Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-12-31
BY WALTER B. CLAUSEN,

WHERE IN THE PACIFIC, Nov. 2
Delayed A so solly" Gag whipped
in the breeze from an improvised
staff attached to the periscope of
Weatherbeaten United States sub
marine as it sped into this base
its beWhiskered crew smiling as a
sailors band played Roll Out the
Barrel"
The flag was as distinctive as the
ships record for cruising in enemy
home waters. 1t punctured dodo
bird, known also as a worry bird,
with eyes trained on II japanese
flagS-eisht merchant and three
man-o'-War Notwithstanding the
number of ships sunk by the sub
marine. At the bottom of the flag
were the words, so solly."
1t. Comdr. Henry Chester Bru-
ton, 81 of Little Rock, was the
skipper. The submarine commander
Of the Pacific Fleet came out to
congratulate him for sending to the
bottom $1,000 tons of enemy ship
ping.
Submarine activities are very Sc
cret, and Comdr, Bruton was quite
reticent. He did say, however;
Il feel sure we damaged an en-
envy carrier.
I'VE spent some time in sight of
Japan's main home islands. We had
pretty good luck"
How many ships did he sink?
Sank Sampan Carrying Torpedoes.
Seven definitely, two passenger,
one naval auxiliary and four
freighters."
How about the II flags on the 80
solly' pennant?
The crew made that up Well,
we did sink some sampans. One
loaded with torpedoes refused to
surrender so its crew were killed
and the Sampan was disabled by
gunfire. Then we burned it up
He indicated this had taken place
not far from Japan's main coast
Comdr. Bruton did tell more about
one sinking-a large passenger ship
loaded with troops
we missed her on our first at
tack and chased her several hours.
A hundred shells were fired before
she sank finally. We saw her bow
in the air, and she went down.
600 Aboard Vessel.
I'VE cruised in the area where she
sank. It was night and we saw oil
and debris and quite few helmeted
soldiers in the water and found two
lifeboats loaded.
We. were told there was 400
soldiers and 200 civilians in addition
to the crew aboard AS we moved
closer to one of the lifeboats the
Japanese played possum, and it
looked like lifeboat filled with sea-
bags. AS we approached we found
all aboard were alive. We had an
opportunity to machine-gun them,
but We didn't
On another occasion. Comdr
Bruton related, the submarine sur
faced a few miles from the coast of
Japan and encountered a sampan
with a japanese fisherwoman aboard
She was eXasperated because we
had tangled her lines" he recalled
I'VE passed her up, but saw another
ship an nour later.
The biggest ship we found caught
fire and didn't sink. We put another
torpedo in her to put the fire out,
and she went down. 1t was an I'M
usually large freighter, fully loaded"
Crew Sleeps More, Eats Less.
Talking about what the men do
aboard a submarine, Comdr. Bruton
told the story of one skipper who
was playing bridge A hand had
just been dealt when the enemy was
sighted. The skipper commanded
that nobody touch his hand. The
crew went into action and sank the
ship. The captain came back, re-
sumed his game and made a grand
slam with the delayed hand.
Men aboard a submarine sleep
more than normally and eat less, -
he said. They have three meals
daily, but under submerged condi-
tons they have less of an appetite
and they see so little sun they all
get pale The food supply is excel
lent. A typical days breakfast is
fruit or tomato juice, eggs, toast.
bacon and coffee-we have coffee
available all day.
For lunch there are cold mea S,
cold beans. potato salad and canned