Bismarck Sea (CVE-95) Sunk

WED 21 FEB 1945
Pacific
Navy and USAAF planes bomb and strafe Japanese installations at Truk.

Off Iwo Jima, kamikazes sink escort carrier Bismarck Sea (CVE-95), 24°36'N, 141°48'E, and damage carrier Saratoga (CV-3), 24°56'N, 142°01'E (Saratoga is also hit by a bomb); escort carrier Lunga Point (CVE-94), 24°40'N, 141°44'E; tank landing ships LST-477, 24°40'N, 141°44'E, and LST-809, 24°08'N, 142°06'E; and net cargo ship Keokuk (AKN-4), 24°36'N, 141°48'E. Small carrier Langley (CVL-27) is damaged by bomb. Japanese mortar fire damages tank landing ship LST-390, 24°46'N,141°19'E. Collisions account for damage to destroyer Williamson (DD-244) and oiler Suamico (AO-49), 24°39'N, 142°01'E; destroyer Bradford (DD-545) and tank landing ship LST-812; attack cargo ship Yancey (AKA-93) and heavy cruiser Pensacola (CA-24), 24°46'N, 141°19'E. Heavy weather damages medium landing ship LSM-43.

Tank landing craft LCT-175 founders and sinks in heavy weather, 04°27'N, 133°40'E.

Destroyer Renshaw (DD-499) is torpedoed by Japanese submarine RO 43 south of Siquijor Island P.I., 24°36'N, 141°48'E. RO 43 escapes a ten-hour search by destroyers Waller (DD-466) and Shaw (DD-373) around Siquijor Island.

Japanese Coast Defense Vessel No.72 and Coast Defense Vessel No.150 are damaged in collision off Wenchow, China.

Submarine Gato (SS-212) sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Tairiku Maru in Yellow Sea off west coast of Korea, 35°24'N, 125°23'E.

Japanese merchant tanker Eiyo Maru, damaged by submarine Guavina (SS-362) the previous day, sinks off Cape Padaran, French Indochina, 11°22'N, 109°22'E.

Japanese cargo ship Fukusei Maru sinks after running aground off Cape Shirazaki, Honshu, 41°00'N, 142°00'E.