Air Operations, CBI

• 4 14th Air Force P-40s attack the ferry at Tahsai in support of Chinese Army ground forces.

• 12 14th Air Force P-40s attack Japanese Army ground troops and a troop-filled barge at Shihmen.

Air Operations, Europe

• Some consider this night the beginning of the 'Battle of Berlin', the third of Air Marshal Harris' well publicized campaigns. The campaign will include 16 major attacks on the German capital as well as others against different targets. In the attacks against Berlin itself about 9,100 sorties are flown and 600 aircraft lost. The battle ends on March 24 after 25,000 tons of bombs are dropped in 32 attacks. 9 square miles of the city are destroyed. 6,166 people are killed, 18,431 are badly injured and 1,500,000 are homeless.
• 440 Lancaster are sent to Berlin with 4 Mosquitoes dropping dummy flares to decoy the night fighters. 26 bombers abort. The time over the target is 20:56-21:12. About 1,575 tons of bombs are dropped 792 tons of high explosives and 783 tons of incendiaries. 411 aircraft reach Berlin. 18 of the 26 Blind Markers fail to drop their markers either because their H₂S sets failed or the could not locate Brandenburg, the beginning point to make their timed run to the Aiming Point. There is also thick clouds over the area as the weather worsened. Bombs end up being dropped all over the city. 169 homes are destroyed with 131 people being killed and 14 missing. Flak is heavy, but only 3 aircraft are lost to Flak but 100 suffer damage from it. Because of the bad weather there were not many night fighters up.
• 9 Lancasters are lost.
• 395 aircraft are sent on a diversionary raid to Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. In this total are 248 Halifaxes, 114 Stirlings and 33 Lancasters.
• Clouds are present over the target area and much of the bombing is scattered. 21 people are killed, 154 are injured and 7,500 are bombed out. Many bombs fall outside the city and local reports indicate much damage and loss to farms in the area. German fighters are out in force and engage many of the bombers.
• 12 Halifaxes, 9 Stirlings and 2 Lancasters are lost.

• 10 Mosquitos are sent to Essen, 6 to Aachen, 6 to Frankfurt, 16 Wellingtons lay mines from Texel to St Nazaire and there are 7 OTU sorties.

Air Operations, Gilberts

• Due to bad weather over assigned targets in the Marshall Islands, 9 VII Bomber Command B-24s based at Nanomea attack the Tarawa and Makin atolls, and Nauru Island. US carrier aircraft from Task Group 50.4 attack Nauru and carrier aircraft from Task Group 50.3 attack Tarawa with 115 tons of bombs.
• A VF-9 F6F downs 1 F1M 'Pete' reconnaissance float plane over Tarawa Atoll at 1130 hours, and a VF-18 F6F downs 1 E8N 'Dave' reconnaissance seaplane at sea at 1606 hours.

Air Operations, Marshalls

Due to bad weather over the Wotje Atoll, VII Bomber Command B-24s based at Nanomea attack the Mille Atoll.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command B-24s attack Fak Fak. More than 30 V Bomber Command B-25s and B-26s attack Japanese Army ground positions around Sattelberg. V Fighter Command P-40 fighter-bombers attack Iworep.

Air Operations, Solomons

• VMF-212 F4Us down 2 A6M Zeros over the Zoller Islands at 0825 hours.
• During the night, 5 Marines are killed in the Bougainville beachhead when a night heckler penetrates the night-fighter umbrella.

Eastern Front

Southeast of Kiev the Russians break through the German defenses near Cherkassy and take Korosten and Ovruch, a little farther north in the Kiev sector. West of Gomel they also take Rechitsa and cut the railroad in that directon as the Germans are in danger of being surrounded where the salient at Rezhitsa, west of the town, has been rapidly broadened. The Germans are still applying pressure south of Zhitomir.

The 1st Ukrainian Front begins to pull back from the Zhitomir area. Fighting along this line over the next few days continues as the Germans redeploy to strike again and keep Vatutin off balance. So far the fighting has cost the Soviets 3,000 killed, 150 tanks destroyed and more than 320 arty pieces and anti-tank guns lost.

Pacific

The Japanese destroyer Sanae is sunk by the US submarine Bluefish (SS-222) in the Celebes Sea.

Scenes from November 18, 1943

Billington Plane Crash, Goderich, Ontario, 18 November 1943

The Sangro River November 1943: A German Mk III Special tank knocked out near San Salvo during the advance to the Sangro. (© IWM

NA 8801)

A Knocked Out German Tank

The Sangro River November 1943: A mule train carrying ammunition passes a bogged down Sherman tank en route in the forward positions in the Sangro area. (© IWM

NA 8942)

Ammunition Mule Train