18 Aug 1941
  • British War Cabinet member Mr. Butt wrote a report to the RAF Bomber Command, noting "[o]f those aircraft recorded as attacking their target, only one in three got within five miles" of the intended targets. The conclusion was reached after studying post-bombing reconnaissance photos taken between 2 Jun and 25 Jul 1941. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | CPC]
  • Radio Belgrade played an obscure German record which had been found in a pile of dusty 78s in the cellar of Radio Vienna. The song, Lili Marleen, sung by Lale Andersen, was an instant success. Within a week the station was receiving thousands of requests from the soldiers of the Deutsche Afrika Korps for it to be played over and over again. The song's success did not end there for, with English lyrics, it would become equally popular with the British and Commonwealth soldiers fighting in the Western Desert. ww2dbase [AC]
Atlantic Ocean
  • Comandante Cappellini was given a patrol area in the Atlantic Ocean at 2200 hours; she was ordered to arrive at that location by 2000 hours on 20 Aug 1941. ww2dbase [Comandante Cappellini | CPC]
Ukraine
  • In southern Ukraine, German troops established a bridgehead across the Dnieper River at Zaporizhia. Further southwest along the river, German troops began an attack on the city Kherson situated on the western bank of the river. The port facilities of Odessa, Ukraine was struck by He 111 bombers of German Luftwaffe KG 27; the pilots reported overwhelming success in terms of Soviet shipping destroyed. Out at sea, Two Romanian torpedo boats, NMS Viscolul and NMS Vijelia, damaged a Soviet destroyer south of Odessa. ww2dbase [Siege of Odessa | TH, CPC]
United States
  • US President Franklin Roosevelt announced that Pan American Airways had agreed to ferry Lend-Lease US warplanes to British forces in the Middle East. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | AC]

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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Reconnaissance photo of the two primary oil refineries in Ploesti Romania taken in preparation of the low level B-24 Liberator bomber attack of Aug 1 1943.

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"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You win the war by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country!"

George Patton, 31 May 1944


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