Mine Craft

THU 22 MAR 1945
Pacific
Patrols land on Inampulugan Island in Guimaras Strait, and destroy a Japanese mine control station and eliminate the small garrison there.

Japanese aircraft attack American shipping in Lingayen Gulf. During the ensuing antiaircraft barrage, friendly fire damages U.S. freighter Ransom A. Moore; there are, however, no casualties among the merchant crew or the 27-man Armed Guard.

Tank landing ship LST-727 is damaged by grounding off Iwo Jima, 24°46'N, 141°19'E.

Submarine Perch (SS-313) sinks Japanese Communication Vessel No. 463 en route to Balikpapan, 01°03'S, 117°20'E.

Japanese submarine chaser Ch 23 is damaged by mine at mouth of Yangtze River.

Covered lighters YF-724 and YF-725 founder and sink in heavy weather 380 miles off the Farallones.

Europe

German submarines attack Wales-bound convoy TBC 102 and Ghent, Belgium-bound convoy BTC 103. In the former, U-399 torpedoes and sinks U.S. freighter John R. Park 49°56'N, 05°26'W (all hands are rescued by U.S. freighter American Press); in the latter, what is most likely U-1195 torpedoes and sinks freighter James Eagan Lane, 50°13'N, 04°14'W. British freighter Monkstone and rescue tug Flaunt rescue the survivors. A skeleton crew (including four Armed Guard sailors) reboard the freighter and rig the ship for towing. Tugs Flaunt and Atlas beach the ship at Whitesand Bay, but James Eagan Lane is ultimately written off as a total loss.

U.S. freighter Charles D. McIver sinks after striking a mine as she leaves Antwerp, Belgium, in convoy ATM 100, 31°22'35"N, 03°05'50"W. British motor minesweeper BYMS 2279 rescues one of the four boatloads of survivors; the other three boatloads, rescued by a motor torpedo boat, find safety on board tank landing ship LST-430. Charles D. McIver is later written off as a total loss; there are no casualties among the merchant crew or the 27-man Armed Guard.