Attacks Of Previous Day Repeated

SUN 15 JUL 1945
Pacific
Three battleships, two light cruisers, and eight destroyers of TU 34.8.2 (Rear Admiral Oscar C. Badger) bombard steel and ironworks at Muroran on southern coast of Hokkaido, primarily targeting the large Nihon Steel Company and Wanishi Iron and Steel Manufacturing Company.

In a repeat of the attacks the previous day, TF 38 planes sink Japanese minesweeper W.24 off Tsugaru, northern Honshu, 41°38'N, 141°00'E; Coast Defense Vessel No.219 off northern Honshu, 41°48'N, 140°41'E; auxiliary submarine chaser Bunzan Maru off Hachinoe, Honshu; guardboat Shinei Maru, Shirojiri, Hokkaido, merchant cargo ships Shoka Maru, Otaru; Tokai Maru at entrance to Sutsu Bay; No.5 Seikai Maru off Mutsure; Urakawa Maru and Toyu Maru off Nemuro, Japan; and Shinko Maru at 40°48'N, 140°05'E; merchant train ferry No.1 Seikan Maru near Miumaya; and merchant fishing boat No.15 Taisho Maru off Ofuyo; and damage merchant cargo ship Rijo Maru off Aomori. TF 38 planes damage escort destroyer Kasado, and Coast Defense Vessel No.47 and Coast Defense Vessel No.55, off Otaru; escort destroyers Io and Fukue and auxiliary submarine chasers Cha 81 and Yaryu Maru, Hachinoe harbor, Honshu; Coast Defense Vessel No.215, Fukushima anchorage; Coast Defense Vessel No.221 at entrance to Tsugaru Strait; and submarine chaser Ch 47, Yamada anchorage. Auxiliary minesweeper Fuji Maru is stranded after bomb damage off Hakodate, Hokkaido.

Twenty-seven USAAF B-29s mine the waters off Najin, Wonsan, Hungnam and Pusan, Korea, and off Naoetsu and Niigata, Japan. Japanese cargo ship Sorachi Maru is damaged by mine in Rashin harbor. Merchant cargo ship No.5 Nichiyu Maru is damaged by mine off Tomita.

Light minelayer Thomas E. Fraser (DM-24) is damaged in collision with miscellaneous auxiliary Elk (IX-115) off Okinawa, 26°13'N, 127°50'E.

Submarine Bluefish (SS-222) sinks Japanese submarine I 351, 100 miles east-northeast of Natuna Besar, Borneo, 05°44'N, 110°06'E.

Submarine Skate (SS-305) sinks Japanese transport Miho Maru east of South Sakhalin, Kurils, 48°29'N, 147°36'E.