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History on the 18th of December

History
Date Text
18 Dec 1819 RELIGIOUS Birth of Isaac Thomas Hecker, American Roman Catholic leader. He entered the Redemptorist Order in 1845, and in 1858 founded the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle (the Paulist Fathers). He was superior general of the Paulist Society during his last 30 years (1858_88).
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18 Dec 1834 RELIGIOUS Emory College was chartered in Oxford, GA, under Methodist auspices. In 1915 it changed its name to Emory University and in 1919 the campus was relocated in Atlanta, GA.
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18 Dec 1892 RELIGIOUS Rabbi H. Rosenberg was expelled from Temple Beth_Jacob in Brooklyn, NY, for eating pork.
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18 Dec 1904 RELIGIOUS Indian mystic Sundar Singh, 15, was converted to Christianity through a vision. Baptized into the Church of England in 1905, Singh afterward donned the robe of a Sadhu (holy man) in an endeavor to present Christianity in a Hindu form. (He disappeared in April 1929, while undertaking a strenuous work in Tibet.)
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18 Dec 1912 WW2 Benjamin (Jr.) Davis was born. 
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18 Dec 1913 WW2 Walther von Brauchitsch was promoted to the rank of Hauptmann. 
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18 Dec 1914 WW1 Begin of Battle of Givenchy
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18 Dec 1915 WW1 Begin of Evacuation of Gallipoli
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18 Dec 1917 WW2 Richard O'Connor was Mentioned in Despatches. 
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18 Dec 1921 WW2 The 40,000-ton battleship Tosa was launched by Mitsubishi at Nagasaki, Japan. Intended to be one of the second pair of high-speed battleships under the 8-8 programme, she would be cancelled before completion by the Washington Treaty and eventually scuttled on 9 Feb 1925. 
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18 Dec 1922 WW2 Mariya Dolina was born. 
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18 Dec 1934 WW2 Hawker Aviation furnished further engine data to its manufacturing engineers. 
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18 Dec 1935 WW2 Edvard Beneš was elected as the President of Czechoslovakia. 
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18 Dec 1935 WW2 The US Army War College G-2 intelligence division submitted a comprehensive plan for a US invasion of Canada and Newfoundland. 
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18 Dec 1937 WW2 Japanese troops executed over 300 Chinese people, military and civilian, on a road outside of Nanjing, China by machine gun. As reported by the International Committee later, at 1600 hours on this date, "at No. 18 I Ho Lu, Japanese soldiers wanted a man's cigarette case and when he hesitated, one of the soldier crashed in the side of his head with a bayonet. The man is now at the University Hospital and is not expected to live." 
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18 Dec 1937 WW2 USS Permit arrived at San Diego, California, United States and joined Submarine Squadron 6 of the US Navy. 
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18 Dec 1938 WW2 German scientist Otto Hahn split the uranium atom. 
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18 Dec 1939 WW2 24 British Wellington bombers were launched to attack German shipping during daylight; only 22 flew to the target area because 2 developed technical problems shortly after takeoff. Flak quickly broke up the bomber formation, then the German Bf 109 and Bf 110 fighters that came to the ships' defense shot down 12 of the 22 bombers. German pilots claimed 34 kills for the loss of 2 fighters during combat and another crashed at landing; the German Air Ministry confirmed only 26. British pilots also overestimated their kills, claiming 13 definite and 12 probable. 
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18 Dec 1939 WW2 Soviet 273rd Infantry regiment retreated in the face of attacks from Finnish 40th Infantry Regiment. 
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18 Dec 1939 WW2 The first Canadian troops arrived in Britain. 
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18 Dec 1939 WW2 Chinese troops captured Longhua, near Yicheng, Hubei Province, China. To the south, Chinese 5th Division captured Kunlunguan Pass in Guangxi Province. 
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18 Dec 1939 WW2 Vidkun Quisling met with Adolf Hitler in Berlin, Germany. 
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18 Dec 1939 WW2 Lavrentiy Beria ordered first mass deportation of Poles to Soviet Union. 
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18 Dec 1939 WW2 The first Canadian troops arrived in England, United Kingdom. 
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18 Dec 1940 WW2 Führer Directive 21 was issued, confirming the plans for Unternehmen Barbarossa. 
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18 Dec 1940 WW2 British submarine HMS Tuna sank French tug Chassiron and attacked (in failure) Italian submarines Brin and Bianchi in the Bay of Biscay 40 miles off of the Gironde Estuary, France. 
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18 Dec 1940 WW2 British minesweeping trawler HMT Refundo was damaged by a mine, killing 2. Another ship attempted to tow her, but she sank 1 miles off the coast of Suffolk, England, United Kingdom. 
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18 Dec 1940 WW2 German submarine U-96 damaged Dutch tanker Pendrecht at 1615 hours with torpedo. The crew began to abandon ship, but as two armed tankers arrived to drive away U-96, the crew reboarded, set her toward Scotland, United Kingdom for repairs. 
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18 Dec 1940 WW2 German submarine U-100 sank British ship Napier Star at 9820 hours, killing 59 crew and 12 passengers; 5 survived. 
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18 Dec 1940 WW2 Italian submarine Veniero damaged Greek ship Anastassia in the North Atlantic with a torpedo, killing 18. 10 were taken prisoner. The Italians let the disabled ship drift away. 
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18 Dec 1940 WW2 German cruiser Admiral Scheer captured British ship Duquesna in the South Atlantic 800 miles south of Cape Verde Islands, capturing 91 crew and 8 passengers. Captain Theodor Krancke of Admiral Scheer purposefully allowed Duquesna to radio to help in order to distract the Royal Navy, hoping to indirectly help cruiser Admiral Hipper to break out into the Atlantic Ocean from the Denmark Strait. Duquesna, with 3,500 tons of frozen beef and 15 million eggs on board, was kept in operation by the Germans in the South Atlantic until 18 Feb 1941 to supply German ships in the area. 
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18 Dec 1940 WW2 Italian cruisers Eugenio and Montecuccoli and destroyers Pigafetta, Da Recco, Pessagno, and Riboty shelled Greek forces on the Albanian coast near Corfu. 
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18 Dec 1940 WW2 British submarine HMS Triton sank in the Otranto Strait off Taranto, Italy; the exact cause was unknown. 
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18 Dec 1940 WW2 The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, US Navy scout-bomber, took its first flight. 
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18 Dec 1940 WW2 Otto Skorzeny departed the Netherlands for northern France as a member of 2nd SS Division "Das Reich". 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 US Congress passed the First War Powers Act, giving the US President complete authority to reorganize the executive branch, independent government agencies, and government corporations during the time of war. It also authorized the US President to censor mail and other forms of communication between the United States and foreign countries. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 As oil refineries on the northern coast of Hong Kong island burned with thick black smoke, 3,500 Japanese troops crossed the Lye Mun Channel and established a beachhead at 2200 hours. Two hours later, another force of 4,000 would follow. Japanese troops executed 20 colonial Chinese prisoners of war at Sai Wan Hill, while 26 male medical personnel and 2 wounded soldiers were executed by beheading at the Salesian Mission Advanced Dressing Station; the female medical personnel at the latter location were set free after being forced to witness the beheading. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 Hitler finally accepted Brauchitsch's resignation, and took personal command of the Army and all Eastern Front operations. He fired Feldmarschall Bock, replacing him with Kluge. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 The Soviet Army created the Bryansk Front between the West and Southwestern Fronts. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 A Dutch Do 24 bomber attacked and sank Japanese destroyer Shinonome off Miri, Borneo, killing all 219 aboard. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 American cruiser Indianapolis returned to Pearl Harbor after failing to find the Japanese carrier fleet. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 American seaplane tender Wright transported 126 Marines to Midway. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 The S-1 Section of the United States Office of Scientific Research and Development, the forerunner of the Manhattan Project, held its first meeting. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 Five German Type IX submarines departed Lorient, France for the east coast of the United States in preparation for Operation Paukenschlag. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 Nazi German philosopher Alfred Rosenberg declared "... biological extermination of the whole of European Jewry was to take place on Soviet territory." 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 Archibald Wavell flew to Calcutta, India to meet with General Henry Pownall. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 British 4th Armoured Brigade reached Mechili, Libya, too far behind the main body of the retreating Axis forces to achieve its goal of out-flanking the retreat, specifically the German tanks. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 In Russia, German 3rd Panzer Army and 4th Panzer Army shook off the persuing Soviet forces and reached Lama River and Ruza River, respectively, on their retreat from the Moscow. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 British destroyers HMS Stanley and HMS Blankney, escorting Allied convoy HG-76, discovered shadowing German submarine U-434, one of four submarine shadowing the convoy, 560 miles west of Gibraltar at 0945 hours. U-434 was forced to surface. The 44 crew members of U-434 scuttled the submarine and jumped into the water; 42 would be captured while 2 were killed by HMS Blankney accidentally while the British destroyer approached. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 British bombers attacked Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at Brest, France during the daylight hours at about 1230 hours. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 Günther von Kluge's Chief of Staff, Günther Blumentritt, took over command of the German Fourth Army pending the arrival of General Ludwig Kubler on 26 Dec 1941. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 Two Japanese reconnaissance aircraft were spotted flying over Rabaul, Bismarck Islands. Wirraway fighters were scrambled, but they were not fast enough to intercept. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 The 1st and 2nd Squadrons of the American Volunteer Group was transferred to Kunming, Yunnan, China. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 At Honolulu, US Territory of Hawaii, the Roberts Commission began investigating the American preparations prior to the Pearl Harbor attack. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 US Navy Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet Chester Nimitz ordered the submarines of Task Force 7 near Wake Atoll to move south out of the area until reinforcements arrived. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 Japanese troops captured Naga, Luzon, Philippine Islands. To the north, the invasion convoy for the Lingayen Gulf assault departed from Taiwan and the Pescadores islands. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 Dutch and Australian troops occupied Portuguese Timor to establish a defense against advancing Japanese forces. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 Naka departed Mako, Pescadores islands. 
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18 Dec 1941 WW2 Robert Johnson was assigned to the Missouri Institute of Aeronautics in Sikeston, Missouri, United States for flight training. 
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18 Dec 1942 WW2 Axis and Allied forces engaged in brief but fierce combat at Nofilia, Libya. 
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18 Dec 1942 WW2 Galeazzo Ciano arrived at Adolf Hitler's Wolfschanze headquarters in East Prussia, Germany. 
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18 Dec 1942 WW2 Repair ship Akashi began repairing destroyer Nowaki at Truk, Caroline Islands. 
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18 Dec 1942 WW2 USS Albacore sank Tenryu between Madang, Australian New Guinea and Truk, Caroline Islands. 
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18 Dec 1942 WW2 USS Sunfish fired three torpedoes at Japanese transport Kyowa Maru off Japan in the Pacific Ocean, causing damage. 
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18 Dec 1942 WW2 The American newspaper New York Times published a front page story on the Nazi extermination of European Jews. 
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18 Dec 1943 WW2 The four defendants in the Kharkov, Ukraine war crime trial were sentenced to death by hanging, to be carried out on the next day. 
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18 Dec 1943 WW2 Joseph Stillwell became the first foreigner to command Chinese troops without any conditions. 
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18 Dec 1943 WW2 Light carrier Ryuho arrived at the Palau Islands. 
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18 Dec 1943 WW2 Captain Yoshi Matsuura was named the commanding officer of light carrier Hosho. 
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18 Dec 1943 WW2 Ernst Kühl was awarded Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. 
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18 Dec 1943 WW2 The plan to land several divisions at Anzio, Italy was briefly canceled. 
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18 Dec 1943 WW2 The scheduled fighter sweep to be launched from Torokina Airfield, Bougainville, Solomon Islands against Rabaul, New Britain was canceled due to poor weather. 
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18 Dec 1943 WW2 The Allied 3rd Tactical Air Force (TAF) was formed incorporating 5320th Air Defence Wing USAAF at Dinjan with 221 and 224 Wings RAF at Imphal, India and Chittagong, India (now Bangladesh). 
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18 Dec 1943 WW2 A Canadian-Indian attack across the Ortona-Orsogna road in Italy was repulsed by German troops with heavy losses. 
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18 Dec 1943 WW2 Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Wotje, then arrived at Taroa, in the Marshall Islands; she would depart later in the same day. 
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18 Dec 1943 WW2 USS Grayback attacked a four-freighter Japanese convoy escorted by three armed vessels in the Philippine Sea after nightfall and into the next date, sinking freighter Gyokurei Maru, sinking escort vessel Numakaze, and damaging several other ships; 6 torpedoes were expended in this attack, 4 of which hit. 
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18 Dec 1943 WW2 US Chief of Naval Operations Ernest King decreed that helicopter training would be carried out at Floyd Bennett Field, New York, United States by the US Coast Guard. 
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18 Dec 1943 RELIGIOUS German theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter from prison: 'The man who finds God in his earthly happiness...does not lack reminder that earthly things are transient...and...there will be times when he can say in all sincerity, "I wish I were home."'
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18 Dec 1944 WW2 Douglas MacArthur was promoted to the rank of General of the Army. 
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18 Dec 1944 WW2 Nikolaus von Falkenhorst was relieved as the commanding officer of German forces in Norway. 
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18 Dec 1944 WW2 The Fletcher-class destroyer USS Spence capsized and sank in a typhoon off Luzon, Philippine Islands. 
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18 Dec 1944 WW2 USS Manta was commissioned into service with Lieutenant Commander Edward P. Madley in command. 
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18 Dec 1944 WW2 84 B-29 bombers made a daylight incendiary raid on the Yangtze River port of Hankou, the main supply base of the Japanese Army China Expeditionary Force and springboard for the recently ended Ichi-go offensive. The B-29 bombers were followed in by Liberator bombers, Mitchell bombers, and Mustangs fighters of the US 14th Air Force. Warehouses and storage sheds in Hankou blazed fiercely for three days after the attack. 
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18 Dec 1944 WW2 The German offensive in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium began to stall after Americans began to fight back. 
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18 Dec 1944 WW2 William Slim met with Montagu Stopford of Indian 33rd Corps and Frank Messervy of Indian 4th Corps regarding Operation Extended Capital which aimed at the total defeat of Japanese forces in Burma. 
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18 Dec 1944 WW2 The Yangtze River Raiders of Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization (SACO) rescued P-51 fighter pilot John Wheeler near Xiushui, Jiangxi Province, China. 
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18 Dec 1944 WW2 USS Ticonderoga sailed through Typhoon Cobra without casualties. 
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18 Dec 1944 WW2 Heavy seas caused by Typhoon Cobra damaged the two OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes aboard USS Alabama. 
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18 Dec 1944 WW2 USS Preston guarded carriers while the carriers launched strikes against Luzon, Philippine Islands. 
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18 Dec 1944 WW2 Two aircraft from the US 9th Air Force based at RAF Barkston Heath in Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom were involved in a mid-air collision. The crash involved a new C-109 flown by Lieutenant Dan Wolf and an elderly B-24 Liberator, known as Lazy Lou, which had already survived two combat tours and was now being used to train C-109 crews. The C-109 was a B-24 Liberator converted into a fuel tanker aircraft with additional internal fuel tanks to carry aviation fuel to Allied airfields in liberated Europe. The C-109 plummeted into the ground killing the entire crew. Lazy Lou lost two engines and her commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis Frederick, struggled desperately with the controls in an attempt to land at RAF Cranwell but crashed short of the runway killing Colonel Frederick and Flight Engineer Paul Sattler, while "Major Jerry" was severely injured. Major Jerry was, in fact, the pet dog of Lewis Frederick who not only had his own rank but also his own log book and parachute. American personnel paid for Jerry's vet bills to ensure he received the best care in the supply section armament tent, but sadly the animal died on Boxing Day (December 26) greatly mourned by the personnel of Barkston Heath. 
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