Cornelius Vanderbilt Is Set Afire

FRI 18 MAY 1945
Pacific
Thirty-four USAAF B-29s mine Shimonoseki Straits and the waters off Tsuruya, Japan.

Destroyer Longshaw (DD-559), damaged by shore battery off Naha, Okinawa, 26°11'N, 127°37'E, explodes; wreck is demolished by destroyers Heywood L. Edwards (DD-663) and Picking (DD-685). Also off Okinawa, high speed transport Sims (APD-50) is damaged by kamikaze, 26°00'N, 127°00'E, and tank landing ship LST-808 by aerial torpedo, 26°42'N, 127°47'E. U.S. freighter Cornelius Vanderbilt (carrying gasoline and explosives, as well as general cargo) is bombed by Japanese plane and set afire off Ie Shima, but the 38-man merchant crew, 27-man Armed Guard and the 108 stevedores on board working cargo assemble firefighting parties and put out the blaze in short order.

Submarine Shad (SS-235) sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Chosan Maru in the Yellow Sea off Gunzan, Korea, 35°41'N, 126°17'E.

Navy land-based aircraft sink Japanese cargo vessel Enkyo Maru off western Korea, 33°14'N, 120°50'E.

Japanese submarine chaser Ch 57 is damaged by mine [laid by British submarine HMS Porpoise on 9 January 1945], south channel into Penang, Malaya, 05°20'N, 100°08'E.

Japanese landing ship T.137 is damaged by aircraft, 12 miles off Daiosaki.

Japanese transport No.18 Nissho Maru is damaged by mine, 34°33'N, 134°47'E.

Japanese auxiliary submarine chaser No.3 Takunan Maru is damaged by aircraft, 32°05'N, 124°40'E.

Japanese merchant cargo ship No.5 Nissen Maru is damaged by aircraft, 34°43'N, 137°50'E.