Walt Whitman Torpedoed; First DE-Type Commissioned

WED 20 JAN 1943
Pacific
Submarine Silversides (SS-236) encounters Section C of Japanese Solomons reinforcement convoy, and sinks army transport Meiu Maru and irreparably damages army transport Surabaya Maru, 286 miles from Truk, 03°52'N, 153°26'E. Submarine chaser Ch 11 and gunboat No.2 Choan Maru rescue survivors; destroyer Asagumo arrives from Truk and scuttles Surabaya Maru.

First destroyer escort type ship, Brennan (DE-13), is commissioned at Mare Island, California, Navy Yard.

Mediterranean
German planes attack United Kingdom-bound convoy MKS 6 off coast of Algeria; U.S. freighter Walt Whitman is torpedoed at 36°55'N, 03°07'E. Four sailors of the 17-man Armed Guard are blown overboard by the explosion but are recovered by an escort vessel within a quarter-hour. There are no casualties and the ship ultimately reaches Algiers under her own power.

Atlantic
U.S. tanker Brilliant departs St. John's, Newfoundland, under tow, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, but breaks up in storm (see 24 January).