World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 18 Aug 1943

• Referencing an alliance from 1373 with Britain, Portugal allowed the Allies to use the Azore Islands for air and naval bases. ww2dbase [TH]
• USS Tunny sighted Pagan and Alamagan in the Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Tunny | CPC]
• Otto Skorzeny conducted an aerial reconnaissance mission over La Maddalena, Italy. His He 111 aircraft was shot down by British fighters. Skorzeny survived the crash, but suffered three broken ribs. ww2dbase [Otto Skorzeny | CPC]

• US bombers attacked the four Japanese airfields at Wewak, Australian New Guinea (Boram, Wewak, But, and Dagna). The Americans lost two B-25 bombers and one P-38 fighter; the Japanese lost 30 aircraft and suffered damage to the airstrips. ww2dbase [Wewak | CPC]
• Shigure arrived at Rabaul, New Britain. ww2dbase [Shigure | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]
• At Wewak, New Guinea, Major Ralph Cheli leading his B-25 squadron of the 38th Group was attacked by a Japanese Nakajima Ki-43 aircraft while making his run-up to the target, which shot up the starboard engine and set it on fire. With the flames spreading rapidly to the wings he held his course aiming for a line of parked Zero fighters on the airfield. Only when he had pressed home his attack did Major Cheli call his wing man to take over command of the squadron. Then, within moments, the doomed aircraft rolled over and, before the horrified eyes of his fellow airmen, crashed into the sea and exploded. For his heroic sacrifice Major Cheli would ultimately be awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor. ww2dbase [Wewak | AC]

• Orde Wingate met Franklin Roosevelt at Quebec, Canada, introduced by Winston Churchill. ww2dbase [Orde Wingate | Quebec City, Quebec | CPC]

• Duquesne arrived at Dakar, French West Africa. ww2dbase [Duquesne | Dakar | CPC]

• Between 0017 and 0043 hours Berlin time (2317 and 2343 hours London time, on 17 Aug 1943), three waves of British Lancaster, Halifax, and Stirling bombers (227, 113, and 180 aircraft, respectively) struck the German rocket research site at Peenemünde, dropping a total of 1,600 tons of high explosive bombs and 250 tons of incendiary bombs. Initially the damage appeared to be extensive, especially considering that 180 German scientists and engineers were killed, but the site returned to operation within four to six weeks. Strategically, however, this attack did retarded the eventual rocket attack on Britain by some months. Many buildings would remain unrepaired and craters unfilled in order to trick the British into thinking that the site was abandoned after the raid. The British Royal Air Force lost 40 bombers during this successful mission. Over 500 Polish forced laborers were also killed during this attack. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Peenemünde Army Research Center | Peenemünde, Pommern | CPC, AC]
• General Hans Jeschinnek, Chief of the German Air Staff since 1939, having already lost faith with Hermann Göring, committed suicide at the Luftwaffe Lager Robinson headquarters in Goldap, Ostpreußen (East Prussia), Germany (now Warmian-Masurian, Poland) following his controversial order to the air defence units in Berlin to fire on Luftwaffe fighters which had landed there in error during the RAF's raid on Peenemünde. ww2dbase [Ostpreußen | AC]

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

• USS Wahoo attacked several freighters on separate occasions in the Sea of Okhotsk; all 3 torpedo missed. Several hours later, she sank a small fishing vessel with her deck gun. ww2dbase [Wahoo | Sea of Okhotsk | CPC]

• Kamoi departed Singapore. ww2dbase [Kamoi | Singapore | CPC]

• No. 19 Squadron RAF was transferred out of RAF Newchurch in southern England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [RAF Newchurch | Newchurch, England | CPC]

• The US Marine Corps Division of Aviation was transferred from the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air. ww2dbase [CPC]

18 Aug 1943 Interactive Map