Wolfpacks in the Pacific?
18 AUGUST 1944
WOLFPACKS IN THE PACIFIC?
Hitler’s U-boat wolfpacks in the Atlantic innovated the deployment of submarines in that theater. According to Winston Churchill, those U-boats came close to crippling England’s economy. American submariners in the Pacific took note and toyed with the idea of deploying in similar wolfpacks against Japanese shipping. But there were theater differences. The Pacific covers a much broader expanse than does the Atlantic, and the number of American subs available for Pacific wolfpacks did not equal the fleet of German U-boats, especially early in the war. Allied Atlantic convoys often numbered 80 or more vessels, supplying a wealth of targets for German U-boats. Japanese convoys, on the other hand, were smaller, often less than eight ships, because the Imperial Japanese Navy lacked sufficient escorts to guard large convoys. Grouping US submarines around such widely dispersed and small convoys seemed a waste of resources, especially when the first torpedo into any convoy would scatter the remaining targets. Many Pacific submarine skippers thought their chances were better alone.
This philosophy was reinforced on a dark and stormy night in the experience of USS RASHER (SS-269). Her 5th war patrol 22 July-3 September 1944 was spent in the South China Sea west of the Philippines. In a pouring rain at 2130 this night RASHER picked up a larger than usual convoy of a dozen odd freighters escorted by destroyers and aircraft. Her first target, the gasoline tanker Teiyo Maru, erupted in a massive fireball that rose 1000 feet in the air. The escorts flailed haplessly in the storm. With depth charges booming harmlessly two miles astern, skipper CDR Henry G. Munson lined up again. The freighter Eishin Maru broke in two and RASHER’s torpedoes hit but didn’t stop two others. Confused escorts fired in all compass directions at once. At one point two of the destroyers fired on each other as Munson slipped to the far side of the convoy. Here he launched a 10-torpedo spread at ships grouped around another large tanker. She burst into flames and started for the bottom. Even ships in the far column were hit by “tin fish” that missed their primary targets. Munson hauled off to reload and called for help. Then after midnight he lined up yet again, sinking the troop transport Teia Maru and forcing Noshiro Maru to beach on a distant island. Out of torpedoes, Munson turned for home. SPADEFISH (SS-411) and BLUEFISH (SS-222) got their licks in the following day. It was later determined that Munson’s second tanker was in fact the 20000-ton escort carrier IJN TAIYO! His total for this single-boat attack was four sunk–55,700 tons–and four damaged in the war’s best patrol to this point. Munson’s success argued that wolfpacks would not be needed for the time being in the Pacific.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 24 AUG 26
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Alden, John D. U.S. Submarine Attacks During World War II. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, pp. 124-25.
Blair, Clay, Jr. Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan, Vol 2. New York, NY: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1975, pp. 677-79.
Cressman, Robert J. The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2007, p. 248.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, pp. 36-37.
Sasgen, Peter. Hellcats: The Epic Story of World War II’s Most Daring Submarine Raid. New York, NY: New American Library, 2010, pp. 84-85.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: RASHER’s success notwithstanding, wolfpacks were employed later in the Pacific war, but in many cases incorporating fewer subs in each wolfpack than did the Germans in the Atlantic.
Like most pre-nuclear American submarines, RASHER was named for a fish. The rasher, Sebastodes miniatus, is an important food and sport fish of our northern Pacific coast, also known as the vermillion rockfish.
CAPT Henry Glass “Hank” Munson survived the war to fight in the subsequent Korean Conflict. He continued to develop submarine weapons and doctrine during the Cold War and directed the investigation into the loss of THRESHER (SSN-593). He is a three-time awardee of the Navy Cross. In retirement he taught high school physics. He passed away in 1975 and, along with his wife, was buried at sea off Hawaii.
