Terrapin Attacks

FRI 2 MAR 1945
Pacific
Task group (Rear Admiral Francis E. M. Whiting), consisting of three light cruisers and eight destroyers bombards Japanese positions on Okino Daito Jima, Ryukyus.

Destroyers (DesDiv 109) bombard Japanese positions on Parece Vela Reef in the Philippine Sea.*

Off Iwo Jima, light cruiser Biloxi (CL-80) is damaged by shore battery fire; destroyer Bennett (DD-477), by dud bomb or torpedo; collisions account for damage to attack cargo ship Stokes (AKA-68), 24°46'N, 141°19'E; tank landing ship LST-247 [with attack cargo ship Selinur (AKA-41)], 24°46'N, 141°19'E; tank landing ship LST-224 [successive collisions with support landing craft LCS-52 and tank landing ship LST-634], 24°46'N, 141°19'E; tank landing ship LST-642 [with tank landing ship LST-784], 24°46'N, 141°19'E; and attack transport Berrien (AP-62); cargo ship Hercules (AK-41) is damaged when she runs aground; tank landing craft LCT-1029 sinks.

Submarine Bowfin (SS-287) sinks Japanese transport Chokai Maru northeast of Miyake Jima, 33°50'N, 139°22'E.

British submarine HMS Terrapin attacks Japanese Penang-to-Singapore convoy in Malacca Straits, 03°28'N, 101°00'E, sinking small cargo vessel Sanko Maru.

PB4Y-2 (VPB-119) attacks Japanese convoy, sinking transport/ferry Nichirin Maru in East China Sea about 180 miles east by south of Wenchow, China, 27°12'N, 124°42'E.

Japanese transport Kasei Maru is sunk by unknown causes off Shiogama, northern Honshu.

Japanese merchant cargo ship Sekiyo Maru is sunk by aircraft off Nansei Shoto.

Japanese Coast Defense Vessel No.13 is damaged by aircraft, 19°47'N, 124°04'E.

USAAF B-25s (5th Air Force) sink Japanese landing ship T.143 off Mako, Pescadores, 23°35'N, 121°35'E.

Mediterranean
Seatrain tank landing ship LST-32 (see 23 February) is damaged when she strikes a submerged wreck at Reggio Calabria on her first lift of 20 railroad cars from Bizerte.

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*During the retirement phase, destroyer Preston (DD-795) rescues eight survivors from a downed USAAF B-29.