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WWII On This Day: May 18

What happened on May 18 during World War II? This date brings together 4 events from 1941, 1942, 1944 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
The German battleship Bismarck in Grimstadfjord near Bergen on 21 May 1941, photographed from Prinz Eugen before the Atlantic breakout.
Naval History and Heritage Command · Public domain
The Bismarck Chase

Operation Rheinübung begins

Bismarck and Prinz Eugen sailed from the Baltic for a commerce-raiding sortie into the North Atlantic. Admiral Günther Lütjens was expected to reach the convoy routes without accepting unnecessary battle against equal British heavy forces. The operation began with an inherent constraint: Bismarck needed freedom to manoeuvre and access to fuel. The larger German surface force originally envisaged was unavailable, leaving the battleship and heavy cruiser to break out as a pair.

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1942
USS Yorktown under attack by Japanese torpedo bombers during the Battle of Midway, 4 June 1942.
USS Yorktown under torpedo attack, 4 June 1942 · US Navy · NARA · Public domain · Source
The Battle of Midway

AF is Midway

Station HYPO had been reading enough of the Japanese fleet code to know a major operation was coming against a target the signals called AF. Washington thought AF was somewhere else. Commander Joseph Rochefort's team proposed a test: have Midway transmit in the clear that its fresh water distillation plant had broken down. Two days later Japanese signals reported that AF was short of fresh water. The objective, the approximate date and much of the order of battle followed from that.

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1944
Polish soldiers stand inside the captured ruins of the Monte Cassino abbey on 18 May 1944; reproduced in Wańkowicz’s wartime account.
Polish soldiers stand inside the captured ruins of the Monte Cassino abbey on 18 May 1944; reproduced in Wańkowicz’s wartime account. Polish wartime photograph · public domain per Commons file record Source
Cassino and Anzio: The Road to Rome

Polish soldiers enter the Monte Cassino abbey ruins

Polish soldiers entered the ruined monastery on 18 May after German defenders withdrew during the night. A patrol raised a Polish flag while other formations pursued the retreating Tenth Army from the Gustav Line. The capture ended the long struggle for the monastery heights. The result followed Polish fighting on the ridges and simultaneous breakthroughs in adjoining French and British sectors.

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1945
Displaced persons at the British-run reception centre on the grounds of Hamburg Zoo, photographed on 18 May 1945. Arrivals were registered and directed to national centres for repatriation.
Displaced persons at the British-run reception centre on the grounds of Hamburg Zoo, photographed on 18 May 1945. Arrivals were registered and directed to national centres for repatriation. Sgt J. Mapham / No. 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit / Imperial War Museums BU 6637 · Public domain (expired UK Crown copyright) Source
Refugees, Expulsion and Postwar Displacement

British troops process displaced people at Hamburg Zoo

On 18 May 1945 Sergeant J. Mapham photographed displaced people at a centre established in the grounds of Hamburg Zoo. A former forced-labour site had been taken over by British forces after the city’s surrender. New arrivals were assigned registration records, hygiene measures and temporary accommodation. The centre grouped people for travel to national camps and eventual repatriation. The original military caption gives an estimate of 120,000 displaced people in Hamburg, a local administrative figure that measures a different population from the wider European totals.

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