Air Operations, CBI

• 11 10th Air Force B-25s and 20 fighter-bombers attack troops and supplies in and behind the Japanese Army battle lines.
• 16 459th Fighter Squadron P-38s sweep roads.
• 12 P-47s support Chinese Army ground forces near Hsipaw.
• 8 P-47s support British 14th Army ground forces near Mogok.
• A 1st Air Commando Group P-47 downs a Ki-46 'Dinah' reconnaissance plane near Rangoon's Hlegu airfield at 0655 hours.

• 6 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s sweep the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea.
• During the night, 63rd Heavy Bomb Squadron SB-24s unable to attack their primary targets attack the White Cloud and Tienho airfields at Canton.

• 2 14th Air Force P-51s attack road traffic and troops in northern French Indochina.

Air Operations, East Indies

XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack the Jesselton and Sepinggang airfields on Borneo.

Air Operations, Europe

Massive air attacks are launched against Berlin and Frankfurt. 1,300 US bombers and 700 escorts drop 3,000 tons of bombs on Berlin despite heavy flak and numerous jet fighters. 25 bombers and 5 fighters are lost. Another 600 planes are damaged. More than 1,000 people are killed in Frankfurt Typhoons of the RAF 2nd Tactical Air Force attack the headquarters of Generals Johannes Blaskowitz and Friedrich Christiansen in Holland with bombs and rockets.

• 100 Lancasters of No. 3 Group carry out G-H attacks on oil plants at Hattingen and Langendreer. Both raids appear to be accurate.
• There are no losses.

• 324 aircraft including 259 Halifaxes, 45 Lancasters and 20 Mosquitos of Nos. 4, 6 and 8 Groups are sent to Witten. This is an area raid carried out in good visibility. 1,081 tons of bombs are dropped, destroying 129 acres, 62 per cent of the built-up area, according to the post-war British Bombing Survey Unit.
• 8 aircraft are lost including 6 Halifaxes, 1 Lancaster and 1 Mosquito.
• 277 Lancasters and 8 Mosquitos of Nos. 1 and 8 Groups bomb Hanau. This is another accurate area raid. Many industrial buildings and 2,240 houses are destroyed. The Altstadt is completely devastated and, says the report, all of the town's churches, hospitals, schools and historic buildings are badly hit.
• 1 Lancaster is lost.
• Support and 70 aircraft make a sweep over France, 30 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin, 24 to Kassel and 18 to Nuremberg, and there are 53 Mosquito patrols and 40 RCM sorties.
• There are no losses.

Air Operations, Formosa

46 V Bomber Command B-24s attack the Tainan airfield, the Takao seaplane base, and an emergency airstrip at Koshun.

Air Operations, Japan

• Beginning at 0545 hours, Task Force 58 carrier aircraft open an interdiction campaign aimed at preventing Japanese ships and aircraft based on Kyushu and Shikoku from interfering with Operation ICEBERG, the upcoming invasion of Okinawa. An estimated 275 Japanese aircraft are destroyed on the ground at the 45 airfields attacked by the carrier aircraft this day.
• Between 0725 and 1300 hours, USS Enterprise, USS Intrepid, and USS Yorktown are slightly damaged by bomb or kamikaze near misses.
• US carrier-based F6Fs and F4Us down 97 Japanese aircraft over Kyushu and at sea between 0030 and 1640 hours, and US Marine Corps carrier-based F4Us down 27 Japanese fighters over the Kanoya East Airfield on Kyushu, Kagoshima Bay, the Miyazaki airfield, and the Tomitaka airfield during numerous missions between 0720 and 1630.
• During the night, 290 of 310 XXI Bomber Command B-29s dispatched attack Nagoya with incendiary bombs from 4,500 to 9,000 feet.
• 1 B-29 is lost.

Air Operations, Philippines

• FEAF B-24s attack Bacolod (Negros) and targets on Cebu; and B-24s, V Bomber Command A-20s, and V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack targets across southern Luzon.
• US 8th Army ground forces invade Panay at Tigbauan, where they are greeted on the beach by Filipino guerrillas. An air umbrella is provided by Marine Air Group 14 F4Us based at the Guinan airfield on Samar and V Bomber Command A-20s based on Mindoro, but there are no missions assigned by ground controllers, so the A-20s are diverted against airfields and other targets on Negros.
• 1st Marine Aircraft Wing SBDs mount their first missions of the Mindanao campaign in direct support of US 8th Army ground forces operating near Zamboanga City. Guidance is provided by Marine air liaison parties with the infantry.

Battle of the Atlantic

The German submarine U-866 is sunk through the combined efforts of US destroyer escorts Menges (DE-320), Mosley (DE-321), Pride (DE-323) and Lowe (DE-325) in the northwest Atlantic area.

Burma

The British 2nd Div takes Ava on the bend of the Irrawaddy only a few miles south of Mandalay. The heavy fighting in Mandalay and round Meiktila continues.

Eastern Front

The 1st Belorussian Front captures the town and harbor of Kolberg (Kolobrzeg) in Pomerania, the last German strongpoint on the Baltic between the Polish Corridor and Stettin on the Pomeranian Bay. Other Soviet forces are closing in around Gdynia and Danzig to the east and making further inroads into the German positions in East Prussia.

Kolberg falls to the Polish 1st Army.

After a week of bad weather and brutal fighting the skies over East Prussia clear and the Red Air Force begins to pound the 4th Army. German resistance seems to slacken immediately as the air armies pulverize anything that moves. Under heavy attack, the VI Corps of the 4th Army requests permission to withdraw but is denied, even though it means the corps will likely be destroyed. The simple fact is there is nowhere to withdraw to. In Pomerania, Kolberg falls to the 1st Polish Army as Group Fullreide (Fullriede?) escapes to the west.

Iwo Jima

The island is declared 'safe' for American forces. A part of the American force is withdrawn, while the 5th Marine Div proceeds with the liquidation of the last Japanese nests of resistance in the south of the island.

Japan

Over the next few days the carriers of Adm Marc A. Mitscher's TF 58 carry out a series of attacks on targets in the Japanese Home Islands. Adm Raymond Spruance, commanding 5th Fleet is also present. The airfields on Kyushu are the main targets. There are kamikaze attacks by about 10 planes on the American ships in which the carriers Intrepid (CV-11), Yorktown (CV-10) and Enterprise (CV-6) are all hit but are not put out of action.

Pacific

The Japanese transport No. 18 is sunk by the US submarine Springer (SS-414) south of the Ryukyu Islands.

Philippines

In the I Corps sector the Japanese are preparing to withdraw from San Fernando under pressure from the Filipino guerrillas in the north and the Americans from the south. The US 25th Div overcomes Japanese resistance north of Putlan; its next objective is Kapintalan. In the XI Corps sector, east of Manila, the Americans retake ground lost in the Japanese counterattack and attack toward Mount Baytangan and Mount Tanauan.

The American forces, 14,000 men of 40th Inf Div commanded by Gen Rapp Brush, land on Panay Island in the area of Tigbauan, after a short naval bombardment. The Japanese do not oppose the landing.

Western Front

East of the Rhine, in the 1st Army sector between Bonn and Remagen, the III Corps continues its offensive, reaching Windhaven, strengthening its positions east of Vettelschoss and capturing the hills along the Wied River in the area of Strodt.

Units of the 87th Div, VIII Corps, US 3rd Army, press on with the battle for Koblenz. The units of the XII Corps are ordered to advance toward the Rhine in the region between Mainz and Worms, the 90th Div in the direction of Mainz and the 4th Arm toward Worms. While units of the 5th Div reach the sector between Gemünden, Mengerschied and Sargenroth, the 89th Div reinforces its positions east of the Moselle and the 76th succeeds in establishing a bridgehead over the river southeast of Wittlich.

All formations of the US 7th Army launch a simultaneous offensive against the Siegfried Line positions, while the finishing touches are put to the plans for the Rhine crossing. Both the XXI and XV Corps, as well as the VI Corps on the southern flank of the army, succeed in penetrating across the German frontier.

Images from March 18, 1945

125th Eng. Bn., Combat Command A, 14th Arm Div., putting in a bridge across Seltzbach River to all tanks and half-tracks to continue on a push, Hiederrrcedern, France, 18 march 1945

14th Armored Division Building a Bridge

After being hit by anti aircraft fire a Japanese dive bomber falls in the waters off the Ryukyus, 18 March 1945

Japanese Dive Bomber Shot Down

Co. A, 300th Combat Engineers, repairing road shoulders and ditches at Liemersdorf, Germany, 18 March 1945. (Photo: Riel Crandall)

Road Repair

Millions of German were fleeing from the East. Hitler wanted even more Germans to be evicted and large parts of German industry destroyed.

German Fleeing from the East

Fighting in Pomerania, on what was then German soil, March 1945.

Fighting in Pomerania

Berlin Factories Hit by 8th Air Force, 18 March 1945

8th Air Force Hits Berlin Factories

Troops of the 185th Inf., 40th Div., take cover behind advancing tanks while moving up on Japanese positions on Panay on March 18, 1945. (Photo taken by Lt. Robert Fields who was killed shortly after)

Advancing on Japanese Positions on Panay

Berlin, 18 March 1945, flown at 26,000 feet and took 7 hours and 30 minutes to complete, 100th Bomb Group.

Berlin Attack by 100th Bomb Group