Slightly Off Topic But Fun

[Sailor Steve]

I've been reading The Black Sheep, by Bruce Gamble, described as "The difinitive account of Marine Fighting Squadron 214 in World War II".

One of the early chapters describes the transit from Hawaii to Espiritu Santo Island, aboard the "baby flattop" USS Nassau (ACV-16). Nassau was a Bogue class escort carrier, built on a C-3 cargo hull.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nassau_(CVE-16)

At this time VMF-214 was flying F4F-3 Wildcats. Their only escort was the USS Sterret (DD-407).

There are several funny stories (there always are) about the squadron and about the voyage, including the inevitable "crossing the line" ceremonies when they crossed the equator into the South Pacific; but the relevant one involved the "phantom submarine".

February 24, 1943, 1136 hours: Sterret picked up a sonar signal and immediately radioed the contact to Nassau. The carrier accelerated to her maximum 18 knots, while Sterret snooped around, and finally dropped three depth charges. Inside the carrier, some of the pilots, who had never been on a ship, thought that they had been torpedoed.

Feb 27, 1050 hours: Sterret once again picks up a sonar contact, and Nassau again goes to top speed and begins zig-zagging.

Feb 28, 1127 hours: It happens once again. Again, no submarine is found, and life returns to normal. Contact was regained twice that afternoon, and Sterret dropped four depth charges at 1520.

Another contact scare occured in the afternoon of March 1, but finally on March 3 the carrier was close enough for the pilots to take off and fly to their destination.

The aftermath of the story came when Nassau docked at Espiritu Santo. The Aerology Officer (studying wind conditions) also had a bathythermograph aboard, to check on water temperatures at different depths. He went to the XO and lodged a complaint: the tests were important, and every time he tried to conduct one the ship went to General Quarters, forcing him to hurriedly reel in the cable, stow the gear, put on his combat helmet and rush to his battle station. The Exec checked the logs, and sure enough, every time the young lieutenant made his tests, Sterret reported a sonar contact, causing both ships to go into action. Apparently the poor lieutenant didn't make the obvious connection that his bathythermograph was Sterret's "submarine".