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.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.