Another Luckenbach Lost

FRI 19 MAR 1943
Pacific
Submarine Kingfish (SS-234) sinks Japanese army hospital ship Takachiko Maru in Formosa Strait, 26°00'N, 122°18'E.

Submarine Sawfish (SS-276) damages Japanese guardboat Shinsei Maru, southeast of Japan, 32°54'N, 152°11'E.

Submarine Wahoo (SS-238), operating in the Yellow Sea, sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Zogen Maru just east of Dairen, Kwantung Peninsula, Manchukuo, 38°29'N, 122°19'E, and damages merchant cargo ship Kowa Maru, 38°27'N, 122°18'E.

USAAF A-20s damage Japanese submarine I-176 as she is unloading at Lae, New Guinea. I-176, however, is able to continue her voyage to Rabaul.

Atlantic
German U-boat onslaught against Atlantic convoys continues: U.S. freighter Mathew Luckenbach departs convoy HX 229, believing her chances greater of completing the voyage independently than in company with other ships, but runs afoul of U-527 in the vicinity of SC 122. U-527 torpedoes Mathew Luckenbach at 54°20'N, 25°07'W; Coast Guard cutter Ingham (WPG-35) rescues the freighter's entire complement (42 merchant sailors and a 26-man Armed Guard). Subsequently, U-523 administers the coup de grâce to Mathew Luckenbach. With the loss of Mathew Luckenbach and Greek freighter Carras (a straggler from SC 122) to U-533 on this date, German U-boats will break off operations against SC 122 and HX 229 and conclude what is regarded as the largest convoy battle of the war. Despite the valiant efforts of the escorts, the merchantmen suffer heavy losses.

Mediterranean
[May 19th according to some sources]
Axis planes bomb shipping in Oran harbor; U.S. freighter Examiner is damaged by near-misses that kill one Armed Guard sailor [Rafael Santiago] and wound six (an additional Armed Guard sailor is killed on shore during the raid). Merchant casualties amount to three crewmen wounded on board ship and one killed while ashore.