Malay Pirates! Brigands! Cutthroats!

THU 2 AUG 1945
Europe
Potsdam (TERMINAL) Conference attended by President Truman, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee (who had replaced Churchill as prime minister in the July general elections in Britain), and Russian Premier Stalin, ends.

Pacific
PV (FAW-18), flown by a relief crew from VPB-28, en route from Saipan to Jinamoc, Philippine Islands, makes initial sighting of survivors from sunken heavy cruiser Indianapolis (CA-35) around 11°32'N, 133°34'E.*

Destroyers Conner (DD-582) and Charrette (DD-581) intercept and search Japanese hospital ship Tachibana Maru, which is found to be carrying arms and ammunition in boxes marked with red crosses; the destroyers place prize crew of 80 marines and sailors on board. Tachibana Maru is then taken to Morotai for examination.

Submarine Bugara (SS-331) operating against Japanese coastal shipping off the Malay peninsula, sinks schooner with gunfire and takes on board crew. One lifeboat, however, sinks and fouls the submarine's port screw, damaging it, 06°40'N, 101°51'E. Later, Bugara happens across Malay pirates attacking Chinese-manned Japanese schooner en route to Singapore, 06°21'N, 102°15'E. The brigands flee upon Bugara's approach. After taking off the Chinese crew (who are grateful for the submarine's timely arrival, the Malayan cutthroats having already killed two crewmen) and sinking the schooner, Bugara then pursues the pirates and destroys them. Later, Bugara's divers, working in the dark, repair the screw damaged earlier in the day.

Army tender TP 122 grounds off East Cape, Amchitka, near Irakin Point; rescue tug ATR-32 is sent to the scene to assist.

USAAF mines sink Japanese merchant cargo ship Santo Maru off Niigata, Japan, 37°57'N, 139°04'E, and damage minesweeper W.17 south of Chinhae, Korea, 36°06'N, 128°40'E.

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*Ironically, the patrol plane commander who makes the sighting, Lieutenant (j.g.) S.M. Worthington, USNR, is himself forced down at sea while making his first patrol with VPB-28 on 5 August 1945. He and his crew are rescued by destroyer escort Leslie L.B. Knox (DE-580).