Submarine Gudgeon (SS-211) Is Sunk

TUE 18 APR 1944
Pacific
PB4Ys (VD 3) conduct long-range reconnaissance of Saipan, Tinian and Aguijan Islands, Marshalls, obtaining complete photographic coverage. USAAF B-24s provide close air support; battle damage forces one B- 24 to ditch (see 22 April).

Submarine Gudgeon (SS-211) is sunk, probably by Japanese naval aircraft (901st Air Group), southwest of Iwo Jima, 22°44'N, 143°25'E.

Submarine Tambor (SS-198) sinks Japanese guardboat No.3 Shinku Maru 300 miles northwest of Wake Island.

Second element of Japanese TAKE No.1 convoy sails from Shanghai and effects rendezvous with the first group that had departed Pusan, Korea, on 16 April.

U.S. freighter John Straub hits a mine off Sanak Island, Aleutians, 54°15'N, 163°30'W and sinks, breaking in two; 14 of the 27-man Armed Guard perish, as do 40 merchant seamen and the ship's solitary passenger. Army coastal freighter FP 41 rescues the survivors; frigate Albuquerque (PF-7) later scuttles the stern half with gunfire.

Atlantic
Abandoned U.S. merchant tanker Pan Pennsylvania, torpedoed by German submarine U-550 on 16 April, is scuttled by aircraft, 40°24'N, 69°37'W.