Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1943-04-02
T.. S. Sub
in Jap Waters
By Lieut.. SIade Cutter, U. S. N.


By Lieut.. Slade Cutter, U. s. n.
Our United States submarine
had been operating against the
enemy in the vicinity of Japanese
held islands when, one afternoon,
our captain, Lieut.. Parks, called
me to his cabin.
thought his eyes cleaned with
unusual excitement, but he only
said casually, "Good news, Slade,'
and handed me a wireless he had
Just received. | held it to the light
and read: Proceed at once to the
coast of Japan"
Sometimes it is difficult to re-
press an impulse to whOOp with
delight, and this was one of
those time. This was the mo-
ment we had lived for, the mo-
ment every submariner dreams
about.
A Surface Engagement
We turned and cruised steadily
westward, The japanese coastal pa
troll system extends many miles to
sea and is painstakingly thorough.
The first time we got very close
to shore before we were spotted.
Just before daylight, as we were
preparing to dive, patrol boat
came at us with its guns splitting.
We didn't want to waste torpedoes
we were a long way from re-
placements-so decided to fight It
out with our deck guns. 1t was
our first surface engagement and
it proved almost disappointingly
brief. One of our first shells
struck the enemy's magazine and
he S imply disintegrated We
cruised over the area, but found
no survivors,
Sink Tanker in 3 Minutes
A day later, in the same neigh
borhood, we spotted big tanker
about sunrise. After some maneu-
vering we gave him three torpe-
does. All were hits. The third
struck aft, and must have eXplod-
ed his boilers. There was terrific
blast that threw parts of his
bridge clear over his ma{nmast,
and he sank in three minutes and
four seconds. He went down by
the stern, his bow rising high
them the air, to give us an ex-
cellent view of the rising sun
painted on it. We surfaced and
cruised among the men in the
water, intending to give them
emergency supplies, but bomber
came winging out from the land
and we had to dive.
At this time we were in the busy
steamer lane between Yokohoma
and Singapore where important
targets might be expected. So,
when Lieutenant Pleatman saw a
heavy smudge on the horizon, we
hurried over to investigate. 1t
proved to be troop transport of
1860 tons, heavily loaded with
men and supplies and escorted by
large destroyer. 1t was headed
for Singapore.
Sink Transport and Freighter.
We had a ticklish problem. The
destroyer was weaving a zigzag
course which could not be predict
ed 1t was long time before we
could maneuver into a position off
the transports port beam. We gave
her two torpedoes. Both hft. Be-
fore we could turn, the destroyer
was coming for us full speed, fol-
lowing down the torpedo tracks.
We dived and maneuvered to safe
ty. When the destroyer had TO
leave US to pick up survivors, we
raised our periscope in time to see
the transport settle slowly on an
even keel.
An interisland freighter was our
next target. We decided to attack
with our deck gun to save torpe-
does, so surfaced at point blank
range and let go. We had fired II
rounds, when three things hap
pened simultaneously; Our gun
jammed with a projectile wedged
in the barrel, their ship caught
fire, and the Japs surrendered by
striking their colorS and running
up a weird assortment of white
cloths ranging from sheets to un-
derwear. They took to their RATS,
and their ship continued to burn
until she sank.
During the daylight we cruised
along the sea lanes at periscope
depth seeking worthwhile targets.
Nights, we would surface in quiet
spot, usually in the lee of one of
the many small islands, to charge
our batteries. 1t was there that |
smelled for the first time the
strange, haunting fragrance of the
,Tananese forests. At dawn we lay