Further Ironic Rescues

THU 22 JUL 1943
Pacific
TG 16.21 (Rear Admiral Robert C. Giffen) and TG 16.22 (Rear Admiral Robert M. Griffin), consisting of two battleships, three heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and nine destroyers, bombard Kiska, Aleutians. Enemy return fire proves ineffective. USAAF B-25s, P-38s and P-40s and F5As (P-38s modified for photo reconnaissance) also bomb the Japanese positions.

Three waves of Navy and USAAF planes, including B-17s and B-24s, attack Japanese resupply convoy off Cape Friendship; SBDs and TBFs sink seaplane carrier Nisshin.

USAAF B-24s raid Surabaya, Java, targeting refineries, dock areas, and railroad yards; auxiliary submarine chaser Cha 111 is damaged in the attack on harbor facilities.

Submarine Sawfish (SS-276) damages Japanese ammunition ship Seia Maru, 30°54'N, 125°15'E.

Atlantic
U.S. tanker Cherry Valley, proceeding independently from New York to Aruba, N.W.I., is torpedoed by German submarine U-66 at 25°10'N, 68°35'W U-66's second torpedo attack fails, and as she surfaces to shell her quarry and finish her off in that fashion she finds herself hotly engaged by Armed Guard gunfire. The 28-man Armed Guard serves its weapons efficiently; Cherry Valley escapes her assailant and reaches San Juan, Puerto Rico, under her own power and with no casualties.

Third boatload of survivors from U.S. freighter Richard Caswell, torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-513 off the coast of Brazil on 17 July 1943, reaches safety at Florianapolis. Small seaplane tender Barnegat (AVP-10), which had ironically rescued survivors from U-513 (which had sunk Richard Caswell) when the enemy submarine had been sunk on 19 July 1943, rescues the last of Richard Caswell's survivors from a raft.

Mediterranean
During German air attack upon shipping off Avola, Sicily, U.S. freighter Samuel Parker is straddled and damaged by near-misses of bombs, as well as strafed. The latter attacks result in the death of two Armed Guard sailors.