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• » 18 Oct 1943

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Singapore. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]
• Italian Jews from Rome began to be deported to concentration camps. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]
• Louis Mountbatten met with Chiang Kaishek for the first time. Chiang was 15 minutes late to the meeting; in retaliation, Mountbatten purposefully spent a long time shifting through his attaché case for various documents during the meeting. ww2dbase [Louis Mountbatten | CPC]
• USS Flying Fish damaged a Japanese escort carrier in the Western Pacific, hitting her with 1 of 6 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Flying Fish | CPC]
• Lieutenant Commander Hitoshi Kasuga was made the commanding officer of Kamikaze, relieving Lieutenant Commander Shohei Matsumoto. ww2dbase [Kamikaze | CPC]

• 77 B-24 bombers from Port Moresby, Australian Papua made rendezvous with 55 P-38 fighters over Kiriwina, Trobriand Islands for a raid on Rabaul, New Britain; a separate group of 54 B-25 bombers, modified for strafing, flew for Rabaul separately. Poor weather would force the first group to cancel its mission, but the B-25 bombers proceeded without fighter escort. They heavily damaged Japanese submarine chaser CH-23, lightly damaged transport Johore Maru, and shot down 8 Japanese fighters (3 additional fighters were lost on landings); the Japanese shot down many B-25 bombers. Subsequent investigation on why the B-25 bombers proceeded despite having no escorts would find no faults. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• 3 divisions of US Marine Corps squadron VMF-214, led by Gregory Boyington, attacked Ballale Airfield in the Shortland Islands. Later in the day, the same 3 divisions joined VMF-221 in the attack of Kahili Airfield on Bougainville island. 22 Japanese fighters rose to defend Kahili. US airmen claimed 14 Japanese aircraft shot down with 6 probables. Japanese records later revealed the loss of 4 aircraft in combat, 1 heavily damaged and written off, and 3 lightly damaged. ww2dbase [Kahili Airfield | New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | Buin, Bougainville | CPC]

• USAAF B-29 bombers attacked Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Truk | TH]

• Naka arrived at Shanghai, China. ww2dbase [Naka | Shanghai | CPC]

• Escort carrier USS Card and her task group arrived at Casablanca, French Morocco. ww2dbase [Card | Casablanca | DS]

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

• Destroyer USS Shaw arrived at Nouméa, New Caledonia. ww2dbase [Shaw | Nouméa | DS]

• USS Flier was commissioned into service with Lieutenant Commander John D. Crowley in command. ww2dbase [Flier | CPC]

18 Oct 1943 Interactive Map