October 18th, 1944 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The Eighth Air Force flies Mission 682: 567 bombers and 604 fighters are dispatched to hit targets in Germany; 5 bombers and 5 fighters are lost:
- 337 B-17s are dispatched to make a PFF attack on Kassel/Mittefeld (300); targets of opportunity are Cologne (1) and other (2); 2 B-17s are lost. Escort is provided by 388 P-47s and P-51s; 4 P-51s are lost.
- 118 B-17s are dispatched to make a GH attack on the Ford Plant at Cologne (79); 30 others hit Cologne/Nippes marshalling yard. Escort is provided by 38 P-47s.
- 112 B-24s are dispatched to make a GH attack on the industrial complex at Leverkusen (39); 30 others hit the Cologne/Nippes marshalling yard; 3 B-24s are lost. Escort is provided by 139 P-51s; a P-51 is lost.
Frigate HMS Loch Glendhu launched.
BELGIUM: At a conference in Brussels, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, issues plan for an offensive, with tentative dates. First priority for the 21st Army Group is to open Antwerp port. The British Second Army is to be prepared to drive southeast between the Meuse and Rhine rivers about 10 November to support the U.S. advance across the Rhine. The U.S. First Army is to cross the Rhine in the Cologne area between 1 and 5 November. The U.S. Ninth Army, after covering the north flank of the First Army while it is pushing to the Rhine, is to help First Army envelop and clear the Ruhr. The U.S. Third Army will cover the right flank of the First Army and refrain from offensive operations until it has sufficient logistical support.
FRANCE: Allied HQ: Plans for an Allied military government of Germany were unveiled today at Eisenhower's HQ. The German government will be suspended; all state and Nazi Party property will be seized; armed resistance will be punishable by death; the courts of law will be purged of Nazi influence; newspapers will be shut down and new ones licensed.
English will be the official language of government. Fraternisation between Allied personnel and German civilians will be forbidden. German laws involving discrimination on grounds of race, religion or political opinion will be abrogated.
FRANCE: In the U.S. Seventh Army's VI Corps area, the 36th Infantry Division breaks into Bruyères and clears most of town.
GERMANY: Adolf Hitler orders the establishment of the Deutscher Volkssturm, a nation-wide militia force. All able-bodied German males16-60 are liable for conscription into the Volkssturm. (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop)
In the U.S. First Army VII Corps area, the Germans are making strenuous efforts to break the encirclement of Aachen. The 1st Infantry Division, strongly reinforced, renews the assault on Aachen; the 26th Infantry Regiment takes Observatory Hill and is methodically clearing the heart of the city. Task Force Hogan, 3d Armored Division, is committed to help the 26th Infantry Regiment clear the commanding ground overlooking the city.
US General McClain replaces General Corlett as CO of the XIX Corps, US 1st Army.
During the day, RAF Bomber Command attacks Bonn. This is the first major operation by No 3 Group in the new independent role which its commander, Air Vice-Marshal R Harrison, has been granted. Approximately one third of the group's Lancasters are now fitted with the G-H blind-bombing device and No 3 Group are to operate on days when the ground is concealed by cloud but when the cloud tops did not exceed 18,000 feet (5 486 meters). Aircraft with G-H have their tail fins painted with a prominent design; aircraft without G-H found a G-H "leader" to follow into the target area and bomb when that aircraft bombed. G-H is a relatively accurate, easy-to-operate and very useful device and No 3 Group are to make good use of it in the remaining months of the war. The device has been used before, but not by a large force. Air Vice-Marshal Harrison requested that the almost unbombed and unimportant town of Bonn should be the target for this first operation, possibly so that post raid reconnaissance photographs could show the results of the first G-H raid without the effects of other bombing confusing the interpretation of the photographs. One hundred twenty eight Lancasters are dispatched and 127 bombed; the raid appears to go well and only one aircraft is lost. The attack is a complete success. The heart of old Bonn is destroyed, with its university, many cultural and public buildings and a large residential area being burnt out. The local report says that the home in which Beethoven lived is saved "the courageous actions of its caretakers." Seven hundred buildings are destroyed and 1,000 are seriously damaged.
During the night of 18/19 October, RAF Bomber Command dispatches Mosquitos to bomb: 19 attack Hannover, 18 hit Mannheim, five each bomb Pforzheim and Lohausen Airfield at Dusseldorf and three bomb a chemical plant at Wiesbaden .
Weather prevents operations of all Ninth Air Force commands (including the 9th Bombardment Division) except IX Tactical Air Command fighters which fly sweeps, rail cutting missions, and night patrols, and provide air cover for the US 1st Infantry Division in the Aachen, Germany, area.
U-2355, U-3027, U-3526 laid down.
U-2332, U-2343, U-2521, U-3012 launched.
ITALY: In the U.S. Fifth Army's II Corps area, the 34th Infantry Division makes limited progress on slopes of Mt. della Vigna but cannot break through German positions on Mt. Belmonte. The 339th Infantry Regiment, 85th Infantry Division, reaches a fork in the main ridge between the Idice and Sillaro Rivers north of Monterenzio. The 88th Infantry Division is slowly clearing the approaches to the Mt. Cuccoli-Mt. Grande ridge and bringing reserves forward. In the British XIII Corps area, the 36th Brigade, 78th Division, finds Mt. la Pieve undefended. 21st Brigade, Indian 8th Division, gains ground south of Mt. Pianoreno, from which the Germans have withdrawn.
In the British Eighth Army's Polish II Corps area, the 5th Kresowa Division takes Galeata without opposition. In the V Corps area Acquarola and Celincordia fall to the Indian 10th Division and 46th Division, respectively. The Indian 10th Division is ordered to attack across the Savio River. In the Canadian I Corps area, the New Zealand 2d Division begins crossing the Pisciatello River at 2300 hours. The Canadian 1st Division takes Ponte della Pietra. The Greek 3d Mountain Brigade is withdrawn from the line in preparation for their departure from Italy.
Most Twelfth Air Force medium bomber missions are aborted because of weather, but B-26s effectively hit Castel San Pietro dell'Emilia warehouses and a railroad bridge at Padua; fighters and fighter-bombers, operating on restricted schedule due to weather, offer effective close support to ground forces in the mountains south of Bologna and hit communications targets in the Bologna and Modena areas; during the night of 17/18 October, A-20 Havocs on armed reconnaissance bomb lights and vehicles east of Bologna.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: The Soviet Fourth Ukrainian Front pours into eastern Czechoslovakia on a broad front from Poland, driving through Carpathian passes.
German units are retreating rapidly from southern YUGOSLAVIA.
YUGOSLAVIA: The Allies acknowledge Marshall Tito as head of the Yugoslavian state.
The Fifteenth Air Force dispatches 38 P-38 Lightnings to dive-bomb Vinkovci
GREECE: The Greek
government of George Papandreou, exiled since 1941, returns home.
Santorini and Scarpanto, Greece are occupied by British forces. Patros is
opened for shipping.
The USAAF Fifteenth Air Force sends 41 P-51 Mustangs to escort C-47 Skytrains to Greece.
CHINA: General Joseph Stilwell, Commanding General US China-Burma-India Theater of Operations, Chief of Staff to Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, Commander-in-Chief Northern Area Combat Command (NCAC) and Deputy Supreme Command, South-East Asia Command (SEAC), is recalled from China by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt informs Chiang Kai-shek of Stilwell’s recall, adding that while no other U.S. officer will be named to command Chinese forces, Major General Albert Wedemeyer, Deputy Chief of Staff South-East Asia Command (SEAC), is available to act as the Generalissimo’s chief of staff, a proposal that is acceptable to Chiang Kai-shek.
100+ Fourteenth Air Force P-40s and P-51s fly armed reconnaissance over vast areas of China south of the Yangtze River, attack town areas, troops, rivercraft, gun positions, supply facilities, airfields, and other targets of opportunity around Kweiping, Shangkaishow, Tajungchiang, Konghow, Wuchou, Shepchung, Hsinganhsien, Tengyun, Liutu, Tanchuk, and Takhing. Railroad targets at Lang Son, French Indochina, are also attacked.
BURMA: In the British Fourteenth Army's XXXIII Corps area, after hard fighting on the approaches to Tiddim earlier in the month, the Indian 5th Division enters the town without opposition.
13 Tenth Air Force P-47s attack Mingaladon Airfield, 21 support ground forces in the Mohnyin area, 8 knock out 2 bridges at Wanting, and 6 hit troops near Hwemun; 6 B-25s damage approaches to 2 road bridges at Wuntho; 6 other B-25s damage approaches to 2 bridges at Namhkai and Meza. Transports again fly nearly 300 sorties to several locations in the CBI.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: USAAF Fourteenth Air Force fighter-bombers attack railroad targets at Lang Son.
JAPAN: Tokyo: The government orders Operation Sho-go [Victory], intended to remove the US threat to the Japanese home islands.
Receipt of the warning that American troops have landed in the Philippines, Admiral TOYODA Soemu, Commander in Chief Combined Fleet, orders Operation SHO-1 which calls for defending the Philippines against American invasion and bringing about a decisive battle. This order sends 76 warships, including four aircraft carriers and nine battleships, to sail from Japan and Malaya for an all-out attack on the invasion force.
4 Eleventh Air Force B-25s bomb Kurabu Cape Airfield on Paramushiru Island and Suribachi in the Kurile Islands; 8-12 interceptors attack the B-25s, which claim 2 victories.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The USN's Task Groups 38.1 (Vice Admiral John S. McCain) and TG 38.4 (Rear Admiral Ralph E. Davison) attack principal Japanese airfields near Manila and shipping in the harbor, sinking a passenger-cargo ship, an army cargo ship and a merchant cargo ship. Meanwhile, TG 38.2 (Rear Admiral Gerald F. Bogan) pounds enemy shipping off northern Luzon, sinking an auxiliary submarine chaser, two transports, and three merchant cargo ships off Camiguin, northern Luzon; a cargo ship near Babuyan Channel; and two landing ships and a minelayer/netlayer off northeastern Luzon. Japanese sources state thatUSNcarrier air strikes have destroyed 650 Japanese aircraft on Formosa and the Philippines; theUSNhas lost 76 aircraft and had 2 cruisers damaged.
U.S. warships, led by the battleships USS California (BB-44), USS Maryland (BB-46), USS Mississippi (BB-41), USS Tennessee (BB-43), USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) and USS West Virginia (BB-46), begin shelling the landing beaches on Leyte.
The escort aircraft carriers of Task Group 77.4 begin a preinvasion bombardment against airfields in the Visayan Islands, Leyte and northern Mindanao. They sink six Japanese ships in the Cebu area.
Company B, 6th Ranger Battalion, lands on Homonhon Island without opposition and sets up a channel light. Underwater demolition teams begin an uneventful reconnaissance of the landing areas under cover of naval gunfire bombardment.
USAAF Far East Air Forces P-38s hit barges, small shipping, and vehicles on west coast of Mindanao Island.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC: Bad weather
curtails a major Far East Air Forces strike on Balikpapan, Borneo; of 120+ B-24s
and fighters, only 8 B-24s and 8 P-38s reach the target.
NEW GUINEA: USAAF Far East Air Forces B-24s
attack Sagan and Babo Airfields. B-25s and fighter-bombers again hit Namlea on
Buru Island, Amboina and Liang on Ambon Island, and nearby targets, attack
targets of opportunity at Djailolo on Halmahera Island and in the Wasile Bay
area, and pound Urarom, Manokwari, Babo, Sagan, Otawiri, and other Vogelkop area
targets in New Guinea.
PACIFIC OCEAN: In the Bismarck Sea Minesweeper
HMAS Geelong (J 201) sinks after colliding with
American tanker SS York off New Guinea at
06 04S 147 50E. There are no casualties and 70 survivors. (Alex Gordon)(108)
CAROLINE ISLANDS: On Peleliu Island in the Palau Islands, the 321st Infantry Regiment completes the relief of 1st Marine Division elements at the Umurbrogol Pocket and continues attacks to reduce it. The pocket is now about 400 yards (366 meters) from east to west and about 80 yards (73 meters) from north to south, The 1st Marine Division has suffered 6,526 casualties on the island, a large portion of them at the pocket. On Angaur Island, a Japanese pocket on the northwest tip of the island is compressed into a small zone about 100 yards (91 meters) long and 50 yards (46 meters) wide.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: The USN’s Special Air Task Force (STAG 1) operations continue as three Interstate TDR-1 drones are launched against a lighthouse on Cape St. George, New Ireland Island. None hit the target.
BONIN ISLANDS: USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from Saipan bomb Haha Jima Island.
CENTRAL PACIFIC: Seventh Air Force P-47s bomb and strafe Pagan Island in the Marianas.
0600 hours: Submarine USS Bluegill (SS-242) sinks a cargo ship at 14-04 N, 119-52 E.
1100 hours: Submarine USS Bluegill (SS-242) sinks two cargo ships at 14-04 N, 119-52 E. 2000 hours: USS Bluegill (SS-242) sinks a transport at 13-55 N,119-20 E.
2200 hours: Submarine USS Raton (SS-270) sinks three cargo ships at 12-37 N, 118-46 E. 2200 hours: USS Raton (SS-270) sinks a cargo ship at 12-30 N, 119-10 E. (Skip Guidry)
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Woodstock departed Halifax for Esquimalt for conversion to weather ship.
U.S.A.: The epic book, "Forever Amber", written by Kathleen Windsor, is first published today. Although the book was very popular among women between the ages of 12 and 24, it was considered scandalous to be seen reading it; a reaction that lasted at least another 30 years.
Minesweeper USS Redstart launched.
Submarine USS Springer commissioned.
Minesweeper USS Success commissioned.