Monday, February 18, 2019

Operation CATCHPOLE

FRI 18 FEB 1944
Pacific
After preliminary landings had been made the previous day, TG 51.11 (Rear Admiral Harry W. Hill) lands Marines and Army troops on Engebi Island, Eniwetok Atoll, in Operation CATCHPOLE.
TF 58 (Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance) repeats strike on Japanese installations and vessels at Truk; TF 58 planes sink destroyer Fumizuki, 07°24'N, 151°44'E; submarine chaser Ch 29, 07°25'N, 151°45'E; and motor torpedo boat Gyoraitei No.10, 07°31'N, 151°59'E.

Destroyer Squadron 23 (TG 39.4) (Captain Arleigh A. Burke) bombards Japanese positions at Kavieng; Destroyer Squadron 12 (Captain Rodger W. Simpson) shells Rabaul, Japanese installations on the Crater Peninsula, and bivouac and supply areas at Vunapope and Cape Gazelle.

British submarine HMS Trespasser sinks Japanese gunboat Eifuku Maru off Burma, 07°55'N, 93°03'E.

USAAf B-25s (14th Air Force) sink Japanese transport Shinsoku Maru south of Takhow Island, Wenchow, China, 28°23'N, 121°51'E.

U.S. aircraft sink Japanese auxiliary submarine chaser Cha 17 off Kavieng, 02°30'S, 150°30'E.

Japanese cargo ship Gokenzan Maru is stranded and sunk off northwestern Hokkaido, 44°01'N, 141°38'E.

Mediterranean
Heavy German air attacks, as well as artillery fire, continue on beachhead at Anzio on an almost daily basis; harbor tug YT-198 is sunk by mine off Anzio, 41°27'N, 12°38'E. Elsewhere in the Mediterranean theater, tank landing craft LCT-205 capsizes in Gulf of Tunis, while being towed; tank landing craft LCT-340 is stranded by heavy weather at Pantelleria, Italy. Heavy weather also damages large infantry landing craft LCI(L)-211, resulting in her being towed to Palermo, Italy; and minesweeper Pilot (AM-104) is accidentally rammed by U.S. merchant ship Samuel Ashe and damaged off Naples, Italy, 40°48.7'N, 14°16.5'E.

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