[c13Garrison]

The first patrol orders came in. We were to sail straight to Japan and seek out IJN targets off of the Bungo straits. I checked the charts and decided to make for the Kii Straits instead, thinking our best chance for traffic would require established shipping lanes. We cast off and started to make way, and I saw how irked the Admiral was with me. The band was three docks down, playing off newly promoted Lieutenant Commander Ryan. We circled Ford Island on the way out, checking out the wreck that had been made of the fleet.

The outbound was uneventful, fueling at Midway and then arriving on station on December 28th. We parked about 25 miles out to sea and waited, surfaced at night & periscope depth during the day.

Early on New Year's Day lookouts spotted sails to the south coming north, a line of 3 sampans. We submerged and went astride their line of travel, surfacing and engaging them with guns. They were destroyed with no complaint.

Two days later at 2130 on the 3rd sonar reported a merchant approaching from the north, and a quick plot showed it was bearing right down on us. I ordered back 2/3's and right rudder to set up a shot. It hove into view, a Hakusika Maru, on perfectly calm seas and with light fog. I opened tubes 1 & 2, setting the first for magnetic and the second for contact. At 1900 yards I fired both. The first blew premature, but the second ran true...

"500 yards...400...300...Impact, ...now!"

Thud.

Digby looked up over his glasses from the stop-watch he held.

"Bugger."

I looked at him deadpan.

"Alright. Surface the boat, stand by guns, independent fire & fire at will."

The boat surfaced and we swiftly began our robust engagement. They replied with AA guns only, and our hits came fast and sure at 1000 yards. She went down swiftly.

We were just restoring our station after the sinking when sonar reported a warship contact approaching at long range and medium speed.

"Periscope depth! Prepare tubes 3 & 4."

We waited until the small shadowy shape revealed itself, a patrol boat of some kind.

"Set 3 & 4 for magnetic detonation and running shallow...."

I watched the ship approach on a constant heading slightly to port, and fired both tubes at about 2200 yards. This time the first torpedo allowed me to believe in it for a full 12 seconds before it blew premature. ...I took a deep breath and watched the second fish continue to bear. The target didn't change course, so I thought I had a chance...but it ran through on past the target, too deep to trigger.

I looked at Digby and frowned.

"Digs, that thing's got a single 3" gun and a couple machine guns. We've got two 6"'ers and are four times her mass."

"Yes Sir, though we are a bit far from home to handle damage if things go awry."

"They won't go awry. Battle surface, stand by all weapons!"

We surfaced turning to starboard, both guns turning promptly into action. At about 1200 yards the minelayer started zigzagging and closing the range on a constant bearing. We were suddenly having a much tougher time on this small target pointing towards us than we did on the big freighter 20 minutes ago. It started scoring hits before we did, and soon Cob shouted up the hatch-

"Sir, forward bulkheads destroyed and the torpedo room is flooding!"

I frowned and watched the hits starting to fall for us, but she was still charging us down and now at 700 yards.

"All ahead Flank!"

There were now 3 large holes at our bows, and we'd hit the thing 5 or 6 times to no apparent effect, despite one of them clearly blowing up right in their bridge. The range was down to 400 yards.

"Crash dive!"

I cursed as we plummeted to the conning tower. How could that thing be so durable?

"Make your depth 150 feet, come left to 270 ahead 1/3."

"Aye Sir!"

The Jap was turning away to port as we too were going to starboard, so at least we didn't need to worry about depth charges as we dove for safety. We were turning through to our heading when Hull shouted out-

"The boat's not trimming Sir! Depth 160!"

"20 degree angle on forward planes."

Ordering to make for a shallower depth stopped our descent, but we were not rising. I ran forward to to the torpedo room, and it was a frightful mess. Killpatrick's party was desperately at work trying to shore up the bulkhead and there was a frightful amount of water standing as we were slightly bow-down, but it looked like given time they could manage it.

We made a large circle through 270 to 180, and held on at slow for about 20 minutes. Sonar had the Jap still circling where we dove, so I ordered periscope depth to see how she was faring.

"The damn thing's on an even keel and making 12 knots Digs, despite a good 10 percent of her hull missing and no bridge. ...we'd better let her go. We took a lot more damage than I wanted to. For the rest of the patrol our diving limit is 150 feet."

Digs looked at me with a quizzical spark in his eye.

"I'll change my definition of 'awry' accordingly Sir."

I smirked a bit and shook my head.

We started heading east, but in time we recovered from our damage and were navigable, so I took us up the coast towards Tokyo since we'd only fired 4 torps. We took station off Tokyo Bay on January 6th, and listened for traffic. There was none.

"Digs, Tokyo seems very sleepy. I don't think we can let a chance like that pass. I think we're going to push in tonight and look at Yokohama's anchorage."

Digby looked at me with hesitation.

"We can't dive past 150 feet sir. We'd be hard pressed to evade a dedicated attack."

"Well the harbor is only 120 feet deep, so that won't matter will it?", I said with a wry smile.

"Very good sir, with some due caution though" he chuckled.

That evening as dusk fell we headed into Tokyo Bay. The plot was 4 hours, and it was entirely unremarkable. Not a single contact on the way in, only a distant merchant as we took station.

"Alrighty, up scope depth 65, lets have a look."

I was shocked by what I saw. Dead ahead was a Fuso class battleship, and turning through 360 revealed an Ise class dead astern.

"Bingo Digs. ...set tubes 5 & 6 for magnetic and 20 feet."

We fired both tubes astern at about 1100 yards, and for once they worked perfectly. So perfectly in fact that the second torp was wasted. #5 detonated right underneath B turret and within 4 seconds a massive explosion ripped through the whole ship. Every porthole and hatch licked flames from inside, and the second torp probably combusted the only combustibles left as the after magazine blew.

Smiling to myself I circled round to consider the bow target. However, our torpedo performance was to regress to the mean.

#1; premature.
#2; detonated under after magazine, no relic fire, slight list to starboard and stern begun.
#3; premature.
#4; premature.

I was fuming silently as we waited for reloads. When #5 was ready I lined it up and fired.

"Circle runner!"

"All back depth 90!"

The fish was set for magnetic, so we had no idea if we could get far enough away before it passed. Sonar listened with riveted consternation on his face as it circled back...and missed our bows by about 30 yards. If we'd had forward momentum, we would have been sunk.

"Digby get these damn torpedoes torn apart before we kill ourselves!"

Digby glanced at me and made his way forward. We had a final moment of worry as the torpedo expended its propulsion and started to sink down towards us, but it exploded about 150 yards forward on the bottom and caused no damage. We went back up to 65 feet and lined up the next torpedo...

#6; premature.
#7; hit forward, but it must have been deep for only a small fire showed.

I was waiting for #8 to load, and contemplating my next shot, when the ship started listing noticeably faster to starboard and taking water by the bows. Before #8 was loaded she heeled over completely and started to settle to the bottom.

I was thinking about what next to shoot at when Sonar reminded me we had a merchant passing slowly astern. Tubes 5 & 6 were up, so I decided to fire. They were both premature.

With disgust I lined up on a Takao class cruiser anchored to the WSW. Turning the boat twice to use all remaining torps we had 4 more prematures and a single hit. It must have been deep though because it only started a small fire beneath the forward turret, though I doubt it was small to the folks in the turret. With our last torpedo's detonation on the way to target I cursed and lowered the scope.

"Set course for open ocean, depth 100 & ahead slow."

On the way out we finally did detect a warship under power, but it was moving slow and away from us, and no matter how hard it was listening it wasn't going to hear us. We made open ocean just as dawn was breaking, but with depleted batteries we could only wait for nightfall due to Admiral Wither's orders. Mid morning however sonar detected a merchant approaching from the south, so with no other contacts I used what battery power we had left to close to about 1800 yards, then ordered Battle Surface. It was a Hakusika Maru, and went down after about 20 rounds. We returned to periscope depth, and at nightfall surfaced to make our escape.

The return to Pearl via Midway was uneventful if lengthy, due to the requirement to run submerged during the day until we were 500 miles from Japan. Upon returning to Pearl I instructed Digby to load the stern tubes with Mk10s before we put to sea again, and both he & Chief Madison assured me they would get to the bottom of the torpedo issue. I frowned unhappily, but finally had my smile when I found out that Admiral Withers was finally actually having me over for dinner. I guess 85,000 tons paid the price of forgiveness.