Lotta War Goin' On

MON 24 JAN 1944
Pacific
USMC TBFs, supported by large concentration of USN, USMC, USAAF and RNZAF fighters, attack Japanese shipping at Rabaul, sinking water tanker Koan Maru, aircraft transport Lyon Maru (previously rendered unnavigable on 17 January) and army cargo ships Taisho Maru and Yamayuri Maru, 04°13'S, 152°11'E.

PB4Ys damage cargo ship Ogashima Maru south of Kwajalein, 08°14'N, 168°02'E; deemed beyond salvage, Ogashima Maru is scuttled by auxiliary minesweeper No.5 Tama Maru. PB4Ys also sink auxiliary submarine chaser Cha 14 70 miles east-southeast of Eniwetok, 11°10'N, 163°25'E.

USAAF B-25s bomb Japanese shipping and harbor installations at Manus, sinking transport Heiwa Maru and auxiliary minelayer Tatsu Maru, and damaging auxiliary minelayer Matsu Maru.

USAAF B-25s (14th Air Force) sink Japanese ship Liu Hsing in Lishen Bay, China, 26°58'N, 120°04'E.

Submarine Sturgeon (SS-187) attacks Japanese convoy in eastern approaches to Bungo Suido, sinking army cargo ship Chosen Maru, 32°28'N, 132°23'E.

Japanese planes bomb U.S. shipping in Dreger Bay, New Guinea, damaging freighter John Muir at 06°32'08"N, 147°53'05"E, with one direct hit and at least four near-misses that injure 2 of 42 merchant sailors, one of the 28-man Armed Guard and 13 of the 40 Construction Battalion stevedores embarked to work cargo.

Mediterranean
Tank landing craft LCT-185 founders and sinks in heavy weather off Bizerte, Tunisia.

German planes attack invasion shipping off the Anzio beachhead: bombs damage destroyer Plunkett (DD-431), 41°15'N, 12°37'E, and minesweeper Prevail (AM-107), 41°00'N, 12°00'E; aerial torpedo damages destroyer Mayo (DD-422), 41°24'N, 12°43'E;

During German air raid on Allied shipping at Naples, Italy, U.S. freighter F.A.C. Muhlenberg is damaged by bomb and by near-miss of bomb; ship's crew and port firefighting crews extinguish the fires thus started. Of the ship's complement, 6 of 46 merchant sailors die; 1 of the 31-man Armed Guard perishes in the blaze.

Arctic
German submarines attack Murmansk-bound convoy JW 56A. U.S. freighter Penelope Barker is torpedoed and sunk by U-278 about 115 miles from North Cape, Norway, 72°23'N, 23°10'E; 10 merchant sailors and 5 Armed Guard men (of the 43-man merchant complement and the 28-man Armed Guard, respectively) perish in the explosions. British destroyer HMS Savage rescues the survivors (see 26 January).