Article 32 hearing of LCDR Eugene D. Williams

[Red October1984]

Admiral Armistead

After I was fired upon by the subchaser's machine guns, I was still able to use my periscopes but they did not raise as fast as usual. When I broke off the attack the first time, I had to recharge my batteries. I remember saying this. I went north a bit and ran on the surface for a night to recharge batteries and make repairs. We made visual contact with the subchaser several times. I saw the Yamato through my periscope before I was fired upon the second time.

I did not secure a deck gun while in port because I simply could not. I tried several times, but there was no way for me to get one.

Not everything I put in the reports was written down officially. I added my personal thoughts, ideas, humor, and sarcasm into those reports because, may I remind you, this is a public internet forum. I did not know if the subchaser had sonar or not. That was an assumption on my part. When I said I had the intention to surface and ram the subchaser, I had been awake for 32 hours straight underwater and I was getting fed up. This was an attempt to make a joke.

You are telling me that I said one thing...when I did not. I stated several times that I received damage from the subchaser. I attempted to fire a torpedo at it. I also stated that. When I said that i could not use my periscope or come to radar depth, I was stating that if I did use my periscope or came to radar depth, I would've been discovered and fired upon once again. If you look again, I said "Periscope" without an "S" on it. That means that it wasn't plural. I was not able to use my periscope out of fear of detection. At that point in time, Sonar had reported the Subchaser closing in on me.

I felt that we could attack ships in port in 65 feet of water because I had done it before with this crew. I, being a new skipper, have yet to attack a convoy. I have only been in contact with 2 convoys in my time as a submarine commander. One of them was near the Bungo Straits and was moving too fast for me to intercept. The other one was a group of Junks en route to Tokyo harbor. I did not engage because those targets are not worth it.

Yes, I did believe that the escorts would not drop depth charges in their own harbor. I believed that the water was too shallow for an attack in the close proximity to the Task Force. The Japanese escorts were anchored in the harbor anyway. I could tell that much from the Periscope.