von Zelda

The Battle of Eniwetok was fought between 17 February and 23 February 1944 on Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The objective was to take the island so as to have an airfield and harbor to support attacks against the Mariana Islands to the northeast. The island had initially been lightly defended, given the belief of the Japanese command that the US forces would attack the southwestern Marshall Islands first. Nevertheless, the Japanese 1st Amphibious Brigade had reinforced this island chain in January 1944.

Sailing Gar class sub early morning January 31, 1944 heading for Truk, just north of the Eniwetok Atoll which is at the very north-western tip of the Marshall Islands, I begin receiving radar contacts of vessels at anchor right off the coast at the northern most tip of the atoll. Altered course slightly to investigate and the number of contacts became larger; mostly stationary with a few circling around. I went to silent running at 160-foot depth, at approx. 5 nautical miles distance.

By 1pm, I'd reached the closest ship and I'm running between 2 rows of ships; battleships, cruisers, carriers on the left and smaller troop transport destroyers on the right. There were at least 27 ships in total; 5 battleships, 3 carriers, 9 heavy and/or light cruisers and 10 destroyers.

With 10 torpedoes, I immediately sank a Shokaku fleet Carrier (28,000 tons), severely injured an Agano Light cruiser (6,652 tons) that took over an hour to sink. Went to 200 feet to reload and followed another carrier. Surfaced to sink her, a Shoho escort carrier (12,200 tons) and then located the remaining Shokaku fleet Carrier (28,000 tons). I saw a torpedo launch in the event camera that I knew was not mine; crash dive to 200 feet and to receive a light torpedo hit after sinking the last carrier.

Literally took several hours to get out from under the convoy to head back to Midway. All in all, not too bad a day. I hope you find this interesting.