Air Operations, Bismarcks

• 18 XIII Bomber Command B-24s and 34 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack the VunaKanau airfield at Rabaul. 2 B-25s and 4 347th Fighter Group P-38s attack Rabaul's Tobbera airfield.
• 347th Fighter Group P-38s down 5 A6M Zeros over Tobera airfield at 1015 hours. VMF-222 F4Us down 2 A6M Zeros near Rabaul at 1020 hours. VF-17 F4Us down 7 Zeros over Cape Gazelle between 1050 and 1110 hours.
• VMF-216, in F4Us, makes its combat debut over Rabaul after guarding Torokina Field on Bougainville for a month.

Air Operations, Carolines

• US carrier aircraft from Task Force 58 continue to mount powerful attacks against the Truk Atoll. There is virtually no aerial opposition. 24 merchant ships amounting to 200,000 tons are sunk, as are 1 Japanese light cruiser and 1 destroyer. When Task Force 58 retires in the afternoon, US Navy losses stand at 17 aircraft and 26 pilots and crewmen lost in combat.
• The Japanese Naval base at Truk is considered to be neutralized, and the Pacific War high command soon decides to bypass it.
• More than anything, the Truk Raid of February 17–18, 1944, triggers the immediate collapse of Japanese resistance over Rabaul. Most of the 300 plus Japanese aircraft destroyed in the air or on the ground at Truk were to have gone on to Rabaul, and they cannot be replaced. Also, the strikes prove the vulnerability of the Truk base to carrier strikes, and so the Japanese aircraft already based at Rabaul are ordered to withdraw, because they are the most-immediately available to defend the great Japanese fleet anchorage from further depradations by US Navy carrier aircraft.

Air Operations, CBI

• More than 40 490th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s and 10 Air Force A-36 and P-51 fighter-bombers attack the town area at Ye-u, several bridges, a radio station, supply dumps, Japanese Army ground troops, and artillery batteries.

• 4 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack shipping in Bakli Bay, Hainan, as well as an ammunition dump and a rail bridge in nearby areas of French Indochina.

Air Operations, Europe

• In the Amiens Prison Raid 19 Mosquitoes, led by Grp-Capt Percy C. Pickard, breach the walls and temporarily free 250(285?) members of the French Resistance, but 87 are killed. 4 planes are lost.
• There is a night raid on London by 200(187?) aircraft as part of a new wave of bombing that will be called the 'Little Blitz'. 139 tons of bombs are dropped on target causing considerable damage and numerous casualties. The raiders copy RAF Pathfinder tactics.

• The 15th Air Force and the XII Bomber Command are grounded by bad weather.
• XII Air Support Command A-20s attack troop concentrations at Piedimonte.
• XII Air Support Command A-36s and P-40s mount numerous direct-support missions and sorties against German Army forces trying to break into the Anzio beachhead.
• Several attempted Luftwaffe attacks against the Anzio beachhead are turned bak by patrolling USAAf fighters, and 1 Bf-109 is downed over the beachhead by a 31st Fighter Group Spitfire pilot.

Air Operations, Marshalls

• Following a final pre-invasion bombardment by surface warships and aircraft from Task Group 53.6 escort carriers, US Marines and some US Army troops land at Eniwetok Atoll’s Engebi Island, which is largely overrun within hours.
• 15th Fighter Group P-40 fighter-bombers attack the Jaluit and Mille Atolls.

Baltic Sea

U-7 is lost in a diving accident, the exact circumstances of which are unknown.

U-7

Battle of the Atlantic

British frigate HMS Spey obtained an asdic contact in the afternoon and drops 10 depth charges in the area of U-406. The U-boat then surfaces and gunfire is exchanged. Spey prepares to lay a shallow pattern around the U-boat when it is determined the U-boat is being abandoned.

U-406

Bismarck Archipelago

Allied destroyers open up on the Japanese bases at Rabaul in New Britain and Kavieng in New Ireland.

CBI

Gen Stilwell personally checks on the location of the missing 66th Regiment, Chinese 22nd Division, and finds it and the 3rd Battalion of the 65th near the Command Post of the 66th. When the main trail from Yawngbang to Lakyen is found, the Japanese have withdrawn and the opportunity of trapping them is lost.

Caroline Islands

Task Force 58 fulfils its mission to the letter, completing the destruction of the Japanese base at Truk. During the operation, begun the previous day, about 200,000 tons of enemy shipping have been destroyed. As an exception to its ususal practice, Radio Tokyo admits the serious blow suffered by Japan.

US Carrier-based aircraft sink the Japanese destroyer Fumizuki and the submarine chaser No. 29 during the day's operations.

Eastern Front

In the north Popov's forces take the important town of Staraya-Russa south of Lake Ilmen and Novgorod. Kiril Meretskov's forces take Shimsk. In the southern sector the 3rd and 4th Ukraine Fronts under Malinovsky and Tolbukhin have almost completely annihilated the German 8th Army.

South of Lake Ilmen the X Corps of the 16th Army relinquishes Staraya Russa, the town falling to the 1st Shock Army.

With the bulk of Group Stemmerman either destroyed as it marched toward III Panzer Corps, or free, the 57th and 88th Infantry Divisions disengage and link up with the main line. After nearly a month of bloody fighting the battle for Korsun has ended. The Germans have managed to save 30,000 of the 56,000 encircled but lost huge amounts of equipment. For the III Panzer Corps the battle is not over though, it having to extricate its panzer divisions from theri exposed positions.

The Stavka reorganizes its front command in the Central Sector. The Belorussian Front is disbanded and the new 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts are created. Kurochkin's 2nd Belorussian Front (47th, 70th, 61st and 6th Air Armies) deployed between Rokossovsky's 1st Belorussian (3rd, 11th, 48th and 65th Armies plus 16th Air Army) and Vatutin's 1st Ukrainian Ftonts, covering the northern edge of the Pripet marshes.

Italy

In the US 5th Army's VI Corps area, the Germans commit 26th Panzer and 29th Panzergrenadier Divs, their main tank reserve, to the attack at Anzio. The focus of the action is the 'Flyover' on the Anzio-Campoleone road held by the 45th Division and although some gains are made the strong Allied artillery holds off and blunts the attacks. The 179th Infantry falls back to the final beachhead line, where it contains the enemy. This is the deepest penetration to be achieved by the enemy in the Anzio beachhead. Kesselring and Gen Eberhard von Mackensen realize that the Allied beachhead cannot be wiped out. Both sides begin regrouping along the Gustav Line. Offshore, the cruiser Penelope, damaged on February 17 by a torpedo attack, is hit again and sinks.

In the New Zealand Corps area, having jumped off the previous night, the New Zealand 2nd Division's 5th Brigade takes the Cassino station but loses it by midafternoon. There are further attacks by Indian and New Zealand troops in the hills north of the Cassino monastery and over the Rapido against Cassino town. Some gains are made but cannot be held in face of fire from dominating German positions. Action in the Cassiono area subsides during late February and early March asn both sides regroup.

Marshalls

Beginning at dawn, the guns of the American warships and those sited on the islets surrounding Engebi open up on that island, and at 0842 2 battalions of the 22nd Marine Regiment land. The enemy offers organized resistance only at the southern tip of the island which by 1450 is declared sedure. Tanks land with the marines and the island is captured quickly, with over 1,000 Japanese defenders killed. During the night Japanese counterattacks are driven off. Documents captured on the island indicate that Parry and Eniwetok islands are more strongly defended that originally estimated.

2 battalions of the 106th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, land at Eniwetok and are slowed by difficult terrain and formidable enemy defensive positions near the beach. The Japanese launch a counterattack with over 400 men, breaking the American line. The enemy attack is stopped after brutal close combat. The decision is made to support the 106th Infantry Rediment's attack on Eniwetok with tanks and the 3rd Battalion of the 22nd Marines. The army and marines fail to coordinate and the marines are left in an exposed position overnight to fight off numerous Japanese attacks alone.

Meanwhile other American units begin the occupation and mopping up of the smaller islets.

Mediterranean

U-410 sinks the British light cruiser Penelope 35 miles west of Naples with the loss of 417 on board. 206 survivors are picked by the British LSTs LST-165 and LST-430.

New Guinea

There are some local encounters between the Americans and Japanese who have infiltrated into the Saidor area.

Pacific

The British submarine Trespasser sinks the Japanese gunboat Eifuku Maru off Burma.

United States, Home Front

Pres Roosevelt vetoes the Bankhead Bill which had proposed to end food subsidies. His veto is upheld by the House.

Images from February 18, 1944

Dropping Bombs at Amiens

Prison Damage in Amiens

Wilhelm Fahrmbacher and Erwin Rommel

Assault of Engebi

Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer Showing His Kills