Kiska Evacuated

WED 28 JUL 1943
Pacific
Japanese complete evacuation of Kiska Island, Aleutians (Vice Admiral Kawase Shiro), undetected by U.S. forces; among the materiel wrecked by the evacuating enemy are three midget submarines.

Destroyer Farragut (DD-348) on Kiska blockade patrol sinks an empty Japanese landing craft (perhaps cast adrift by the evacuating enemy garrison) four miles east of Sobaka Rock, off the south coast of Kiska.

Japanese submarine RO 103 is last reported on this date; subsequent attempts to contact her are unsuccessful and she never returns to her base at Rabaul. Her fate is uncertain; she may have been mined.

USAAF B-25s sink Japanese destroyers Ariake and Mikazuki off Cape Gloucester, New Britain.

USAAF B-24s sink Japanese army cargo vessel Tamishima Maru off Tavoy Island, 13°53'N, 097°40'E.

Indian Ocean
Fourth group of survivors from U.S. freighter Robert Bacon, torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-178 on 14 July 1943 off Mozambique Light, reaches safety after two weeks at sea (see 3 and 27 August 1943).

Atlantic
PBY (VP 32) sinks German submarine U-359, West Indies area, 15°57'N, 68°30'W.

USAAF and British aircraft sink German submarine U-404, Bay of Biscay, 45°53'N, 09°23'W.

U.S. freighter John A. Poor, straggling from convoy BX 65 in a heavy fog, fouls mine laid by German submarine U-119 at 42°51'N, 64°55'W, but reaches port under tow; there are no casualties among the 42-man merchant complement or the 28-man Armed Guard.

Mediterranean
U.S. Naval Operating Base, Palermo, Sicily, is established.