| rrmelend |
11-23-07 05:57 PM |
Perfect Patrol
First time I’ve ever tried to write a patrol report but I just couldn’t pass this up as I do not ever expect to have another patrol like this. I’m not going for any kind of real format so please don’t rip me for that.
After a recent transfer from Mare Island Naval Base to Pearl Harbor the USS Grouper left to patrol off Honshu on April 24th 1942. Arrived off Toyohama and proceeded towards the opening of the harbor around 2200. Spotted a large tanker coming out to sea but was spotted by 1 DD and 2 smaller patrol craft. Forced as deep as I could take the sub and evaded for 3 hours, lost contact with the tanker. Patrolled the area the next 2 days avoiding heavy patrol plane and surface patrols with no merchant contacts. Radioed ComSubPAC and was ordered to new patrol area off Northern Honshu. En route, took out frustration on 2 fishing trawlers with deck gun. Surprised to be engaged by machine gun fire from fishing trawlers, both dispatched to the bottom with approximately 4-5 rounds of HE each.
Arrived in Patrol area off Miyako and spotted a small convoy of 2 tankers and 1 merchant escorted by 2 DD’s before sunrise May 15th. Evaded front escort and fired all tubes at a large tanker (3 hits) and a medium tanker (2 hits, 1 dud). Swung around and fired aft tubes at a Medium European Composite (3 hits). All 3 targets sunk (approximately 19,000 tons), forced deep to evade escorts (minor damage to pressure hull taken).
Headed towards new patrol area off Tokyo Bay. En route, on May 18th found ourselves directly in path of another small convoy consisting of 2 tankers and 2 merchants escorted by 3DD’s. Again evaded 1st escort and worked towards the center of targets. Opened all forward tubes and fired 3 torps at a medium tanker, 2 torps at a small tanker, and 1 torp each at the 2 small old split freighters. 1st torp at the medium tanker was a dud but other 2 hit. 1st torp at small tanker missed but 2nd incinerated the target and both torps fired at the small freighters hit. All targets sunk for approximately 10,600 tons. Again dove deep to evade escorts and again suffered some minor damage and flooding, after about 5 hours we were able to come to the surface.
After reaching Tokyo Bay I decided to take the sub into the harbor and check out the anchorage at Yokosuka. Entered the harbor a little before midnight on the 22nd and sighted a Composite Superstructure Freighter. Fired one torp at periscope depth and broke her back (1,000 tons). Proceeded to the anchorage at Yokosuka harbor around 8am and could not believe my eyes, a Yamato class BB (1st time in about 4 different careers I’ve ever seen one). Fired all 3 remaining forward tubes and swung around and fired all 4 aft tubes. Luckily all 7 torps hit dead on target and Yamato slowly began to settle and capsize.
Since all torps were expended at diesel fuel was a little below 50% we made our way out of the harbor evading 4 escorts of unknown size. Surfaced many hours later with the battery down to about 15% and CO2 levels near dangerous levels. On the 25th as I was evading air patrols we managed to finish off 2 more fishing trawlers with our deck gun again taking small arms fire from the trawlers. Dove deep during the next week to avoid many air contacts and finally slipped into Pearl just before midnight on the 15th of June.
Thanks for taking the time to read this; I originally thought this patrol would be a bust after missing the tanker off Toyohama. Now that it is over I know that I will never have another patrol like this.
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