Two Total Losses

TUE 9 MAR 1943
Pacific
Naval aircraft bomb Japanese installations at Munda, Solomons. Bombing of this area becomes a regular occurrence.

Submarine S-32 (SS-137) is damaged by Japanese depth charges off Holtz Bay, Attu Island, Aleutians.

Atlantic
Battle to protect convoy SC 121 continues (see 6 March 1943) as Coast Guard cutters Bibb (WPG-31) and Ingham (WPG-35) and destroyer Babbitt (DD-128) reinforce the escorts. Babbitt proves her worth this day as she helps keep U-boats down. Despite the efforts of the escorts, however, German submarine U-409 torpedoes U.S. freighter Malantic at 59°30'N, 24°00'W, which is abandoned in a gale; 19 merchant seamen, five Armed Guard sailors and the ship's sole passenger perish in the attempt to reach British rescue vessel Melrose Abbey, Malantic will sink the next day.

German submarine U-510 carries out series of attacks on ships of convoy BT 6, which is escorted by destroyer Borie (DD-215), gunboats Courage (PG-70) and Tenacity (PG-71) and two submarine chasers, off Cayenne, French Guayana. U-510 torpedoes U.S. freighters George G. Meade, Mark Hanna, James Smith, Thomas Ruffin and James K. Polk at 07°11'N, 52°30'W. George G. Meade suffers no casualties to either her merchant crew or the Armed Guard, and returns to service; Mark Hanna is abandoned by most of the crew, submarine chaser PC-592 rescuing the men while a portion of the complement remains on board to prepare the ship to be towed; after repairs, she returns to active service. James Smith suffers the loss of six merchant sailors and five Armed Guard seamen in the initial explosion, and is partially abandoned, with submarine chaser PC-592 rescuing a portion of the crew. The ship, however, will be towed to Trinidad by British tug Zwarte Zee and will eventually re-enter active service. Thomas Ruffin is partially abandoned, with Courage and PC-592 rescuing crewmen (four of the ship's merchant complement and two of the 15-man Armed Guard are killed); the ship will eventually be written off as a total loss. James K. Polk (one Armed Guard sailor is killed when the ship is torpedoed--the only casualty) is partially abandoned, with PC-592 serving as the rescuing agent; the master and a volunteer crew rig tarpaulins and with those makeshift sails proceed some 360 miles. Eventually towed to Trinidad and thence to Mobile, Alabama, James K. Polk will be written off as a total loss.

U.S. freighter Puerto Rican, straggling from convoy RA 53, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-586 at 66°44'N, 10°41'W'; of the 40-man merchant complement and 25-man Armed Guard, only one man of the former will survive the abandonment in the below-freezing environment in which the sinking takes place (see 12 March).