“Down the Throat”
24 JANUARY 1943
“DOWN THE THROAT”
USS WAHOO (SS-238) is one of best remembered submarines of WWII, and her third war patrol from 14 January to 7 February 1943, under CDR Dudley W. “Mush” Morton, is perhaps the most noteworthy of her career. Assigned to reconnoiter the Japanese anchorage at Wewak, New Guinea, Morton’s transit from Brisbane was preceded by three days of anti-submarine exercises with the destroyer PATTERSON (DD-392). On the afternoon of the last exercise day, PATTERSON spotted WAHOO’s periscope wake and charged. Morton took advantage of the circumstance to drill his crew in the chancy maneuver of a bow-on attack.
On this day, WAHOO made New Guinea but was chased from Victoria Bay on Kairiru Island by two Chidori-class destroyers. Morton moved nearby to a narrow strait between Kairiru and Mushu Islands, known to be a foul-weather anchorage for the Japanese. Unable to see into this anchorage or maneuver to the other side of the island, Morton realized the only way to scout the refuge was to penetrate its shallow waters. He sneaked nine miles up the narrow strait undetected, with only the tip of the periscope visible. Here he lined up on a tender and fired three torpedoes. They missed, and now a destroyer closing from 10o to port turned to charge headforemost down the torpedo wakes. Prudence dictated that Morton crash dive and shoot from sonar bearings. Confined by the shallow water however, and fresh from his encounter with PATTERSON, Morton chose a more daring option. He instantly recognized that if he fired at a range greater than 1200 yards the destroyer would have time to turn away. Yet if he fired at less than 700 yards the torpedoes wouldn’t run long enough to arm. And, the 30-knot destroyer would traverse the 500 yards of vulnerability in only 30 seconds!
Morton used the tick marks in the periscope’s crosshairs from the destroyer’s masthead and the waterline to gauge distance and estimated his shots. At 1400 yards the first torpedo leapt free. An interminable few seconds later the enemy reached 850 yards and the second “fish” gushed forth. WAHOO dove, passing 80 feet by the time the first torpedo should have hit. But the only sound was the now deafening screw noise of the onrushing destroyer! His men braced for the inevitable depth charges; the first “crash” jarred the sub seconds later. But this blast was quickly followed by the crackling sound of steam hitting cold water. Everyone in the control room exclaimed almost in unison, “We hit the son of a bitch!” WAHOO surfaced to see the destroyer cut in two just forward of her stack. But now in great danger of discovery, WAHOO turned and slipped back to the open sea.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 31 JAN 25
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Blair, Clay, Jr. Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan, Vol 1. New York, NY: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1975, pp. 354-57.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, pp. 52-53.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 8 “W-Z”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, p. 30.
O’Kane, Richard H. WAHOO: The Patrols of America’s Most Famous WWII Submarine. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1987, pp. 122-23, 135-40.
Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3rd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 158.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: This brazenly daring maneuver did not end the heroics of this cruise, for the following day WAHOO located a small convoy at sea. She dodged escort attacks to sink three and damage a fourth ship, earning “Mush” Morton the Navy Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal, and the crew the Presidential Unit Citation, for this cruise.
The episode above was in part the inspiration for Edward Beach’s novel and the 1958 Hollywood classic “Run Silent, Run Deep” starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster. In that film Gable plays the skipper of a fictitious submarine “USS Nerka,” who drills and drills his crew, then successfully executes a bow-on shot at the climax of the film. The exterior shots for this movie were filmed at the SubBase in San Diego, using USS REDFISH (SS-395). The film debuted on 1 April 1958 with a special showing to an audience of US sailors aboard USS PERCH (SS-313).
