Palawan Rescue
30 AUGUST 1944
PALAWAN RESCUE
On the night of 13 August 1944, USS FLIER’s (SS-250) surface transit of the Balabac Strait off Borneo was suddenly blasted by a deafening explosion. Like her sister, ROBALO (SS-273), two weeks earlier, FLIER had struck a Japanese mine. The screech of twisting steel, the rush of water, and the cries of men only briefly split the night, for within 30 seconds the sub slipped 300 feet below. Only 13 reached the surface. After struggling for 15 hours in the water, eight washed up on Mantangula Island in the Philippines.
News of the overdue ROBALO and FLIER crackled across the radios at 7th Fleet Headquarters in Brisbane, Australia, on 24 August. Friendly natives had delivered the eight worn-out FLIER survivors to an Army coast watcher near Brooks Point on the Philippine island of Palawan. Four earlier survivors from Robalo had not been so lucky. They had fallen in with natives allied to the Japanese and been turned over to the enemy. Evacuation was requested, but first 7th Fleet Intelligence began a devilish game of confirming the message.
The coast watcher dispatch read as if it had been drafted by a naval officer, and it was signed by “Crowley”–FLIER’s skipper was CDR John D. Crowley. Over the next days, however, Brisbane’s rescue scenarios were put on hold after it was learned that the non-com OIC of the Palawan coast watcher unit, an Army SGT named Corpus, had committed suicide (not an unusual fate among WWII coast watchers in the South Seas). This news was followed on the 28th by another transmission from Crowley requesting a pick-up at 2000 on 30 August off the Brooks Point lighthouse. Security signals to be used by the survivors and by the lighthouse were detailed. Crowley concluded with an additional request to co-evacuate several British missionaries and their families, who were fugitives from the Japanese. This turn threw the authenticity of the message into question. US intelligence held that the Brooks Point lighthouse was under enemy control. Had the coast watch station been overrun? Was it being used to lure an American sub into a trap?
In truth, the lighthouse was in the possession of pro-American guerrillas, and, in disregard for the possible danger, the “go-ahead” for a rescue was given. Braving enemy waters on her 4th war patrol, REDFIN (SS-272) appeared off Palawan this night and successfully retrieved CDR Crowley, his FLIER crewmen, and the missionaries. Similar rescues by US submarines occurred throughout the war. Were they retrieving shipwrecked seamen, extracting covert operatives, or recovering downed pilots, “lifeguard” operations by WWII submariners stand as one of their greatest unsung contributions.
Watch or more “Today in Naval History” 6 SEP 24
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Burns, R.C. “Palawan Rescue”. Proceedings, Vol 76 (6), June 1950, pp. 652-53.
Campbell, Douglas A. Eight Survived. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2010.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2, “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1963, p. 416.