Shropshire Slasher!

SAT 4 MAR 1944
Pacific
USAAF and USN land-based planes bomb Japanese installations on Choiseul Island, Solomons.

TF 74 (Rear Admiral Victor A. C. Crutchley, RN), composed of Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Shropshire, U.S. light cruisers Phoenix (CL-46) and Nashville (CL-43) and four U.S. destroyers, bombards Japanese shore batteries and positions on Hauwei and Norilo Islands in the Admiralty Islands (see 6 and 7 March).

Light cruiser Richmond (CL-9) and destroyers Luce (DD- 522), Kimberly (DD-521), Isherwood (DD-520), Sproston (DD-577), Wickes (DD-578), Picking (DD-685), William D. Porter (DD-579), and Young (DD-580) are all damaged by heavy weather during sweep of the Kurils (see 3 March).

Submarine Bluefish (SS-222) attacks Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, sinks oiler Ominesan Maru about 300 miles west of Miri, Sarawak, 05°29'N, 108°46'E, and survives ensuing depth-charging by escorts.

Submarine Peto (SS-265) attacks Japanese convoy, and sinks army cargo ship Kay_ [sic] Maru 75 miles west-northwest of Hollandia, 01°28'S, 138°40'E. Escorts (one of which is submarine chaser Ch 34) depth-charge Peto but do not inflict damage.

Japanese submarine I-10 is damaged by depth charges (attacker unknown), 06°10'N, 177°50'E.

Japanese army transport Ryoyo Maru is damaged when struck by a huge wave and driven aground off Matsuwa Jima, Kurils, 48°04'N, 153°16'E (see 22 May).