your sinking

[Sailor Steve]

His own personal page; that's cool too.

Thanks for that.

[Soviet_Sharpshooter]

That was an amazing read... this thread has actually made me look forward to killing some of those f&*king Japanese ships in Silent Hunter 4

[AVGWarhawk]

I'm reading War Beneath the Sea and this account in the book said some of the beatings they received were from survivors of the ships they just sunk.

Quote: clubbings and kickings were being administered by the burned, mutilated survivors of our own handiwork, we found we could take it with less prejudice!

I'm not sure why this was omitted from the writings you have. Perhaps the year the book was written and sugar coated for some reason. At any rate, O'Kane is the highest in sunk vessels and was awarded the Medal of Honor.

[Cpt. Stewker]

Just an additional source of the TANG'S sinking. Also helps clarify what the quote listed by AVGWarhawk applies to.

"[This] story of [the] TANG's sinking comes from the report of her surviving Commanding Officer. A night surface attack was launched on 24 October 1944 against a transport which had been stopped in an earlier attack. The first torpedo was fired, and when it was observed to be running true, the second and last was loosed. It curved sharply to the port, broached, porpoised and circled. Emergency speed was called for and the rudder was thrown over. These measures resulted only in the torpedo striking the stern of TANG, rather than amidships.


The explosion was violent, and crewmembers as far forward as the Control Room received broken limbs. The boat went down by the stern with the after three compartments flooded. Of the nine officers and men on the bridge, three were able to swim through the night until picked up eight hours later. One officer escaped from the flooded Conning Tower, and was rescued with the others.


The submarine came to rest on the bottom at 180 feet, and the men in her crowded forward as the after compartments flooded. Publications were burned, and all assembled to the Forward Torpedo Room to escape. The escape was delayed by a Japanese patrol, which dropped charges, and started an electrical fire in the Forward Battery. Thirteen men escaped from the forward room, and by the time the last made his exit, the heat from the fire was so intense that the paint on the bulkhead was scorching, melting, and running down. Of the 13 men who escaped, only eight reached the surface, and of these but five were able to swim until rescued.


When the nine survivors were picked up by a destroyer escort, there were victims of TANG's previous sinkings on board, and they inflicted tortures on the men from TANG. With great humanity, O'Kane states, "When we realized that our clubbings and kickings were being administered by the burned, mutilated survivors of our own handiwork, we found we could take it with less prejudice."

-Quote from ussubvetsofworldwarii.org

[Gino]

At the end of this pdf file, you'll find a report from several survivors of the TANG.
It describes what happened etc. The rest of the doc gives a pretty goed idea what life on board a fleetsubmarine could be like (as far as sickness, injuries and death goes...)

http://www.hnsa.org/doc/pdf/duff.pdf

The HNSA (Historical Naval Ships Association) has more interesting docs on their website.

groetjes,

[Sailor Steve]

That's an amazing document! I've just been looking at pages 208-210: "Errors Made By Personnel Associated With The Firing Of Torpedoes". TDC operators entering wrong numbers; crewmen accidentally firing two at once; torpedomen incorrectly controlling intake of water to the tubes, causing sub to go below periscope depth and captain unable to see results.

Several cases of conning tower flooding due to crewman closing the hatch dogs before the hatch was shut all the way. One case of a crewman's coat getting caught in the hatch.

Wow!