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• American submarine USS Wahoo detected hospital ship Hikawa Maru and allowed her to pass after seeing her red cross marking. Hikawa Maru arrived at Buin, Bougainville later that day. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]
• Australian troops captured Gona, New Guinea. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 2 | CPC]
• LST-1 was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [LST-1 | CPC]
• USS Grampus began her fifth war patrol. ww2dbase [Grampus | CPC]
• S-36 received an urgent radio message requesting her position. ww2dbase [S-36 | CPC]

• Tatsuta Maru departed Sasebo, Japan and arrived at Nagasaki, Japan later in the same day. ww2dbase [Tatsuta Maru | Sasebo, Nagasaki | CPC]
• Light carrier Ryuho arrived at Yokosuka, Japan. ww2dbase [Ryuho | Yokosuka, Kanagawa | CPC]

• Pharmacist's Mate Harry Roby performed an emergency appendectomy on a sailor aboard USS Grayback while at sea. ww2dbase [Grayback | CPC]
• USS Wahoo sighted a hospital ship sailing toward the Shortland Islands and took no action. Later on the same day, she sank Japanese submarine I-15, hitting her with 1 of 3 torpedoes. ww2dbase [Wahoo | CPC]
• Submarine USS Spearfish had two false alarms this day. First, after stalking a large unescorted ship for over an hour south of New Hanover and almost at the point of firing torpedoes, the ship was identified as a properly marked hospital ship and was allowed to pass. Later, Spearfish stalked a single-stack ship for 20 minutes before identifying it as a large floating tree trunk with a branch extending 20 feet into the air. ww2dbase [Spearfish | Bismarck Sea | DS]

14 Dec 1942 Interactive Map