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• Lieutenant Philip Cabell Evans was named the commanding officer of HMCS Trillium. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German 17.Armee attempted to eliminate the Soviet bridgehead at Novorossiysk in southern Russia. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]
• The Soviet Union claimed that the German Gestapo was responsible for the Katyn Massacre. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• 47 P-40 and 12 Spitfire fighters intercepted a large Axis air convoy off Tunisia, shooting down 24 German transport aircraft, 10 German fighters, and some Italian fighters. So many lives were lost that the Germans dubbed the action Palm Sunday Massacre. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC]

• Admiral William Halsey and General Douglas MacArthur met at Brisbane, Australia. They agreed that the tentative date for the New Georgia invasion was to be 15 May, and that a US Marine Corps defense battalion, a US Navy construction battalion, and a US Army regimental combat team should be transferred to the theater to support the invasion. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• The two aircraft carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki took off from Rabaul, New Britain at 0600 hours. Over the island of Bougainville in the Solomon Islands, they were shot down by American fighters over Bougainville in the Solomon Islands, killing Yamamoto. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH, CPC]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Yokosuka, Japan for her 12th voyage with the Japanese Navy. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• Robert Johnson flew his first combat mission over the Dutch coast but saw no action. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• A transport of 2501 Jews from the ghetto in Thessaloniki, Greece arrived at Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland. Only 605 were registered into the camp; the remaining 1,896 were sent to the gas chambers. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | CPC]

• Viktor Abakumov was summoned to meet with Joseph Stalin. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• No. 619 Squadron RAF was formed at RAF Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Submarine Escolar was launched at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, sponsored by Mrs. J. Bilisoly Hudgins. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Submarine Dragonet was launched at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, sponsored by Mrs. J. E. Gingrich. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS Pollack arrived at Midway Atoll, ending her sixth war patrol. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | CPC]

18 Apr 1943 Interactive Map