Evening star., 1943-07-03
d. C.. Officers Role in Sinkino
OF Japanese Subs Revealed
BY GEORGE WELLER.

war Correspondent or Tne Star and Chi
caso Daily News
SOMEWHERE IN NEW gunner.
July l Delayed A gift package
for the American people, originally
intended for Christmas, but now
just in time for the Fourth of July,
was opened here today, thanks to
Gen. Douglas MacArthur's push.
When the ribbons of security were
united and the seals of secrecy
broken. it was found to contain one
large japanese submarine of long
range dimensions.
This gift actually was delivered
last Christmas-in several fathoms
of muddy water off the mouth of the
kumusi River. And it had decisive
effect on the Buna campaign. The
reason its 'untieing" has been de-
layed is because the delivery boys"
were those same PIT boats which
earned their honors in the Philip
pines and at Guadalcanal.
Their submarine prize has now
rotted long enough at the bottom of
this tropical sea SO that this cor
respondent, who has talked per-
sonally with all the scattered crew
members of the PIT boats, can tell
the reason why they wear Silver
Stars on their breasts today, awarded
by Gen. Macarthur. All but one
was in the Buna show.
Sub Loaded With Supplies.
The japanese submarine was
loaded with supplies for 1000 starv-
ing men, hemmed in by American
and Australian rifles at Sanananda
and Buna.
Stealthily by night, it had slipped
into the estuary of the Kumusi
River and was being unloaded into
coastal barges.
Already the Japs possessed an in
land base on the river between Buna
and Sanananda. 1t was only a
25-mile journey for barges bringing
ammunition and food to beleaguered
marines and regulars in the jungle.
Jap supplies were brought, probably
from Rabaul, by underwater freight
ers because our bombers had made
hazardous their lines of communi-
cation.
The skipper of the boat which
counted the first blood for Mac
Arthur's favorite naval weapon was
24-year-old 1t. Theodore F. Bruno.
Pensacola. Fla. His executive was
1t. Robert F. Lynch. Fordham
graduate, class of 1888, who lives in
New York City.
Ensign Waldo Fletche, Hartford,
Conn, and Abilene, Tex, pressed
the buttons that sank the Jap sub.
Washingtonian on Bridge.
Also on the bridge when the PIT
went edging through the blackness
of the Papuan night was 1t. Daniel
Baughman of Washington. D. c.,
and Gunnery Officer Edward T.
Hamilton, Fort Worth, Tex.
1t was half hour before mid
night when 1t. Lynch, who was
sweeping the darkness ahead with
his binoculars, suddenly whispered:
There's a big so-and-so of a Jap
sub"
1t. Baughman looked where the
glasses pointed while 1t. Bruno
gently turned the wheel that way.
There's nothing there" said 1t.
Baughman.
Its a submarine insisted 1t.
Lynch. You can see the coming
tower and the net cutter"
It was submarine all right. With
1t. Bruno aiming, 1t. Lynch pressed
the buttons. The first torpedo's run
was keen and hot. There was an
explosion. Then the second torpedo
hit the coming tower. AS 1t. Lynch
says: "We saw orange-red flame
climbing 100 feet into the sky. We
saw the submarine break clean in
two and watched the halves settle.
She was goner."
Still another Jap sub was hit and
probably sunk five days before
Christmas by another PIT boat,
captained by 1t. Raymond Leary of
South Dartmouth, Mass, with 1t.
Baughman on the torpedo buttons
and with 1t Arnold de Mond of El
Segundo, Calf, as executive officer.
1t. Leary, a graduate of Brown
University, observed light inshore
at 3:45 am. around supposedly de-
serted Mambare, and then saw red
and white light reply from the sea,
he knew something was going on 1t
was actually the Jap sub which had
finished her unloading for the night
and was preparing to return, prob
ably to Rabaul.
The PIT caught the submarine just