Wahoo

MON 11 OCT 1943
Pacific
Submarine Skipjack (SS-184) damages Japanese transport Matsutani Maru five miles off Kwajalein, 06°25'N, 171°40'E.

Submarine Wahoo (SS-238) is sunk by Japanese naval aircraft, submarine chasers Ch 15 and Ch 43, and minesweeper W.18, in La Perouse Strait, 45°13'N, 141°56'E.

Japanese planes attack U.S. shipping off Koli Point, Guadalcanal, torpedoing freighters George H. Himes and John H. Couch; tug Menominee (AT-73) beaches George H. Himes (which suffers no casualties among the 41-man merchant complement, 27-man Armed Guard, and 20 CB stevedores) to save the ship's cargo of lumber, shells and bombs. Three men perish on board John H. Couch (a merchant seaman, one Armed Guard sailor and a CB stevedore), whose cargo of gasoline and diesel oil catches fire at the initial explosion. Firefighting efforts by two destroyer escorts prove as unsuccessful as the crew's in putting out the blaze and the ship is abandoned by the 42 merchant seamen, 25 Armed Guards, 28 troop passengers and 99 stevedores (see 13 October 1943).

USAAF B-25s attack small Japanese cargo vessels off Bougainville, sinking Sanwa Maru and damaging Muyo Maru with a near-miss.

Atlantic
Advanced Amphibious Training Base, Falmouth, Cornwall, England, is established.