Today in World War II History—August 18, 1943
Friday, August 18, 2023 by Sarah Sundin

US Marine Corps barrage balloon, Parris Island, SC, May 1942 (US Library of Congress: fsac.1a35100))
80 Years Ago—Aug. 18, 1943: Luftwaffe chief of staff Hans Jeschonnek commits suicide after previous day’s RAF raid on Peenemünde and US Eighth Air Force raids on Schweinfurt and Regensburg.
Army Air Force barrage balloon battalions are inactivated in the US.
Betty Smith’s bestselling novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is published.