Thursday, August 15, 2019

"Other aircraft sink vessel Kono Maru off Halmahera Island."

TUE 15 AUG 1944
Pacific
USAAF B-24s (5th Air Force) attack Japanese convoy and sink army cargo ship Tosho Maru in Banda Sea, southwest of Soena Islands, 04°30'S, 125°26'E; auxiliary submarine chaser No.18 Nitto Maru rescues survivors.

RAAF Mitchells sink Japanese cargo vessel No.14 Sakura Maru off north coast of central Timor.

Other aircraft sink vessel Kono Maru off Halmahera Island.

Mediterranean
Allied troops (Major General Alexander M. Patch, USA) land on coast of Southern France between Toulon and Cannes in Operation DRAGOON*, preceded by heavy naval gunfire and aircraft attack. The operation is under the command of Vice Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, Naval Commander Western Task Force and Commander Eighth Fleet. After the landings, naval gunfire engages German coast defense batteries and continues to support the troops ashore. Infantry landing craft LCI-592 is damaged by mortar fire off southern France; LCI-588 and LCI-590 are damaged by mines off RED Beach ALPHA; tank landing ship LST-282, damaged by glider bomb while approaching GREEN beach, is beached and abandoned, 43°25'N, 06°50'E; submarine chaser SC-1029 is damaged when landing craft ahead of ship explodes, 43°12'N, 06°41'E. U.S. freighter Tarleton Brown is damaged by bomb and near-miss during German air raid on Allied shipping off St. Raphael; there are no fatalities among the merchant crew, the passengers, or the 44-man Armed Guard.

Destroyer Somers (DD-381) sinks German ship Esebart and damages corvette Uj.6083 (ex-Italian corvette Capriolo). The latter is captured and then scuttled southwest of Isle Port Cros.

*Comrade Misfit provides a bit o' context about the "Champagne Campaign". Also.

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