V.D. At War

SAT 14 FEB 1942
Pacific
Submarine Sargo (SS-188) delivers ammunition to Polloc Harbor, Mindanao, P.I., and evacuates USAAF ground crews (14th Bombardment Squadron).

Submarine Swordfish (SS-193) torpedoes and sinks Japanese transport Amagisan Maru off Davao, P.I., 06°45'N, 126°54'E.

Admiral Thomas C. Hart, USN, is relieved as Commander in Chief Allied Naval Forces in Southwest Pacific by Vice Admiral Conrad E. L. Helfrich, RNN.

Japanese army paratroopers assault Palembang, Sumatra. During ensuing Allied air attacks on Japanese invasion convoy, RAF Blenheims bomb and sink merchant ship Inabasan Maru off Palembang.

ABDAFloat orders task force (Rear Admiral Karel W.F.M. Doorman) to proceed and attack Japanese Palembang-bound expeditionary force. As Doorman's ships--two Dutch light cruisers, a Dutch flotilla leader, one British heavy cruiser, one Australian light cruiser, four Dutch destroyers and six American--heads toward its objective, Dutch destroyer Van Ghent runs aground on a reef north of Banka Island; irreparably damaged, she is scuttled; sister ship Banckert takes off the crew (see 15 February).

On request from local British naval authorities, light cruiser Boise (CL-47), at Ceylon en route to Bombay, India, for repairs following her grounding in Sape Strait on 21 January, provides her two SOCs (VCS 9) to augment routine RAF Catalina searches from the seaplane station at Kogalla, Ceylon. Boise's planes fly morning and evening search flights for the next three days.

PBY (VP 73) accidentally bombs submarine Thresher (SS-200), returning from a war patrol, southwest of Oahu, T.H.

Japanese submarine I-23 is last reported south of Oahu, T.H. She is not heard from again, and her fate is unknown.

Meta: A period film about watching an icky scare film about V.D. It's icky. Beware.