MARCH 18 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

MARCH 18

1921

Treaty of Riga (or Peace of Riga) ended the Russo-Polish War. Byelorussia was partitioned between Poland and Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR recognized Polish sovereignty over Western Ukraine.  The Soviet-Polish borders established by the treaty remained in force until the Second World War. They were later redrawn during the Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference.

1938

In Wilno and Warsaw, thousands of inhabitants participated in anti-Lithuanian demonstration, calling for military action against Lithuania.  On March 11, 1938 (a day before Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany),  Stanislaw Serafin, a Polish soldier was shot by Justas Lukoševičius, a Lithuanian border patrol, on the demarcation line in the village of Trasninkai. It was not an isolated incident but the culmination of similar events that occurred since the 1920s. The following day, the Polish government issued a threatening statement accusing Lithuania of provocation. Subsequently, the Senate of the Republic of Poland called for the establishment of diplomatic relations with Lithuania.

1945

An air battle was fought in the skies over Berlin when 1,329 Allied bombers and 700 long-range fighters were met by the Luftwaffe using the new Me 262s and air-to-air rockets. The U.S. Eighth Air Force lost six Mustangs and 13 bombers while the Luftwaffe only lost two planes in return despite being outnumbered 32 to 1. However, the Allies still dropped 3,000 tons of bombs in the heaviest daylight raid on Berlin of the war.


The Battle of Kolberg ended in a Soviet and Polish victory. The battle for control of the city began on March 4, 1945 between Soviet units of the 1st Belorussian Front and 2nd Belorussian Front, with units from the Polish People's Army and the Polish First Army, against the Third Panzer Army; the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French) and the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian). The battle was fought in two waves; the first by the Soviets from March 4 to 7; and the second wave by the Poles from March 8 to 14.  On March 12 the 4th Polish Infantry Division launched an assault supported by additional artillery units and heavy tanks. The attack resulted in heavy casualties resulting in breaking off advances on March 14. The next day fighting resumed, but German troops could not stop the Polish forces, which took the barracks, part of the railway station and the Salt Island. By March 16 the Germans pulled back most of their forces under heavy artillery shelling by Soviet katyushas rocket launchers, thus allowing the Polish troops to breach the inner city.


German submarine U-866 was depth charged and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by American destroyer escorts.