Soviet Forces Enter Korea. Good Idea?

FRI 10 AUG 1945
Pacific
USN carrier-based planes from fast carrier task forces of the Third Fleet (Admiral William F. Halsey Jr.), pound Japanese shipping, airfields and railroads in northern Honshu. Planes from British TF 37 participate as well. TF 38 planes sink submarine chaser Ch 42 and minesweeper W.1 in Yamada Bay, 38°26'N, 141°30'E, auxiliary minesweeper No.2 Kongo Maru off Onagawa, 38°30'N, 141°29'E; merchant cargo ship Masayoshi Maru and tanker No.3 Nanki Maru in Sakata harbor, 38°55'N, 139°49'E; merchant cargo ship No.14 Horai Maru off east coast of Korea, 37°00'N, 130°24'E; merchant cargo ship No.5 Nishiki Maru off Hachinohe harbor; and cargo ship Chichibu Maru in Keelung harbor, Formosa, 42°20'N, 130°24'E. TF 37 or TF 38 planes sink auxiliary submarine chaser No.6 Takunan Maru off Onagawa. TF 38 planes damage auxiliary minelayer Koei Maru off Ominato, and merchant cargo ship Toyotama Maru off Sakata, 38°15'N, 139°22'E.

In addition, aircraft (service not specified) on antishipping missions against Japanese warships and merchantmen operating at or near Niigata, sink army cargo ship Ujina Maru, and merchant cargo ships Manei Maru and No.7 Hosei Maru, and damage auxiliary patrol vessel Pa No.84, army cargo ship Yorihime Maru, and merchant cargo ship No.7 Manei Maru, and in Tsugaru Strait damage liaison vessel Aniwa Maru; in antishipping sweeps off the Korean coast, planes sink cargo ships Taishun Maru and Awakawa Maru off Chongjin, 41°26'N, 129°49'E, and merchant cargo vessels Taiko Maru, Erimo Maru, and Kari Go in or off Najin harbor, army cargo ship Isshin Maru off Ulsan, and in Tsushima Strait, sink merchant cargo ship Shofuko Maru, 34°43'N, 129°50'E, and damage Coast Defense Vessel No. 194, Coast Defense Vessel No. 198 and army cargo ship Tairetsu Maru, 34°42'N, 130°13'E.

Thirty-one USAAF B-29s (20th Air Force) mine Shimonoseki Straits and the waters off Hagi and Yuyawan, Japan, and Wonsan, Korea. Mines sink merchant cargo ship Shinjo Maru off Hime Jima, and damage Coast Defense Vessel No. 63 in Nanao Bay, 37°08'N, 136°50'E, and merchant cargo ships Harada Maru at 34°23'N,134°57'E, Tsushima Maru (location unspecified) and 12 Nissho Maru, 1.6 kilometers off Cape Echizen, and merchant tanker No.8 Kinyu Maru in Maizuru harbor.

Soviet forces enter Korea. Russian planes sink Japanese Coast Defense Vessel No.82 north of Joshin, Korea, 41°21'N, 131°12'E, and merchant vessels Kasado Maru and No.2 Ryuho Maru off Kamchatka peninsula, in Sea of Okhotsk.

Submarine Hawkbill (SS-366) shells and destroys Japanese radio station on Djemadja Island 150 miles northeast of Singapore.

Navy Petroleum Reserve 4 Expedition, formed around cargo ship Spica (AK-16) and U.S. freighters Jonathan Harrington and Enos A. Mills, reaches Point Barrow and discharges some tonnage until ice and weather conditions force a halt in operations (see 22, 24 and 25 August).

U.S. freighter Jack Singer is torpedoed by Japanese plane off Naha, Okinawa. None of the 29-man Armed Guard are injured, and only one merchant seaman reports any injuries suffered in the incident. The ship is later written off as a total loss.

Japanese fast transport T.21 sinks as the result of damage suffered the previous day off Tsuwa Jima, 33°59'N, 132°31'E.