Action in Subic Bay
18–19 JANUARY 1942
ACTION IN SUBIC BAY
The first five weeks of our involvement in World War II found US forces battling a Japanese onslaught in the Philippines. On Luzon we were pushed farther and farther down the Bataan Peninsula, cut off from reinforcement. US Naval forces of the Asiatic Fleet were equally pressed throughout far eastern seas, leaving the six PT boats of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 under LT John D. Bulkeley to do their sole best against the enemy in the Philippines. By this date, PT-32 and 33 had already been lost when the former’s engines had been ruined rescuing 196 survivors from the mined civilian steamer Corregidor and the latter grounded while on patrol in Manila Bay. Weeks of unrelenting action coupled with contaminated fuel and shortages of spare parts had taken a toll on the four remaining 77-foot boats, particularly on the engines. The crews, too, were worn from the stress.
Regardless, on January 18th, Bulkeley received a message from Army headquarters requesting his assistance in routing four enemy vessels, including a destroyer and a large transport, from Binanga Bay, a smaller bay within Subic Bay. After nightfall Bulkeley took PT-34 in company with LT Edward G. DeLong in PT-31 and headed to that location. Upon entering Subic Bay they split up, PT-31 creeping up the eastern bay and Bulkeley skirting the western edge. As Bulkeley approached their rendezvous point near Grande Island, shore fire erupted on all sides. PT-31 was nowhere in sight, but 500 yards ahead could be seen two masts of a large freighter. Flasher signals challenged from several directions. Bulkeley fired two torpedoes. One exploded against the hull of the freighter a minute later, the other lodged fast in its tube, running hot. PT-34 turned for sea with her throttles wide open.
Without water resistance against the propeller blades, the turbine of the hot-running torpedo would take only minutes to overheat and shatter, showering the vicinity with white-hot fragments. To make matters worse, the bow wash splashing over the torpedo tube was advancing the weapon’s arming impeller. Once armed, a blow of 8 pounds would be sufficient to detonate the warhead. TMC John Martino jumped into action. Straddling the hissing torpedo that hung half out of its tube, Martino stuffed the first thing he could find, toilet paper, into the impeller to stop its advance. As the PT lurched across each wave Martino dangled over the railing to disassemble the casing and close the valve in the air line. Once beyond the range of friendly ships, the weapon was jettisoned.
The following morning Army observers on Mariveles Mountain reported watching a 5,000-ton freighter sink in Binanga Bay. The shelling of US positions in the western Bataan area slackened as the 5.5″ guns of the freighter proved to be the source. However, no word was received from the missing PT-31 or her crew…
Learn the fate of PT-31 tomorrow…
Breuer, William B. Devil Boats: The PT War Against Japan. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1987, pp. 26-31.
Breuer, William B. Sea Wolf: A Biography of John D. Bulkeley, USN. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1989, pp. 40-43.
Bulkley, Robert J., Jr. At Close Quarters: PT Boats in the United States Navy. Washington, DC: GPO, Department of the Navy, 1962, pp. 9-16.
White, W.L. They Were Expendable. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1942, pp. 66-76.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: The Japanese had taken Subic Bay around Christmas and were establishing a base to support operations down the western shore of the Bataan Peninsula. Binanga Bay is opposite Grande Island within the eastern area of Subic Bay. It formed part of the protected waters of our former Naval Station at Subic Bay; for those still familiar with that erstwhile base, it was the site of the ammunition pier for the naval magazine. However, the wreck on the northern side of this bay frequented by sport divers in the 1980s is not the freighter sunk by Bulkeley.
Grande Island was later used as a detention center where Filipino males old enough to bear arms were executed as part of the Japanese effort to pacify the region.
