U.S.S. Houston Gets it Again

MON 16 OCT 1944
Pacific
Japanese torpedo planes attack TG 30.3 (Rear Admiral Laurance T. DuBose) and again damage light cruiser Houston (CL-81), 20°54'N, 125°09'E.

Destroyer Ellet (DD-398), together with surveying ship Bowditch (AGS-4), two infantry landing craft (gunboat) and a submarine chaser arrive at Ngulu Atoll, western Carolines, and encounter no opposition.

TF 38 planes sink Japanese torpedo boat Hato, 130 miles east-southeast of Hong Kong, 21°49'N, 115°50'E, and damage auxiliary vessel Santos Maru. [Tough day for the Santos Maru, if true. See four paragraphs down.]

Submarine Besugo (SS-321) damages Japanese destroyer Suzutsuki off Toizaki, 32°30'N, 132°36'E.

Submarine Tilefish (SS-307) sinks Japanese guardboat No.2 Kyowa Maru five miles north of Matsuwa Jima, 48°07'N, 153°04'E.

Auxiliary minesweeper No.6 Hakata Maru is sunk by U.S. aircraft (perhaps PB4Y) off Minami Daito Jima, 25°30'N, 131°00'E.

USAAF aircraft (14th Air Force) sink Japanese cargo vessel Tensho Maru. They also damage auxiliary vessel Santos Maru and cargo ships Sagamigawa Maru, No.5 Okinoyama Maru, and No.3 Akatsuki Maru; and destroy army cargo vessel (in drydock at Kowloon) Bunzan Maru.

USAAF P-38s sink Japanese auxiliary sailing vessel No.6 Take Maru off Cagayan, Sulu Archipelago.

RAAF Beaufighters sink Japanese Communications Vessel No.135 off Ambon harbor.

Atlantic
Coast Guard icebreaker Eastwind (WAG-279), supported by sistership Southwind (WAG-280), captures German weather ship Externsteine off Cape Borgen, Shannon Island, east coast of Greenland. Eastwind's crew unofficially christens the captured auxiliary "Eastbreeze." Both icebreakers, however, are damaged by pack ice.