April 18th, 1945 (WEDNESDAY)
NETHERLANDS: The Wehrmacht's Army Group H is cut off when the Canadian 2nd Army reaches the Zuider Zee.
GERMANY: Heligoland: The RAF drops 5,000 tons of bombs on the island; German marines who arrange a peaceful handover of the island to British forces are shot by the SS as mutineers.
Berlin: Goebbels burns his office files.
The citizens of Berlin, like their Führer, are taking refuge from impending disaster underground. As the Allied armies close in on their city they leave their cellars and dugouts only to fetch vital supplies of food and water. But the basic essentials are running short in Berlin and people often queue for hours - in the dead of night before the Russian bombardment begins at 5am - just in the hope of a loaf of bread. They are also taking refuge from their own people - from the SS which is reportedly shooting people on the spot on the accusation that they are "defeatists", or rounding them up to join the Volkstürm in the last desperate defence of the Reich. Many are now waiting only to surrender.
The U.S. Army 8th Division is assigned Military occupation of a sector of the Ruhr - Rhine area. This sector includes the Wuppertal, Dusseldorf, Wissen and Mulheim areas. Some officers from all units attached to the division are temporarily assigned to the Military Government section to help administer such a large area. The primary problem is that of Displaced Persons (DPs). Russian, Polish, Italian, French and other nationalities were used as slave labour in the Ruhr region. Freed DPs begin looting and pillaging both as a means of survival and revenge. Some acts of violence take place within the 8th Division area. DP camps are set up, and DPs fed and clothed (from German stores) which brings the situation under control Other than several cases of typhus reported in the town of Siegburg, no serious epidemics are reported. (Greisbach, pp.92-93)(Greg Canellis)
In the West, the British Second Army captures Ülzen and Lüneburg; resistance in the Ruhr ends as the US First Army rounds up 325,000 Germans; and the US Third Army captures Nürnberg and advances into Bohemia.
In the East, the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front captures Forst on the Neisse River; north of Frankfurt, the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front continues its attack to take the Seelow Heights, gradually wearing down the outnumbered German defenders.
During Eighth Air Force Mission 959:
- 174 B-17s bomb the secondary target, the marshalling yard at Straubing without loss. 99 P-51s escort.
- 166 B-24s bomb the marshalling yard while 28 attack the rail bridge and rail industry at Passau without loss. Escorting are 240 P-47s and P-51s; they claim 12-0-8 aircraft on the ground; 1 P-51 is lost.
- 9 B-17s bomb the electrical transformers and 56 attack the marshalling yard at Traunstein while 148 hit the marshalling yard and electrical transformers at Rosenheim; 61 hit the secondary, the marshalling yard at Freising. 139 P-51s escort.
About 590 Ninth Air Force B-26 Marauders, A-26 Invaders and A-20s attack oil storage at Neuburg an der Donau, marshalling yards at Juterbog and Nordlingen, and rail junctions at Falkenburg and Juterbog; fighters escort the bombers, fly patrols, sweeps, and armed reconnaissance, attack assigned targets, and support ground forces including the US V Corps assaulting Leipzig, the VII Corps in the Dessau-Halle areas, the 5th Armored Division near Steimke, and the 2d Armored Division at Magdeburg and other XIX Corps elements astride the Elbe River south of Barby; organized German resistance in the Ruhr pocket ceases.
WESTERN EUROPE: Patton's US 3rd Army crosses the Czech frontier.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: During Eighth Air Force Mission 959: 97 B-17s bomb the marshalling yard at Kollin while 21 others hit the secondary, the marshalling yard at Pilzen. The escort is 157 P-51s; they claim 3-0-4 aircraft in the air; 1 P-51 is lost.
ITALY: During the night of 17/18 April, Twelfth Air Force A-20s and A-26s pound communications in the southern Po Valley and the towns of Vignola, Bazzano, and Sassuolo in the US Fifth Army battle area; B-25s and B-26s hit 2 railroad fills and a bridge on the southern Brenner line and troop concentrations on the US Fifth and British Eighth Army fronts, southwest of Bologna and in the Dugnano Paderno area; fighter-bombers of the XXII Tactical Air Command also concentrate on support targets in the Fifth Army battle area.
473 Fifteenth Air Force B-24s and B-17s, with an escort of 89 P-51s, support the US Fifth Army offensive in the Bologna area, blasting defensive positions and communications in areas around the city; 78 P-38s dive-bomb a railroad bridge at Malborghetta Valbruna, while 87 others dive-bomb 2 railroad bridges at and southeast of Kolbnitz, Austria.
CHINA: 3 Fourteenth Air Force B-25s hit trucks and other targets of opportunity east of Siangtan; 52 P-51s and P-40s attack river shipping, town areas, rail and road traffic, tanks, and bridges at several southern and eastern China locations including Sinhwa, Hengyang, Changsha, Luchai, Paoching, Kweiyang, Yenkou, Sinning, and Siangtan.
BURMA: 21 Tenth Air Force P-38s attack a troop concentration, tanks, artillery positions, and a bivouac area near Man Li and Kongsam; 5 P-61 Black Widows hit a supply area west of Laihka; transports land or drop 806 tons of supplies at forward bases and frontline areas.
JAPAN: Ryukyu Islands: Ie Shima:
Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent, Ernie Pyle is
killed today by Japanese machine-gun fire. The war correspondent who, more than any
other, brought the reality of war, the mud, the blood and the agony, into the
American home, died among the ordinary GIs whose cause became his own personal
battle; and it is those GIs who will mourn him most. American infantrymen braved
enemy fire to recover Pyle's body. For most of the war, Pyle
had followed US servicemen in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and France, including
the D-Day landing. But he started covering the London Blitz in 1941. He moved to the Pacific theatre after taking a rest in
America. Ernest Taylor Pyle was 44. A monument exists to him to this day on Ie
Shima, describing him simply as "a buddy".
Off Okinawa, the battleship USS New York (BB-34) is damaged by a kamikaze.
The Japanese submarine I-56 is sunk by five USN destroyers and a TBM Avenger of Torpedo Squadron Forty Seven (VT-47) in the light aircraft carrier USS Bataan (CVL-29) 150 miles (241 km) east of Okinawa at 26.42N, 130.38E.
JAPAN: The XXI Bomber Command flies Missions 76 to 81. 112 B-29 Superfortresses hit Japanese airfields at Tachiarai, Izumi, Kokubu, Nittagahara, and 2 at Kanoya, the same targets attacked yesterday; 13 other B-29s hit targets of opportunity; 2 B-29s are lost.
BONIN ISLANDS: During the night of 18/19 April, 3 VII Fighter Command P-61s based on Iwo Jima, flying individual strikes, bomb and strafe Futamiko and the radio station on Chichi Jima.
BORNEO: Far East Air Force B-25s and P-38s attack Tarakan and Sandakan.
FORMOSA: Far East Air Forces B-25s bomb Karenko Airfield, B-24s bit Tainan, Giran, Toyohara, Hobi, and Soton Airfields, and P-38s on sweeps hit rail and road transportation.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Japanese vessels sunk at sea:
- Submarine HIJMS I-56 is sunk 150 miles (241 km) east of Okinawa by destroyers USS Heermann (DD-532), USS McCord (DD-534), USS Mertz (DD-691), and USS Collett (DD-730), assisted by destroyer USS Uhlmann (DD-687) and TBM Avengers from Torpedo Squadron Forty Seven (VT 47) in the light aircraft carrier USS Bataan (CVL-29).
- Submarine HIJMS RO 46 is sunk 500 yards (457 meters) off Wake Island by submarine USS Sea Owl (SS-405).
- A mine sinks a transport near the western entrance to Shimonoseki Strait, Japan.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINE: Far East Air Forces fighter bombers and A-20s hit the Balete Pass area and support ground forces on Luzon, Negros, and Cebu Islands. B-24s bomb Piso Point on Mindanao.
U.S.A.: In baseball, the St. Louis Browns' Pete Gray, an one-arm outfielder, makes his major league debut with one hit in four at-bats in a 7-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers. Gray played in 77 games for the Browns in 1945 and batted .218 for the season.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Two armed U.S. merchant freighters are sunk by German submarines:
- SS Cyrus H. McCormack, while in convoy HX 348, is torpedoed and sunk by U-1107 70 miles (113 km) southwest of Brest, France.
- SS Swiftscout is torpedoed by U-548 about 145 miles (223 km) northeast of Cape Henry, Virginia; Armed Guard gunfire drives the attacker down, but U-548 returns to torpedo the ship a second time, sinking her.