March 18th, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Vice Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, Queen Victoria's grandson, is named Chief of Combined Operations.
Destroyer HMS Undine laid down.
Frigate HMS Tay launched.
GERMANY: During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatches five Wellingtons to bomb Essen but they return due to lack of cloud cover.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Off Brindisi; The British submarine HMS Upholder sinks the Italian submarine Tricheco.
BURMA: Pilots of the 3d Fighter Squadron, American Volunteer Group (AVG, aka, “The Flying Tigers”) attack a Japanese airfield near Moulmein at 0755 hours destroying three bombers, two transports and 11 fighters on the ground.
CHINA: USN river gunboat Tutuila (PR-4), decommissioned at Chungking, China, on 18 January, is leased to the Chinese government for the duration of the war.
NEW HEBRIDES: U.S. Army troops, two companies of the 182d Infantry and an engineer company, arrive on Efate Island to build an airfield.
AUSTRALIA: On the day after General Douglas MacArthur"> MacArthur arrived in Australia, the USAAF operational strength consists of about 213 combat aircraft, i.e., 12 B-17 Flying Fortresses, 27 A-24 Dauntless dive bombers, several miscellaneous light and medium bombers, 33 P-39and 52 P-400 Airacobras, 92 P-40s and miscellaneous transport and other noncombat aircraft. Approximately 100 additional aircraft are being repaired or assembled. Very few of the fighter pilots are experienced or well trained and most of the bomber crews are exhausted and have low morale.
In the morning, General Douglas MacArthur sends his staff officers by plane south from Alice Springs, Northern Territory, while he orders up a special train for himself and his family. Jean MacArthur will have no more flying. The MacArthurs board a three-car wooden train drawn by a steam locomotive, that scuttles down a narrow-gauge line. The train chugs off on a 70-hour journey down 1,028 miles (1654 kilometres) of track to Adelaide, South Australia.
CANADA: Canadian forces establish unified military commands in Atlantic, Newfoundland, Pacific areas.
U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9102 which creates the War Relocation Authority (WRA) under the directorship of Milton S. Eisenhower, to "Take all people of Japanese descent into custody, surround them with troops, prevent them from buying land, and return them to their former homes at the close of the war." As a result, 120,000 men, women, and children were rounded up on the West Coast. Three categories of internees were created: Nisei (native U.S. citizens of Japanese immigrant parents), Issei (Japanese immigrants), and Kibei (native U.S. citizens educated largely in Japan). The internees were transported to one of ten relocation centers in California, Utah, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming. One Japanese American, Gordon Hirabayashi, fought internment all the way to the Supreme Court. He argued that the Army, responsible for effecting the relocations, had violated his rights as a U.S. citizen. The court ruled against him, citing the nation's right to protect itself against sabotage and invasion as sufficient justification for curtailing his and other Japanese Americans' constitutional rights. (Jack McKillop and Scott Peterson) More...
Aircraft carrier USS Wasp laid down.
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. (Alex Gordon)
German submarines are still active off the coast of North and South Carolina, U.S.A.. (1) U-124 torpedoes two unarmed U.S. tankers: the first is torpedoed and sunk 7 miles (11 kilometres) off the coast of North Carolina north of Cape Hatteras and the second is torpedoed about 40 miles south southeast of Beaufort, South Carolina; this ship is irreparably damaged and sinks on 20 March; and (2) U-332 sinks an unarmed tanker about 48 miles (77 kilometres) south southeast of Beaufort, South Carolina.
At 0827, the unescorted and unarmed E.M. Clark was hit by one torpedo from U-124 about 22 miles SW of the Diamond Shoals Lighted Buoy, as she was proceeding completely blacked out at 10.5 knots in a moderately rough sea. Thunderstorms in the area had generated enough light to silhouette her. The torpedo struck the port side amidships, eight to ten feet below the waterline. The explosion damaged the area around the bridge, destroyed one lifeboat and the radio antenna. An attempt to repair the antenna was unsuccessful, because a second torpedo struck the port side at the forward hold and caused the ship to sink ten minutes after the first hit. All but a messman in the crew of eight officers and 33 men abandoned ship in two lifeboat, while the whistle of the ship jammed and roared continuously. 26 men in the first lifeboat were picked up by the Venezuelan steam tanker Catatumbo and landed at Cape Henry. The remaining survivors in the other boat were picked up by destroyer USS Dickerson and transferred them to the motor surfboat USCGC 5426 from the Ocracoke Coast Guard station, which took these men ashore.
At 0114, the unescorted Kassandra Louloudi was torpedoed and sunk by U-124. USCGC Dione picked up the survivors.
Near Convoy SL-119, a 120 Sqn RAF Liberator attacked U-653. During the crash dive 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.