The Lost USS Wahoo / SS-238

[nattydread]

It wasnt just the lose of O'kane. He seemed to be good trigger man on the periscope, but I think the heart and soul of the Wahoo was Mush. O'Kane himself thinks it was the heavy lose of skilled crew before they left out that patrol...or maybe the patrol before. The Wahoo had about 25% of its crewed removed, with a larger number of them being skilled/specialized crew and officers.

Mush was basically commanding a "greenish" crew when he was likly war fatigued, used to the crew running smoother with less over-sight and IJN ASW improving.

[Packerton]

Really kicks you back into reality...

We may be able to restart when we screw up and stuff....but in real life imagine haveing to die in a steal coffin as it pretty much crushes around you...

[nattydread]

Actually they say the sub doesnt crush in on you. It crushes only until the hull breaches and then you have an almost instaneous, explosive rush of water fill the whole sub. Thats why the subs are always found intact and still shaped roughly as they should.

But yeah, its sobering.

[TheSatyr]

Morton was worn out,had combat fatigue and had lost at least 25% of his veteran crew...including the ones he counted on the most. It's not really THAT big a surprise that she finally got caught on that patrol.

Why he tried to get through La Perouse in daylight is something we will never know...I'm guessing it was just a bad judgement call by a very tired and worn out man. One thing I do know,had O'Kane still have been on that boat at the time he wouldn't have let Morton do it.

As an aside,according to Forrest Sterling ("Wake of the Wahoo") O'Kane wasn't very well liked when he was XO of the Wahoo...the crew considered him to be a bit of a martinet. He seemed to change ALOT between the time he left the Wahoo and the time he took command of the Tang. (Of course,it couldn't have been easy being an exec to a free spirit like Morton was. He spent as much time with the enlisted men as he did with the officers...including wrestling matches in the forward torpedo room...which Morton almost always won. I think he may have been the wrestling champion when he was at Annapolis...I could be wrong though.).

It was a crime to send Morton back out there when so many people knew he wasn't quite right...including Lockwood who did have second thoughts about it...which proved to be correct.

At least one good thing came out of it. After losing Morton,Lockwood made the decision to limit the number of patrols of his sub skippers so what happened to Morton wouldn't happen to any one else.

[Mylander]

Originally Posted by dean_acheson

I don't suppose anyone has been awarded command of the USS Wahoo ingame yet? That would have to be the biggest easter egg ever.

'you have been given command of the USS Wahoo'

I'd spit my coffee all over the screen!

Only slightly less cool would the the Tang, Bowfin, and Drum.

I am in command of USS Wahoo. Started a new career in '43. Yes, I spit my coffee all over the screen .

Mylander

[secur3x]

maybe someone should email al lthis info to http://www.shipwreckcentral.com/ and try and get the sea hunters to do a dive on it along with james delgato the man who found the bismarck and documented her damage. Maybe they can shed some light on what happened to wahoo and what damage she has incurred. Would be a nice documentry to watch seen as how there documentry on U-251 was quite interesting.

[Mush Martin]

Originally Posted by Mylander

I am in command of USS Wahoo. Started a new career in '43. Yes, I spit my coffee all over the screen .

Mylander

Lucky SOB now that should be considered an easter egg.

[Mylander]

And just in time for easter! (Or the vernal equinox, as I prefer to call it)

Mylander

[daft]

Originally Posted by Mush Martin

Lucky SOB now that should be considered an easter egg.

I also got the Wahoo in my previous career. No coffee on my screen, but it was nice knowing the history of such a fine boat.

[woofiedog]

Judging by the enemy reports and the battle photo's taken at the scene that day ... the USS Wahoo was traveling on the surface with clear skies and full visiblity range... also with a shallow sea bed under her keel.

A good question is why? At lest wait for darkness of night?

Caught by Coastal Battery guns on the surface... she was damaged in her fuel tanks area and leaving a visible trail of fuel oil on the surface.
When she did dive the shallow sea bed gave her no protection either. The Japanese could still see the Wahoo's hull silhouetted below.

A No Win situation when trying to evade the surface and air units that were there for the final kill.

Sad lose indeed.

Japanese records now reveal that the following ships were sunk in the Sea of Japan shortly before Wahoo's loss; Taiko Maru (2,958 tons) 25 September; Konron Maru (7,903 tons) 1 October; Kanko Maru (1,288 tons) 6 October; and, Kanko Maru (2,995 tons) 9 October. Wahoo was the only submarine which could have sunk these ships.


Wahoo's Battle Flag..."Just sight, track, shoot and Sink!" -- D.W. Morton

[woofiedog]

The Battle Report of the USS Sawfish...

Two days prior to the Wahoo’s fatal attempt to exit the Sea of Japan, the USS Sawfish (SS 276) successfully exited through the same route Wahoo attempted.

. On entering LA PEROUSE STRAIT we were fortunate in having terrible weather and passed through undetected. On leaving the Japan Sea, we contacted a small boat, believed to have been a patrol boat, about 15 miles west of the Strait. He trailed us but his speed was insufficient to keep up. The signal station on NISHI NOTORO MISAKI challenged us and kept repeating his challenge for about a half hour. After he challenged us for five minutes, we slowed to five knots and he lost us. When we speeded up to 20 knots, he swung his beam back on us, indicating he was detecting us by sound. The distance to NISHI NOTORU MISAKI at this time was 12 miles.
Two Radar contacts were made in the Strait on what may have been patrols, but nothing was sighted.
Immediately after surfacing on 9 October, with NIJO GAN bearing 290oT, 27 miles, we sighted a plane in what direction at range of 10 miles and dove. Sea was flat. Plane did not drop bombs. Three hours later, about 0930, a patrol boat of PC type arrived on the scene and stopped 3000 yards on our starboard beam and began echo range. We went to 300-372 feet and evaded; the patrol boat did not contact us. He stopped pinging, and commenced listening, after about a half hour. He would stop while listening. At 1140 four explosions were heard and felt, which may have been depth charges or bombs. Having heard nothing since 1200, came to periscope depth at 1430 – nothing in sight. Retired to southeast on first sighting patrol boat until surfacing. Since the patrol boat had our dead reckoning position figured so accurately, it is probable that the plane dropped a float to mark our diving point.

Link: http://www.mackinnon.org/sawfish-4th-patrol-report.html

[nattydread]

It was common to run the strait on the surface. It was usually done at nigh and at pr near flank speed. It was shallow anyway, so a slow submerged transit wasnt considered desirable because it was frequently patrolled.

Also, the strait was mined and mined for submerged targets. You best bet we was to stay surfaced and skirt all the hazards at high speed and in one night under the cover of darkness.

It wasnt so questionable that Mush made the dash surfaced, just that he did it during the day with good visibilty. Some suggests he was desperate and already damaged. He needed to get out of the Sea of Japan and quick.

Now this is speculation, but the oil slick may not have come from a land artillery hit, because I'd reckon a sub would be difficult to pick off. I'd doubt the first hit would hit and if he was transitting at high speed like he should have, he would likly been able to dive faster and get out of sight.

So if he was transiting slow, he was already damaged. If he was already damaged he may have been leaking fuel/oil already, if he was leaking he may not want to stay submerged where he could get jumped while blind and slow. So he knows he is trouble, he runs surfaced, at his fastest speed posssible and trailing fuel/oil which he knows will eventually lead bad guys to him...so he might as well get to deep water ASAP and out of teh heavily patrolled Sea of Japan.

Also, the land artillery likly had surface search radar, so the Wahoo would have known he was being targeted through use of the radar detector once the radar beam fixated on them(I believe he had one, and if not his own radar would have picked up interfernece static from the shore most likly). Now if he could dive and knew he was spotted, we would have...and he could dive, but he didnt. But if he couldnt tell, it may have been due to his equipment being damaged with the rest of the sub. I also think an artillery strike would have rendered the sub unsubmergiable.

[dean_acheson]

Originally Posted by Mylander

I am in command of USS Wahoo. Started a new career in '43. Yes, I spit my coffee all over the screen .

Mylander

Exactly when and where did you start your career, I've started and restarted about 25 time now, late 42 early 43 at Pearl and haven't got the Wahoo yet.....

[TheSatyr]

There are two different versions of the Wahoo's last fight. One is the article in the link. The other one is that a Japanese patrol plane sighted a sub running on the surface,attacked out of the sun,dropped a bomb which the pilot believed hit behind the conning tower. The sub then dived and the pilot radioed the incident in after which the IJN sent some pcs and more planes to prosecute the contact.

The only difference between the two is that in one version the shore batteries spotted the Wahoo first,in the other version an aircraft spotted her first and struck her with a bomb. (Which might explain the oil slick if the bomb had hit a fuel tank.).

What I find myself wondering about is why no one used a momsen lung to try to make it to the surface. The water was certainly shallow enough to do it. They could have gone out either the forward or aft torpedo room hatches. Unless both torpedo rooms were flooded in which case they could have used the conning tower hatch as a last resort. The failure of anyone to get out does lead me to believe that there was sudden and catastrophic flooding on the boat before she touched bottom.

As for the possibility that the Wahoo was damaged before entering La Perouse,seems to me that that would have been even more of a reason to try going through at night instead of during the day,unless Morton panicked...and Morton wasn't the type to panic under any circumstances. What if...Morton was already dead and whoever took command panicked and decided to make the run during the day just to get the hell out of there. Which is a thought I've never considered before. If Wahoo had been damaged,lost the radio antenna and the radar antenna...with Morton dead or incapacitated and with inexperienced officers left to run the boat then I can definitely see panic quickly setting in,and poor decisions being made because of it. Course this is all speculation...but it fits the facts known (Which are very few) as well as anything else.

It does look like the passage of the Sawfish put the Japanese on high alert in La Perouse. Wahoo might not have been able to make it out even if the ship and crew were fine and even if they had tried going through at night.

[joshuaj]

Funny,
I have command of the Wahoo and my career name is Richard O'Kane.