IF you go to the following site
http://www.usswahoo.org/ which is run by Bryan MacKinnan, who is the Grand Nephew of Mush Morton you will find out a lot more information. He has interviewed participants in WAHOO's last battle.
In a "nutshell"...the Japanese were on the lookout for a submarine to exit La Perouse because of the "trail of sinkings" leading to it. When USS SAWFISH departed on the 9thand was VISIBLY challenged by the lighthouse on Cape Soya, WAHOO was sinking its last ship <Hankow Maru> south of the Straits. They KNEW there were two subs and were preparing for it.
The morning of the 11th of OCtober...the water was super clear and the water temps were in the mid 20's < one reason why no one escaped using Mompson Lungs...too cold>. The Japanese had the following assets in the area Minesweepr #18 and Subchasers # 15 +. In the air were two Seiran Attack Float Planes.
At 0930 Suguru Ichida <radioman in float plane #32> heard an alarm from another float plane <#319>. They had spotted a small lubricating oil slick approx 10 meters by 5 meters. This would have been caused by an amount no larger than the volume of a small water glass. The lubrication oil came from the propeller shafts of submarines and recognised as such.
Float Plane #319 saw the shadow of a conning tower and attacked. She dropped one bomb which may have gone off below WAHOO forcing her closer to the surface
causing her to momentarilly broach so the Japanese could see "the body and wake of a propeller". Another bomb was dropped possibly causing the fatal damage <more on that in a bit>.
When seen...WAHOO had passed out of the Straits but once she was damaged she turned to the west on a course of 315 possibly hoping to head back into the Sea of Japan and perhaps to Russian territory to scuttle or hopefully intern themselves. <this last bit is speculation>.
Float Plane 32 then took its turn dropping more bombs and the oil slick was getting larger. The two planes then kept shuttling back and forth between the attack area and their base at Wakkanai while the ships monitored the area. The slick became much larger and air bubbles were seen as well as larger volumes of oil. Occasionally...they sighted the sub below the surface. WAHOO slowed down and eventually alighted upright on the bottom. Hours later...a huge volume of oil burst to the suface. Since this was after the attacks had ceased...it is speculated that the surviving crew tried to lighten the ship by blowing all ballast and remaining oil to lighten the ship to allow it to surface so the remaining crew could escape. This failed and the remaining personnel most likely ended up dying slowly until the air exhausted itself.
Now for the damage to the sub. Video taken by the Russian divers shows the WAHOO INTACT and upright on the bottom heading westward. Originally it was thought that some of the first bombs had damaged her propeller blades but photgraphs show both props intact although covered with marine growth. The only VISIBLE MAJOR DAMAGE was a bomb hit that penetrated the sub on the cigarette deck aft of the bridge superstructure. The bomb hit was angled downward from port to starboard and blew out portions of the superstructure and hull in the vacinity of the Crews Mess aft of the control room watertight door. This damage was fatal killing all in the area flooding the crews mess and sleeping quarters. Not sure IF the bomb blew out the w/t door leading to the control room. Photopgraphic evidence does not show IF the initial bomb blast damaged the Conning Tower. This is important as the WAHOO's scopes were found to be RAISED leading to the theory that Morton had brought the boat too close to the surface for a "fatal look-see".
The WAHOO remained in some form of control as it fought for its life changing depth and speed to try to evade the asw attacks. How many and where they were is impossible to tell. No one is planning on entering the boat to check nor are there plans to raise her. She is an official war grave.
As for the speculation of her being shelled by a shore artty bettery...even Japanese participants in her sinking are not accepting the Army's report that they saw her. She was on the Russian side of the 12 mile wide strait and out of range of the shore batteries.
Adm O'Kane <whom I had met and corresponded with regularly until his death> wrote of his ideas of what happened to her. He speculated <and wrote in his book WAHOO> that she was damaged by a circular run <while submerged> and was struck in her forward torpedo room. While his own ship was sunk by its last torpedo <he was one of 9 survivors>...his idea was that WAHOO was only damaged forcing her to leave early. I and others disputed that notion and it was not until the Russian video came out that dispelled his theory. Unfortunately it came 13 years after his death so he never saw the pictures of WAHOO.
Hope this helps clear up some of the controversy over her sinking...
Shell
USN RET
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Originally Posted by TheSatyr
There are two different versions of the Wahoo's last fight. One is the article in the link. The other one is that a Japanese patrol plane sighted a sub running on the surface,attacked out of the sun,dropped a bomb which the pilot believed hit behind the conning tower. The sub then dived and the pilot radioed the incident in after which the IJN sent some pcs and more planes to prosecute the contact.
The only difference between the two is that in one version the shore batteries spotted the Wahoo first,in the other version an aircraft spotted her first and struck her with a bomb. (Which might explain the oil slick if the bomb had hit a fuel tank.).
What I find myself wondering about is why no one used a momsen lung to try to make it to the surface. The water was certainly shallow enough to do it. They could have gone out either the forward or aft torpedo room hatches. Unless both torpedo rooms were flooded in which case they could have used the conning tower hatch as a last resort. The failure of anyone to get out does lead me to believe that there was sudden and catastrophic flooding on the boat before she touched bottom.
As for the possibility that the Wahoo was damaged before entering La Perouse,seems to me that that would have been even more of a reason to try going through at night instead of during the day,unless Morton panicked...and Morton wasn't the type to panic under any circumstances. What if...Morton was already dead and whoever took command panicked and decided to make the run during the day just to get the hell out of there. Which is a thought I've never considered before. If Wahoo had been damaged,lost the radio antenna and the radar antenna...with Morton dead or incapacitated and with inexperienced officers left to run the boat then I can definitely see panic quickly setting in,and poor decisions being made because of it. Course this is all speculation...but it fits the facts known (Which are very few) as well as anything else.
It does look like the passage of the Sawfish put the Japanese on high alert in La Perouse. Wahoo might not have been able to make it out even if the ship and crew were fine and even if they had tried going through at night.
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