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A16-3
Serial 02
CONFIDENTIAL

U.S.S. STURGEON (SS 187)
c/o Fleet Post Office
San Francisco, California

February 4, 1942

From: The Commanding Officer
To : The Commander in Chief, United States Fleet
Via : The Commander Submarine Flotilla 22
The Commander Submarine Squadron 20
The Commander Submarine Force Pacific Fleet
The Commander in Chief U.S. Pacific Fleet

Subject: U.S.S. STURGEON (SS 187), Report of War Patrol #2.

Enclosure: (A) Subject Report.
(B) Track charts. (ComSubPac only)

1. Enclosure (A), covering the first war patrol of this vessel conducted in the LINGAYEN GULF, SOUTHERN FORMOSA and East of OKINAWA, during the period December 23, 1941 to December XXXXX, 1941, is forwarded herewith.

M. VINTHER

CONFIDENTIAL

U.S.S. STURGEON

(A) PROLOGUE

After refitting at CAVITE during the periode 16-23 december, we had our new orders. Too conduct patrol in the LINGAYEN GULF for 72 hours during the 23-25th December 1941.

(B) NARRATIVE

Dec 23

Left MARIVELES BAY at 1900 hours on the 23rd and proceeded to the LINGAYEN GULF at two engine speed.

At 1407 hours PO2 George Burke from watch crew #1 reported a ship at 6nm to the west of us. We immediately sat course directly for him, still on two engine speed to plot him. Plot showed a southerly course at 7kts. There were 4 ships in a convoy – none of them showing any smoke over the horizon. So I’m expecting sailboats of some sort.

Sure enough they were identified as large SAMPAN type sailboats. There were 6 of them in convoy and we could not see any nationality on them. So at 1505 we turned east to open up range to them with minimal siluette. After that we are going to return to patrolling the LINGAYEN GULF

Dec 25-26

Contact made at 0955. course set for 297°T– directly for the contact. Plotting showed the contact to be on course 330°T from POS 16°52N 119°54E and consist of 3 Fishing Boat’s. We are moving closer to get a positive ID of their nationality.

1014 Battle stations manned – the Fishing Boats are not flying any colors what so ever. Preparing the boarding party.

Nothing was found aboard and their crews appeared to be of PHILIPINE nationality. We bought some fish from them and let them on their way. Fresh tuna will be served for Christmas this year.

On the 26th we received new orders. New order was to go to SOUTHERN FORMOSA and search for IJN shipping. Course set to 003°T towards the western side of FORMOSA.

Dec 27

Watch crew spotted a warship 6 miles west of us. XO Hubbard had sat the intercept course before he woke me up – splendid. Warship is showing a course of 140°T and we sat course 200°T to intercept his course in a 90° AoB setup. The warship changed course several times making an uneven pattern. As we closed up to 4nm we had to dive. Warship now Identified as a SHIRATSUYU Destroyer. What is he doing here alone?

He was not alone. It turned out he was tail end for a convoy heading South. We had no chance of catching up at this time, as we would have been forced to do that on the surface. Course now again sat to 003° destination FORMOSA.

Dec 28-29

0001 hours new order to go to 26°N 130°E and patrol in a 150nm zone for daily reporting. Course sat south around FORMOSA keeping close to the coast line to pick up eventual shipping hoping to hug the coast for safety. Nothing was found in our transit. We received new orders again about going to the JAPAN-LUZON STRAIT-SINGAPORE shipping lane and intercept all found shipping.

Dec 30

ATTACK #1

Durring the transit our watch crew from the 3rd shift spotted a ship at POS 25°9’N 127°54’E going 6 kts on course 250°T. We were on course 065°T going 10 kts and the path deconfliction was roughly 7nm with the contact passing us to our north. We quickly sat course to intercept on a 90° angle to have the best possible setup. Unfortunately the contact was a much smaller ship then originally reported, so it was much closer then we thought (original estimate was 8nm while it actually were 6nm). I believe the ships watch crew must have seen our wake as we raced in full for the intercept. Because suddenly he started zigzagging using continuous rudder. The rest of our intercept was done at periscope depth using very short spotting with the attack scope. The plotters did an outstanding job making out the zigzag pattern so we could alter course to shoot with a 90° AoB in a zig maneuver. Two tubes were flooded and shot from 1650 yards on the fighting freighter that was now clearly identified as a MFM composite freighter with a very tall funnel and very low freeboard under the masts. All hands in the tower voted for a TAIHOSAN MARU class freighter at 1800 tons. The two torpedoes were both set to a running depth of 7-8 ft. based on our experience from training shots. In training all our torpedoes set lower then 10 ft. were running much lower. The first torpedo were aimed at the funnel, but impacted about 25 ft. for of the aim point. Nothing really happened to the ship so I immediately ordered tube nr. 2 fired. Aim point 10 ft. aft of the stack. One must say that the lack of effect from the first torpedo was delivered in two fold with the second impact. The ship blew up in a tremendous explosion, parting the ship in two behind the superstructure, throwing the aft piece so high up in the air that the propeller and rudder were out of water while the broken end were pointing straight up in the air. The ship sank in a few minutes after this beating. LTJG Augustine C. D. Cunningham took some splendid photos of the Maru as she went down through our observations periscope. I believe the public relations office will have a field day with them.

Course was set back to 065°T into the patrol area. This is looking promising!

1800 hours - Not so promising news…WAKE ISLAND has now been conquered by the Jap’s. They have apparently taken the airbase there in use, so now we will have to take that into account if were going to go to PEARL HARBOUR.

Dec 31

At midnight we sat course for the LUZON STRAIT where we are to patrol the shipping lanes between JAPAN--LUZON STRAIT—SINGAPORE. We are going to setup patrolling in the LUZON STRAIT between the islands BOTEL-TOBAGO and YAMI NORTH ISLAND also called the BASHI CHANNEL. An opening that is 60 nm wide, and very likely the place with most traffic.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! we celebrated the new year and our sinking on the 30ish with one whiskey to each man from my personal locker.

Jan 1 - 1942

1800 hours…bad news again. This time with an impact on our mission. The LUZON has fallen to the Jap’s. The airbase is in their hands, so we can expect heavy air activity over the LUZON STRAIT. Bugger!!!

2000 SD contact – its pitch black so I’d be surprised if a pilot can spot us tonight. Never say never, this guy looked like he had spotted us, as he kept heading our way. Dove to 150 ft. and was rewarded shortly after with two bomb detonations close to the spot where we dove. Now we can not even stay on the surface at night!!

2230 We surfaced at 2215 after the last SD contact. Right as we broke the surface SD controller PO3 Ferdinand W. Howe yelled out another contact at bearing 149 approximately 30.000 ft. The plane came racing over us, and I think we were as much a surprise to him as he was to us. Cus his bombs landed about 200 ft. in front of us and his machinegun fire was also long. The plane was a two engine bomber type with one tail rudder. Much like our Michell bomber. Again we evaded deep to 300 ft. and changed course back to the shipping lane course.

Jan 1-13

Much bad weather. No contacts sighted nor heard with Sonar during this long layover. On the 13th we had to turn the boat for JAVA if we were to be able to go all the way home, our fuel was low to say the least.

Jan 13-19

Transit on course 190°T at 10 kts on standard bell. 3rd watch teams youngest man spotted a MFM composite freighter at bearing 082° at 22.11 on the 19th

Jan 19-20

ATTACK #2

As I reached the bridge ENS Larry Hinton had already turned STURGEON to point directly at the spotted freighter and had rung Full on the bell. So it took no time to establish that it was moving towards North. A couple of 3 min plots showed it going heading 335°T at roughly 12 kts. She was in a hurry! We had an estimated range to the freighter of about 4nm at this point, so we came to a parallel course of 335°T in full for the overtake. We would have all night for The overtake and I did not want to burn off all of our excessive fuel.

At 2300 hours we were clearly ahead of abeam and we started to lean 30° into the freighters course. So now we were moving on heading 305°T. 30 min’s later The overtake was complete and we were roughly 2000 yards away from the freighters predicted course. So now I alerted the whole ship with general quarters, although most men had been fully alert all the time through The overtake anyway. We submerged to periscope depth and balanced her off. The three PO3’s from the fore torpedo room Wiley, Bartlett and Burch made ready the torpedoes and opened doors for tube 1 and 2. Tube 1 was set to run at 15 ft. at normal pace and Tube 2 at 10 ft. on fast pace. Both were set to contact/magnetic.

The freighter was soon identified as a KASAGISAN MARU class. It made no course or speed changes for the 2 hours we had been tracking it. So the solution was very simple. Waited on sonar to call it at bearing 340° - had AOB prepared for the mark at bearing 345° and its speed of 12 kts were already punched into the TDC. Position Keeper was engaged and as the freighter reached bearing 345° I took a range and called the bearing mark. AoB was updated and shortly after Tube 1 was fired on the funnel. Tube 2 was shot shortly after on the fore mast.

The first torpedo to hit was #1. It struck at 0020 hours approximately 15 ft. behind the aim point and there was no apparent result from its damage. #2 struck shortly after right at the aim point. In short time the freighter took a list to the right and the stern started to burry into the sea. She went down in 20 min’s stern first. I believe most of the crew made the rescue boats.

Jan 20-28

Transit to and refit at DARWIN. Strangely enough we did not see a single aircraft on this trip down trough the MAKASSAR STRAIT. The Jap expansion forced us to go for a first visit in AUSTRAILIA. The crew had a splendid night on the town here. But there was no time to waste. There is a war to fight so we had to transit to JAVA to have damage fixed to be able to go on another patrol.

Jan 28-Feb4

Transit without events from DARWIN to JAVA.

SUNK

Number - Type - Class - When - Tons

1 - Freighter -TAIHOSAN MARU class - ATTACK #1 - 1700

1 - Freighter - KASAGISAN MARU class - ATTACK #2 - 2230

Total ships and tonnage

2 - 3930