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• Allied bombers conducted a raid on Belgrade, Yugoslavia. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Anglo-Indian troops attacked Japanese positions at Ninthoukgong, India. ww2dbase [Battle of Imphal-Kohima | CPC]
• The Buckley-class destroyer-escort USS England (Commander W. B. Pendleton) attacked and sank Japanese submarine I-16, the first of six enemy submarines to be sunk by USS England over a twelve-day period. ww2dbase [AC]
• Martin Gottfried Weiss was promoted to the rank of SS-Obersturmbannführer. ww2dbase [Martin Gottfried Weiss | CPC]

• Joseph Stilwell arrived at Myitkyina Airfield, Burma, not with badly needed food and ammunition for the US US 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) and its Chinese allies, but instead with 12 war correspondents who happily took photographs of the general on the newly captures airfield. The next transport again failed to bring any supplies, instead it disembarked anti-aircraft gunners. In the afternoon, Stilwell ordered a Chinese battalion to probe Japanese defenses at the city of Myitkyina to the east, which by this time had grew to a strength of 700 men. Meanwhile, K Force of US 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) marched toward the village of Charpate five miles northwest of Myitkyina near the Mogaung-Myitkyina Road while H Force White Combat Team of US 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) captured the ferry terminal at Zigyun southeast of Myitkyina. ww2dbase [Battle of Myitkyina | Joseph Stilwell | Myitkyina | CPC]

• While at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, Lieutenant Commander William Harry Wright was made the commanding officer of USS Archerfish, relieving George Kehl. ww2dbase [Archerfish | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• British 78th Division linked up with the Polish Corps in the Liri River valley 3.2 kilometers west of Cassino, Italy. Later on the same day, Polish troops captured the ruins of the Monte Cassino monastery. ww2dbase [Battle of Monte Cassino | Cassino, Lazio | TH, CPC]

• Kichisaburo Nomura was made a Privy Councillor. ww2dbase [Kichisaburo Nomura | CPC]

• USS Puffer attacked a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, firing 9 torpedoes, 2 of which hit and sank freighter Shinryu Maru. ww2dbase [Puffer | South China Sea | CPC]

• The deportation of Crimean Tatars began. ww2dbase [Deportation of Crimean Tatars | Krym | CPC]

• USS Ranger departed New York bound for Norfolk, Virginia. ww2dbase [Ranger | New York | DS]

18 May 1944 Interactive Map