World War II Day by Day

Honolulu, Hawaii • October 11, 1943

On this date in 1943 the USS Wahoo, a Gato-class (early World War II) sub­ma­rine under Com­mand­er Dudley “Mush” Morton, was sunk in the La Pérouse (Soya) Strait, the chan­nel that sepa­rates the north­ern Japa­nese island of Hokkaidō and the Japanese-held southern half of Sakha­lin Island (today’s Sakha­lin Oblast in Russia’s Far East). Armed with ten tor­pe­do tubes, the Wahoo was one of the most cele­brated sub­ma­rines of World War II, sinking more Japa­nese cargo and trans­port ships than any other sub­ma­rine up to that time. By her fifth pa­trol she had set a record for sinking nearly 95,000 tons and dam­aging over 31,000 tons in only 25 patrol days. On her last patrol the Wahoo sank four ships for 13,000 tons.

The USS Barb sank more ton­nage. During seven war patrols between March 1944 and August 1945, the Barb was offi­cially cre­dited by the Japa­nese with sinking 17 ves­sels totaling 96,628 tons, including the 20,321 ton escort carrier Un’yō. Interestingly, under the cloak of darkness Barb’s sailors con­ducted the only ground com­bat opera­tion on Jap­anese soil (South Sakha­lin Island), planting a bomb on a rail line that later wrecked a train. The USS Tang, a Balao-class submarine (suc­ces­sor to the Gato-class), sank 31 ships dis­placing 231,000 tons in her short twelve-month career (five war patrols) under her com­mander Richard O’Kane. The total of ships and ton­nage sunk was the highest for a single com­manding officer. On the Tang’s third patrol she sank more Japa­nese ships—ten—than any other sub­marine patrol of the war. Sub­ma­riners accounted for less than two per­cent of the entire U.S. Navy in World War II, but they accounted for sixty per­cent of Japa­nese mer­chant marine losses and thirty percent of Japanese Navy losses.

Submariners faced enormous danger: more than 20 per­cent lost their lives aboard their ves­sels, and a sub­ma­riner was six times more likely to die than a sailor on­ board a sur­face ship. As a sub­marine skip­per, the Wahoo’s “Mush” Morton was some­thing of a dare­devil. During the short ten months he com­manded the sub, he lined up an im­pres­sive num­ber of “firsts”: first to pene­trate an enemy har­bor and sink a ship there­in, first to suc­cess­fully use a down-the-throat shot, and first to wipe out an entire con­voy (four ships) single-handedly. After three ardu­ous war patrols, Morton was given the highly dan­ger­ous assign­ment of pene­trating the Sea of Japan, the body of water sand­wiched between the Japa­nese Home Islands and the Asian main­land. The loss of Morton and 80 offi­cers and enlisted men aboard the Wahoo pro­foundly shocked the sub­ma­rine force. All further forays into the inland sea ceased, and it was not breached again until June 1945.

U.S. Submarines Wahoo and Tang, 1941–1944

Left: Cmdr. Dudley “Mush” Morton (left) and his execu­tive officer Lt. Richard O’Kane in the conning tower of the Wahoo on Janu­ary 26, 1943, possibly targeting and sinking the Japa­nese troop trans­port Buyo Maru, north of New Gui­nea, on the sub’s third patrol. O’Kane would later assume command of the USS Tang.

Left: A broom on the Wahoo’s peri­scope on its return to Pearl Harbor, 1943. The broom indi­cated the oceans were “swept clean.” The pen­nant flying from the snorkel reads, “Shoot the sunza bitches.”

Left: The USS Tang off Mare Island Navy Yard, Califor­nia, Decem­ber 1943. The Tang received four battle stars and two Presi­den­tial Unit Cita­tions for her war­time ser­vice. Her com­manding officer, Lt. Cmdr. Richard O’Kane, former execu­tive officer of Wahoo, received the Medal of Honor for Tang’s final action against Japa­nese shipping in the Formosa Strait when his sub was sunk by its own flawed torpedo on the night of Octo­ber 24/25, 1944. Captured by a Japa­nese destroyer and impri­soned in several POW camps, O’Kane and eight crew members lived to tell about it.

Right: Downed U.S. airmen on a Vought OS2U King­fisher near Truk Lagoon await res­cue by the USS Tang, 1944. (The OS2U was a cata­pult-launched obser­va­tion float­plane.) On her second war patrol, the Tang was assigned to life­guard duty near Truk. The Tang rescued 22 downed air­men and transported them to Hawaii at the conclusion of her patrol.

Contemporary Film Describing World War II Submarine Service