Save The Seal!

THU 8 JUL 1943
Pacific
Naval aircraft bomb Vila, Kolombangara, Solomons.

Submarine Seal (SS-183) is damaged by bombs and depth charges off northern Honshu, 39°53'N, 142°10'E, and is forced to terminate her patrol.

Atlantic
USAAF aircraft sink German submarine U-232 off Portugal, 40°37'N, 13°41'W.

U.S. freighter Thomas Sinnickson, torpedoed the previous day during German submarine U-185's attack on convoy BT 18, defies the valiant efforts of her crew and continues to sink. Gunboat Surprise (PG-63), which has remained close at hand during the attempted salvage, takes off the remainder of the crew and Armed Guard and scuttles the irreparably damaged freighter.

German submarine U-510 attacks convoy TJ 1 about 150 miles northeast of Cayenne, French Guiana, 05°50'N, 50°20'W and sinks U.S. freighter Eldena. Submarine chaser PC-495 rescues all hands (including the 26-man Armed Guard).

Indian Ocean
One group of survivors of freighter Sebastian Cermeno, torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-511 on 27 June 1943, reaches safety at Madagascar (see 13, 14, 23 and 27 July 1943).