Air Operatons, Aleutians

P-40s from the 7th Air Force’s 18th Fighter Squadron, on loan to the 11th Air Force, down 2 A6M2-N 'Rufe' fighter-bombers over Amchitka at 1900 hours.

Air Operatons, Bismarcks

90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s mount single-plane attacks against Japanese shipping off New Britain.

Air Operatons, East Indies

V Bomber Command B-25s attack shipping off Dili, Timor.

Air Operatons, Europe

• 26 Mosquitos attack the Tours railway yards. 12 Venturas are sent to Dunkirk, but again do not reach the target.
• 1 Mosquito is lost.

Picture taken during the low-level attack at Tours from one of the participating Mosquitos.

Low-Level Attack on Tours

• 195 aircraft including 127 Lancasters, 59 Halifaxes and 9 Stirlings are sent on an unsuccessful raid to Wilhelmshaven.
• 4 Lancasters are lost.
• 89 aircraft lay mines in a widespread operation from St Nazaire to the Frisians. 2 Halifaxes are lost. 9 OTU aircraft make leaflet flights.
• 1 Wellington is lost.

Air Operatons, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-25s attack targets around Barar.
• 90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s mount single-plane missions against Madang and the airfield at Finschhafen.

Air Operations, Sardinia

USAAF and RAF heavy and medium bombers attack Elmas Airdrome, the Cagliari seaplane base, and Villacidro Airdrome. Poor visibility obscure the results.

Air Operatons, Solomons

• 307th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the Munda Point airfield on New Georgia.
• 11th Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack Kahili and shipping near Kahili.

Air Operations, Tunisia

XII Bomber Command bombers are grounded by bad weather, but 12th Air Force fighters are able to support the British 1st Army in the Sbeitla-Kasserine-Feriana region.

Aleutians

A US Task Group under Rear-Adm Charles H. McMorris with 2 cruisers and 4 destroyers shells Japanese positions on Attu Island.

Battle of the Atlantic

Convoy ON-166 is intercepted by U-boats in the North Atlantic. Over the next week 15 of the Allied ships will be sunk.

Burma

The 77th Indian Bde, the 'Chindits', crosses the Chindwin but without encountering the Japanese and cut the railway line between Mandalay and Myitkyina.

Nieuw Amsterdam entering Fremantle Harbor on February 18, 1943, with RMS Queen Mary in the background during the two ships' involvement in Operation PAMPHLET which was a convoy operation of World War II conducted during January and February 1943 to transport the Australian Army's 9th Division home from Egypt.

Nieuw Amsterdam Entering Fremantle Harbor

Eastern Front

German units of the German 16th Army begin pulling back along the northern Russian front. Soviet tanks are 36 miles east of Zaporozhye.

The 3rd Tank Army, now down to 110 tanks moves forward around Kharkov, attacking the Grossdeutschland Division at Lyubotin and capturing Merefa after a ferocious battle. It then begins to push toward Valki.

The XL Panzer Corps counterattacks south of Slavyansk and breaks into Krasnoarmieskoye. Fierce fighting throughout the day sees the 1st Guards Army halt the Germans in the town center. Meanwhile, the 1st Guards Army takes Pavlograd and Novomosskovsk but at Sinelnikovo is repulsed. The South Front continues its heavy attacks against Group Hollidt but is unable to break through the strengthening German line.

Germany, Home Front

• Hans and Sophie Scholl, leaders of the Munich Students' Revolt and authors of anti-Nazi 'White Rose Letters', are tried by People's Court. They will be executed February 23.

Munich Students' Revolt Leaders

Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie, the leaders of the German youth group Weisse Rose (White Rose), were arrested by the Gestapo for opposing the Nazi regime. The White Rose was composed of university students who spoke out against Adolf Hitler and his regime. During the summer of 1942, Scholl and a friend composed four leaflets which exposed and denounced Nazi and SS atrocities, including the extermination of Jews and Polish nobility, and called for resistance. On February 18, 1943, Hans and Sophie left a suitcase filled with copies of yet another leaflet in the main university building. The pair were spotted by a janitor, reported to the Gestapo and arrested. Turned over to Hitler’s “People’s Court,” the Scholls, along with another White Rose member who was caught, were sentenced to death. They were beheaded on February 23, but not before Hans Scholl proclaimed “Long live freedom!”

• In a histrionic speech at the Berlin Sportpalast Goebbels calls upon the German people to wage 'Total War'.
• Propaganda Minister Goebbels delivers a speech in Berlin's Sports Palace in front of a carefully selected audience, which is broadcast to the nation. He rails against the 'storm from the Steppes' which relegates 'all former dangers facing the West to the shadow'. Behind the onrushing Soviet divisions, Goebbels foresees 'the Jewish liquidation commandos' whom international Jewry are using to plunge the world into chaos. To thunderous applause he announces the implementation of total war: 'Do you want total war? Do you want it, if necessary, more total and more radical than we could even imagine today? Afterward Goebbels writes in his diary: 'This hour of idiocy! If I had said to the people, jump out the fourth floor of Columbushaus, they would have done that too.'

Guadalcanal

Still more forces are brought into the island in readiness for the invasion of the Russell Islands. A group of American officers sent to reconnoitre the Russells returns with the information that they have already been evacuated by the Japanese.

North Africa

Von Arnim's Germans enter Sbeitla, already abandoned by the Allies, and make for Kasserine. The debate over what to attempt next continues in the Axis camp.

In the British 1st Army area, the US II Corps continues the organization of defenses at passes through Western Dorsal as German action subsides to reconnaissances. The Germans stage a demonstration at the eastern exit of Kasserine Pass in the evening, alerting the provisional US defense force which consists of the 19th Combat Engineer Regiment and elements of the 26th Infantry, 1st Div. During the night, the commander of the 26th Infantry assumes responsibility for defense of the pass, relieving the commander of the 19th Combat Engineers. As a precautionary measure, the 26th Armored Brigade, British 6th Arm Div, is sent to Thala, coming under corps control.

The British 8th Army, continuing toward the Mareth Line, takes Foum Tatahouine.

Southwest Pacific

A new American Army becomes operational, the 6th, led by Gen Krueger.

United States, Home Front

• A B-29 Superfortress 4-engined bomber catches fire during a test flight and crashes into a Seattle factory. 31 people are killed including 'Eddie' Allen, Boeing's chief test pilot.
• Madame Chiang Kai-shek addresses a joint meeting of Congress.

Soong May-ling, wife of Chiang Kai-shek, is invited to address the U.S. Senate. (February 18, 1943)

Madame Chiang Kai-shek Addresses Congress