U-Boat Rampage

SUN 28 JUN 1942
Pacific
Submarine Nautilus (SS-168) is damaged by depth charges off central Honshu, 34°34'N, 140°13'E.

Submarine Stingray (SS-186), attacking Japanese convoy, torpedoes and sinks gunboat Saikyo Maru about 190 miles north of Yap, Carolines, 12°41'N, 136°22'E; cargo ship Meiten Maru fires at Stingray's periscope without effect.

PBYs (VP 14) bomb Japanese base at Tulagi.

Atlantic
Unarmed U.S. freighter Raphael Semmes is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-332 at 29°30'N, 64°30'W; 18 men from the 35-man crew, and one of the two passengers, perish. U-332 remains in the vicinity of the sinking, providing medical assistance and supplies to the survivors before departing (see 16 July).

U.S. freighter Sam Houston is torpedoed and shelled and sunk by German submarine U-203 at 19°21'N, 62°22'W; three crewmen perish. U-203 briefly embarks the freighter's master for questioning but returns him to a lifeboat before departing (see 30 June).

U.S. tanker William Rockefeller is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-701 approximately 16 miles northeast of Diamond Shoals, North Carolina, 35°07'N, 75°07'W; escorting Coast Guard cutter CG-470 (which attacks the U-boat without success) rescues all hands: 44 merchant seamen and the six-man Armed Guard.

U.S. freighter Sea Thrush, en route to Cape Town, South Africa, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-505 at 22°40'N, 61°26'W. All hands survive the loss of the ship: 42-man crew, 11-man Armed Guard and 14 passengers (see 30 June).

U.S. freighter Ruth is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-153 about 100 miles north of Cape Maysi, Cuba, 21°44'N, 74°05'W. U-153 rescues one survivor and places him on a raft with three of his shipmates; they are the only survivors from a crew of 34 men. There are no survivors from the four-man Armed Guard unit (see 4 July).