The new boat had just passed through the Panama Canal. It reached the Pacific and it's green crew was looking foraward to showing off it's stuff.
The two week training respite on the southern end of the Canal improved their abilities and reaction times. The new boat still presented a large outline and was so very easy for the Japanese sub to spot and track. The Gato was not yet shifting course and speed to randomly the Japanese skipper took a bead on her.
A salvo of three ripped through the water just as the cooks assistant tossed the two weighted canvas sacks of garbage into the wake and lit his cigarette...
The first torpedo ripped through the water just 10 yards ahead of the starboard bow. Scanning instinctively towards the direction of the topedo's origin, the cook gasped as he saw the two wakes running dead at him from the starboard just amidships.
The detonations were near simultaneous as the GATO's hull was ripped apart and the second torpedo breached the preassure hull at the control centers level.
She lifted from the water bodily as the deep explosion broke her keel.
The Japanese had surmised the scheduled departure of the Gato. Her agents in Panama had signalled the arrival and departure time. This was one GATO that would never fire a shot against the Japanese Imperial Navy.
It was over wthin minutes, oil, debis and little else remained floating on the surface. Even the Watch crew on the Conning tower and the cooks assistants bodies were mangled and torn asunder.
The skipper of the Gato had been warned about possible Japanese submarines in the area, he had spent the last night at a bar, and was drunkenly asleep. His second officer had just left the deck when the torpedoes struck.......
Sub to Sub combat...... A vital element...
