Navy Saves Army

SUN 11 JUL 1943
Pacific
Destroyer Monaghan (DD-354) bombards Japanese positions at Gertrude Cove, Kiska Island, Aleutians.

Submarine Flying Fish (SS-229) sinks Japanese guardboat No.8 Takatori Maru between Okino Daito Jima and Kazan Retto, 24°00'N, 135°25'E.

Submarine Gurnard (SS-254) attacks Japanese convoy, sinking army cargo ship Taiko Maru about 375 miles northeast of Palau, 13°08'N, 132°00'E.

PBYs attack Japanese guardboats off Kamchatka, sinking Seiun Maru and damaging Koshin Maru.

USAAF B-24s damage Vichy French customs vessel Albert Sarraut and Japanese cargo vessel No. 3 Kiri Maru 45 miles east of Haiphong, French Indochina.

Mediterranean
U.S. cruiser and destroyer gunfire stops German tank attack on landing beaches near Gela, Sicily; Army observers report 13 of the 50 tanks that make the attack are destroyed. Off the invasion beaches at Sicily, enemy air attacks account for damage to tank landing ships LST-158 off Licata (she is then beached and abandoned), 37°05'N, 13°55'E (LST 318, beached adjacent to her burning sister ship, retracts immediately to avoid damage from exploding ammunition and gasoline); attack transport Barnett (APA-5) and transport Orizaba (AP 24); near-misses damage transport Monrovia (AP-64), 37°02'N, 14°15'E, and attack transport Joseph T. Dickman (APA-13); attack transport William P. Biddle (APA-8) and LST-382 are damaged in collision, 36°41'N, 14°23'E. Off Gela, Sicily, U.S. freighter Robert Rowan is set afire by bomb during German air attack, and is abandoned. Once the blaze reaches her ammunition cargo, the freighter then explodes. Destroyer McLanahan (DD-615) attempts to sink Robert Rowan with gunfire to extinguish the flames from the burning vessel that are illuminating all ships within miles, but the attempt is frustrated because the water is too shallow and the abandoned merchantman will not sink. Navy landing craft and transport Orizaba, however, rescue all hands: 41-man merchant complement, 32-man Armed Guard and 348 troops.