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• Thomas Hitchcock was killed while test-flying a P-51 Mustang aircraft. ww2dbase [Thomas Hitchcock | CPC]
• USS Finback sank a small Japanese vessel in the Pacific Ocean with her deck gun. ww2dbase [Finback | CPC]
• General Dwight Eisenhower agreed to give greater bombing priority to attacks on the German V-1 and V-2 weapons sites. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Dwight Eisenhower | AC]

• In order to forestall the bombing of the homeland by American B-29 bombers from bases at Guilin and Liuzhou in China and to seize the Beiping-Hong Kong railroad, Field Marshal Shunroku Hata, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Army China Expeditionary Force launched the Ichi-Go (Number one) offensive with a force of some 620,000 men, which was the largest force ever assembled by Japan for a single campaign. The main thrust was a powerful drive southwards from Hankou by the 11th Army, designed to link up with a push westward by 23rd Army from Guangdong. ww2dbase [Operation Ichigo | CPC]

• Admiral Sir James Somerville's new Eastern Fleet launched a devastating raid on the oil refinery at Sabang in Sumatra, Dutch East Indies with aircraft flown from the carriers HMS Illustrious and USS Saratoga escorted by HMS Cumberland, HMS Renown, USS Cummings, and others. ww2dbase [Operation Cockpit and Operation Transom | Renown | Saratoga | Illustrious | Cummings | Cumberland | Sabang, Sumatra | AC]

• U-1234 was commissioned into service with Kapitänleutnant Helmut Thurmann in command. She was assigned to the 31st Flotilla, a training unit. ww2dbase [U-1234 | CPC]
• Gorch Fock was officially reactivated by the German Navy. ww2dbase [Gorch Fock | CPC]

• After sundown, the Japanese launched three separate attacks against Anglo-Indian positions near Imphal, India, some supported by medium tanks; none of the attacks achieved their objectives. ww2dbase [Battle of Imphal-Kohima | Imphal, Manipur | CPC]

• Ernest King met with Joseph Rochefort in Washington DC, United States and gave him the command of the Far Eastern Section of the US Navy Office of Naval Intelligence. ww2dbase [Joseph Rochefort | Washington | CPC]

19 Apr 1944 Interactive Map