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• I-168 departed Kiska, Aleutian Islands and patrolled an area south of Amchitka. ww2dbase [I-68/I-168 | Kiska | CPC]

• Alpino Bagnolini sighted a periscope in the Atlantic Ocean at 2245 hours; she turned away. ww2dbase [Alpino Bagnolini | CPC]

• The Allies abandoned the attempt to drive Japanese from Donbaik, Burma. ww2dbase [First Battle of Arakan | Donbaik | CPC]
• The main body of the Northern Group of the Chindits completed the crossing of the Irrawaddy River. ww2dbase [Operation Longcloth | CPC]

• Famed Polish Jewish violinist Henri Czaplinski (aka. Genrikh Maksimovich Chaplinsky in Soviet documents) joined the Donukalov Partisan Brigade near Minsk, Byelorussia. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | Truk | CPC]

• Vichy France repealed a number of anti-Semitic laws. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Italians began to raise the wreck of Algérie in sections at Toulon, France. ww2dbase [Toulon Military Port | Algérie | Toulon, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | CPC]

• USAAF aircraft, including the 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh, bombed the Vegesack district of Bremen, Germany. Most of the bombs missed the Bremer Vulkan shipyard, striking civilian facilities instead. 108 were killed and over 100 were wounded. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Bremer Vulkan AG | RAF Thurleigh | Bremen, Weser-Ems | CPC]

• USS Tunny departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her second war patrol. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Tunny | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Haruki Isayama stepped down as the Chief of Staff of the 26th Infantry Regiment stationed in Hokkaido, Japan and was attached to the Japanese Army school in Gongzhuling, Jilin Province, China as a regimental commander-in-training. ww2dbase [Haruki Isayama | Hokkaido | CPC]

• 56 western missionaries and western civilians, 2 Chinese adult civilians, and 2 Chinese infants were executed by gunfire or drowning aboard Japanese destroyer Akikaze in the Pacific Ocean. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Switzerland was warned of a seemingly impending German invasion. ww2dbase [CPC]

• US 1st Ranger Battalion captured El Guettar, Tunisia. ww2dbase [Battle of El Guettar | El Guettar | CPC]

• Oswald Mosley and Diana Mosley received Norah Elam and Dudley Elam while in imprisonment in London, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Oswald Mosley | London, England | CPC]
• American oil workers recruited by the Noble Drilling Corporation on a one year contract arrived at Kelham Hall Monastery, Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom to work at extracting oil from the Eakring oil field in Sherwood Forest. With imported American rigs the "Roughnecks" would ultimately drill over 100 wells before returning home, producing, at its peak, over 300,000 tons of high grade oil from 170 "Nodding Donkeys" in addition to training (initially unskilled) British workers in American drilling techniques. ww2dbase [Kelham, England | AC]

• The keel of destroyer USS Cassin Young was laid down by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation at San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, United States. ww2dbase [Cassin Young | Bethlehem San Pedro Shipyard | San Pedro, California | CPC]
• At the White House in Washington DC, United States, President Franklin met with Navy Rear Admiral Emory Land, Chairman of the United States Maritime Commission, Rear Admiral Howard Vickery, Vice-Chairman of the United States Maritime Commission, Artemis Gates, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air, and industrialist Henry J. Kaiser who presented the President with a model of the proposed Casablanca-class escort aircraft carrier, 50 of which Kaiser would build at his Vancouver, Washington shipyard. ww2dbase [Kaiser Vancouver Shipyard | Franklin Roosevelt | Henry Kaiser | White House | Washington, DC | DS]

18 Mar 1943 Interactive Map