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• » 18 Mar 1943

• I-168 departed Kiska, Aleutian Islands and patrolled an area south of Amchitka. ww2dbase [I-68 / I-168 | CPC]

• The Allies abandoned the attempt to drive Japanese from Donbaik, Burma. ww2dbase [First Battle of Arakan | CPC]
• The main body of the Northern Group of the Chindits completed the crossing of the Irrawaddy River. ww2dbase [Operation Longcloth | CPC]

• Famed Polish Jewish violinist Henri Czaplinski (aka. Genrikh Maksimovich Chaplinsky in Soviet documents) joined the Donukalov Partisan Brigade near Minsk, Byelorussia. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]

• Vichy France repealed a number of anti-Semitic laws. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Italians began to raise the wreck of Algérie in sections at Toulon, France. ww2dbase [Toulon Military Port | Algérie | CPC]

• USAAF aircraft bombed the Vegesack district of Bremen, Germany. Most of the bombs missed the Bremer Vulkan shipyard, striking civilian facilities instead. 108 were killed and over 100 were wounded. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Bremer Vulkan AG | CPC]

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

• 56 western missionaries and western civilians, 2 Chinese adult civilians, and 2 Chinese infants were executed by gunfire or drowning aboard Japanese destroyer Akikaze in the Pacific Ocean. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Switzerland was warned of a seemingly impending German invasion. ww2dbase [CPC]

• US 1st Ranger Battalion captured El Guettar, Tunisia. ww2dbase [Battle of El Guettar | CPC]

• Oswald Mosley and Diana Mosley received Norah Elam and Dudley Elam while in imprisonment in London, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Oswald Mosley | CPC]
• American oil workers recruited by the Noble Drilling Corporation on a one year contract arrived at Kelham Hall Monastery, Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom to work at extracting oil from the Eakring oil field in Sherwood Forest. With imported American rigs the "Roughnecks" would ultimately drill over 100 wells before returning home, producing, at its peak, over 300,000 tons of high grade oil from 170 "Nodding Donkeys" in addition to training (initially unskilled) British workers in American drilling techniques. ww2dbase [AC]

• The keel of destroyer USS Cassin Young was laid down by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation at San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, United States. ww2dbase [Bethlehem San Pedro Shipyard | Cassin Young | CPC]

18 Mar 1943 Interactive Map