Irenee Du Pont Goes Down

WED 17 MAR 1943
Pacific
Motor torpedo boats PT-67 and PT-119 are destroyed by fire off eastern New Guinea, 09°02'S, 149°20'E.

Submarine Kingfish (SS-234) damages Japanese transport Tenryugawa Maru in Formosa Strait, 24°32'N, 120°15'E.

Submarine Tautog (SS-199) inflicts further damage to Japanese fleet tanker Kaijo Maru driven aground and abandoned on 10 March (see 23 September).

Atlantic
Destroyer Upshur (DD-144), from convoy ON 170, having joined the escort force for convoy SC 122 the previous day, helps turn away U-boats attempting to stalk the merchantmen.

German submarine U-167 attacks convoy UGS 6 and damages U.S. freighter Molly Pitcher about 500 miles west of Lisbon, Portugal, 38°21'N, 19°54'W; destroyer Champlin (DD-601) which, along with destroyer Rowan (DD-405) and merchantman William Johnson rescues survivors, attempts, unsuccessfully, to scuttle the crippled freighter with a torpedo. U-521 finishes off Molly Pitcher later the same day. Two of the 24-man Armed Guard and two merchant seamen perish in the sinking.

German U-boat operations against convoy HX 229 continue: U-91 administers the coup de grâce to U.S. freighters James Oglethorpe, torpedoed by U-758 the previous day, and the abandoned William Eustis, torpedoed the day before by U-435. Lost with the former are the 31 men who had remained on board. U-91 also torpedoes and sinks U.S. freighter Harry Luckenbach at 50°38'N, 34°46'W; British corvette HMS Pennywort is the only escort vessel that sights Harry Luckenbach's survivors but, already crammed with 108 men retrieved from other sunken ships from HX 229, is unable to recover them. Harry Luckenbach is thus lost with all hands (54 merchant sailors and a 26-man Armed Guard). U-600 torpedoes and sinks freighter Irenee Du Pont at 50°36'N, 34°30'W with the loss of 6 of the 26-man Armed Guard, 1 of 9 Navy passengers and six of the 49-man merchant complement; Dutch merchantman Tekoa rescues 55 survivors, Canadian destroyer HMCS Mansfield 16 (one of whom dies of wounds). British corvette HMS Anemone fails to scuttle Irenee Du Pont with gunfire and a depth charge; it thus falls to U-91 to finish off the battered "Liberty."