Friday, May 18, 2018

"Torpedoed ... while en route ... to San Pedro, California"

TUE 18 MAY 1943
Pacific
Submarine Pollack (SS-180) sinks Japanese gunboat Terushima Maru southwest of Maleolap Atoll, Marshalls, 08°00'N, 171°00'E.

U.S. tanker H.M. Storey is torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-25 while en route from Nouméa, New Caledonia, to San Pedro, California, 17°30'S, 173°02'E, and abandoned by the 48-man civilian complement (two merchant seamen are lost when the ship is hit), 2 passengers and 15-man Armed Guard. I-25 then hastens the sinking by shelling the burning ship. Destroyer Fletcher (DD-445) subsequently rescues H.M. Storey's's survivors and takes them to Vila, Efate.

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