The Mystery Of Open Lighter YC-693

FRI 23 FEB 1945
Pacific
Motor torpedo boats sweep Coron Bay, P.I., destroying launches, lighters, a lugger, and setting fire to a large fuel dump.

Off Iwo Jima, shore batteries damage tank landing ships LST-684 and LST-792, 24°46'N, 141°19'E, and medium landing ships LSM-46 and LSM-47; operational casualties damage hospital ship Solace (AH-5), motor minesweeper YMS-361, and medium landing ship LSM-92; as well as submarine chaser PC-877 and tank landing ship LST-716, 24°46'N, 141°19'E; friendly fire damages submarine chaser PCS-1461, 24°46'N, 141°19'E.

Submarine Hammerhead (SS-364) intercepts Japanese convoy, sinks escort vessel Yaku 15 miles south of Cape Varella, French Indochina, 12°42'N, 109°30'E, and eludes counterattack by Coast Defense Ship No.31.

District patrol craft YP-94, aground and damaged off Tugidak and Sitkinak Islands, Aleutians, since 17 February, breaks in two and sinks.

USAAF B-25s (Fifth Air Force) on antishipping sweep off French Indochina, attack Japanese convoy HI-88-G and sink submarine chaser Ch 35, and damage submarine chaser Ch 20 and small tanker No.35 Nanshin Maru off Cape Padaran, 10°15'N, 107°31'E.

Japanese merchant cargo ship Bizan Maru is damaged by aircraft, 23°14'N, 116°49'E.

Open lighter YC-693 is struck from the Naval Vessel Register this date.*

Mediterranean
Conversion of tank landing ships into seatrain LSTs is completed at Palermo, Sicily. LST-32 is to ferry roling stock from Bizerte, Tunisia, to Reggio, Italy; LST-140 is to ferry rolling stock from Oran, Algeria, to Marseilles, France.

Europe
U.S. freighter Jane G. Swisshelm is damaged by explosion of V-2 rocket at Antwerp, Belgium. Only three men of the combined complement of 8 officers, 36 enlisted men, 27 Armed Guards and one passenger report any injuries.

U.S. freighter Henry Bacon, straggling from Scotland-bound convoy RA 64, is sunk by German planes after her Armed Guard puts up a stiff fight against a large number of attacking aircraft, 67°00'N, 07°00'E. Seven of the 26-man Armed Guard die in battle. British destroyers HMS Opportune, HMS Zest, and HMS Zambesi rescue the survivors.

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*A thorough search of Dutch Harbor and all other sector activities fails to disclose any trace of this particular district craft, and it is stricken from the Register this date. Its exact fate is unknown.