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• » 18 Mar 1941

• Erwin Rommel departed North Africa for a meeting with Adolf Hitler. ww2dbase [Erwin Rommel | CPC]
• The US Marine Corps 7th Defense Battalion arrived at American Samoa. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Adolf Hitler met with Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, and Erich Raeder; Raeder urged Hitler to convince Japan to attack Singapore and recommended Hitler to reveal the plans of the Soviet invasion to Japan. ww2dbase [Alfred Jodl | Wilhelm Keitel | Erich Raeder | Adolf Hitler | CPC]

• British bombers attacked Vlorë, Albania, sinking Italian torpedo boat Aldebaran. ww2dbase [Balkans Campaign | Vlorë | CPC]

• German submarine U-105 attacked Allied convoy SL-68 west of Senegal, French West Africa at 0400 hours, sinking British ship Medjerda, killing the entire crew of 52 and 2 gunners. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German armed merchant cruiser Kormoran transferred 7 torpedoes to submarine U-124 1,050 miles southwest of Cape Verde Islands. ww2dbase [Kormoran | CPC]

• Battleship Bismarck entered the Baltic Sea for trials. ww2dbase [Bismarck | CPC]

• Germany centralized all coal mining and distribution. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Italian troops bombarded Fort Dologorodoc near Keren, Eritrea, Italian East Africa, which British and Indian had only recently gained. ww2dbase [Invasion of Italian East Africa | Keren | CPC]

• British armed boarding vessel Rosaura, carrying Italian prisoners of war, hit a mine and sank off Tobruk, Libya. 14 crew, 5 guards, and 59 Italians were killed. ww2dbase [Tobruk | CPC]
• British Swordfish torpedo bombers of Fleet Air Arm 830 Naval Air Squadron based in Malta bombed the harbor at Tripoli, Libya; 1 Swordfish aircraft was shot down, with its crew of 2 taken prisoner. ww2dbase [Tripoli | CPC]

• The French government-in-exile in Britain established a central bank. ww2dbase [TH]
• German 1st S-boat Flotilla (with 6 motor torpedo boats) raided shipping on the east coast of England, United Kingdom, sinking French ship Daphne II off the Humber Estuary. ww2dbase [England | CPC]
• Douglas Bader was promoted to the rank of wing commander. ww2dbase [Douglas Bader | CPC]

• US and Canada declared a joint defense pact, which included cooperation in ship building efforts on the Great Lakes. ww2dbase [CPC]

18 Mar 1941 Interactive Map