SUN 21 FEB 1943
Pacific
Marines (3d Marine Raider Battalion and 10th Defense Battalion detachment) and Army troops (elements of the 43rd Division) occupy Russell Islands in Operation CLEANSLATE, the inaugural movement through the central Solomons. Supported by TU 62.7.2 (Captain Ingolf N. Kiland), the landings* are made with no opposition. Four light cruisers and four destroyers of TF 68 (Rear Admiral Aaron S. Merrill) and Henderson Field, Guadalcanal-based Saratoga (CV-3) Air Group provide cover.
Submarine Sawfish (SS-276) damages Japanese oiler Ose off Oagari Jima, 29°29'N, 132°48'E.
Submarine Thresher (SS-200) attacks Japanese convoy northeast of Soembawa Island, N.E.I., damaging army cargo ship Kuwayama Maru, 07°53'N, 119°13'E (see 22 February).
Dutch submarine O 24 sinks Japanese merchant motor vessel Bandai Maru off Salang Island, 07°50'N, 098°09'E.
Atlantic
Battle to protect ON 166 from German submarines begins as U-332 and U-603 torpedo and sink Norwegian motor tanker Stigstad; U-92 torpedoes British steamer Empire Trader (she will be scuttled by Canadian corvette HMCS Dauphin). Coast Guard cutter Campbell (WPG-32), British corvette HMS Dianthus and Canadian corvette Dauphin, aided by flying boats, temporarily drive off U-332, U-454, and U-753 threatening the merchantmen. Coast Guard cutter Spencer (WPG-36) sinks German submarine U-225 at 51°25'N, 27°28'W.
U.S. freighter Rosario, steaming in convoy ON 167, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-664 at 50°13'N, 24°48'W. Fourteen of the 17-man Armed Guard, and 14 of 44 merchant crewmen are picked up by British rescue ship Rathlin; the rest perish with the ship.
British merchantman Penrith Castle rescues 15 merchant seamen and 13 Armed Guard sailors, survivors of freighter Roger B. Taney that had been sunk by U-225 on 7 February (see 20 March).
[The moral here is "Don't name ships after assholes, dummies" & certainly don't sail on an asshole-named vessel. And Sweet Blood of Jesus, may there never be any naval craft named after D.J. Trump, Sr., other than a Russki garbage scow. — M.B.]
*The rest of the story.
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