Seahorse Sinks RO-45: "a testimony to effective training"

THU 20 APR 1944
Pacific
Submarine Seahorse (SS-304) sinks Japanese submarine RO-45 off the Marianas, 15°19'N, 145°31'E. Seahorse's sinking RO 45 is a testimony to effective training. During passage to the patrol area with submarine Harder (SS-257), the boats had practiced approaches on each other.

USAAF planes sink Japanese merchant cargo ship Iwakuni Maru.

Mediterranean
German torpedo planes, on the heels of an unsuccessful attack by submarine U-969, attack 87-ship convoy UGS 38 off coast of French Morocco. Destroyer Lansdale (DD- 462) is sunk by aerial torpedo about 15 miles northeast of Algiers, 37°03'N, 03°51'E; Coast Guard cutter Taney (WPG-37), destroyer escort Lowe (DE-325) and Dutch antiaircraft cruiser Van Heemskerk, however, escape torpedo attacks. Ammunition-carrying U.S. freighter Paul Hamilton, struck by aerial torpedo at 36°55'N, 03°54'E, disintegrates, killing all on board: the 47- man merchant complement, the 29-man Armed Guard, and 504 troops. Illuminated by the explosion, freighter Stephen F. Austin, at 37°02'N, 03°38'E, is torpedoed and abandoned. Reboarded, the ship receives assistance from British rescue tug HMS Hengist and proceeds to Algiers under her own power. By contrast with the disaster that has befallen her sister ship Paul Hamilton, there are no casualties on board Stephen F. Austin.

Also of note 75 yrs. ago: A. Hitler's 55th birthday. One more to go!