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B&TTI,E S?&TIONS SUBIffiRGED by LCDRR. C. mNIfEZ, U. $. Navy

The tomb-llke gllence that relgnod ln the conntng tower was ItDepth. charges ! sud.d.enLyshattered by a sorles of exploslons. Depth chargesltr exclalmed one of the quartermasters. rr?hose are Darter ItDepth ctrarges, hel1rn cald. the Captaln. ped.oes, and she ts gettlng her 1lcks lnto the Jap fleet.n tor-

It was 0S6A ln the mornlng of October 26, L944. The above was part of the conversatlon that took place 1n the connlng tower of the shot ln the Battle for Leyte U$$ Daee, Suburarlne ?47, as the flrst Gulf was f$red. by her slster shlp ln the wolfpaek, the IIS$ Darter. The Dace and the Darter had Left tbelr forward. base on October 5, day war patrol. 1944, on the seeond phase of a scheduled ftfty-f1ve Tbelr d.estinatlon was Palawan PaseaBOr thd body of water lylng between the lsland. of Palawan and. that shoal-lnfested. area of the South Chlna Sea }orown as the Dangerous Ground.. Thelr misslon was to guard. the passege; to report alll contacts; and. to attack enemy shlps, The mlsslon of the two submarlnes represented part of the over-al-l plan evolved by our hlgh comaand. to safeguard. the land.lngs to be mad.e at Leyte. Our leaders felt that the Japanese F1eet, 1n an attempt to would ln all probstem the t1d.e of Amerlcan lsland-hopplng vtctorles, attack our Leyte beach-beads. The problem was to deternlne ablltty ttre orlgln of the attaek and. the day on whlch .it would. take plaee. As a partlal solutlon to the problem, a llne of subru.rlnes was stretched from the lsland. of Palawan to the Chlna coast, wlth the expeetatlon that the $outhern Japanese Fleet would plerce that 11ne. A subnnarlne contaet report, lf recelved. 1n tlme, would. give the nocessary warnlng and provld.e the necessary tlme ln whieb. to lntegrate the Arnertcan task forces then plying tl:.e waters of the Phtllppines. Once these rcighty foreeg eouLd. be brought to bear agalnst the Japanese Fleet, ttrere could. be no d"oubt as to the outcome, and even the most pesslmlstlc could foresee a sweeplng Anerlean vletory. Submarlnes had proved. thelr seouting value before. WouLd.they be equaL to tho occaslon onee hoped. so. moro? Our hlgh command" fervently Passage to the area was uneventful. Oecaslonally a Japanese, patrol plane would foree us d"owndurlng the day, but the maJority of the translt was mad.e on the surface both day and nlght. We arrlved ln the Palawan area on October 10. End.l,ess days of routlne patrol went by all too slow1y. The Darte:r was usuaLly to the south, the Dace to the north of the passage. Those were interminable days of constant perlscope and surface wateh. waltlng for tho tlp of a mast; for the smud.geof Alwaysiwaltlng smoke on the horlzon; for the rad.ar contact that herald.ed. the arrlval of a target. The d.ays d.ragged onr thel-r samenesa only broken by the t

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personal problems of elghty-flve men lmprlsoned ln a steel, elgarand eleven feet long. Occasl-onal1y someshaped hull three hund.red thlng happened. to relj-eve the monotony that characterlzed our days. F o r e x a m p le ..,. One evenlng tlle Captaln and the Executlve Offlcer of the Dase, who' shared. the same stateroom, entered the room and were ratkrer startled on the shlprs to see the Number One mess boy buslly typlng a letter typewrS-ter. flre typewriter was firmly secured on tho Captalnrs d.esk. A blg, black clgar protrudlng from the boyts mouth gave forth b1g puffs of black smoke whlch had" by this tlme entlrely enveloped. the room. She eolored. boy, who was a favorlte ln the Daee because of his ever present good humor, personal bravery, and. d.evotion to all hands, peered. at was unperturbed.. The Captaln, wlth smoke-fllled. eyes, first at the clgar. the mess boy, then at the typewri-ter, and finally Then, he satd., trReallyr my boy, I after carefully surveylng the situatlon, d.o not wlsh to lnconvenlence you. But lf lt lsnrt too mueh trouble--could I use rny desk novr?rl to ftrere ls a d.oubt tb.at the above would. be an acceptable solutlon However, lt worked. ln the Daco. a problem ln a course 1n Ireadershlp. From that d.ay on the mess boy only used the d.esk when he knew that the Captaln and the Executlve Offl-cer would be too busy ln the connlng tower or on the brld.ge to come below to the room. Submarlne warfare, however, was not chanacterized. by eternal duI1ness. Durlng each war patrol somethlng always trappened to 1lven up One morning we flnalthe monotony, and. this patrol was no exeeption. Il[e were unable to close lt d.urlng the dayo but a convoy. 1y slghted lrnried.lately after surfaclng late the same afternoon we gave chase. We regalned contact near the Borneo coast and that nlght d"ellvered a torpedo attaek. It was pltch black and the Japs never knew what h1t them. and. after ly1ng low the noxt d.ay we VIe sank an oller and. a transport, patrol statlon ln Palawan Passage. We reeventually returned. to our sumed.our lncessant vigl1. fhe mornlng of October L9 found both submarlnes on the surface. Informatlon was belng exchanged betwoen them whon the tlp of a mast was The Darter ha.d at the same tlme beeome slghted. by a Dace lookout. As lf by a comblned" signal, but aetually lnd.eaware of tne stranger, pendent of each other, both shlps submerged.. The stranger soon ld.entlfled. herself -- a Fubukl type d.estroyer -- and. stre was aceomparried by one of her slsters. Both submarlnes were apart from each other, yet we ln the Dace knew that every one of our movemeRts were belng dupllcated 1n the Darter, nBattte statlons submerged.!rr The perslstent, yet chalfrlghtenhg, lenglng tone of the General Alarm brought men tumbllng from thelr bunks. There were second.s of ord.erly confuslon as the men hurried"ly manned thelr battle statlons. In a matter of seeond.s a slumberlng shlp became awake, alivo, anlmated.. Gone was the lethargy and the drowslness, and ln 1ts stead. there came into belng an al-ortness and. watehfulness that boded 111 for tire stranEor who had. d.ared. intrude into our area,

trHake read.y all torpedo tubes t rr There was f everlsh actlvity in the torped.o rooms aa the torped.o room crews read.led."thelr d-ead.ly misslles. Expert hands adeptly manlpulated wrenches, levers and valves to assure a run that would. be stratghtn hot and. normal. rr$tand. by for a set-uplrr actlvlty as the f lre control The coruring tower was a beehlve of problem was plotted., d.eveloped, solved.

T}-e contact was nad.e at.,lOIO; we dove second.s later; we flred at 1O45;' As the thlrd torpedo l-eft lts tube, the Captaln at the perlseope observed the target make a rad.lcal change of eourse away from us. We checked. fire. It was useless to flre on a targeb that had taken evasivo aetion. The Captaln notleed a slgnal betng holsted on the leadlng destroyer as a few depth charges were heard. to explod.e'noarby. The Japs had. beeome aware of our presence; the game of the mouse and t h e c a t w a s a b o u t to sta rt. It started ln the usual manner svlth the mouse on ttre run and the almost lmmedlate1y he lost us. cat ln hot pursult; but For the next wlth hfutrr but it grad.ually became apparent twenty mlnutes we fllrted that we were loslng ground. Flna11y, wlth the d.estroyer at a range of two thousand yard.s and. with a target angle of zero, we declded. that we d1d not want to play an;rmore. We went d.eep and. managed to avold. them at deep submergence. The mouse was ln lts hole safe and unobserved., but he was not content. Ile wanted to see what was he.ppenlng so tre came back up Fo periscope d.epth.. There was nottring ln slght; the game nas over. l?e had traeked. them out on a southerly course so of course we headed. north. Later on that ntght the Darter and. the Daee rend.ozvoused. and. exchanged. tnformatlon. The Darter, as we well expeeted-, had. also flred at the Jap but she had. flred second.s before we dld. The radical change of course that had. spolled our flre control problem had taken place when the Jap turned" toward.s th.e Darter to comb trep torpedo wakes. We began to consld.er the events of the day. destroyer sweep 1R.. --rtA tfSometlr.lngls afoot. PErthe Passagerrf thoughtfully nrused the Captaln. haps blgger game w1Ll fol}ow, but -- wtro knows?tr The Captaln was right. Wtro dld lceow? Only the Japanese, for never ln our rrost herolc Walter b{lttyan dreams eould we have foreseen what the next few days would brlng. lmpar tlaltty, Ye t f a t e , wi th l ts ch a ra cte rl stlc had singled us o ut to play a maJor role ln one of the deelslve battles of the war. Unmind.ful of what the future he1d. ln store for usr we contlnued ln our appointed task. Man-mad.eplans, however, were rapld"ly pyramldlng themselves one upon the other. A chaln of events was betng expertly forged. by the Japanose; and as each llnk took lts plaee, ttre ehaln began to take shape, to expande to grow from a dormant, lnert mass Lnto a well knit, expertly mad.e instrunent that represen.ted. the Japanese plan for a sorely needed. vlctory. Wlth the last llnk ln place the Japanese oonsidered. the preparatlons com-

plete. lTtth a long 1ow bow towards the north and. wlth a 1oud. rtBanzalrtl the first contlngent of the Japanese Fleet salled. north from Brunel B*y, Borneo. another October 21 was Just another routlne d.ay for us ln the Daee day llke so many others that we had. spent on thls and. other patrols. The eternal vlgllanee was maintalned, but we were beglnnlng to grow which Thoughts turned" to the return trlp, Tqeary and. tlred. of our task, aecordlng to our orders was to start ln two d.ays. Australla was a very popular base of operatlons, and our thoughts were more on that ls1and, on fresh food., mal1 from home, and. the two weeks of shore leave than on the war. We surfaced. at dusk and. commenced another surface patrol ln the Passage. A11 was serene untll- shortly after mldnlght, at which ttme the Executlve Offlcer was summoned. the eonntng tower by the to Wlthout a word. of comment he was hand.ed a d.espatch from the Captatn. Da r t e r . I t sa td ., ItF a st sh l p s on nor theaster ly cour so. tr The curtaln had. rlsen on the part we wore to ptsay 1n the llfe and d.eath drama that was to l:.ave lts finale in the Battle for teyte Gulf. Tbe d.espatch b^s.d. said. fast shlbs so there was no tlme to 1ose. At course to intercept. ful1 speed. we sot a northwesterly reAnpllfying ports soon came 1n. They lnformed us that the contact was a task force; that the Darter was trailing but eould not overtake; that the enemy base course was O2O f, hls speed. 2O h:ots. Those reports represented. an excellent solution to a problem ln wolf-pack taetles. frainlng Our long arduous d.ays of pre-patrol were paylng off. To the south there was tlre Darter ln contact, trailing, supplylng vltal lnformation. To the north there was the Dace lnterpretlng ttla.t lnformatlon to galn an attaek posltion. Before long wo had even been suppl1ed wlth the Japanese zLgzag plan. We could. not mlss. All we had to do was lntercept at d.awn. at dawn! that was all we }.ad to d.o, but as the hours Intercept passed. ttre navlgational probJ-em before us loomed larger and 3-arger. gave us an lntercept polnt on the eastern half of an Our calculatlons area that up to thls tlme we had. g1ad1y avoided". That area was the Dan$erous Ground., and. our lncomplete forelgn charts, populated as they were wlth countless reefs, shoals, and" rocks, were mute evidence of the approprla$eness of the name whlch the area bore. Ilslng maxlnum speed. through those treacherous waters rce could arrl-ve at the Japanese O5O0 posltlon at O45O. The tl-me elemont was porfecti we could make a d.awn attack. But before we could. attack we flrst" had. to arrlve at the proper lntercept polnt. To reach that polnt we had to travel about four and. one-half lrours, ln waters where we had. found. the current to be unpred.lctable. At the end. of that time we trad. to be at the lntereept polnt; near to 1t would. not d.o. ItIe had. to hlt lt right on the no $ e , Ths thrlll a task force
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ttllelle ttr&r!, thls ls of the ehase had grlpped the boat, tr trHore ls where we plck up our and we $ot them cold. Thls happens only onee ln a ...tllffe wlll- murd.er those bums.

and' The sen were r:lght; lt was_the chance of a lifetlmer Lifetlme.rr eeh5ed.-thelr thoughts as. we kept gollg l?"we 1n the *ottttioi lo*"t on the blaek wh11e Leaving a pbosphorescent trall ward. at full"p"!a Passage. waters of Palawan . Ttrere To the Navlgator, lrowever, the nlght seemed lntermlnable. conioLatlon of star sights.by tbe was no moon so he was d.enled. the iunt"t 1f I d.ontt make contaet? What 1f I foul thls one ;;;"figi;i.-Nth tfune slnce m-ld.nlght he looked. at For the ;piT-;a--"ra"a"ilfru"fgl T1.e gaptaln ii" chart; he cheekod. the coursesr thg speed's, th9 tlmes' tlflow are we dolng??l came down from tho brldge and. asked., tlre ttBLeht on schedule. ltre w111 hlt the lntercopt polnt.rlgltt.on busy wltlr hls own ttrougl]tt' The 6aptaln, ,ro"ullff-*".--titr-""pfy. I low but fervent"--turned. away and dld. not hoar the Navlgatorts question put to hlm by the froperft whllh followed. h1s answer to the Captaln. dark when at It was stl}l T1me, ktowevern was not standing st111. that the shlp was O4gO tlre Dace was slowed and. the Captaln notlfled At slow speed. we began to patrol-back and' forth along ln posltlon. If a11 went aecord.ing to plan wo uroul-d'be 1n conan east-$est 1ine. once more we ryent to battle stamlnutes. tact ln less tnan thlrty tlons aLong the Mlnutes passed --- the sblp moved. back and' forth slowly eagerly sc?PMlnutes passed. --- the rad.ar operators seoutlng Line. Mlrprtes passed' ;---the ned. the rad.ar-""op" fo" itgtts of the target. U"iAS" watch, thelr eyes giued to thelr flnocui1'ars, tensely stralned' Mlnto make out dlm shapei ln the half d.arhxess that enveloped' us' wanted' utos passed. --- and- lt was suddenly O5OO. It was O5OO, and we But --- wtrere were the Japs?- It to belleve that we were on statlon' The no contact. was all too roor o5o5; then oSLo; them 0515. $tilI grip us' error began to that perhaps we had mad.e a fatal reallzatlon unimportant Some --- they all seemed terrlbly sh;;e ie*vel &ustralla,
fIOW.

gur fears, howeverl bad. no factual * *"uu*g" from the Darter whlch sald, at dawn/rr

Seeond.s Later we recelved' basls. rrEnemy changed. course to left

posltlon' We had. been outmaneuvered.s we were hopelesslf out. of speed., h.ad slowly fa11en agtern The Darter, because of her slower ir"" flre controL pari;y becarrre aware of th'e rrnusual d.urLng tire nitrri.but they could not lnsred'iately assune a chang! in souise at d.anrr:., ln positlon. change rn uase-eourse by the el}glnT. They k11ut.!h3t we lsere course out; that ch"ange ln would d.raw us farse lnformation eaae too late for us to "rra-Err"tbe po"iti"*fy verffled.. ." Verlflcatlon had. to the tlth we trad lost' g-amb1e-and' ft fraA been, a take *ny speed' and' th'e "ction. co11r*u the ,/aps-had- also inc:reased' irt Ua""g The Dace J:mredlateJ.y started a sweep to "fr"ng" soon 1;"t contact. Darter The Jap6 It was to no aval1. the westward. 1n the Dangerous Ground.

l.ad. d.lsappeared as effectlvely as lf they hed. been swallowed. by the sea.. Near noon we d.1smaIly securod tho search. It is true that rre h.ad. succeed.ed..tn send.lng a warnlngr &rrd. that our high command had. bocome aware that the Japs l-ad. begun to move north. But our role had one. We had. wanted. to hlt that Jap been a negatlve, unsatlsfytng task force awfully bad.. We began to move soutkr. Thls was our J.ast day on statlon and. that nlght we were to start orrr trlp back to the base. Charts for the trtp o1L were closely cheeked.; were broken out; the fuqL and. the lubrlcatlng We could have saved. ouranother count was mad.e on the provlslons. solves alL thls trouble, for at noon we recelved a d.espatch that a Jap tlfe i-mnedlateLy convoy had boen slghted. headlng south 1n the sroa. ehanged our plans and decid.ed to postpone the return trlp unt1l we had We arranged a rend.ozvous wlth the Darter to worked on thls convoy. eoord.tnate a search and. attack plan. Mossages were exchanged by At mldnlght we met as per schedule. gunsr erld both Captains went below to read over the llne-throwlng corumunicatlons. to eactr ottrer through The brldge watches were talklng megaphones when tholr conversatlon was cut short by a report from the Darter rad.ar operator: trRadar gontact-maxlmum range. It looks l1ke ra l n r r l h e sa l d . relayed to us on the Dace. ttAn Tho lnforraatlon was lrmedlately But upon checklng ourselves we overeager operatorrs we sald. at flrst. not only conflr:ned the contaet but id.entifled. lt as shlps. There was no doubt that they were shlps and that we h.ad.mad.e contact at maxlnunr range. 0nLy by the graco of God were we 1n contaet, but thls was no tlme to thlnk of what mtght lrave been. Both shlps were ord.ered. to close the enemyr MLnutes Later ttre radar scope gave us a beautiful plcture of many shlps, and. once agaln we lierew that thls. was no ordlnary convoy. Once agaln we were 1n eontact wlth a Japanese task force. The Captaln and the Executlve Offlcer were admlring the rad.ar scope, when wlth dramatlc sud.denexclalmlng over the beauty of the plcture, the plcture dlsappeared. from the screen. ness ffNowwhat the helllrr saLd. the Captain. nWl:at 1s this, a game?tt

frNot qulte, Captalnrff answered. the unperturbed. rad.ar operator. rrThe rad.ar has conked. outtn fhts ls just flner w all thou&t. Here task force, and our rad.ar d.ecld.es to take a make contact. It Just had. to be flxed, that And although it had been a major breakdourn, rad.an was back ln commlsslon. Wlth a great Japs appear on tlre rad.ar scope once more. we are ln eontaet wlth a rest flve mlnutes after tre ls al3. there was to lt, ln an hour and a half the slgh of rdIlef we saw the

We traeked. the remalnd.er of the nlght. The Darter, belng the senlor shlp, began maklng eontact reports shortly after the eontact was ld.entwas malntalned. throughout the nlght, lfled. The fl.ow of lnformatlon

and. thus our high eonmrand. recelved. vltaL lnformatton on the rnovements of the Japanese fLeet. There was no d.oubt that thle was the tf6tr squad., and. it wae so reported.. The pLan had. worked.. The Japanese had. erossed. the submarlne llne; subs had mad.e contaet. the From tr.ere on 1t was olly a questlon of malntalnlng contact as the Japs moved. northward, and. of to rlght -eventually brlnglng had bear our forces at the preatct tlme arrd. at the rlght plaee. The day arrlved. wtren we could the total destructlon of Japanese sea power. We ln the Daee, although somewhat aware of the tactleal sltuatlon, were not too coneerned. wlth the over-all pLeture. Our maln thought was to hlt the task force, and. eonsequently we were vory pleased. to iecelve a foolproof plan of attack from the Conmandlng Officer of t6e Darter. Hls plan was slmple. We }.ad. d.eterolned. the enemy fleet to be ln two colu.mnsr wlth the J.ef t eolumn sllghtly ahead. of the right colu:ln. He proposed to have the Darter dive atread. of the left coh::nn and. the Dace dlvo five miles bearlng O45 T from the Darter. The attack was to take place at d.awn. By thls arrangement he placed. both submarines ln a posltion of maximum effecttvness. ff the Japanese'malntalned. base courseo both submarlnes would be able to attack their respective eolrrmns. If th.e Jap fleet changed. course to the left, the Darter would. mlss the left column but she woul-d be ln posltlon to hlt the rlght co1llltltl. Und.er these cond.itlons, the Dace of course would be out of the pleture. If they changed. couree to the rlght, the Darter would then be left out but the Dace would. hlt the left column, Tt wes a elearly effeetl-ve plan. Thls tlme a change ln the base course at dawn wouta flnd. us ready. We had. profited from our lesson of the d.ay before. Thls tlme we hrew that one of us was suro to hlt at least one li:tp out of that Japanese fleet that conslsted. of five battleships, ten heavy cnulsers, two light crui-sers, and f if teen d.estroyers. It wae Davld agalnst Gollath once more, for agalnst that force we could. muster only_two submarLnes. The od.d.swere not exaetly even but we were more than wllllng to take the ehance. None of us would. have trad.ed places wlth any other man 1n the Submarine Force. As the nlght approaclred. lte end., howevar, tenslon helghtened. throughout the boat. TFe jokes beea:ne fewer and. fewer as the eonversatlon gradually d.ied out. Eich man was busy wlth his own thoughts as the shlp crept closer and cLoser to its attack posltlon. 4.t OSOO the word. was passed. to man battle statlons. It was a useless command.. The men d.urlng the ntght h"ad.sIowly gravltated toward.s their statlons, and. 1n a matter of socond.s each mair fras reported. at hls appolnted plaee. A falnt glow to the east heralded th.e approaclr" of dawn as the rad.ar man "at O51O reported the Darter dlsappearlng from the rad.ar scope. She had. subraerged.. I,l|e contlnued northfuard., feellng alone and naked ln thu wtd.e expanse of Palawan Passage. Mlnutes later the d"ivlng aLarm broke the stillness of the tropieal datrn. Tho Dace slld. beneath the sea 1n the most fateful d.1ve of }ler career. Netther the Darter nor the Dace had. long to walt. The Japaneser &s pnopo0led themselves on the unw1l11ng and. unsuspectlng particlpants, stage and. were promptly greeted. by a salvo of torped.oes from the Darter.

A sertes of rapld. exploslons lnd.icated. to all Darter had mad.ea sireeessful attack.

1n the Dace that

the

ttlt l-ooks l1ke the Fourth of July out tlrerelrrexelalmed" the Captaln. fiOne ls burnlngrri he contlnuod. rfThe Japs aro mll1lng and- flrtng all over the place. Slhat a show! What a showl r Those of us unable to see what was It must havo been a grand shov. happening on t}.e surface hung on to the Captalnts word.s as he eontlnued to d.eserlbe wh.at ho s&wr But we were not out ttrere to record. a maJor event Ln world hlstory for posterlty. Wo were there to work and soon had no tlme for unn e c e s s a r y ta l k. tlfiere they comerf sald. tl-e Old- Man. rfStand" by for a set-up! markt Range, mark! Down scope! Angle on the bow, ten port.rr Bearlngo

and. hls assletant Upon the flre eontrol offlcer largely d.epend.ed. the nr.mber of h.1ts that we seoredo and. they had. to work fast and. efficiently. Ranges, bearlngs, angles on the bow followed ln qulek successlon as the problem d.eveloped.. The Captaln slngled. out the third shlp ln 1lne the blggest he could. see. We thought lt was a battleshlp; 1t turned. out to bo a treavy crulser, but that was lnrnaterlal. Our flre control problem liad. been so1ved., and with the _CaptaS.nrgwords, frl,et the fl-rst two go ty, they are only heavy crulsersrtt we began to flre. We fired. s1x torpod.oes from the fonsard. tubes. they began to strlke hoEo -- or Almost lmoedlately two -- three -- four explosions. Four hlts out of slx torped.oes flredt The offenslve phase was over. Now l-t was time to start runnlng, and we wasted no time 1n dolng sor Hard.ly had the slxth torpedo left 1ts tube wlren rse ordered deep suhnergencer 0n our way d.own, a cr.ackllng noise tha.t started. very falntly but whlcl. napldly reached. staggering proportlons soon enveloped. us. It was akln to the nolse mad.e by-celloFfrane when lt ls crumpled.. Those of us experlenced ln submarlne warfare lcnew that a shlp was breaklng up, but the nolse was so closor so l-oud.r so gruesome that we came to bell-eve that lt was not the Jap but the Dgce the.t was d.oomed.. Anxlous, agonlzlng second.s elapsed. as we awalted. the reports from the compartnents that alL was secure. They flnally c&Blor We were all rlght. &rt then a new, terrlfylng thought gripped. us .eould. the Jap be breaklng up on top of us? We were maklng fuIl speed. ln an attempt to elear the vlclnlty of ttre attack, but that crackLlng noioe was st11l all around. us; lt was aud.lble to every man on board.; we could. not escape lt. Then rellef came wlth a rusb. We were leavlng the nolse astorn. TTehad not only hlt but had sunk a major Japanese warstrlp. The crackl.lng and erumbling noises as she broke up were unlrlstakeble. Our elatlon was shortllved.r for h.ardly had we settled" down at 6ur runnlng depth tishen a strlng of d.epth charges explodlng elose aboard announced. the arrlval of the Jap d.estroyers. At flrst we thought that they had mad.ea mlstake, for this attack was contrary to our expeetatlons. lfe had. fully expected. that the destroyors wouLd consentrate on the Darter

just as 1oud. as the flrst onet an6 leave us a}CIne. r*,nother strlng, There was Thls tlme the d.oubt was dlspelled. explod.ed close aboard. We were the targetno mlstake on thelr part. rlHost lnconsld.orate trThe dlrty stlnkerstrr of the Dartxrtr sa1d. someone. exclalned. another. another.

ttflold. your hats -- here we go agalnlrr came from stlll ttl{traml -- W}raml -- Slttrarnltf sald the Japs.

ghey wero golng off all- around us, and. they ivere close. The boa.t tlgh! bulbs w9r9_belnq shattered; was being roeked. consld.erably. from ttre manlfolds. open; wrenches were falling locker d.5ors rqere flylng fhe Japs r[ere very mad -- and we were very scared. At one polnt durlng the evaston we be11eved. that we had. gotten away. Nothlng had happened. for about ten mlnutes, and we were trying to sneak to send. Tlre Captaln took thls opportunlty away as quielly as posslblbe. forward. for a cup of coffee. The a messenger to the forward. battery Thls boy had made battery was belng manned.by our Nr:mber ?wo ness boy. qulte a few patrols, and early ln thls patrol had shown slgns of battle fatlgue. The events of the past two d"ays, of course, had not helped hls nerves anyr The messonger reports that, as he entored the eompartmentt a strtng of depth charges went off very close to the boat. flle mess boyt upon hearing the ecploslono ls reputed. to have Jumped.abput two feet up ln loud and angulshed. tonese rrFor gosh sakesr let in the a1r, yelllng ll that man ln! t{e stayed. deep for a whl1e hrt later cane up Flnali-y they ]eft us. to perlseope d.epth. We began to work our'way back to the scene of the At the tlmer of courser w dld. not lorow that the Darter had attaek. a sunk an. Atago class crulser and. d.amaged. seeond. heavy erul-serr but as we contlnued northward. we slghted. masts. It was the Jap erulser erlppled $he was belng Jealously by the Darter --- lylng dead. ln the water. T[e attempted. to get 1n guard.ed. by two destroyers and two alrplanes, another attack durlng the day but were &nsueeessful because of the efWe were fectlve screen provld.ed. by tho d.estroyers and. the alrplanes. not too eoncerned., howeverr 8s we had the crulser ln vlew at all tlmes and. we hrew that that night wo could. team up wlth the Darter to flntsh The Navlgaton got a falr ftx. her off. T[e surfaced before the Da.rter. Ttre Darter surfaced.; we mad.e contact and. began to 1ay plans for flnlshlng the crtpple. had. some l1fe 1n lrer. however, stlll Accompanled. by The Jap crulser, course at a speed. the two destroyers she got und.erway on a soutbwesterly of six Lmots. We began/ our attempts to po11sh her off but soon reallzed The two d.estroyers were over that 1t was not going to be an easy task. perhaps trylng to atone for the lack of care they had glven offlelous, to d.raw them out, the big shlps that nor:nlng. We went ln and. out, trylng tlrat tlle were beglnnlng to eome to the reallzatlon but all to no avail. a submerged attaek nrhen we reeelved a the only hope of suceess was 1n There were Just three word.s but they were pregd.espatch from the Darter.

nant wlth

meanlng.

They were:

lfWe are aground. rr

Tbe Captaln of the Dace wag faced wlth a grave deelslon; either to continue ln hls attenpts to sink the erulser or to go to the reseue of the Darter. tnrt whon annou.nced. Hts deelslon was not arrlved. at hastlly, lt had. the approbatlon of every man on board. We were to go to the asslstanee of the Darter. It was hard. to glve up pursuing a shlp that we probably slnk wlth one torped.o hlt, Isrew would. and lt was hard. to glve up wh.at we had. started. so brllllantly the d.ay before; but lt would. lrave been d.oubly hard to abandon our eomrad.es to eertain d.eath on the shoale of Pa l a w a n P a ssa g e . In about an hour and. a half later we were wlthln stonets throw of the fhere was no d.oubt that she was aground.. $he wae so hlgh that Darter. even her" screvrs were out of tlle water she seemdd. 1.lke a shlp ln dryd.ock. We soon reallzed. that gettlng elose to her vroul-d.not be an easy tagk. lTe d.ecld.ed.to approach from the stern, that ls, to travel over the lFe took posltlon astern and slowly began to close her. Darterls water. The current took charge and we had to make a second. approaeh. Ttre Captaln of the Darter beeame quite concerned. over the aud.aclty of the Caphiru to stay out a blt; not to come so tatn of the Dace. Ee kept telllng We pald no attentLon and. contlnued to close; to beware of the reef. elose untl1 we could pass over our bow Ilne. By the use of fhat line and by the use of the englnes we were able to keep avray from the reef that, yard.s away on our starboard. side, eeerted. lts utmost to draw only ftfty us t o 1 t . Tho fact that the Darter eould never get off tl:.e ::eef was obvlous from the outset. As soon as the bow llne went over, the transfer of personnel began. In the darkrress gnome-like flgures on ttre deek of the Darter were seen to go d.own her sld.e lnto the rubber boats awaitlng them below. Mlnutes later they reappeared at the slde of the Dace where wllIlng hands holsted. them aboard. There was lltt1e conversation. It was a grlm and. d-lstresslng task. There were only two slx-man rubber }lfe boats avallable and. lt was slow work. 1Ie had started. at about O2OOand lt was mot untlI 0439 that the Captaln of the Darter, the last man to ibeave the sh1p, appeared at the sld.e of the Dace. No tlme was lost ln clearlng the lmned"late vlcl-nlty, for not only were we in mortal fear of the reef, but upon reportlng on board ttre Captain of the Darter lnformed us that he had. set d.emolltlon charges on his shlp. Upon hearlng tb.ls report we set the annunclators at fu1l speed. and never changed. them until we eonsld.ered. ourselves a safe d.lstance away. the a11ot66d time for the eharges to go off began to draw near. YfLth bated. breattr and bllnking eyes we saw the seeond. hands of our watches got there. d,raw nearer and. nearer to the ze?o tlme. tfe It flnally braeed. ourselves, expectlng the mornlng stlllness to be shattered W a ttPopn terrlflc exploslon. But only a rldlculously low and lnoffenslve cqme from the Darter. tfFor heavens sake ! What a farce ! tr someone ga1d. 10

gone wrong, and. the Wh.at had happened.? Somethlng had. obvlously exploding before our eyes, reas very much ln evldence Darter, instead. of on the reef. Some sald. that the charges qrere no good.. Otlrers that the shlp was not ready to dle. Elhat dlfferenee d.ld lt make then? That was no tlme to philosophlze nor to enter Lnto the relatlve merlts of our demolltion ctrarges. That was tlme for action. There was only one posslble ansllrer -- blow her up wlth our few rematnlng torpedos. We took posltlon on her beam and flred two torped.oes, one at a tlme. Both torpedoes explod.ed. on the reef wlthout as much as rocking the Darter. Thls conflrmed our unexpressed fears that she was too hlgh on the reef. We had. two more torped.oes; we went d.lrectly astern of her and. flred". The story was repeated. Both torpedoes went off agalnst the reef. It was now O55O. The flrst streaks of d.awn were beglnnlng to appear ln the eastern slqr. ltlhat to d.o nsxt? We had to d.estroy that shlpr and. there was only one thlng to do -- hlt her wlth the gun. tfGr::rcrew, man the gunlff was passed over the GoberaL Announcing the prevlously d.eserted. d.eek beeame allve $ystem. ALmost tnnedlately wlth men as our gun crew CIspertly prepared. the gun for aetlon. Ttlewere well aware of the d.angerous sltuatlon ln whlch we had. placed ourselves. We were stlLl ln the vlclnlty of our attack of the day before, and we vlere engaged. ln a gun actlon. It was not wlthout some trepldatlon that we had. ord.ered. the gun manned, for. now there wore about twenty-flve men on the topsld.e. A crash d.lve would. be a rislcy underrtaking and. mlght result In some of the men belng left topstd.e. It was a chance that we had to take. The men had been warned. to swLm to the reef in eaee they found themselvos ln the waber/ It vras a smal1 consoLatlon, but the rapldlty of the fl"re and the percentage of hlts scored on the target belted any misgivings that the men mlght lrave had. i{e were seorlng telltng hlts on the Darter and. vre were beglnnlng to feel a blt easien ln our nilnd.s about t}.e whole undertaklng when a much dreaded cry es.mefrom the eonnlng tower, rrPlane Contaet -- Slx Mlles!rt wClear the deck -command. Dlving alarm -Take hor downtrr was the lmrnediate

The lnstlnct of self preservatlon took eharge of all of us. Our twenty-flve lnch connlng tower hatchr the only mean$ of lngress lnto the Dace, attracted everyone topsld.e as lf 1t had been a magnet. $ome walked d.own; others sIld down; stlLl- ottrers were pushed. d.own. Some came down foet flrstl o th e rs h e a d fl rst; sttl- l other s sldeways. The Office r of the Deek ryanaged.to cLose the hatch bare second.s before the boat went und.er. lYe all braced. oursolves for the bomb explosion that we felt sure would. dollow. $econd.s passed -- anxious second.s whose tenslon was heightened. by the fear that perhaps we }lad left some of the men on d.eek, ]lTe dld not I:.ave long to walt, but for the second. tlme that d.ay an awalted. loud. exploslon resolved. ltseLf lnto a d.lstant nPopu, We agaln wond.ered what had. happened. Perhaps lf we were to wrlte a book on the subJect we could not express 1t any better than that unhnown enllsted. man who at the tlme sald,

nThat dumb ass of a Jap pllot!

Ee rna46 h1s d.rop on the Dartertrl

Bhe sarne good fortune that aceompanled. us durlng Ile was correct. the patroL was still- wlth us; that sa:sreProvld.ence that had looked over us from the tlme ths.t we had. lef t our base hed. not yet abandoned. us. He flre Japanese pllot had slghtod two submarlnes on the surface. eouJ-d.not tell thst the Darter !ryas aground. He saw one of the subnarlnes dlvlng. Bellevlng that hls clrance of suceess was greater with the sJ-ower boat, lre had. d.ecld.ed.to bomb tho Darter lnstead of the Dace, flhe consensus of optnlon was that he ha'd mad.e an excellent cholee and. we hoped that he had. been abLe to d.o srhat we had. falled. to d.o earlier that mornlng wlth our torped.oes and. our gun. was stll1 one blg 0i:r troubles, however, were not yet over.'flrere taanswered. questlon 1n our mlnd.s. l$las everyono on board., or was there at thls tlme some poor soul thrashlng 1n the waters above us? We took a qulck count. We cheeked. agaln and. thls Everyone sas aeeountod for. tlme there was no d.oubt a.bout it, We !rad. all mad.e lt. $erlous and. d.angerous as the lneld.ent had. been, the ever presont humorous lncld.ent was not l-acklng thls tlrne elther. One of the offlcers shortly after the d.lve went to the eontrol room. As lre looked. around he beca.me aware of the large rrurnber of b::ulsed faees, cut 1tps, and. battored. arns and. S.agds among those who had been on deck wlren the d.lvlng alaru sound.ed.. Ee notlcod. one enllsted man who soemed. to have suffered. more than tho rest. For the sake of moraLe tre approached hlm and asked him how lre managed. to get d.own ttre hateh. trHeLl, l dontt knowrrr sas the rep1y. frOne second I was on deek with a shelJ. ln my hand.s. Ikre next second. I was ln the control roo4. I dontt reuember d.olng anythlng -- I guess I was just susked. d.ovmt?f tr9esoon oame up to perlseope d.epth to see what had. happened. to the Elre Jap pllot had. d.one a mlserable Job, she was st1l1 on the Darter. reef, That boat had apparently made up lts mlnd that she was not golng to be d.es$royed. elther by Amerlcans or by the Japanese, The Jap plane f1ylng around. her, so wo d.eeld.ed.to move on as we }rrow ths.t was stlLl tho Japs would. soon send. a surface shlp to lnvestlgate. Our fears were eonf0med. at about 1OOOthat mornlng. At that tlme a d.estroyer mad.e a very cautlous approach to the Darter fr.om the east. We had sur&lsed. that she wgul.d. come from that dlrectlon, and of cor.lrse had We had. no more torped.oes so were content taken statlon -- to the west. to watch the actlvity from a safe dlstanee. Slnce the Darter was between the Dace and. the Jap destroyer we wero unable to tel1 what actually happened that d.ay but we feel sure that the shlp was boarded.. In the afternoon the destroyer wlthdrelq. lfhlIe observdng the Darter durlng the day we had. come to the coneluslon that lt was stl1l posslble to d.estroy her by puttlng a board.lng party on board. that nlght. Thls time we would. use the Dace ts demolitlon Tfe surfaeed. when lt was d.ark and. began to close the grpund.ed. outflt. slrlp. L2

We proceed.ed. very carefully as we were not qulte sure vrhat the Japs had Left behind.. Warlly we got closer and. eloser. Both Captalns nere on tho brldge. The radar operator was reporttng that the range to the Darter was then two th.ousand. yards r when the sound of echo ranglng was heard. 'It was a slngle plng, clearly d.eflned, The posstblllty that a Jap submarlne was there waltlng for ue tmned.lateLy entered. our mlnds. Yfe lost no tise ln clearlng the vlclnlty at full spoed. slnce we felt 1t unwlse to rlsk th.e Dace and th.e combined. crews for the sake of a shlp that had. been strlpped lry her drew and. that the Japs had. already board"ed. As we opened up from th.e Darter we looked back upon the last two d.ays. It all seemdd.l1ke a d.reann. It had alL started. two nlghts back when we had" recelved. the flrst contact report from the Darter. $1nce that tlme we had aecompllshed. our prlmary mlsslon of glvlng tlnely warnlng; we had. sunk two Jap heavy crulsers and. d.amaged. thlrd one; we hed lost a suba marlne but had rescued. the crew whom we now had on board.. I{ere the dreem came to an abrupt end.. lhey,lrere on board. all. ::lghtt There iivere elghty of them, and. they were very rmrch 1n evld.ence. It was impossl.ble to walk through the boat wltbout step'pLng on one of them. It was not surprlslng. We had. one hund.rod. and slxty-flve men on board. a1L told,. fhere was nothlng to d.o tmt make tho best of a bad sltuatlon. We dlstrlbuted. the Darter men throughout the boat. We to1d. each m.n to plck a spot atnd to renaln there unLess he had to go to the head.. Meails wero brought to ttre men ln theln chosen placos slnce lt was easler to serve ttrem than to have a constant strean of men ln the messlng corlpartment. to see trow welL tlre men ad.apted. themselves It was gratifylng to the sltuatlon. Day after day the same rnan would be found. occupying th.e sarne spot -- one tlme elttlng, the next tlme stretclr.ed out, the tfu're aftor that doubled. up. The Dace men wll11ng1y shared. the avallable bunks wtth th.en, and. needless to say the bunks wre warmed. up the twenty-four hours of the d.ay. fbe offlcers fsred no better. The wardroom was just as crowd.ed.,and. to leave a good seat or spot was to lose lt for the rest of the day. Thrls fear of losing a seat was well lllustrated. by the antles of one of the Darter offleers. $hor:tly after reportlng on board., the Darter offlcers started. a poker gane that used to last a3.L day and. most of the nlght. They $rere good. enough to stop to allow the mess boys to set up for meals, but tllat was aLl. If at any other tlme any one of us wanted. to s1t ln the wardroom he had to pJ-ay poker. One of the Darter offleers played constantl-y, 1n splte of the the fact that he was a constant loser. Day after day he wouLd. get up from the table at the end. of the game and hoLd. forth on hls tough luekr tho poor eard.s, the slrarp clraracters that h.e had" to play agalnsto aad. so forth. After a few d.ays we became lrked at thls da11y tale of woe. Ong d.ay ln whlch the lears were practically flowlngr one of us asked hlm, rrlf you lose so mueh -- 1f playlng hurtsyou so much -- how come you slt tn day after d.ay?" nBuddy, rt w&s the reply, rfttre only way I can get a seat 1n this L3 d---

boat ls to buy ltr and. I lntond. to sit on a eushlon from here to Australla no matter how snrch lt hurts rny foellngs or my pockotbookt rf ft took us eleven. d.ays to_get baek. Drlng that tlmo we were always crowd.ed., d.lrtyr and. tlred.. The good. food. sooll d.isappeared.. We h51d eleven aa}! of ltr but we were happy. Few submarlnei had. accompllshed what we had. d.one. It was a great thrlLL fon the Dace to retr.r:rn from that patroL. 0n our d.ay of arrlval battle flags were proudly fLy1ng. Holeted at the extended. perlscope was the blggest flag we hs.d been abLe to make on board.. It was lettered. nfASK GROUP Mtr ln lronor of Comd.r, D. I{. McClintockr U. S. Navyr the Captaln of the Darter. Beneath the letters were small Japanese flags that told. graphlcally the story of tlre patrol. fbe most unlnterested. observer could. have toLd that d.ay ltrat a nh6tn shLp had returned. from a suoeessful patrol-. Tho_story of the Darter and the Daee end.ed.offlclally that day, but lt wt1l always lLve ln the hear"ts of th.ose one hundred. Lnd. slxtyl3lys men who manned. ttrem. fo mentlon any nalnos, to slngle out any lnAlvtdual for what was accompllshed., would. be an lnJustlce to the others not so mentJ.oned.. SJeh.ave a3.ways felt that our d.eed.s were not the d.eed.s of one nan or of a group of men, trut rather the work of all of us, fr.om the sea:manto the Connrrand.er, from the mess cook to the Captaln. lfe prefen it that way. flhe shlps themselves are now thousands of nl1.es apart -- the Dace ln New Lond.on, d.econanlssloned.-- the Darter, stil1 on the reef ln palawan Passage. Tre he.te to thtnk of tl]em so aloner so d.eserted.. we vrho manned. th.em_are tod.ay separated., perhaps forever. But there are d.ays when 1n our drea"ms rrte meet on board to reIlve, lf only ln our heartsl the g1orlous deed.s of the past.

Taken from tbe January 1948 proceedlnEs United States $aval Instltutes

INTS

t4