Today's Phrase: "Marine Casualty"

WED 27 JAN 1943
Pacific
Submarine Whale (SS-239) damages Japanese transport Shoan Maru in the central Pacific, 14°24'N, 153°30'E; towed to Saipan and grounded to facilitate salvage, Shoan Maru performs no more active service.

Japanese ship No.2 Choko Maru rescues about 1,000 survivors of army cargo ship Buyo Maru, sunk the previous day by submarine Wahoo (SS-238).

Japanese destroyer Karukaya is damaged off Takao, Formosa, by marine casualty.

Submarine I-27 is damaged by marine casualty off Penang, Malaya.

Atlantic
U.S. freighter Cape Decision, steaming independently from Charleston, South Carolina to Freetown, Sierra Leone, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-105 at 23°00'N, 46°40'W; all 45 merchant sailors, 26-man Armed Guard, and six passengers, survive the sinking (see 5 and 10 February).

U.S. freighter Charles C. Pinckney, a straggler from convoy UGS 4, is torpedoed by German submarine U-514 about 200 miles southwest of the Azores, 36°37'N, 30°55'W. When U-514 surfaces nearby, Armed Guard gunners hold fire until well within range, at which point they open up and score hits on their assailant, driving her off for the time being (see 28 January).