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• Allied aircraft attacked Japanese positions at Monywa, Burma while the Indian 20th Division assaulted the port city on the Chindwin River. ww2dbase [Battle of Meiktila-Mandalay | Monywa | CPC]

• German forces launched an offensive from around Lake Balaton, aimed at relieving the Budapest encirclement in Hungary. Meanwhile, Soviet forces liberated the Budapest ghetto. ww2dbase [Budapest Strategic Offensive Operation | Budapest | TH]

• Light carrier Ryuho arrived at Kure, Japan at 0930 hours. ww2dbase [Ryuho | Kure, Hiroshima | CPC]

• USS Spot fired two torpedoes at a Japanese boat in the Yellow Sea; both torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [Spot | Yellow Sea | CPC]

• 66,000 prisoners from the Auschwitz Concentration Camp were transferred into Germany. ww2dbase [Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Oswiecim | CPC]
• German troops evacuated Kraków, Poland. Soviet troops reached Łódź, Poland. ww2dbase [Vistula-Oder Offensive | Łódź | TH]
• The last of the Jewish forced laborers at Chelmno Concentration Camp in occupied Poland were executed; 15-year-old Simon Srebnik was the only survivor. ww2dbase [Chelmno Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Chelmno nad Nerem, Konin | CPC]

• The British government reported that, as of Nov 1944, British forces suffered 282,162 killed, 80,580 missing, 386,374 wounded, and 294,438 captured. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Royal Scots Fusilier Dennis Donnini became the youngest man to win a Victoria Cross during WW2. In an action at Roermond, the Netherlands the 19-years-old Fusilier (only 4-ft 10-in tall), despite having been hit on the head by a ricocheting bullet bravely charged a German position and destroyed it with grenades, being wounded again in the process. Later to allow his comrades to outflank a second German position, he stood in the open blazing away with a Bren gun until he was killed by a chance bullet that hit a grenade he was about to throw, blowing him up. Fusilier Donnini was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his valour. Donnini's brother had died of war wounds in 1944 and a second sibling has been a prisoner of war since Dunkirk. ww2dbase [AC]
• Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in a speech before the House of Commons, announced that "US troops have done almost all the fighting (in the Ardennes) suffering losses equal to those of both sides at the Battler of Gettysburg". This was interpreted by many as a direct and insulting attack on the abilities of Bernard Montgomery and the British fighting forces in Europe. ww2dbase [Winston Churchill | London, England | AC]

• USS Alabama entered a drydock at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, United States. ww2dbase [Puget Sound Navy Yard | Alabama | Bremerton, Washington | CPC]

18 Jan 1945 Interactive Map