No Damage Inflicted

WED 24 FEB 1943
Pacific
Naval Air Facility, Amchitka, Alaska, is established.

Mediterranean
U.S. freighter Nathanael Greene, en route to join Algiers-bound convoy MKS 8, is first torpedoed by German submarine U-565 about 40 miles northeast of Oran, 35°56'N, 00°05'N, and then is hit with an aerial torpedo during an air attack, forcing her abandonment. British minesweeper HMS Brixham takes on board 26 survivors directly from the sinking ship, and plucks others from the water. Brixham tows the ship out of further danger, transferring the tow to rescue tug Restive, which beaches Nathanael Greene off Oran, where salvage vessel Redwing (ARS-4) saves 400 of the 1,300 tons of cargo. Nathanael Greene will be written off, however, as a total loss. Of her complement, four merchant sailors die in the initial explosion but the Armed Guard (16 men) survives intact.

Atlantic
Carrier Ranger (CV-4) launches USAAF P-40s off Accra, Gold Coast, for further transfer to the North African theater in her second such ferry mission of 1943.

PBM-3 (VP 74) sights Italian submarine Barbarigo attacking Spanish merchantman Monte Igueldo, 04°46'S, 31°55'N, and attacks the enemy submersible, which comes to the surface and fights it out with the flying boat. Neither side, however, inflicts damage on the other.

Defense of convoy ON 166 continues; German submarine U-604 is damaged by depth charges from Coast Guard cutter Spencer (WPG-36) or corvettes HMCS Chilliwack, HMCS Rosthern or HMCS Trillium. U-621 conducts unsuccessful attack on Spencer.