Mount Hood Blows!

FRI 10 NOV 1944
Pacific
Ammunition ship Mount Hood (AE-11) is destroyed by accidental ammunition explosion in Seeadler Harbor, Manus, Admiralty Islands. The cataclysmic blast damages nearby escort carriers Petrof Bay (CVE-80) and Saginaw Bay (CVE-82); destroyer Young (DD-580); destroyer escorts Kyne (DE-744), Lyman (DE-302), Walter C. Wann (DE-412), and Oberrender (DE-344); high speed transport Talbot (APD-7); destroyer tender Piedmont (AD-17); miscellaneous auxiliary Argonne (AG-31); cargo ship Aries (AK-51); attack cargo ship Alhena (AKA-9); oiler Cacapon (AO-52); internal combustion engine repair ships Cebu (ARG-6) and Mindanao (ARG-3); repair ship Preserver; fleet tug Potawatomi (ATF-109); motor minesweepers YMS-1, YMS-39, YMS-49, YMS-52, YMS-71, YMS-81, YMS-140, YMS-238, YMS-243, YMS-286, YMS-293, YMS-319, YMS-335, YMS-340, YMS-341, and YMS-342; unclassified auxiliary Abarenda (IX-131), covered lighter YF-681, and fuel oil barge YO-77. Mount Hood has an estimated 3,000 tons of explosives on board, and except for a working party from the ship that is ashore at the time, her entire ship's company perishes. The force of the explosion blasts a trough in the harbor floor longer than the length of a football field and 50 feet wide and 30 to 40 feet deep; some fragments land more than 2,000 yards from where Mount Hood lies. Investigators find no fragment of the ship on the ocean floor larger than 16 by 10 feet. In terms of the extent of damage, it ranges from an estimated 48,000 man-hours to repair Mindanao (which suffers 23 dead and 174 injured) to "superficial" or "insignificant." In addition to the ships listed above, nine medium landing craft (LCM) and a pontoon barge moored to Mount Hood are also destroyed; 13 small boats or landing craft are sunk or damaged beyond repair, 33 are damaged but repairable.

Motor torpedo boat PT-321, damaged by grounding off Leyte, 11°25'N, 124°19'E, is scuttled.

Submarine Barb (SS-220) sinks Japanese transport Gokoku Maru seven miles off Koshiki Jima, eastern Kyushu, 33°24'N, 129°04'E.

Submarine Flounder (SS-251) sinks German submarine U-537 in Java Sea, 07°13'S, 115°17'E.

Submarine Greenling (SS-213) sinks Japanese Patrol Boat No.46 (ex-destroyer Fuji) southeast of Honshu, 34°30'N, 138°34'E.

Submarine Steelhead (SS-280) sinks Japanese repair ship Yamabiko Maru south-southwest of Yokosuka, 31°42'N, 137°50'E.

USAAF B-25s, P-47s, and P-38s (13th Air Force) attack Japanese convoy (TA Operation, third phase) in Ormoc Bay hit the previous day, sinking army cargo ships Kashii Maru and Takatsu Maru, 10°53'N, 124°25'E; and damaging destroyer Akishimo, Coast Defense Vessel No.13 and army cargo ship Kinka Maru. B-25 attacks drive Coast Defense Vessel No.11 aground in Matlang Bay, where she is scuttled and abandoned, 10°54'N, 124°27'E. Nearby fast transports T.6, T.9, and T.10, however, escorted by destroyers Take and Kasumi, are unmolested, and rescue survivors from Kashii Maru and Takatsu Maru. On their return voyage to Manila, the convoy rescues men from Celebes Maru, which has run aground off Bondoc Point, Luzon, earlier that day (see 15 November 1944).

USAAF B-24s attack Surabaya-bound Japanese ships off Soembawa, sinking No.21 Tachibana Maru, Fuji Maru, and Tsukushi Maru and damaging Benten Maru.