July 18th, 1943 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Frigates HMS Loring and Pasley laid down.
ITALY: US Seventh Army forces capture Caltanisetta, Sicily and advance north rapidly against light opposition.The British Eighth Army continue their advance, but strong German resistance halts Dempsey's 13 Corps advance on the east coast near Catania.
Canadian forces take Valguarnerna.
In the air during the night of 17/18 July, Northwest African
Strategic Air Force Wellingtons bomb airfields at Montecorvino, Sicily and
Pomigliano, Italy, while Northwest African Tactical Air Force (light bombers
bomb Catania, Sicily and carry out reconnaissance of extensive areas of Sicily.
During the day, NATAF A-36 Apaches hit Santa Caterina, Adrano, Lercara, and
Termini Imerese, Sicily.
JAPAN: 6 B-24s bomb shipping targets between Paramushiru Island and Shimushu Island in
the Kurile Islands and the completed runway at Kataoka Air Base on Paramushiru Island,
which is also photographed. They observe fires among buildings south and east of the
runway. Some of the observed aircraft take to the air and vainly pursue the attackers. The
strike on the Kurile Islands is the first heavy bomber attack against Japan during the
war.
PACIFIC: In the Central Pacific, 6 Seventh Air Force B-24s, flying out of Funafuti Island in the Ellice Islands, bomb Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Japanese bombers raiding Canton Island in the Phoenix Islands are forced to jettison their bombs at sea because of intense AA and fighter defence.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: 21 B-24s, 20+ P-40s and P-38 Lightnings of the USAAF Thirteenth Air Force, and 35 US Navy and Marine Corps SBD Dauntlesses and TBF Avengers and 134 Navy F4F Wildcats and Marine F4U Corsairs thoroughly blast the Kahili area on Bougainville Island; 15 B-24s concentrate on the airfield; many AA positions are attacked, as are revetments and runways.
Hits
are claimed on two destroyers, and a light craft is sunk. Twenty five A6M "Zekes"
are shot down, 15 by F4F pilots and
ten by F4U pilots; nine fighters and a TBF are lost. A
B-25 off New Georgia Island strafes a motor launch.
ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Two Eleventh Air Force B-24 Liberators and six B-25 Mitchells bomb Gertrude Cove and the Main Camp on Kiska Island.
U.S.A.: The only US Navy airship (blimp) shot down during World War II, K-74, is downed by the German submarine U-134 while on night patrol in the Florida Straits. For additional information on this encounter.
The USN airship K-74 assigned to Airship Patrol Squadron Twenty One (ZP-21) at Naval Air Station Richmond, Florida, lifts off on an antisubmarine patrol at 1909 hours local. At 2340 hours, radar detects a surface contact at 8 miles (12.9 km); the contact is the German submarine U-134. At 2350 hours, the airship begins an attack on the unsuspecting U-boat; the airship was at 250 feet (76.2 m) with a ground speed of 53 knots (61 mph/98.2 km/h) when the sub crew sighted the blimp and opened fire with light AA. The blimp crew returned fire with a 50-calibre (12.7 mm) machine gun which silenced the AA gun but the sub fired three rounds with a heavier calibre gun, one as the blimp approached and two as it passed over the sub. Orders were given to drop depth charges but a crewman's error prevented this. The blimp's bag had been punctured and the airship descended and hit the water at 2355 hours, the only airship shot down during the war. The airship remained afloat until 0815 hours on 19 July and the crew was rescued shortly thereafter; one man had been killed in a shark attack. U-134 had suffered damage to her main ballast tank and a diving tank and after being sighted by a land-based aircraft, she was ordered home for repair. While en-route, she was sunk on 24 August in the North Atlantic near Vigo, Spain by six depth charges from an RAF Wellington.
Destroyer escort USS Hilbert launched.
Destroyer escort USS Chase commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0756, the unescorted Incomati was torpedoed and damaged by U-508 about 200 miles south of Lagos. At 0818, the U-boat began shelling the ship, setting her on fire and left the wreck in sinking condition. One crewmember was lost. The master, 101 crewmembers, eight gunners and 112 passengers were picked up by HMS Boadicea and Bridgewater and landed at Takoradi.
The USN airship K-74 assigned to Airship Patrol Squadron Twenty One at Naval Air Station Richmond, Florida, lifts off on an antisubmarine patrol at 1909 hours local. At 2340, radar detects a surface contact at 8 miles; the contact is the German submarine U-134. At 2350, the airship begins an attack on the unsuspecting U-boat; the airship was at 250 feet with a ground speed of 53 knots when the sub crew sighted the blimp and opened fire with light AA. The blimp crew returned fire with a 50-calibre machine gun, which silenced the AA gun, but the sub fired three rounds with a heavier calibre gun, one as the blimp approached and two as it passed over the sub. Orders were given to drop depth charges but a crewman's error prevented this. The blimp's bag had been punctured and the airship descended and hit the water at 2355 hours, the only airship shot down during the war. The airship remained afloat until 0815 on 19 July and the crew was rescued shortly thereafter; one man had been killed in a shark attack. U-134 had suffered damage to her main ballast tank and a diving tank and after being sighted by a land-based aircraft, she was ordered home for repair. While enroute, she was sunk on 24 August in the North Atlantic near Vigo, Spain by six depth charges from an RAF Wellington.