Japanese oil tanker sinks after torpedo hit.

Japanese oil tanker sinks after torpedo hit. A Japanese oil tanker starts sinking stern first in the Central Pacific after a U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo bomber made a direct hit. Scores of oil drums (right) are floating in the water, while members of the crew abandon ship to join these already in the water (white spots, left). The ship sank 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of the strategic Marianas base of Saipan where enemy resistance ended July 8, 1944. Control of Saipan by U.S. forces cuts off supplies and reinforcements to hundreds of thousands of Japanese isolated on islands to the south.