FRIDAY, 13 JULY 1945
Italy declares war on Japan.
HQ AAF (Twentieth Air Force): Mission 268: During the night of 13/14 Jul, 30
B-29s mine Shimonoseki Strait and waters at Fukuoka, and ports at Seishin, Masan,
and Reisui, and Fukuoka, also Chongjin, Korea.
CHINA THEATER (AAF, China Theater) Fourteenth Air Force: 14 B-25s and 12 P-51s
attack bridges, railroad yards, AA guns, and targets of opportunity at Anyang
and Puchi, China, and Do Cam, French Indochina. 33 P-51s and P-38s attack river
shipping, buildings, road traffic, rail targets, and general targets of opportunity
around Trung Khanh Phu, Tonkin, the Delta area, Cao Bang and Thanh Hoa, French Indochina and Wangypan, the Luichow Peninsula, Pinglo, Changsha, and Wuchou,
China. The 449th Fighter Squadron, 51st Fighter Group moves from Chengkung to Mengtsz, China with P-38s.
WESTERN PACIFIC [Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: The FEAF was formed to conduct tactical operations in support of the invasion of Kyushu. B-24s bomb storage areas at Canton. On Formosa, B-24s bomb boatyards and buildings at Suo while A-26s hit
the Karenko railroad yards. B-24s bomb concentrations NE of Mount Mandalagan
on Negros. On Luzon, B-25s and fighter-bombers hit the Kiangan area,
attack Japanese pockets E of Iguig and N of Tuguegarao, pound pillboxes, ammunition
dumps, and vehicles in the Cervantes sector, and blast hostile areas near Siniloan,
NE of Laguna de Bay. P-38s attack gun entrenchments in the Miri area of Borneo.
P-38s on a sweep over SW Celebes Island hit vehicles and communications targets. Lost on an orientation flight is P-38L pilot Henderson (KIA) and P-38L 44-26538 pilot 1st Lt. Richard P. Stier (KIA).
U.S. Army: In X Corps area, contact is made between 1st Bn, 21st Inf, and Prov bn from Lake Buluan at point 15 miles northwest of Sarangam Bay.
U.S. Navy: TF 95 (Rear Admiral Francis S. Low), comprising large cruisers Alaska (CB-1) and Guam (CB-2), four light cruisers and nine destroyers, sorties from Leyte Gulf to conduct anti-shipping sweeps in the East China Sea.
This operation between July 21-23 yield a paucity of targets, since no Japanese shipping larger than sampans (several of which are sunk) is encountered.
TF 93 (Rear Admiral John H. Brown, Jr.), comprising light cruisers Richmond (CL-9) and Concord (CL- 10) and five destroyers, commences an anti-shipping sweep; these ships will pass down the Kurile Island chain and into the Sea of Okhotsk. Although shadowed by Japanese planes, TF 93 will not be attacked.
Mines (laid this day and on previous occasions) sink merchant cargo ships No.7 Agata Maru and No.13 Yamabishi Maru, Wakamatsu harbor, and damage merchant cargo ship Hayahi Maru ten kilometers north of Mutsure light; cargo ship Korasan Maru in Shimonoseki Strait, 33°56'N, 130°56'E.
Japanese guardboats No.7 Myojin Maru and No.6 Sakae Maru are sunk by U.S. aircraft off Chichi Jima, 27°04'N, 142°11'E.
Royal Navy: HMS Trenchant sinks unnamed Japanese schooner, western Celebes, 03°10'S, 118°50'S.
RCAF: Lost is Liberator GR.VIII Serial Number 11121 pilot F/O William Edward Davies (MIA).
