75 Yrs. Ago In War Crimes: Executions On Wake

TUE 5 OCT 1943
Pacific
TF 14 (Rear Admiral Alfred E. Montgomery), including 3 carriers, 3 small carriers, 3 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, 24 destroyers, and 2 oilers, bombs and shells Wake Island; attack is repeated on 6 October. Fearing that the strikes portend a landing and that an escaped POW could communicate the weakness of his garrison, the Japanese island commander (Rear Admiral Sakaibara Shigematsu) orders the execution of the 98 remaining civilians captured on 23 December 1941. [Didn't know that. Bastards. — M.B.]

Tank landing ship LST-448, damaged on 1 October 1943, sinks while in tow of tug Bobolink (AT-131), Solomons, 08°03'S, 156°43'E.

Submarine Wahoo (SS-238) sinks Japanese army transport Konron Maru in Tsushima Straits, 34°00'N, 129°00'E. Loss of Konron Maru of the Shimonoseki-to-Fusan ferry line, prompts the cancellation of night ferry trips across Tsushima Straits. Only 72 people, of the 616 on board, are rescued because of heavy seas. [Ha ha. Still doesn't compensate for prisoner executions. Never forget!!]

Mediterranean
German bombers attack convoy UGS 18; a near-miss damages U.S. freighter Cotton Mather about 15 miles north of Cape Tenes, Algeria, 36°00'N, 01°00'E. There are no casualties among the 53-man merchant complement and the 27-man Armed Guard; and the ship reaches Algiers under her own power.