9:10, December 11, 1941
North of Lingayen Gulf
USS Stingray
Heading North
(Story from Jonathan’s Point of view)
“Up Periscope”
The convoy was heading west North West. We were traveling at just 3 kits and rigged for silent running. I spotted a destroyer as the closest target at the rear of the formation and multiple transports (parallel lines of 4 transports each)
“Alright I see a destroyer in range. I want 2 torps on it.”
I began to bark orders.
“Open and flood Torpedo tubes 1, 2, and!”
The water rushing in the tubes frightened the men but they shook it off fast.
“Match. Set. Fire tubes one and two!”
After both torpedoes were fired I darted out of there. They hadn’t detected us, yet. We turned directly north. I wonder if there was any Jap air cover around. I didn’t want to take any chances.
“Down periscope, ahead two-thirds. Make depth 1-6-0.”
The convoy began to turn to the west…. But my hydrophone officer reported 2 contacts heading toward our position….
9:55, December 11, 1941
East of Convoy College
USS Mako
Heading North North West
(Story from Todd’s Point of view)
“We are Lucky!”
Looking through the periscope I saw the battleship, one cruiser, and just one destroyer in the rear of the formation. The other destroyers must have been up front… something must have drawn their attention. My plan is to hit the destroyer and nock it out, and then I might hit the light cruiser and dash to the south east. I didn’t want to use up too many torps on the light cruiser, so we may just leave after sinking (hopefully) the destroyer.
We need to get closer but I am worried about the destroyer detecting us with passive sonar but I went ahead and gambled that he wouldn’t because he is moving at a fast pace. Now just to close the distance….
“Sir!” My hydrophone officer yelled. “Metallic explosion and grinding sounds not far off…. It sounds… Torpedo Impact!”
Now we all know what is distracting the Japs. We continued to close the distance….
“More Torpedo impacts sir! Loud grinding sounds…. An enemy ship is sinking!”
*****LATER*****
Many torpedo hits were confirmed by us, but it is time for the Mako to take a bite out of the Japs.
“Open and flood torpedo tubes one through four!”
“Torpedo tubes one through four open and flooded sir!
“Match bearings and fire torpedo tubes one and two!!”
The torps went away from the ship quickly. I waited on launching the other two to fire in a different position just in case the first two torps don’t hit. But we need to get out there before they detect us…
“Match bearings and fire torpedo tubes three and four!”
“Torps away!”
“Make bearing 1-1-0, ahead full, make our depth 1-6-0 feet and let’s get the hell out of here!”
11:07, December 11, 1941
North of Lingayen Gulf
USS Stingray
Heading North
(Story from Jonathan’s Point of view)
We are long gone from the convoy. We had already surfaced with 25% battery and we were heading north at ahead standard. The water was particularly calm. Soon, we will turn towards Convoy College and head to our patrol point. We got reports of a Task Force east of Convoy College, but it is not in our patrol area.
“I sure would like to get a crack at that task force” one of my crewmen said with a slight sadness to his voice.
“So would I but its outside of our patrol area, and besides it would have been too dangerous. And we are tallied on tons sunk on merchant’s not big ships.”
We kept going. I hope my brother is doing fine.
11:21
South East of Convoy College
USS Mako
Heading South East
(Story from Todd’s Point of view)
Nearly 20 minutes have passed since we left the area…
“Let's slow down to ahead two-thirds, bring us up to periscope depth.”
“Sonar, do you see anything?”
“No sir” my sonar man said, with a light voice as he tried to concentrate.
“How about on the water phone?”
“A few whales and some other fish, but not much else. This whale is loud though”
“Don’t worry about it”
As we came up to periscope depth, I began to walk up to the periscope but my hydrophone officer stopped me…
“Metallic noise sir… ENGINES! Starting up all around us! Holy ****…. There is so many of them! They were just sitting there until…just waiting for us!”
“Oh no” I thought to myself…
“BATTLE STATIONS!! CRASH DIVE!!!”
The entire crew came to life instantly as men rushed to get the ship to dive.
Ping… Ping…. Ping…. Ping…. Ping…. Ping….
We were getting pinged like crazy. The entire ship was full of commotion. The officers and sonar operators and radar operators were out of there stations to get the ship down fast.
BOOM…… BOOM…BOOM…VOOSH!
“They are dropping depth charges!!”
We are getting heavy damage and we couldn’t let the boat go down…
“EMERGENCY BLOW! Go the other way!!!”
We all thought the ship would keep sinking but it somehow got out of the water….
“Man the Deck guns or abandon ship now!”
Very few young men abandoned. The rest stayed to fight with their captain with everything they had…. Guns, pistols, anything.
We were doomed but not going down without a fight. My radio operator sent the last message we will ever send…
From: USS Mako, S-101 Asiatic fleet
To: COMSUBPAC
Being heavily hit by enemy destroyers. Have surfaced. Firing on enemy ships. South east of Convoy College. 8 destroyers. Abandoning ship.
**end of message**
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