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• The four defendants in the Kharkov, Ukraine war crime trial were sentenced to death by hanging, to be carried out on the next day. ww2dbase [Nuremberg Trials and Other Trials Against Germany | TH]
• Joseph Stillwell became the first foreigner to command Chinese troops without any conditions. ww2dbase [Joseph Stilwell | CPC]
• Light carrier Ryuho arrived at the Palau Islands. ww2dbase [Ryuho | CPC]
• Captain Yoshi Matsuura was named the commanding officer of light carrier Hosho. ww2dbase [Hosho | CPC]
• Ernst Kühl was awarded Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The plan to land several divisions at Anzio, Italy was briefly canceled. ww2dbase [Battle of Anzio | CPC]

• The scheduled fighter sweep to be launched from Torokina Airfield, Bougainville, Solomon Islands against Rabaul, New Britain was canceled due to poor weather. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | Cape Torokina, Bougainville | CPC]

• Escort carrier USS Card and her task group departed Casablanca and resumed their anti-submarine patrols in the mid-Atlantic. ww2dbase [Card | Casablanca | DS]

• The Allied 3rd Tactical Air Force (TAF) was formed incorporating 5320th Air Defence Wing USAAF at Dinjan with 221 and 224 Wings RAF at Imphal, India and Chittagong, India (now Bangladesh). ww2dbase [AC]

• A Canadian-Indian attack across the Ortona-Orsogna road in Italy was repulsed by German troops with heavy losses. ww2dbase [Advance to the Gustav Line | Abruzzo | CPC]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Wotje, then arrived at Taroa, in the Marshall Islands; she would depart later in the same day. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | Wotje | CPC]

• USS Grayback attacked a four-freighter Japanese convoy escorted by three armed vessels in the Philippine Sea after nightfall and into the next date, sinking freighter Gyokurei Maru, sinking escort vessel Numakaze, and damaging several other ships; 6 torpedoes were expended in this attack, 4 of which hit. ww2dbase [Grayback | Philippine Sea | CPC]

• US Chief of Naval Operations Ernest King decreed that helicopter training would be carried out at Floyd Bennett Field, New York, United States by the US Coast Guard. ww2dbase [Ernest King | Brooklyn, New York | AC]

18 Dec 1943 Interactive Map