March 18th, 1945 (SUNDAY)
GERMANY: Bingen and Bad Kreuznack fall to US forces. Kolberg falls to the Polish First Army. The Red Army closes in on the Baltic ports of Gdynia and Danzig.Berlin: Albert Speer, the armaments minister, tells Hitler that the war is lost and economic collapse is nigh; Hitler insists that he retracts these comments.
US Private First Class Frederick C. Murphy, an aid man, is wounded in the shoulder soon after his comrades have jumped off in a dawn attack against the Siegfried Line at Saarlautern. He refused to withdraw for treatment and continued forward, administering first aid under heavy machinegun, mortar, and artillery fire. When the company ran into a thickly sown antipersonnel minefield and began to suffer more and more casualties, he continued to disregard his own wound and unhesitatingly braved the danger of exploding mines, moving about through heavy fire and helping the injured until he stepped on a mine which severed one of his feet. In spite of his grievous wounds, he struggled on with his work, refusing to be evacuated and crawling from man to man administering to them while in great pain and bleeding profusely. He was killed by the blast of another mine which he had dragged himself across in an effort to reach still another casualty. (MOH) More... (Russell Folsom)
U-3528 commissioned.
ITALY: Rome: Pope Pius XII attacks Nazi racial policies.
FINLAND: The first post-war
parliamentary elections are held. The results are:
Socialdemocratic Party 50 seats (out of 200)
Finnish People's Democratic League (communists and fellow-travellers) 49 (38 of them communists)
Agrarian League (centrist) 49
National Coalition Party (conservative) 28
Swedish People's Party (rightist language minority interest party) 15
National Progress Party (liberal) 9
BURMA: Lt Karamjeet Singh Judge (b.1923), 15th Punjab Regt., eliminated ten Japanese bunkers and was mortally wounded going in to mop up another. (Victoria Cross)
PACIFIC: The US 5th Fleet begins 4 days of carrier raids against the Japanese Home Islands.
USS Franklin and Wasp are badly damaged by Kamikaze Attacks. Carrier Franklin sustains
832 dead, making it the largest number ever casualty list on any US naval vessel. Among
the targets is Kure. Six IJN carriers and 3 battleships sustain damage.
This was Task Force 58 (TF 58) (Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher) consisting
of:
Task Group 58.1 (TG 58.1) (Rear Admiral Joseph J. Clark) consisting of Carrier Division Five (CarDiv 5) with
USS Bennington (CV-20) with Carrier Air Group Eighty Two (CVG-82)
USS Hornet (CV-12) with CVG-17
USS Wasp (CV-18) with CVG-86
USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) with Light Carrier Air Group Thirty (CVLG-30)
TG 58.2 (Rear Admiral Ralph E. Davison) consisting of CarDiv 2 with:
USS Franklin (CV-13) with CVG-5
USS Hancock (CV-19) with CVG-6
USS Bataan (CVL-29) with CVLG-47
USS Jacinto (CVL-30) with CVLG-45
TG 58.3 (Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman) consisting of CarDiv1 with:
USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) with CVG-84
USS Essex (CV-9) with CVG-83
USS Cabot (CVL-28) with CVLG-29
TG 58.4 (Rear Admiral Arthur W. Radford) consisting of CarDiv 6 with:
USS Enterprise (CV-6) with Night Carrier Air Group Ninety [CVG(N)-90]
USS Intrepid (CV-11) with CVG-10
USS Yorktown (CV-10) with CVG-9
USS Langley (CVL-27) with CVLG-23
TF 58 had departed Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands on 14 March.
Beginning at 0545 hours local, aircraft of TF 58 began an interdiction campaign to prevent Japanese shipping and aircraft with interfering with Operation ICEBERG, the invasion of Okinawa. An estimated 275 Japanese aircraft were destroyed on the ground at 45 airfields attacked that day.
Three carriers, USS Enterprise (CV-6), USS Intrepid (CV-11) and USS Yorktown (CV-10), are slightly damaged between 0725 and 1300 hours when hit by Japanese bombs or kamikaze near misses.
Between 0030 and 1640 hours, 97 Japanese aircraft are shot down by carrier-based Grumman F6F Hellcats and Chance Vought F4U Corsairs over Kyushu and waters surrounding the island. US Marine Corps pilots flying F4Us from four carriers account for 27 of the 97. The carriers with Marine units are:
USS Bennington (CV-20) with Marine Fighting Squadron One Hundred Twelve (VMF-112),
USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) with VMF-451, and
USS Franklin (CV-13) with VMF-214 and VMF-452.
>From the "Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships"
"Before dawn on 19 March 1945, Franklin, Captain Leslie E. Gehres, commanding, launched a fighter sweep against Honshu and later a strike against shipping in Kobe Harbor. Suddenly, a single enemy plane pierced the cloud cover and made a low level run on the gallant ship to drop two semi-armor piercing bombs. One struck the flight deck centerline, penetrating to the hangar deck, effecting destruction and igniting fires through the second and third decks, and knocking out the combat information center and air plot. The second hit aft, tearing through two decks and fanning fires that triggered ammunition, bombs, and rockets. Franklin, within 50 miles (93 kilometers) of the Japanese mainland, lay dead in the water, took a 13-degree starboard list, lost all radio communications, and broiled under the heat from enveloping fires."
Another source states that the aircraft was possibly a "Judy" dive bomber [Yokosuka D4Y, Navy Carrier Bomber Suisei (Comet)].
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Eugene A Greene launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-866 (type IXC/40) is sunk north-east of Boston, in position 43.18N, 61.08W, by depth charges from the US destroyer escorts USS Lowe, Menges, Pride and Mosley. 55 dead (all hands lost). (Alex Gordon)