President Roosevelt, via Executive Order, revoked deferments for striking defense plant workers.
The RAF hit Peenemünde with three waves of bombers in Operation Hydra. Damage was so extensive that Luftwaffe General Jeschonnek, charged with defense of the Reich's airspace and well ware of his failings in that regard, and further having an inwardly timid personalty masked by a harden affectation, killed himself the following day, leaving a note that stated; „Mit dem Reichsmarschall kann ich nicht mehr zusammenarbeiten. Es lebe der Führer!“ ("I can no longer work together with the Reichsmarschall. Long live the Führer!"). He left a further note excluding Ulrich Dieseing and Bernd von Brauchitsche from his funeral. A memorandum he left called upon Hitler to change leadership in the Luftwaffe, but was confiscated by Göring.
Ultimately, in some way, Jeschonnek was a victim of his personality, knowing internally that the air war was lost, but lacking the will to do something about it.
Sarah Sundin noted Jeschonnek's fate on her blog, and also noted the following:
Today in World War II History—August 18, 1943: Army Air Force barrage balloon battalions are inactivated in the US. Betty Smith’s bestselling novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is published.
The U.S. Navy bombarded Palmi and Gioai Taura in Italy.
The Allies prevailed in the Battle of Mount Tambu.
46,000 mostly Jewish Greeks arrived at Auschwitz.
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