October 18th, 1943 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, who escaped from a POW camp six weeks ago, is one of seven Frenchmen flown to Britain from hiding in France.
Destroyer HMS Termagant commissioned.
Submarine HMS Tradewind commissioned.
NETHERLANDS: Six RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons lay mines off Texel Island without loss.
FRANCE: 228 Ninth Air Force B-26 Marauders dispatched to bomb 4 airfields are recalled before attacking because of unfavourable weather.
GERMANY: During the night of 18/19 October, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 360 Lancasters to attack Hannover; 349 aircraft attack the city with the loss of 18 aircraft, 5.0 per cent of the force. The target area is covered by cloud and the Pathfinders are not successful in marking the position of Hannover. The raid is scattered, with most bombs falling in open country north and north-west of the city. This raid concludes the current series of raids on Hannover. Bomber Command has dispatched 2,253 sorties in four raids and ten USAAF Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress sorties had also been flown; 1,976 aircraft claimed to have bombed in the target area. Only one raid has been completely successful but that had caused severe damage. One hundred ten bombers are lost on the raids, 4.9 per cent of those dispatched. One of the Lancasters lost on the Hannover raid is the 5,000th Bomber Command aircraft lost on operations since the start of the war. By the end of this night, the bombers have flown approximately 144,500 sorties, 90 per cent of them by night, and lost 5,004 aircraft, 4,365 by night and 639 by day, over German territory, crashed in the sea or shot down over England by German Intruders or “friendly” defences.
RAF Bomber Command also dispatches Mosquitos to attack targets: ten bomb a blast furnace at Duisburg, eight hit Emden, seven hit Berlin, three bomb a zinc factory at Stolberg and one bombs Dusseldorf. .
AUSTRIA: For the past month, Allied planes have been trying to wreck German troop and supply trains to Italy but the Germans are organizing their trains in Austria and making high-speed night runs to depots near the front lines. (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop)
ITALY: Nazi deportations of Italy's Jews to the extermination camps began today when 1,007 Roman Jews were despatched to Auschwitz. The operation against the ghetto in Rome began on 26 September when the German authorities - in control of most of Italy since the surrender - threatened to arrest 200 ghetto inhabitants unless 110 pounds (50 kg) of gold was produced within 36 hours. The whole city gave gold to save them. On Saturday 16 October, the Jewish Sabbath, the arrests began. Today the first transportation left for Auschwitz.
Only 14 men and one woman return alive after the war. Seven thousand of the 8,000 Roman Jews escape capture by going into hiding. About 4,000 of them, with the knowledge and approval of the Pope, find refuge in the numerous monasteries and houses of religious orders in Rome. A few dozen are sheltered in the Vatican itself. Within a month 8,360 Italian Jews are deported to Auschwitz where 7,749 are murdered.
In the U.S. Fifth Army's VI Corps area, the 3d, 34th and 45th Infantry Divisions continue their slow advance toward Dragoni, the 3d clearing Roccaromana, and prepare to make concerted effort to take Dragoni and the bridges beyond. To block the German escape route from Dragoni, 133d Infantry Regiment of the 34th Infantry Division begins a second crossing of the Volturno River and takes a railway-highway bridge there. The Germans are retreating towards the Barbara defense line, 35 miles north of Naples.
XII Air Support Command A-36 Apaches hit the Venafro railroad yards, and other fighter-bombers hit gun positions, troops, and railway stations in or near Boiano, Petacciato, and Vairano. Fighters strafe airfields around Rome and also hit Viterbo, Grosseto, and the seaplane base at Bracciano, and attack trains on the Rome-Orte and Rome-Naples, Italy lines. Northwest African Tactical Bomber Force light bombers bomb the road and railway near Cassino, the town of Carpinone, the road junction at Castiglione della Valle, and roads, bridges, and motor transport near Minturno and Chieti.
YUGOSLAVIA: USAAF XII Bomber Command dispatches B-25 Mitchells to bomb the marshalling yard at Skoplje; P-38 Lightnings follow with a strafing mission, damaging or destroying several locomotives and vehicles.
U.S.S.R.: Fighting around
Melitopol continues as the Soviet penetrate to the centre of town.
Polar Fleet and White Sea Flotilla: Submarine
"M-174" - mined, at Varanger-fjord. (Sergey Anisimov)(69)
Several thousand disabled Allied and German prisoners are swapped at Goteborg, SWEDEN, and Barcelona, SPAIN.
SOUTH AFRICA: Frigate SAS Natal laid down.
NEW GUINEA: In Northeast New Guinea, the Japanese 78th and 80th Regiments continue their assaults against Australian troops in the Finschhafen but they are repulsed. USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators hit Sio, while B-25 Mitchells bomb and strafe a road at Bogadjim.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Air Command, Solomons, begins intensive attacks on Bougainville airfields in preparation for the invasion of the island.
28 Thirteenth Air Force B-24s and 32+ USN SBD Dauntless dive bombers, with cover of 50+ fighters, bomb the airfield on Ballale Island. 14 P-39Airacobras join 20+ USN aircraft in a strike on Kakasa village and a tent area on Choiseul Island.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: The Fifth Air Force dispatches nearly 80 B-24s and fighters sent against Rabaul on New Britain Island, are forced to abort by bad weather; however, 54 B-25s slip beneath low clouds and pound the town, airfields, and shipping from treetop and mast-height level; the B-25s sink 2 vessels and claim 70+ planes destroyed on the ground and in the air; 13 of the B-24s bomb Cape Hoskins; 7 others bomb Cape Gloucester and hit Sio, New Guinea. B-25s bomb and strafe a road at Bogadjim, New Guinea.
NEW CALEDONIA: The 14th Antiaircraft Artillery Group arrives. (Jean Beach)
PACIFIC OCEAN: USS Silversides (SS-236) sinks a cargo ship at 00-22 N, 143-23 E.
1000 hours: Submarine USS Lapon (SS-260) sinks a cargo ship at 33-59 N, 136-21 E.
1000 hours: Submarine USS Lapon (SS-260) sinks an armed minesweeper at 33-59 N, 136-21 E. (Skip Guidry)
CANADA:
Minesweeper HMS Serene launched Toronto, Ontario.
Training ship HMCS Caribou assigned to HMCS Cornwallis.
U.S.A.: The 15-minute crime serial "Perry Mason" makes its debut on CBS Radio. The program is broadcast Monday thru Friday at 1430 hours Eastern. Based on the novels by Erle Stanley Gardner, the program had all the trappings of a soap opera. It remained on the radio until December 1955.
Submarine USS Flier commissioned.
Destroyer escort USS Jack W Wilke laid down.
Frigate USS Muskogee launched.
Destroyer escorts USS Brackett, Leopold, Neuendorf and Eisele commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: During stormy weather a lookout broke his arm on U-190.