The year is 1941 just after the Pearl Harbor sneak attack on Oahu. The Navy has lost virtually all of its battleships and 188 combat aircraft! The devastation appears to be crippling but still the US Navy has 3 carrier groups in operation in the Pacific theater. There were 6 aircraft carriers who took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In the midst of a major defeat that would not only occur in Hawaii but in rapid succession Wake Island, Guam, and the Philippines fell in weeks to the Japanese Imperial forces! The only response available to America at the time were their submarines and even they were hampered by defective torpedoes!

Still, the US Navy went on the offensive with the Doolittle Raid on Japan, and that Battle of the Coral Sea. Yet, with only two carrier groups to oppose an overwhelmingly superior Japanese threat, the odds were against the Americans. Only a large submarine fleet could threaten Japan’s warships and the cargo vessels so vital to supply the Japanese island fortifications. Sadly in the beginning of the war, not only ere US torpedoes insufficient, but it was found that submarine skippers were not operating aggressively enough, so that many would be replaced with officers willing to risk everything in order to damage the Japanese navy.

One such submarine was the Gato Class USS Wahoo. It was the most sophisticated submarine in the US Naval arsenal and hunted Japanese shipping relentlessly in the much feared heavy patrol zone in the Sea of Japan! Here where the Japanese had retained extra ships to hunt submarines or any other force the Americans might attempt, US Navy skippers were hesitant to operate in those waters. In October 11, 1943 after many kills by the brave submarine skipper Dudley “Mush” Morton and his crew of 78, they would perish while attempting to depart from the Sea of Japan in La Perouse Strait. This was a demoralizing development that only reinforced in the minds of US Naval commanders that those waters were virtual suicide to operate within. New tactics were created such as trying to torpedo a Japanese destroyer head on rather than broadside which as a much more difficult and dangerous shot! The idea was to allow as destroyer to run down a US submarine and as was coming straight at them fire torpedoes to strike the front of the enemy ship!

This meant that the firing solution was much harder to attain with a much smaller and narrower target to hit, and less time to fire accurately as this was not an element of surprise with the destroyer already on the attack. It was a way of drawing the enemy ship in rather than attempting to maneuver for a broadside shot as submarines are slower than surface ships and must lay in wait and ambush. In the desperation in the early months of the war, results meant taking bigger risks! The main objective was to send as much tonnage to the bottom of the sea as possible! The brave crew of SS-238 Wahoo paid the price for their daring attacks in heavily patrolled waters!

The saga of the USS Tambor SS-198 was the epitome of an incredible effort by the captain and crew to overcome an unbelievable ordeal. The action took place in the East China Sea while the sub was on its 10^th mission. While maneuvering into position for an attack on a Japanese merchant convoy, they were discovered by the destroyers escorting the supply ships. The Japanese unleashed a savage depth charge attack forcing the Tambor into a deep dive. For 17 grueling hours the Japanese warships dropped deadly explosive charges overboard to try and rupture the hull of the American submarine!

The crew endured a prolonged attack that caused damage to the hull, leaking fuel, and leaking oil from the repeated concussions of the underwater blasts. At one point a few members of the crew attempted to use an escape system to try and swim to the surface. The fuel and oil leaks only helped the Japanese track the course of the sub to continue the attacks! The Tambor crew faced a real possibility of an implosion of the hull, but somehow the sub hung on and despite damage, the crew and the ship survived. She would go on to face action in three more tours of duty before the end of the war! Just think 17 hours of uncertainty and the threat of a terrible death in the depth of waters in the Eastern China Sea! I’ll bet the members of that crew were never the same again! Talking about PTSD, condition that was largely undiagnosed in those days.