Thursday, November 30, 2017

Thor (Not Ragnarok) Sinks!

MON 30 NOV 1942
Pacific
Battle of Tassafaronga: TF 67, comprising four heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and six destroyers (Rear Admiral Carlton H. Wright) surprises Japanese destroyers (Captain Sato Torajiro) off Tassafaronga Point, Guadalcanal. The enemy presses on to jettison supply containers to sustain Japanese troops on Guadalcanal, while torpedoes launched from destroyers Kagero, Makinami, Kuroshio, Oyashio, Kawakaze and Naganami wreak havoc on Wright's ships, damaging heavy cruisers Pensacola (CA-24), Northampton (CA-26), New Orleans (CA-32), and Minneapolis (CA-36). Japanese destroyer Takanami is damaged by cruiser and destroyer gunfire off Tassafaronga (see 1 December).

USAAF B-24s (India Air Task Force) bomb Japanese torpedo boat Kari off Port Blair, Andaman Island, in a strike that inaugurates attacks on the sea approaches to Burma.

German auxiliary cruiser Thor (Schiffe 10) is sunk by explosion of supply ship Uckermark, moored alongside, Yokohama, Japan. The blast also sinks German prize ship Leuthen and Japanese harbor craft in the vicinity.

Indian Ocean
German auxiliary cruiser Michel (Schiffe 28) rescues four additional Armed Guard sailors who have survived the sinking of U.S. freighter Sawokla the previous day (see 18 February 1943).

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