Tanaga Islands; Heavy fog over Kiska and Attu Islands precludes armed reconnaissance.

U.S.A.: The motion picture "The Pride of the Yankees" premiers in New York City. This biography of the New York Yankees' superstar first baseman Lou Gehrig, is directed by Sam Wood and stars Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Babe Ruth, Walter Brennan and Dan Duryea. Appearing as themselves are Yankees' players Bill Dickey, Bob Meusel and Mark Koenig along with radio sportscaster Bill Stern. Future movie star Dane Clark has a bit role as a fraternity brother. The film is nominated for eleven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor (Cooper) and Best Actress (Wright); it won an editing award. Cooper, who batted right handed, wore a uniform with everything backwards to emulate the left had hitting Gehrig, e.g., instead of NEW YORK on the travelling uniform, the letters KROY WEN were sewn on the shirt and then the film was reversed.

Submarine USS Cabrilla laid down.

Destroyer USS Miller and Wadsworth laid down. Destroyer USS Abner Read launched.

CARIBBEAN SEA: German submarines attack two convoys.

- U-553 attacks Convoy TAW 13, steaming south of Cuba. The submarine torpedoes and sinks a Swedish merchant vessel SS Blankaholm, a British freighter Empire Bede and an armed U.S. freighter John Hancock.

- U-162 attack Convoy TAW (S) consisting of 15 ships escorted by a USN gunboat and four submarine chasers, a RN corvette, and two USCG cutters. The submarine torpedoes and sinks an unarmed U.S. freighter.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Near convoy SL.119 a Liberator aircraft (Sqdn 120/F) attacked U-653. During the crash diving one man was lost. (There was a report that the man was saved by a British destroyer.) The boat was seriously damaged and had to limp back to base, reaching Brest, France on 30 August. [Matrosengefreiter Willi Pröhl] (Alex Gordon)

U-214 sank SS Balingkar, Hatarana and damaged HMS Cheshire Convoy SL-118.

18 August 1943

August 18th, 1943 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The US VIII Air Support Command in England flies Missions 25A and 25B against 2 Luftwaffe airfields without loss.
(1) 22 B-26B Marauders bomb the Vlamertinge Airfield at Ypres, Belgium at 1016 hours.
(2) 32 B-26Bs attack Woensdrecht Airfield in the Netherlands at 1032 hours.

RAF Bomber Command dispatches 596 bombers (324 Lancasters, 218 Halifaxes and 54 Stirlings) in a night attack against the experimental and development laboratories and plant for V-1 and V-2 rockets at Peenemünde, Germany.

Frigate HMS Rowley laid down. Submarine HMS Spearhead laid down. Salvage vessel HMS Succour is laid down.

London: The Times carries a story today about the sabotaging of an electricity generating station at Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. It will no doubt be read with great interest by German intelligence. It was after all, written especially for them by the "Twenty Committee" - XX - the British Intelligence department which runs double agents reporting false information to the Germans. The "sabotage" was carried out to prove to the Germans the reliability of the two Norwegian double agents nicknamed "Mutt and Jeff".

NORTHERN EUROPE: Germany's top-secret rocket and flying bomb centre at Peenumunde, on the Baltic coast, was hit by 597 RAF bombers using new techniques last night. Casualties were heavy on both sides: some 732 of Peenumunde's staff were killed when 1,593 tons of high explosive were dropped on three main targets. The RAF lost 40 bombers. The impact on the German secret weapon programme is harder to assess, but it is likely to be delayed for weeks rather than months.

The new bombing tactics include a "timed run" on a fixed bearing from a known position, the "master bomber" technique used by the Dam Busters, and a red fire marker which burns fiercely for ten minutes some 3,000 feet above ground level.

The Germans were also using a new weapon, the Schrage Musik upward-firing cannon, fitted to Me-110 night fighters.

GERMANY: U-868, U-997 and U-998 launched. U-477 commissioned.

POLAND: Treblinka: The death camp receives its final consignment of Jews for extermination.

U.S.S.R.: Black Sea Fleet and Azov Flotilla: (Sergey Anisimov)(69)Submarine loss. "Sch-203" - by U-boat, close to cape Lukull.

ITALY: US cruisers and destroyers bombard Palmi and Gioai Taura.

CHINA: T. V. Soong, Chiang Kai-shek's foreign minister, protests to Washington against China's exclusion from high-level Allied conferences.

NEW GUINEA: 70+ B-17s, B-24s and B-25s covered by almost 100 fighters, of the USAAF 5th AF, hit airfields at Wewak, Borma, Dagua and But. 30+ Japanese fighters are shot down. This has virtually destroyed the entire Japanese air strength at Wewak, in concentrated attacks using 166 aircraft over two days. An entire Japanese bomber formation lined up on the runway at Boram with propellers turning was caught just as it was about to take off. Yesterday's losses, which the Japanese described as "The Black Day of 17 August", totalled 150 aircraft.

U.S.A.: Destroyer escort USS Greiner commissioned. Destroyer escorts USS Lake and Maloy launched. Destroyer escorts USS Richard S Bull, Weeden, Richard M Rowell and Curtis W Howard laid down.

Destroyer USS Cone is commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-84 is ordered to refuel from U-760 today in position 37.00N, 44.30W. This had previously been recorded as sunk 24 Aug, 1943 in the middle of the North Atlantic, in position 27.09N, 37.03W, by aerial torpedoes from aircraft of the US escort carrier USS Core, but which is over 600 nautical miles from the refuelling position.

The German submarine U-403 is sunk in the mid-ATLANTIC OCEAN near Dakar, in position 13.42N, 17.36W, by depth charges from a French Wellington Mk XIII of the RAF's No 344 Squadron based at Quakram Airfield, Dakar, French West Africa. All hands, 49 men, on the U-boat are lost.

18 August 1944

August 18th, 1944 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The US Eighth Air Force in England flies 3 missions (numbers in parenthesis are numbers of bombers attacking):

- Mission 561: B-24s bomb Amy Airfield at Roye, France (42) and 10 hit targets of opportunity; 2 B-24s are lost; escort is provided by 96 P-51Mustangs.

- Mission 562: 720 bombers and 242 fighters, in 3 forces, are dispatched against bridges, airfields, fuel dumps and an aircraft engine factory in France and Belgium; 2 bombers and 1 fighter are lost.
(1) B-17s bomb bridges at Namur (37), Liege/Benoit (36), Huy (35), Yvoir (35), Liege/Seraing (26), Vise (25) and Maastricht (24); 13 hit Tongres marshalling yard, 12 hit Eindhoven Airfield and 12 hit targets of opportunity; escort is provided by 99 P-38 Lightnings and P-51s; they claim 46-0-15 Luftwaffe aircraft; 1 P-38 is lost.
(2) B-24s attack airfields at Metz (78), Nancy/Essey (70), Woippy (60) and Laneureville (35); escort is provided by 38 P-51s; 1 P-51 is lost.
(3) B-17s hit St Dizier Airfield (116), Pacy-sur-Armancon (39) and Bourran (38); 1 other hits a target of opportunity; escort is provided by 93 P-51s; they claim 2-0-3 aircraft; 2 P-51s are lost.

- Mission 564: 7 B-17s drop leaflets in France during the night.

Submarine HMS Scotsman launched.

Minesweeper HMS Wave is launched.

The Canadian-owned, British-registered merchantman Fort Gloucester (7,127 GRT) was heavily damaged in the English Channel when she was torpedoed by a German E-boat. Fort Gloucester had been proceeding as part of convoy FTM-70 at the time. There were no casualties in this incident.

FRANCE: Paris: Oberg drives out of Paris leaving the city to the army. The German embassy closes. The Majestic Hotel ceases to function. No newspapers are published; no mail is delivered. The tricolor flag flies again on the Hôtel de Ville.
A joint committee of the resistance meets and the Communist representative declares "The hour of insurrection has come; if you aren't with us, we will go it alone." "With what weapons?" the Gaullist representative asked. "We have 600," was the reply. Nothing more than small scale skirmishing could be envisaged. Communist calls for insurrection continued to be issued in the face of reality over the next six days.
The rue des Pyramides offices of the PPF, as well as those of La Gerbe and Je Suis Partout, are ransacked, their contents strewn in the streets.

The Polish Corps from the north and the US forces from the south close the gap at Falaise, France.

The US 3rd Army reach Versailles on their way the the Seine.

The US VI Corps is now advancing toward Aix-en-Provence with French units advancing on Toulon and then Marseilles.

- In northern France, the US Ninth Air Force dispatches nearly 100 B-26s and A-20 Havocs to strike a fuel dump, ammunition dump, rail and road overpass, rail embankment, and junction beyond the battleline to disorganize retreating German forces; 1,000+ fighters fly cover over ground forces in the Argentan-Paris area, along the Seine River, and armed reconnaissance over northern and western France.

- In southern France, the US Twelfth Air Force sends medium bombers to blast coastal guns in the Toulon area and shipping in Toulon harbor; fighter-bombers closely support beachhead troops, hit rolling stock and rail lines, and generally disrupt communications as the US VI Corps overruns the primary defenses in the coastal area of southeastern France; fighters maintain beachhead patrols and area cover for the bombers.

899 RN Sqn, Seafire aircraft NF661 from HMS Khedive S/Lt(A) David Arthur Carey RCNVR of Stettler, Alberta, lost. Flew into hill near Aix-en-Province during low-level attack on motor transports.

German troops stationed near the Spanish border and the Gulf of Biscay begin withdrawing.

Normandy: Maj. David Vivian Currie (1912-86), Canadian Army, led a force which attacked and held a village, denying an escape route to two German armies. (Victoria Cross)

U-129 after being taken out of service at Lorient 4 July 1944, scuttled. Raised and stricken in 1946 and broken up.

GERMANY: Rastenburg: Hitler watches the film of the 20 July conspirators' execution.

U-2340 and 3013 laid down.

Hitler orders von Cholitz, the military governor of Paris, to reduce the capital to a "field of ruins."

POLAND: The First Ukraine Front takes Sandomierz, on the west bank of the Vistula in southern Poland.

BULGARIA: Five heavy bombers of the USAAF's Fifteenth Air Force in Italy visually bomb the port area of Lom without loss.

ROMANIA: Heavy bombers of the USAAF's Fifteenth Air Force in Italy bomb five targets: 273 bomb the oil refineries at Ploesti (48 using H2X radar and the rest visually) with the loss of seven aircraft; 102 bomb the Steauea Oil Refinery at Campina with the loss of one aircraft; two bomb a highway, another a railway and one bombs the marshalling yard at Craiova.

YUGOSLAVIA: Heavy bombers of the USAAF's Fifteenth Air Force in Italy bomb four targets without loss: 87 bomb Alibunar Airfield; two bomb the railroad at Kraljevo; one bombs the marshalling yard at Lapovo; and one bomb a railroad line.

ITALY: Cpl. Kenneth Horsfield (b.?), Manchester Regt., tried to save man trapped after an ammunition explosion, but was fatally wounded by a second blast. (George Cross)

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES Sea: The US submarine RASHER sinks the Japanese carrier TAIYO.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Shediac completed foc'sle extension refit Vancouver, British Columbia.

U.S.A.: Submarine USS Trutta is launched.

Destroyer USS New is launched.

Escort carrier USS Badoeng Strait is laid down.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Two German submarines are sunk:

- U-107 is sunk in the Bay of Biscay west of La Rochelle, in position 46.46N, 03.49W, by depth charges from an RAF Sunderland Mk III of No 201 Squadron based at Pembroke Dock, Wales. All hands, 58 men, on the U-boat are lost.

- U-621 is sunk in the Bay of Biscay near La Rochelle, in position 45.52N, 02.36W, by depth charges from the RCN destroyers HMCS Chaudiere(H99) DD, A/LCdr Charles Patrick Nixon DSC, RCN, CO, with, HMCS Kootenay(H75) DD, A/LCdr William Herbert Willson DSC, HMCS Ottawa(H31) DD, Cdr James Douglas "Chummy" Prentice DSO, RCN, CO. U-621 was a VIIC type, built by Blohm and Voss, Hamburg, launched 29 Mar 42,commissioned 7 May 42, in service 27 months, with a record of sinking 7 ships for a total of 32,845 tons and 1 ship of 10,048 tons damaged. Of a crew of 56 there were no survivors. U-621 had been active in the Wolfpacks in 1942. Wolfpack "Panter" (8-14 Oct) "Puma" group (16-30 Oct) which attacked convoy HX 212 and sank 6 ships. "Raufbold" group (15-22 Dec) which attacked convoy ON 153. The newly-formed, all-Canadian 11th Escort Group was deployed in the Bay of Biscay to intercept transiting U-boats. Despite their recent creation, this group was composed of well-trained and equipped ships with highly experienced commanders. The familiarity of the ships in co-operative ASW was very evident in this engagement. Kootenay gained asdic contact at 0953 and Ottawa closed to attack. Despite evasive manoeuvres by the U-boat, at 1012 a 'Hedgehog' bomb exploded and asdic showed the submarine had bottomed. Further attacks were carried out until 1530, when Cdr Prentice was convinced that the submarine had been sunk. But CinC Plymouth ordered further attacks and at 1609, after two Hedgehog attacks by Chaudiere, who had been left alone to 'sit' on the datum, a secondary explosion produced wreckage and documents that 'proved' the U-boat's destruction. The nearly 5 years of war experience and improvements in equipment and training had finally produced a Canadian Escort Group of deadly effectiveness; moreover, one that was capable of victory over an experienced enemy. (Jack McKillop and Dave Shirlaw)

U-307 sank SS Ivan Papanin.

U-862 sank SS Nairug.

18 August 1945

August 18th, 1945 (SATURDAY)

U.S.S.R.: Moscow radio broadcasts a message from Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to Soveit Premier Josef Stalin saying "Close friendship between our nations will not only server as an everlasting foundation of peace in east Asia but will be an important factor in the creation of a new order in the whole world."

FRENCH INDOCHINA: The Viet Minh Municipal Committee addresses a crowd of 200,000 in Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi, announcing the beginning of the revolution. The Viet Minh take control of key buildings in Hanoi and Japanese and Vietnamese government forces surrender without resistance.

JAPAN: The Soviet attacks continue and most of the province of Manchuria has been overrun. They have captured Harbin and are advancing on Mukden and Changchun.

A group of Japanese Army Officers arrive at the official Prime Minister's residence of Prince Higashikuni. They demand that he withdraw the decision to surrender, because all of the military men, especially the young officers, were against ending the war. Their plan is to meet in front of the Palace and present their demands to the Emperor, by force if necessary.

Okinawa: Damaged ship USS PENNSYLVANIA departs Buckner Bat under tow of two tugs. (Randall Steigner)

Two USAAF Fifth Air Force B-32 Dominators on a photo mission over Tokyo are jumped by about 14 Japanese "Zekes" (Mitsubishi A6M, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighters) and "Tojos" (Nakajima Ki-44, Army Type 2 Single-seat Fighters Shoki). One of the B-32s is damaged but both manage to return safely to Okinawa. The American gunners claim two fighters destroyed and two probables.

The first American flag flies over Japan by American POWs on Mukaishima Island before any U.S. forces have landed on Japanese soil. Material used to make this flag was from red, white and blue parachutes used to drop food and medical supplies to the prisoners. The flag is completed today, and at 1100 hours local, the Japanese colors are lowered and this American flag is raised. The strains of "To the Colors" blown on a Japanese bugle, accompanied the ceremony conducted before the assembled group of 99 prisoners. The flag was thereafter raised daily until the liberation of the Americans on 13 September 1945.

GUAM: Concern is growing among the Allies that it may be weeks, and possibly months or years, before all Japanese troops have surrendered. It is feared that long before Japan's surrender some soldiers in the outlying Pacific islands were ordered to go into hiding, harass the enemy and never give up. Without radios many will not have heard Emperor Hirohito's broadcast. Most will only accept orders to fight on being countermanded by their own officers, many of whom are dead or missing. The issue has been highlighted in Manchkuo where the Japanese army fought until yesterday when it finally received Hirohito's order to surrender in writing - despite hearing it two days ago.

FORMOSA: Subhas Chandra Bose, the Indian nationalist leader, is fatally injured at age 48; his Japanese plane crashes off Formosa en route to Tokyo.

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: Missions from British Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia, and Chinese Gernalissimo Chiang Kai-shek have arrived in Manila for the conference with the Japanese surrender emissaries.

CANADA: Minelayer HMCS Sankaty paid off.

U.S.A.: The 35 mph (56.3 km/h) speed limit on America's roads is ended.

Destroyer USS Cone commissioned. Destroyer USS New launched.

In New York City, scheduled demonstrations to end segregation in organized baseball are called off. The demonstrations were to be held at the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants, and Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The top songs on the music charts are: "If I Loved You" by Perry Como; "I Wish I Knew" by Dick Haymes; "Till the End of Time" by Perry Como; and "Oklahoma Hills" by Jack Guthrie.

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