USS Sturgeon (SS-187), a Salmon-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sturgeon. Its 1944 sinking of the Japanese troopship Toyama Maru, killing more than 5,000 Japanese, was one of the highest death tolls from the sinking of a single ship in history, and its 1942 sinking of the prisoner ship Montevideo Maru was the worst maritime disaster in Australian history.
USS Lapon (SS-260), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named after the lapon, a scorpionfish of the Pacific coast of the United States.
USS Paddle (SS-263), a Gato-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the paddlefish.
USS Haraden (DD-585), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Jonathan Haraden (1744–1803), a privateer of the American Revolutionary War.
The 79th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, also known as "The Sparrows", was a Royal Artillery unit of the British Army that fought in the Battle of Britain, the Battle of Java, and the Battle of Timor.
A hell ship is a ship with extremely inhumane living conditions or with a reputation for cruelty among the crew. It now generally refers to the ships used by the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army to transport Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and romushas out of the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Hong Kong and Singapore in World War II. These POWs were taken to the Japanese Islands, Formosa, Manchukuo, Korea, the Moluccas, Sumatra, Burma, or Siam to be used as forced labor.
MS Aramis was built for France's Messageries Maritimes for the France-Southeast Asia colonial route. One of her distinguishing features was that her funnels were square-shaped. She was built to carry 1,045 civilian passengers in first, second, third, and steerage class. She was converted to an armed merchant cruiser when France entered World War II, until demilitarized following the Second Armistice at Compiègne on 22 June 1940. Aramis was seized by Japan in 1942, renamed Teia Maru (帝亜丸), and served as a repatriation ship in 1943. She served as a transport between Singapore and Japan in 1944 until sunk in the battle for convoy Hi-71 while assigned to the defense of the Philippines.
The Japanese aircraft carrier Taiyō was the lead ship of her class of three escort carriers. She was originally built as Kasuga Maru (春日丸), the last of three Nitta Maru class of passenger-cargo liners built in Japan during the late 1930s for NYK Line. The ship was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in early 1941 and was converted into an escort carrier. Taiyō was initially used to transport aircraft to distant air bases and for training, but was later used to escort convoys of merchant ships between Japan and Singapore. The ship was torpedoed twice by American submarines with negligible to moderate damage before she was sunk in mid-1944 with heavy loss of life.
USS Scrimmage (AM-297) was an Admirable-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was built to clear minefields in offshore waters. She served in the Pacific Ocean and, because of her valiant efforts in combat, her crew returned home with six battle stars.
Arisan Maru was a 6,886 GRT Type 2A freighter constructed in 1944 during World War II and was one of Imperial Japan's hell ships. The vessel, named for a mountain on Formosa, was initially used as a troop transport. The vessel was then turned over for use for the transportation of prisoners of war (POWs) from the Philippines to Manchuria, China or Japan. On October 24, 1944, the ship was torpedoed by an American submarine and sank. Of the 1,781 POWs aboard, all of them escaped the sinking ship but were not rescued by the Japanese. In the end, only nine of the prisoners survived the sinking.
Ōryoku Maru was a Japanese passenger cargo ship which was commissioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II as a troop transport and prisoner of war (POW) transport ship. Japanese POW transport ships are often referred to as hell ships, due to their notoriously unpleasant conditions and the many deaths that occurred on board. In December 1944, the ship was bombed by American aircraft, killing 200 Allied POWs. Hundreds more died in the months that followed.
Atago Maru was a merchant ship built prior to World War II in Glasgow in 1924 by Lithgows & Sons for Nippon Yusen. One of the first diesel-engined cargo ships in service in Japan, Atago Maru was converted to an oil tanker in 1942. Returning to service in 1943, the ship saw extensive service traveling in convoys during World War II. On 28 November 1944, the vessel was bombed by a United States Army Air Forces bomber while at anchor off Borneo. The shipwreck is a popular diving site in Malaysia.
The Shin'yō Maru incident occurred in the Philippines on September 7, 1944, in the Pacific theater of World War II. In an attack on a Japanese convoy by the United States Navy submarine USS Paddle, 668 Allied prisoners of war were killed fighting their Japanese guards or killed when their ship, Shinyō Maru, was sunk. Only 82 Americans survived and were later rescued.
Convoy Hi-81 (ヒ-81) was the designation for a formation of Japanese transports that carried soldiers bound for Singapore and the Philippines during World War II. The transports were escorted by a large force of surface combatants including the escort carriers Shinyo and Akitsu Maru which were sunk in the Yellow Sea by American submarines. Over the course of a four-day convoy battle in November 1944 nearly 7,000 Japanese were killed in action while the Americans sustained no casualties.
Aikoku Maru (愛国丸) was an armed merchant cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II. The ship entered service in 1940, the ship was later converted to an ammunition ship. She was sunk in February 1944 during Operation Hailstone.
Convoy Hi-71 (ヒ-71) was one of the World War II Hi convoys of fast tankers and troop transports from Japan to Singapore. The heavily defended convoy was specially loaded with reinforcements for defense of the Philippines, and encountered a wolfpack of United States Navy submarines in the South China Sea after being scattered by an August 1944 typhoon. Personnel losses were high because heavy seas prevented rescue of crewmen from sunken ships.
Hawaii Maru was a 9,482-ton Japanese troop transport during World War II, which sank on 2 December 1944 with great loss of life.
Hokkai Maru was a Kinai Maru-class auxiliary transport of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She participated in the Japanese occupation of British Borneo and was part of ill-fated convoy HI-71.
W-101 or No. 101 was a Bangor-class minesweeper that was seized by the Imperial Japanese Navy before completion during World War II and converted into a convoy escort.
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