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Rinaldi · 11-09-20, 11:00 AM

Administrative Matters

LTCDR Eugene P. Lynch was awarded a campaign star to his Asiatic-Pacific Campaign medal
A Navy Commendation Medal was awarded to PO2 Peter Royal, Watch 1 sonarman, for accurate and rapid communication of enemy warships which enabled Skate to successfully evade counterattack.
Seaman Lawrence S. Dempsey, Forward Torpedo 1st Watch, was promoted to PO3 and certified in Torpedoes.
No additional installations or overhaul of the Skate were completed.

...at least officially. While I was doing the paperwork, willing myself to do it slowly and carefully and not feel hastened to get to the Royal Hawaiian, I was visited by Teddy. He dragged in with him a planesman from Watch 2 and said, 'Sir, you oughta hear the boy out. Will do wonders for morale.' As it turns out, the kid apparently wasn't too bad a hand with a paint brush and a stencil and suggested we should mimic other boats with our own kill tally and mascot. I approved in a heartbeat: Submarines by their nature have to have their achievements and operations kept out of the limelight and it can be discouraging, if necessary. Allowing the men to boast among themselves would go a long way to counteracting that.

We also, surprisingly, received our next orders nearly immediately. I was a bit taken aback at how little time in port and liberty we would receive but kept my comments to myself. We were being ordered off the Ryuku chain, which would put us astride several known shipping lanes, it was promising hunting territory, just west enough to avoid the dangerous littorals of the China Sea.

Patrol Summary

2140 Renown earned.

9 officers, 63 ratings – ALL OK, no personnel differences at patrol end.

Merchants Sunk: 5

Warships Sunk: 0

Total Gross Tonnage: 35, 207

19 June ’43 2143h, 142’21E”, 38’39N” - Momoyama MARU 4088 ton.
26 June ’43 1026h, 140’206, 34’31N” - Heito MARU 4466 ton.
June ’43 0016h, 139’36E, 34’44N -Conte Verde Liner, 18, 765 ton
28 June ’43 0028h 139’36E, 34’43N -Kitutin MARU 6786 ton
29 June ’43 0601h 140’09E, 34’34N -Tug Boat 1102 ton.

Torpedoes fired: 24

Torpedoes impact: 10

Torpedoes missed: 11
Duds: 3
Gun expenditure: 30 rounds.
Special Operations:
18 June 43 1430h 144’59E, 42’50N - Commando Insertion off Hokkaido.

Debrief

Winding down and drinking up at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, pictured here sometime during the 30s or 40s. The Hotel was used almost exclusively during the war for Submarine crews, who generally held large pissups to de-stress.

Whilst very, very, hungover the XO and I retired to the armchairs in his hotel room to discuss the patrol and see what lessons could be learned. We swiftly reached agreement on two points: that, all things considered ('all things' being our first, disastrous attack) overall torpedo accuracy was decent and we shouldn't beat ourselves up too much over it, and that we got damned lucky with that large troop liner. We also grumbled considerably over the, in our humble opinion, inane and unjust decision not to officially credit us with the Japanese submarine. They base that decision off of lack of detail in my own report of the attack and the lack of any independent verification of its sinking in intercepts and other intelligence.

We reached these ultimate conclusions and set out to conduct ourselves accordingly next we put to sea:

While it was ideal to use the mantra of 'one ship, one torpedo' that simply was not a reasonable expectation with the torpedo dud rate remaining as high as it was. To say nothing of the surprising resilience some of the merchantmen had shown. Spreads of 2-4 torpedoes would likely have to remain the norm as we went into our second patrol.
Nevertheless, we opted to modify how we fired spreads, not necessarily using just degrees on the gyro. If the solution looked choppy, we should opt instead for an adjustment in speed of 0.5 knots.
Finally, there was clear room for improvement on our surface attack and some wargaming at the wardroom table would be needed to address this. We wanted to test an idea; jogging-in more or less parallel and reciprocal to a a convoy's projected track before sharply turning into it for a high angle attack. If necessary, from the convoy's rear and from outside the convoy if it was particularly well defended. The hope was this would avoid last-minute discoveries by a flank escort as we attempted to penetrate the screen. At the very least, such a small aspect would mitigate discovery, avoiding presenting a broad target to a PO'd destroyer or corvette.

11-09-20, 11:00 AM	#4
Rinaldi Watch Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 28 Downloads: 184 Uploads: 0	Patrol 1 - Debrief Administrative Matters LTCDR Eugene P. Lynch was awarded a campaign star to his Asiatic-Pacific Campaign medal A Navy Commendation Medal was awarded to PO2 Peter Royal, Watch 1 sonarman, for accurate and rapid communication of enemy warships which enabled Skate to successfully evade counterattack. Seaman Lawrence S. Dempsey, Forward Torpedo 1st Watch, was promoted to PO3 and certified in Torpedoes. No additional installations or overhaul of the Skate were completed. ...at least officially. While I was doing the paperwork, willing myself to do it slowly and carefully and not feel hastened to get to the Royal Hawaiian, I was visited by Teddy. He dragged in with him a planesman from Watch 2 and said, 'Sir, you oughta hear the boy out. Will do wonders for morale.' As it turns out, the kid apparently wasn't too bad a hand with a paint brush and a stencil and suggested we should mimic other boats with our own kill tally and mascot. I approved in a heartbeat: Submarines by their nature have to have their achievements and operations kept out of the limelight and it can be discouraging, if necessary. Allowing the men to boast among themselves would go a long way to counteracting that. We also, surprisingly, received our next orders nearly immediately. I was a bit taken aback at how little time in port and liberty we would receive but kept my comments to myself. We were being ordered off the Ryuku chain, which would put us astride several known shipping lanes, it was promising hunting territory, just west enough to avoid the dangerous littorals of the China Sea. Patrol Summary 2140 Renown earned. 9 officers, 63 ratings – ALL OK, no personnel differences at patrol end. Merchants Sunk: 5 Warships Sunk: 0 Total Gross Tonnage: 35, 207 19 June ’43 2143h, 142’21E”, 38’39N” - Momoyama MARU 4088 ton. 26 June ’43 1026h, 140’206, 34’31N” - Heito MARU 4466 ton. June ’43 0016h, 139’36E, 34’44N -Conte Verde Liner, 18, 765 ton 28 June ’43 0028h 139’36E, 34’43N -Kitutin MARU 6786 ton 29 June ’43 0601h 140’09E, 34’34N -Tug Boat 1102 ton. Torpedoes fired: 24 Torpedoes impact: 10 Torpedoes missed: 11 Duds: 3 Gun expenditure: 30 rounds. Special Operations: 18 June 43 1430h 144’59E, 42’50N - Commando Insertion off Hokkaido. Debrief Winding down and drinking up at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, pictured here sometime during the 30s or 40s. The Hotel was used almost exclusively during the war for Submarine crews, who generally held large pissups to de-stress. Whilst very, very, hungover the XO and I retired to the armchairs in his hotel room to discuss the patrol and see what lessons could be learned. We swiftly reached agreement on two points: that, all things considered ('all things' being our first, disastrous attack) overall torpedo accuracy was decent and we shouldn't beat ourselves up too much over it, and that we got damned lucky with that large troop liner. We also grumbled considerably over the, in our humble opinion, inane and unjust decision not to officially credit us with the Japanese submarine. They base that decision off of lack of detail in my own report of the attack and the lack of any independent verification of its sinking in intercepts and other intelligence. We reached these ultimate conclusions and set out to conduct ourselves accordingly next we put to sea: While it was ideal to use the mantra of 'one ship, one torpedo' that simply was not a reasonable expectation with the torpedo dud rate remaining as high as it was. To say nothing of the surprising resilience some of the merchantmen had shown. Spreads of 2-4 torpedoes would likely have to remain the norm as we went into our second patrol. Nevertheless, we opted to modify how we fired spreads, not necessarily using just degrees on the gyro. If the solution looked choppy, we should opt instead for an adjustment in speed of 0.5 knots. Finally, there was clear room for improvement on our surface attack and some wargaming at the wardroom table would be needed to address this. We wanted to test an idea; jogging-in more or less parallel and reciprocal to a a convoy's projected track before sharply turning into it for a high angle attack. If necessary, from the convoy's rear and from outside the convoy if it was particularly well defended. The hope was this would avoid last-minute discoveries by a flank escort as we attempted to penetrate the screen. At the very least, such a small aspect would mitigate discovery, avoiding presenting a broad target to a PO'd destroyer or corvette. Last edited by Rinaldi; 11-13-20 at 08:11 AM.