M14 Forum

IC2(SS)19Z50C5

Some will say the below posting should be placed in the Navy forum below, but I have chosen that it deserves to be placed here.

Today is the anniversary day of not an act of individual valor, but a collective one.

About a month back I was made aware of a WWII Submarine Veteran who lives not too far from the local American Legion Post where we hold our monthly USSVI SubVets Base meetings. I wasted no time making contact with this fellow. My new Submarineer Shipmate and Senior Sea Daddy Herb has now become a great friend. He was the hero/guest at our October SubVets meeting just a couple of weeks ago. And I popped for his dues as a Life member of USSVI. (He has been a life member of American Submarine Veterans of WWII for many years.)

Here below is the narrative I have written describing the collective action that at the time, EM3/c Herb B. was a contributor to, in putting one the Emperor’s finest and best heavy cruisers directly on the bottom of Palawan passage just west of the island of Palawan, P.I. in the South China Sea.

“67 years ago today at 0533 hours on 23Oct1944, CDR (later Captain) David McClintock and the crew of the U.S.S. DARTER (SS-227) hit and sink the Japanese Heavy Cruiser IJNS ATAGO with four torpedoes from a spread of six warshots fired from the 227 Boat’s forward tubes. CDR McClintock quickly orders a turn to port to bring the DARTER’s four stern tubes to bear and fired four more Mk14 Warshots at another heavy cruiser the IJNS TAKAO. In doing so he severely damages the TAKAO with two torpedo hits. While conducting a high speed night surface end around maneuver to finish off the TAKAO, DARTER runs up on the Bombay Shoals in Palawan passage at flank speed, coming to rest full length out of the water and permanently aground.

(To make a clarification as to how the grounding happened, the XO/NAV had been unable to take a star or sun shot for two days due to overcast weather conditions. So they well knew that they were unsure of their actual position. But the risk was worth it if they could get into a position to perform a warshot Coupe de Grasse on the TAKAO.)

Not long afterwards, all hands are saved by the U.S.S. DACE (SS-247) who had "Deep Sixed" the IJNS MAYA the ATAGO’s sister ship, just minutes after DARTER’s torpedo’s had struck the ATAGO’s X-Ring so to speak.

The U.S.S. DARTER (SS-227) and her crew were awarded the Navy Unit Commendation, and the 227 Boat received four battle stars for her World War II service.

Here below is an online copy of John Hamilton’s “Sinking of the IJNS ATAGO and MAYA by the DARTER and the DACE ". Thus this is a little anecdote/vignette about the opening shots of what would collectively be named the Battle of Leyte Gulf."



If any of you are interested in the “Ambush at Palawan Passage” just Google it.

The Ambush at Palawan Passage to me is exemplary and just one excellent episode of the fighting spirit displayed by the U.S. Navy’s Killer Submarine Force in WWII.

More interesting additional information about the 227 Boat and Herb’s Skipper can be found at:

http://users.infomagic.net/~grog/

Here is a link with some pictures of the DARTER.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08227.htm

IC2(SS)19Z50C5

Standby for final bearing... We will shoot on the next observation....

Tell the after torpedo room to standby..., we'll be firing all four stern tubes...

Up scope, oh, there she is...



Angle on the bow starboard 35....

Final Bearing, Mark, Set... Fire!!!!

willriskit

USS Robalo was also lost to a mine off Palawan Island but she went down with all hands. Her skipper was Manning Kimmel, the son of Admiral Kimmel, who commanded naval forces at Pearl Harbor during the attack. Palawan was the site of the Puerto Princessa massacre of US POWs by the Japs in 1945. They were herded into an air raid shelter and gasoline was poured down the vents and ignited. The POWs themselves had built the shelter and included an escape tunnel. It was widely rumored that Robalo survivors were among these, but this doesn't appear to be the case. Those who made it out were hunted-down and shot but miraculously, somehow something like eleven survived by swimming to a neighboring island. There's a monument to the victims in St. Louis.

I had a buddy who flew B-25s out of Palawan and he and a group of other pilots were shown the massacre site.

IC2(SS)19Z50C5

http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08273.htm

The Kimmel family certainly had some tragedies in WWII…

The USSVI history of the 52 lost boats of WWII goes with the story that the four survivors of the mining/sinking of the ROBALO were put aboard a Japanese destroyer which was subsequently sunk… (reference the second link below from the COMSUBPAC website)

Knowing the Japanese, they just as easily could have been beheaded at sea. Very much like the beheading party that was held aboard the heavy cruiser IJN TONE. For those that have never heard of that event go to the third link below..

http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08273.htm

http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/SS-273_Robalo.pdf

(Scroll down to 09Mar44) http://www.ww2pacific.com/atrocity.html

willriskit

They were fond of that practice. The nineteen Marine survivors left behind on the Makin Island raid were supposedly transported to Kwajalein and beheaded there. Haven't heard that their remains were ever recovered. It didn't take long to understand why many of the WWII Marines I served with hated Japs or anyone who even looked like one.

IC2(SS)19Z50C5

Yes the sole survivor of the TULLIBEE (SS-284) sinking, pretty much feels the same way..

https://www.ussvi.org/showmember.asp?dpa=25337

Here is some more info about him…

http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/...-never-forget/

And here is a link to his boat and it’s loss...

http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08284.htm