Not SHIV, but WWII Subs, NTL.

[kikn79]

Found this story while I was trolling the net. I was dumbfounded at the luck of these guys!! This is one that I hadn't heard of before and thought you guys might get a kick out of it as well. So much for b**ching about dud torpedoes!!!


WWII Submarine Story

On the 27th of May, 1944, it was a clear dawn in the South China Sea in the Palawan passage. RADM J.W. (Jim) Davis was the skipper of the USS Raton (270) and received an "ultra" message for his eyes only and was to be destroyed after decoding. The message had information that a Japanese Submarine was in route from Singapore to Tokyo with an important German Scientist on board along with some secret materials. The Ratons orders were to intercept and sink. Another submarine, the USS Lapon was also in the area. Subs were assigned area's to patrol and not to overlap each other's area, unless ordered to, thus preventing any sinking of friendlies.

The Executive officer, Pete Sencenbaugh, had the bridge along with three Lookouts. The OOD, Boloslaw Krauze had just gone below to make a quick sweep of the area before we dived. When the sub dived, two of the Lookouts would man the Bow and Stern planes. At 19 minutes before dawn, two explosions occurred after two hard thunks. The Raton shuddered badly and listed a bit. Nobody seemed to have any idea as to what happened as the sub was in 1,000 fathoms of water. The Captain is called to the bridge, a 30 degree course change is made to investigate. All men on watch were told to zip their lips as to this incident. No Japanese sub was sighted or located. The Lapon had fired two torpedo's at the Raton, both hitting in the area of the Safety Tanks, several feet further aft, if they had hit the Ballast Tank, those 'fish' would have penetrated and of course the Raton would have sunk. The Lapon was ready to fire two more torpedoes, when the OOD yelled that he thought this was an American Submarine. During that time of the war, our Navy had bad exploders on some of the fish. Several times in that period, Raton would fire spreads, hear them hit the enemy ships, but no explosions. In this incident, the fish hit, bounced off then exploded. An Angel was riding with the Raton and it's men that morning along with faulty ordnance. Those Angels must have had their hands on those exploders that morning. "Steamie" Stone was skipper of the Lapon and reported that he had fired on the Japanese submarine, had hit the submerged sub, but did not sink it. Of course this was not true, as reported, the Raton was on the surface.

Upon returning to Perth/Freemantle, the Raton was put up on the Marine Railway. Two big dents were in the Safety Tank area's. The crew were instructed to say the sub had hit a mine or tree, both reported, not to have exploded. Even then, everybody was trying to cover their rear ends from any court martial or reprimands. You bet, dents that big caused by a floating palm tree!

This incident was the only time in US Naval History that an American Submarine fired on another American Submarine. Oh yes, for those of you interested, I was the Battle Lookout that morning in the South China Sea! Hope you enjoyed my story.

Roy Christensen

[U-Bones]

I will answer this one - nice story !

[MaxT.dk]

Sh*t happends... I'm glad nobody died

[TheSatyr]

According to the book "Pigboats",the Raton had detected the Lapon's radar emissions before the attack and knew she was there but for some reason the Lapon didn't detect the Raton's emissions. If she had she would have known the Raton was a US boat.

Apparently,SJ radar had a distinct "signature" and wolfpacks would use the SJ emissions to see where their packmates were during night surface attacks.

[Swooth]

Good read, thanks

[Capt. Shark Bait]

umm.... kikn, weren't you told to zip it ,and that it was a tree or mine? *ponders initiating an Article 32 hearing*

[leeclose]

Ive heard a few of thos stories thru the years i think it happened on all sides the so called fog of war AKA Murphys law