Harbor raids - A true story? - Page 2

odjig292 · 08-30-07, 05:15 PM

There's a thread below that talks about harbor raids in SH4. In the fall of 1942, a US submarine called at Esquimalt, the Canadian naval base near Victoria and tied up alongside the ship where my father was XO. His ship had been part of the joint US-Canadian task force patrols to Dutch Harbor after the Japanese invaded Attu and Kiska. Canadian ships have a "wet" wardroom and he welcomed the sub captain and officers to Canada. After several rounds, they offered him a tour for me. I was 8 at the time. The crew couldn't have been nicer and gave me a full tour, including a look through the periscope. They invited me for lunch and served ham and pineapple. Meat was rationed during the war and no one saw pineapple. They even gave me seconds so this in itself was a major treat. Over lunch they told me how they had spent the day on the bottom of a Japanese harbor and could see the race course through the periscope, so spent the afternoon betting among themselves on the races. I was sworn to secrecy about this story. By this time my eyes must have been the size of saucers. It is only in later years that I wondered if it was true. I have no recollection as to the name of the submarine but have never seen reference to anything like it in any of the histories of US submarines. Has anyone ever run across a story like this?

08-30-07, 05:15 PM	#1
odjig292 Mate Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 55 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Harbor raids - A true story? There's a thread below that talks about harbor raids in SH4. In the fall of 1942, a US submarine called at Esquimalt, the Canadian naval base near Victoria and tied up alongside the ship where my father was XO. His ship had been part of the joint US-Canadian task force patrols to Dutch Harbor after the Japanese invaded Attu and Kiska. Canadian ships have a "wet" wardroom and he welcomed the sub captain and officers to Canada. After several rounds, they offered him a tour for me. I was 8 at the time. The crew couldn't have been nicer and gave me a full tour, including a look through the periscope. They invited me for lunch and served ham and pineapple. Meat was rationed during the war and no one saw pineapple. They even gave me seconds so this in itself was a major treat. Over lunch they told me how they had spent the day on the bottom of a Japanese harbor and could see the race course through the periscope, so spent the afternoon betting among themselves on the races. I was sworn to secrecy about this story. By this time my eyes must have been the size of saucers. It is only in later years that I wondered if it was true. I have no recollection as to the name of the submarine but have never seen reference to anything like it in any of the histories of US submarines. Has anyone ever run across a story like this?