Were It Not For Submarines ...

... there'd be no naval war at all.

MON 19 OCT 1942
Pacific
Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-19 reconnoiters Nouméa, New Caledonia.

Destroyer O'Brien (DD-415), damaged by submarine torpedo on 15 September 1942, breaks in two and sinks en route to United States for repairs, 53 miles north-northwest of Tutuila, Samoa, 13°30'S, 171°18'E.

0757 on 19 Oct. 1942, with the bow and stern apparently held together by the main deck, piping and wiring.
Approximately one minute later the O'Brien was gone. Source: Navy Department Library,
War Damage Report No. 28 of the USS O'Brien (DD-415), Torpedo Damage and Loss, 15 Sept-19 Oct, 1942.

Submarine Amberjack (SS-219) arrives at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, assigned temporarily to Commander, Aircraft, South Pacific, for duty. Over the next three days, two of the submarine's fuel tanks will be cleaned and converted to carry aviation gasoline. She will also take on board 100-pound bombs and embark USAAF enlisted ground crew for transportation to Guadalcanal.

SBDs (VS 71, VMSB 141, VB 6) from Henderson Field attack three Japanese destroyers north of Guadalcanal, damaging Uranami.

Submarine Grampus (SS-207) lands Australian coastwatchers on Choiseul Island, Solomons.

Atlantic
U.S. freighter Steel Navigator, straggling from convoy ON 137, is attacked by German submarine U-610; Steel Navigator briefly drives off the shadower with 5-inch gunfire, but the U-boat returns and torpedoes and sinks the freighter at 49°20'N, 32°00'W. Hastily launched motor boat swamps in heavy seas; no.3 lifeboat swamps as the ship plunges and spills its 35 occupants into the sea. U-610 surfaces and approaches the survivors' boats and rafts; when questions shouted by the submarine's commander fail to get answers, the enemy threatens to cut a raft in two. After answers are given in the brief interrogation, the Germans refuse to provide a course to the nearest land and depart. Subsequently, survivors right no.3 boat and redistribute themselves; the boats become separated (see 27 October 1942).

Fishing boat (nationality not determined) tows no.1 lifeboat, with 25 men on board, from U.S. freighter Coloradan, which had been torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-159 on 9 October 1942, into Thorne Bay, South Africa; the Americans reach Cape Town the next day (see 2 November 1942).

Atlantic
Master and radio operator in gig from U.S. freighter Steel Scientist, sunk by German submarine U-514 on 11 October 1942, reach Tarlogie, British Guiana (see 20 October 1942).