Think American subs had it easy? [Historical]

[CCIP]

I thought this might make an interesting read for you!

An account of an S-boat in battle during the invasion of the Philippines in December 1941, from Theodore Roscoe's United States Submarine Operations in World War II (1949) - a huge and very detailed tome. Great read!

*****

S-38 vs. All the Odds

On the evening of December 21st, S-38 received radio orders to proceed into Lingayen Gulf. Early the following morning, she entered that baleful body of water, crossing the seaward end of the reef that extends north from Cape Bolinao. By taking his submarine across the reef in this fashion, S-38 probably outflanked the destroyer patrol that was barring the entrance of the other submarines.

In the dark before dawn the S-boat submerged. By 0615 it was light enough for a periscope survey of the situation, and the scope was quickly focused on a clutter of Japanese transports. The transports were guarded by circling destroyers and several large motor launches laden with depth charges. Chapple immediately began approach manuevers, and, undetected by the escort vessels, S-38 gained firing position.

Chapple fired four torpedoes at four selected targets. Aimed at a 3,000-ton transport, the first torpedo missed. The second torpedo missed. The third torpedo missed. The forth torpedo missed. S-38 was experiencing the plague which ruined the bravest efforts of the war-going submarine forces. Unbeknown to Chapple and his crew, the Mark 10 torpedo was running four feet deeper than set. And each of the four torpedoes just fired had passed impotently under its intended target.

Chapple presumed he had misjudged the draft of the Jap vessels, estimated as 12 feet. His next torpedo was set for a depth of nine feet. The S-boat, of course, had only four tubes, and Chapple had ordered her deep under for a reload after firing her opening salvo.

All chance for a surprise attack went glimmering with the four misses. Sighting the torpedo wakes, enemy lookouts raised the alarm. As the S-boat's crew rushed reload operation, a Jap destroyer raced over on the hunt and dropped three fairly close depth charges. The other escorts began a search for the intruding submarine, the DD's probing with supersonic. For three-quarters of an hour, the S-boat dodged and veered this way and that, evading her furious pursuers. She managed to elude them in this game of tag, and at 0758 Chapple had her once more at periscope depth, stalking an anchored transport - a sitting duck.

Moving in on this unsuspecting target, Chapple fired two torpedoes at close range. Thirty seconds later there was a boat-rocking explosion, and three minutes after that, Jap destroyers were blasting the tide around the S-boat, attempting to gouge her out of the water.

Rigged for depth charges, the submarine went deep - that is, as deep as a submersible could go in those turbulent shallows. For the next hour and a half, S-38 burrowed in one direction and then another, striving to escape the "pinging" destroyers which were determined to track her down. While thus maneuvering to evade, she sideswiped a submerged ledge and threatened to broach. Chapple ordered the auxiliary tanks flooded, and the submarine groped her way along the bottom, bumping as she coasted.

Presently she ran into a mud bank. Chapple stopeed all machinery except the motor generator on the lighting circuits. Men took off their shoes and conversed in whispers. The S-boat "played possum," listening. Sometimes the depth charges sounded distant and sometimes they sounded close aboard as the destroyers continue a frantic hunt. The DD's were persistent, and S-38 could do nothing but sit it out.

Moon Chapple started a cribbage game in the control room, but no player could honestly say he was interested. Varnished cards stick to perspiring fingers, and the aces were soon gummy and hard to shuffle.

In other quarters of the submarine the men began to think about the S-boat's lack of air conditioning. Nobody talked much or moved about - at their stations the men remained silent, conserving oxygen. Time dragged. One hour. Two hours. Small boats passed overhead at regular intervals. Some large vessel fouled the clearing lines and bent the sumbmarine's forward stub mast. Was her number up? Another tense wait in perspiration and inertia.

Moisture condensed on the bulkheads and began to drip as the air thickened, becoming mephitic. It was as though the submarine herself were sweating in the stifling heat. Soda lime was sprinkled to absorb the carbon dioxide. The gesture was something, but failed to sweeten the sour air.

Sound reported high-speed screws coming back again. Chapple ordered the sound man to stow his phones. What couldn't be cured had to be endured, and it was easier to endure it without hearing it. In a process that seemed as slow as erosion, the afternoon wore away.

The "pinging" continued for most of the day, but died out after sundown. The deck was greased with sweat, the heat becoming unendurable and the air unbreathable when Chapple finally decided it was dark enough to surface. Exhausted men blew her ballast as her skipper backed her out of the mud. The port propeller was damaged, but S-38 got clear, and at 2100 was proceeding submerged toward the west side of the Gulf. There were 11 inches of mercury pressure in the boat when Chapple finally ordered her to the surface. After 12 hours of submergence, all hands were wilting and it was high time for fresh air and a battery charge.

At 2300 the boat was on the surface, going ahead on one engine and charging batteries with the other.

Her conning tower had not been long in the fresh air when S-38 was sighted by a patrolling destroyer, and once more she had to go under. The boat had been aired somewhat, but her weary crewmen could have used more relief, and now they were in for another ordeal.

So, S-38 received another "going over," laconic enough in her patrol report, but extensively punishing in reality. Again she managed to evade. Finally she reached a position a mile off the beach where she was anchored in 18 fathoms of water. At dawn Chapple ordered a stationary dive to the bottom, and the submarine remained there throughout that day, giving the crew a chance to rest. At sunset the S-boat surfaced and remained at ahchor. She was forced under once by a patrol boat, and it was not until 0500 on December 24 that the battery charge was completed and the air tanks were filled.

With night fading in the east, Chapple started S-38 on a tour of the Gulf. Cautious periscope exposures were made now and then, and a distant destroyer was finally sighted. Then six transports trudged into view, heading south. Chapple was manuevering to the close the range when a thunderclap explosion - probably an aircraft bomb - blasted the water not far from the submarine. Both control room depth gages were temporarily put out of commission. Chapple took her down to 90 feet and headed north, evading by silent running.

From noon until sunset, patrol boats hounded her. At intervals depth charges barrages would boom down as she crawled from one Gulf-bottom foxhole to another. Skillful submarining got her out from under this storm, and early evening found her running for the west side of the Gulf. At 2230 on that Christmas Eve she ran aground a second time. The jolt gave her a shaking up, but the crew brought her clear, and Chapple ordered her to the surface off Hundred Islands.

No sooner had the water drained from the superstructure with the boat riding high, than there was an explosion in the after battery! Chapple hed given the order to ventilate the hull outboard and the battery into the engine room.

Apparently someone started the blowers too soon, before the air had time to circulate and freshen the gaseous athmosphere in the battery room. A spark from the thrown blower-switch may have caused the blast. Chapple rushed below. Thick smoke was surging from the compartment, and fire flickered in its gloomed interior.

Two men had been painfully burned by the explosion, and Chief Machinist's Mate Harbin had suffered a broken spine. The captain and a young electrician's mate carried out the badly wounded petty officer.

Two or three of the battery cells were found to be cracked, and the electricians worked at top speed to cut the damaged cells out of the circuit. Daylight of December 25 was graying the east before the mangled battery room was cleaned up. There was one relieving note - a radio dispatch ordering the S-boat to leave the Gulf. Then it was discovered that the engine-room hatch, which had been opened, could not be tightly closed because of the deteriorated gaskets. While the men struggled to dog down the hatch, the lookouts sighted a destroyer squadron bearing down.

S-38 got deep enough to evade, but thanks to her damaged and noisy propeller, she was presently picked up by a patrol boat that drove her to the bottom. The for a third time, she ran aground! Chapple and crew worked every manuever to get her clear. She refused to budge. The pumping system proved unavailing. The submarine was jammed on a mud bank with her bow angled up 50 feet higher than her stern. But the crewmen kept the pumps going, and finally she worked free. Only to slide down the mud bank to a depth of 350 feet - one hundred and fifty feet deeper than her tested depth. The ballast tank compressed enough to cause the battery decks to buckle up, but they expanded as she surfaced. Then, in coming to periscope depth, the submarine broached.

Every japanese lookout in the harbor must have seen this spectacle, and as the S-38 crew expected the Japs to attack with the enthusiasm of harpooners who have sighted a spouting whale. In desperation, Chapple held the submarine on the surface. She was on the reef north of Bolinao, and nothing was in sight. Then two destroyers appeared about 12 miles distant on the other side of the reef. Chapple sent her down under once more, hoping to evade detection. While the submarine was creeping forward she struck and underwater obstruction. The jolt smashed the outer glass of several gages, splintered the paint on the bulkheads, shook the boat from stem to stern. But to offset this last blow, there was one Christmas gift. Chapple sent S-38 to the surface, determined to run for it, and the two destroyers turned out to be one auxiliary vessel which failed to sub.

Hours later, S-38 worked her way out of Lingayen, and headed for Manila. Only Spartan courage, surpassing skill and a relenting smile from Lady Luck brought her through. Depth bombs, groundings, underwater collision, a broaching, mechanical maladjustments and an internal explosion had been defeated by all hands and a boat remarkable for stamina.

Her foray in Lingayen was not futile. Official records credit S-38 with sinking the second Japanese ship on the American undersea score - Hayo Maru, freighter, 5,445 tons - the transport torpedoed at its anchorage inside the gulf.

Guarding the approaches to Vigan, north of Lingayen Gulf, the submarine Seal (Lieutenant Commander Hurd) torpedoed and sank the third and last Japanese ship destroed by American submarine fire in December 1941. This vessel, sunk on the 23rd, was Hayataka Maru, a small 850-ton freighter.

The transport downed by S-38 was the only ship sunk by the Asiatic Fleet submarines dispatched to intercep thte Japanese invasion at Lingayen. One transport out of an armada which numbered more than 80 ships, including cruisers, does not stand as impressive on the record. To the submariners Lingayen Gulf was a crucible of frustration. What stands as impressive is the performance of the crews who manned such boats as S-38, and the fact that, outnumbered scores to one, and handicapped by a defective weapon, the submarines that met the enemy in the Philippines survived at all.

[NefariousKoel]

Thanks for that.

[Bort]

The entire invasion of the Phillipines was one HUGE disaster for the US. There were many heroic actions on the part of the American forces, and S-38 certainly fits that bill. Heroic, but ultimately futile...Thanks for sharing the story!

[P_Funk]

That was brilliant. Exactly the kind of thing that makes me want to give SH4 a shot: some dramatic context!

[novafluxx]

Awesome read! Wow...

Scarey stuff there.

I wish we had the ability to turn systems on an off specifically...

Imagine a subsim thats comparible to flight sim or something...control over EVERYTHING lol

[P_Funk]

How about a sim that lets you get caught in the mud? Or one that lets you tell the crew to run to the fore deck or the aft deck for a better diving angle.

So much tiny stuff out there...

*sighs with lowered head and looks up to the stars...*

EDIT. CCIP, you got anymore like this?

[Galanti]

I read Roscoe's book cover to cover about three days back in the Silent Service days (I believe the books title was 'Pig Boats' in that particular edition). Sadly, I've since lost it.

Fantastic book, very vivid and detailed accounts for every engagement of note. Has that nice pre-political correctedness feel to the prose as well.

Probably this book more than any other single factor fired up my passion for the US sub war in the pacific.

[Sailor Steve]

Pig Boats is the paperback version, and much condensed. The full hardcover book has much more information, statistics, photographs, charts and lists.

[SharpShin]

Excellent read! I must find this book.

[ssbn627g]

Great post, Thanks!

[SteamWake]

Nice post thanks for sharing.

This "the DD's probing with supersonic" caught my attention.

Is this just another word for sonar ?

[Spaxspore]

5/5 rated post, great thread!

[ReallyDedPoet]

Just saw this, nice read, some real drama

RDP

[TripleDaddy]

Fantastic post.
S-boat FTW!

[theluckyone17]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

...This "the DD's probing with supersonic" caught my attention.

Is this just another word for sonar ?

Yep. Active sonar.