Wednesday, October 16, 2019

U.S.S. Houston Gets it Again

MON 16 OCT 1944
Pacific
Japanese torpedo planes attack TG 30.3 (Rear Admiral Laurance T. DuBose) and again damage light cruiser Houston (CL-81), 20°54'N, 125°09'E.

Destroyer Ellet (DD-398), together with surveying ship Bowditch (AGS-4), two infantry landing craft (gunboat) and a submarine chaser arrive at Ngulu Atoll, western Carolines, and encounter no opposition.

TF 38 planes sink Japanese torpedo boat Hato, 130 miles east-southeast of Hong Kong, 21°49'N, 115°50'E, and damage auxiliary vessel Santos Maru. [Tough day for the Santos Maru, if true. See four paragraphs down.]

Submarine Besugo (SS-321) damages Japanese destroyer Suzutsuki off Toizaki, 32°30'N, 132°36'E.

Submarine Tilefish (SS-307) sinks Japanese guardboat No.2 Kyowa Maru five miles north of Matsuwa Jima, 48°07'N, 153°04'E.

Auxiliary minesweeper No.6 Hakata Maru is sunk by U.S. aircraft (perhaps PB4Y) off Minami Daito Jima, 25°30'N, 131°00'E.

USAAF aircraft (14th Air Force) sink Japanese cargo vessel Tensho Maru. They also damage auxiliary vessel Santos Maru and cargo ships Sagamigawa Maru, No.5 Okinoyama Maru, and No.3 Akatsuki Maru; and destroy army cargo vessel (in drydock at Kowloon) Bunzan Maru.

USAAF P-38s sink Japanese auxiliary sailing vessel No.6 Take Maru off Cagayan, Sulu Archipelago.

RAAF Beaufighters sink Japanese Communications Vessel No.135 off Ambon harbor.

Atlantic
Coast Guard icebreaker Eastwind (WAG-279), supported by sistership Southwind (WAG-280), captures German weather ship Externsteine off Cape Borgen, Shannon Island, east coast of Greenland. Eastwind's crew unofficially christens the captured auxiliary "Eastbreeze." Both icebreakers, however, are damaged by pack ice.

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