Run Silent, Run Deep - Страница 49

One disadvantage of this new setup, so far as I was concerned, was that I now had to share my room with someone, since Walrus was not fitted with the extra accommodations in the wardroom 'country" that some of the later submarines carried. Throop, who drew the unpopular assignment of sleeping in the bunk newly installed above mine, proved to be a very sound sleeper, and a very loud one. As we made our way west, I began to wonder how long I would be able to stand it when the irregular hours on, station began to take their toll. One thing which it was unnecessary to burden the others with, at the moment at any rate, was the following special entry in the Operation Order pamphlet, which I pulled out before handing the pamphlet over to Jim to read: Particular caution is enjoined with regard to an old destroyer of the Akikaze class operating out of the Bungo Suido. This vessel had been unusually successful in antisubmarine work, and prefers the astern position when escorting. You will under no circumstances seek combat with it except under conditions of special advantage.

I read and reread the words. There must be some important reason behind them-and add to this the remembered conversation with Captain Blunt months before. Of specific information as to Bungo's activities I had heard very little, though there had been stories circulating about Bungo Pete and his abilities as a depth-charge launcher for some time. "He even seems to know the names of his victims," I remembered Captain Blunt saying.

The fact that we had been warned against him was under- standable; the restriction not to attack him except under conditions of "special advantage" could only mean that we were to stay clear of him unless fate practically delivered him into our hands. But what were we to do if a convoy turned up with Bungo Pete as one of the escorts? For that matter, there was more than one Akikaze-class destroyer in the Jap Navy. How, then, to tell them apart? I studied her in the book of recognition photos until I could have recognized her, or one of her many sisters, through the periscope, from the bridge on a dark night, or anywhere else we might be likely to run into her. But if we ran into an Akikaze, it could be any one of fully thirty- four nearly identical tincans.

My final evaluation was the only one possible. Bungo had an Akikaze, he liked to escort from astern, and he operated in AREA SEVEN. Therefore we would avoid tangling with any destroyer of this type occupying such a position while convoying, at least of our own volition. But if he knew of our presence and general position, he would carry the fight to us anyhow, and in this case we might as well do as well as we could for ourselves if we got the chance.

Another portion of the Operation Order dealt with the possibility of encountering Japanese submarines, and this Jim, Keith, and I discussed at length. There were indications (un- specified) that Jap submersibles were being used for antisubmarine work, perhaps ordered out to wait for U. S. boats going or coming on patrol. We might therefore be apt to encounter one of them almost anywhere.

Daily drills en route to our operation areas had seemed a simple matter of keeping at the peak of training, and they had been an accepted part of our daily routine. Now, with the two special problems Walrus might run into, one of which only I knew about, I directed that the drills be doubled in frequency.

We concentrated on two things: on detection and avoidance of an enemy submarine torpedo, calculating the quickest ways of dodging it in the various possible situations; and on swiftly changing fire-control problems, with emphasis on flexibility in setting the new data into the TDC and the angle solver and getting off an answering shot.

Most important from the self-protection angle, of course were measures to avoid enemy torpedoes. First came the absolute imperativeness of seeing the torpedo as it came at us, or of spotting the enemy sub's periscope. To confound his approach, Jim and Rubinoffski cooked up a special zigzag plan of our own which consisted of steering either-side of the base course line-never on it, and following an indefinite zigzag while so doing. Once taught to our helmsmen, the plan took care of itself. It sent us all over the ocean and we hoped it would force the enemy boat to use his periscope more often, and thus increase our chances for spotting it. The need for alert look-outs we dinned into the ears of our new men, and our old ones too, with never-ceasing emphasis; it was up to them to see the telltale wake or periscope so-on enough to enable something to be done about it. On that simple, requirement our salvation depended., Once sighted, we could turn forward or away, or even line up for a torpedo shot in return. Given enough time, we knew we could get clear.

All the way out to Kyushu we drilled on the possibilities, and when we got there we were as ready for them as we could be. Keith, already an expert on the TDC, became adept at switching his inputs virtually instantaneously at my snapped command. Jim, hovering as backer-up for both of us, found it possible to speed things up by making certain of the settings for him when he had both hands otherwise engaged. And I realized that in Jim one of the sub forces best TDC operators had never been developed, for it seemed to be nearly second nature to him.

We varied the procedure and the personnel too, so that our abilities did not depend on who happened to be on watch when the emergency came. About the time we passed through the Nanpo Shoto our crew was so tuned to the problem that from a standing start, with only the cruising watch at their stations, we could get our torpedoes on their way within thirty seconds. Our battle-stations personnel could shoot a salvo at a destroyer going by at high speed, thirty knots, shift target to a submerged submarine at three knots on a different bearing, make the necessary changes in torpedo gyro angle, depth, setting, firing bearing, and get a second salvo of torpedoes on its way, all within ten seconds by stop watch.

Perhaps our great emphasis on preparation also led me to expect something out of the ordinary as soon as we entered AREA SEVEN, just as we had on our first patrol, so long ago. Sub." consciously I had nerved myself to having a Jap sub fire at us somewhere during the trip across the Pacific, and to finding Bungo Pete waiting for us at the other end. Neither eventuality came to pass. The patrol began with the most prosaic of beginnings, a week on station, within close sight of land, without any sign whatsoever of enemy activity except for an occasional air- plane, and numbers of small fishing smacks with groups of straw-hatted Japanese out for a day's fishing.

During the early part of our second week a big old-fashioned freighter, heavily laden, crawled up the coast pouring smoke from a large stack nearly as tall as his masts. He wasn't making much speed and disdained to zigzag, probably figuring he wasn't fast enough for it to do any good. There was plenty of time for both Jim and Keith to get a look at him before we sank him; he went down belching smoke and dirt. A great expanse of filthy water, studded with floating junk and debris of all kinds plus a number of round black objects which slowly clustered together, marked his grave.

Two days later we trapped another single ship not far from where we had sunk the first, this time shortly after we had surfaced for the night. The approach was entirely by radar, for it was so dark that we did not see the target until just before firing. He never knew what hit him, either. We fired three torpedoes at short range, and all three exploded with thunderous detonations, one forward, one amidships, one at the stern.

The ship went down like a rock, still on an even keel, leaving at least three boatloads of survivors. They must have been living in the lifeboats This was when Jim had an idea and, acting upon it, we ran south at full speed the rest of the night, moved close in to the coast in a totally new spot by next morning. Two ships sunk in the same vicinity would be sure to bring trouble instead of more targets, as he put it, and if we could move closer to where our victims came from-they had both been heading north-we might nab one before he was diverted.

He was right, too, for the very next day a small tanker happened by. I told Jim that this was entirely his own ship, that he had found it, and that therefore he had the right to do it the necessary honors while I took over his job as backer-upper and general understudy.

Jim needed no urging or second suggestion. He grabbed the, periscope eagerly, took over command as though born to it, and,, the conduct of the approach was beyond criticism. He even swung at the last minute to use the stern tubes instead of bow tubes, thus equalizing our torpedo expenditure; and there was that same unholy exhilaration in his face as he gave the final command, "Shoot!" I wished old Blunt could have seen it, in any event I would see that he heard about it.

The only criticism I might have made was that instead of lowering the periscope after firing and getting it back up in time to see his torpedoes hit, Jim left it up the whole time the torpedoes ran toward the target, and watched the doomed ship's hopeless last-minute efforts to evade with positive glee..

It took it twenty minutes to sink, with one torpedo amid. ships which blew part of his side off. Jim gave everyone in the conning tower and several from the control room a chance to get a look at the death agonies.

Three ships in four days, and not a depth charge in return!

We felt pretty cocky as we stood out into the center Of AREA SEVEN to let our "hot spots" cool off a little. We had not even experienced much trouble with our torpedoes, though one of the odd "pawhyunng" noises had been reported during each of the first and last attacks. After a day we moved into one of our old positions on an enemy probable course line drawn from the mouth of the Bungo Suido.