Monday, January 30, 2017

Further Evacuatin'

FRI 30 JAN 1942
Pacific
Japanese naval land attack planes (Genzan Kokutai) bomb Allied shipping at Keppel Harbor, Singapore, Straits Settlements; transport Wakefield (AP-21), waiting to embark passengers, is damaged by a bomb, as are British transports (ex-passenger liners) Duchess of Bedford and Empress of Japan and freighter Madura. Transport West Point (AP-23) is straddled and showered with fragments, but suffers no damage. She provides medical assistance to Wakefield. Both U.S. transports subsequently embark passengers that include dockyard workers from Singapore and their families, in addition to Royal Navy officers and enlisted men and a small RAF contingent. The ships will then proceed to Batavia, Java, N.E.I., and thence on to Colombo, Ceylon.

Atlantic
Coast Guard cutter Alexander Hamilton (WPG-34), torpedoed by German submarine U-132 the previous day, is scuttled by gunfire of destroyer Ericsson (DD-440) off Reykjavik, Iceland.

Unarmed U.S. tanker Rochester is torpedoed, shelled, and sunk by German submarine U-106 off the Chesapeake Lightship, 37°10'N, 73°58'W; three crewmen perish in the initial torpedo explosion. Destroyer Roe (DD-418) rescues the 29 survivors.

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