I have been assigned USS Triton (SS-201) out of Pearl Harbor. It is December 9th 1941. After reading the historicals about the SS-201, I became attached to her. She was the first boat to score a kill with her torpedoes and her deck gun in the war. On 19 November, the submarine headed west to conduct a practice war patrol and arrived off Wake Island. On 8 December, she saw columns of smoke rising over the island but assumed that it was caused by construction work being done ashore. She was informed by Radio that Pearl had been attacked. She observed the Japs bombing wake on the 10th of December, and that night when she surfaced to charge batteries, the moon outlined her to a Jap Destroyer and was forced to dive by gunfire. The Triton dived deep and began evasive action. When she came up the Japanese destroyer had slowed astern at about 40m. She fired all four of her rear torpedoes and 58 seconds later, the crew heard a loud explosion - scoring the first sub kill of the war for the US.
Read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Triton_%28SS-201%29
I decided to stick with this boat. I don't like sailing the most famous or the boat with the most kills, I like sailing one that means somthing to me. She scored the most tonnage of any US Sub operating out of pearl and she was presumed sunk on March 15th 1943 with the loss of all hands. I would like to honor my historcal career that I am going to follow to the crew of the Triton. I found a website with the list of men lost, and went through the config files changing the names of the officers and nco's aboard my virtual Triton to that of the men lost to make it more real for me. It's one thing to just say, oh I took some casualties this patrol, but its another when the crew members have real names and faces. Though I could not find a way to alter the mission objectives in the config files to the historical locations where the Triton actualy patroled I decided to go with what it gave me. Below is my patrol report for December 10th - 30th:
------------------------------
Patrol 1 - 10 December 1941 - 30 December 1941
Orders: Deploy and Patrol West of Volcano Islands at approx 32N 135E and interupt merchant traffic.
December 10th - Set out from pearl harbor at 18:00, set course NNW along midway islands and will turn west at about 32N Lat. Will stop at Midway to top off tanks to and from patrol.
December 15th - Around 20:00 picked up radar contact moving slow parallel to me. Plotted intercept course, arrived and waited. Small old merchant appeared on horizon and and traveled perpendicular to my heading. Waiting paid off. At about 1500m fired 3 fish, all three hit, sunk. Replotted and Continued on Course.
December 18th - After dodging air patrols for the past few days, finnaly arrived in patrol sector. Begin running patrol patterns. All anaysis of convoys and taskforces show that I will not make intercept courses. I find two small fishing boats near the japanese coast. Sneak up to the small slow boats and surface ahead of them and give my gunners some target practice while myself and XO John Eichmann watch. Sunk 2 small fishing boats. Continue on patrol.
December 20th - Late 19th, around 23:00, get convoy message, plot intercept and rush to get in a lead position. I get in position and wait for radar to make contact, reposition so I have perfect 90 degree shooting solution. Submerge and wait. Convoy comes along as predicted. I fire 3 fish each at two Large Modern Composite Freighters and wait for impacts. Timing indictates that one fish aimed at the rear freighter prematurely detonates. Two explosions on freighter at 340 degrees, one frieghter sunk, third fish assumed dud. Two more explosions on frieghter at about 10 degrees, both fish made target and sunk frieghter. Dive deep and silent and slip under convoy. Escorts do not dedtect me. Mission objectives acomplished.
December 21st- Continued one last day of patroling, spent most of it dodging search planes looking for sub that attacked convoy. Fuel level requires that I leave for port, patroling proves uneventful and plot course back to Pearl.
December 22nd- Constant aircraft overhead keep me submerged and slow progress home. Running slow as possible to conserve what little fuel I have so I can make it back to Midway. Manilla would have been nice if the base hadn't been overrun while I was out at sea.
December 25th- Comsubpac wishes me merry christmas, crew and officers have a little celebration.
Late December 29th- Arrive at Pearl just in time for new years celebrations. Moon low in sky greets us as we arrive. Crew morale improved greatly by bottle of wine shared with all for a great first patrol.
Hope everyone enjoyed the read. I encourage you to look up the history behind your boat, some of these boats and men had a great history behind them and make some interesting reads. The USS Triton will leave for her next patrol on Jan 25th.
~DeePsix