The sub., 1945-08-02
"Torpedoes Away"

After eight war patrols In the Pacific, on three different sub marines and on missions ranging all the way from the Aleutians to the shores of Japan, 23-year-Old Electricians Mate Joseph C. Men derson believes he knows whereof he speaks when he says that reli- able equipment is more important to the success and safety of the submarine sailor than to any other kind of fighting man. whether on land, at sea or in the air.
 we pigboat sailors live, work and fight in a tight little steel world crowded and crammed with complicated apparatus and mach inery," says the youthful sub vet eran, who switched from peace time job of training racehorses to tracking down Jap shipping all over the wide stretches of the Pa- cific. Mot only the boat itself but every individual piece of equipment must be 100 percent in quality. In a pinch 1t may make the difference between a successful patrol and an official announcement that your boat is overdue and must be pre- sumed lost
 Life on a submarine isn't all excitement and adventure, as some people think. There may be days and weeks without action, just prowling and waiting for some thing to turn up-the toughest kind of monotony in cramped quar- ters, with no recreation and few conveniences. We're submerged many hours day, the air gets awfully bad. Danger? There's a little bit of that too. But the worst thing. we have to go without mail for weeks at time. Not that we kick about these things, you under stand. We submariners wouldn't trade places with anybody on any other kind of ship in the Fleet. We're on subs because we think they're tops.
 'It's true, though. that when we do get action it comes In large doses. Take my third patrol, for instance. We made our first 'kill' on that run even before we reached our patrol area. It was pretty small fry, as ships go, but Jap Is a Jap. It was a 300-ton fishing craft, the kind they use lot for patrol work. We chased him and we got within shooting range. We sounded our battle station surface alarm and manned our 3-inch gun and 20-mil- limeters. The Jap didn't spot us till we began firing. Several of our 3-inch shells ripped into him, wrecked his controls and set him afire. He was heading down to Davey Jones' Locker when we left him.
 we proceeded on our way, and no sooner did we arrive on station than we ran into two enemy cargo ships. The Skipper called for full speed and we went after them. One of the Jap ships was too fast and got away. But we nailed the other. a 1000 tonner. We put four tin fish into him and left him ablaze and sinking.
 "One morning a few days later we sighted big Jap transport. She was crammed with Nip soldiers. She was travelling without escort. moving fast and zlgzagging. We went to our battle stations. let go torpedoes and got two hits. Two or three min- utes later that big ship had totally disappeared. The Japs managed to get one lifeboat over the side, but the soldiers piling in with their heavy equipment capsized it im- mediately. don't think 8 single Nip got away.
 "We all felt pretty chipper about this bag, because to 8 submariner the biggest prize of all is troop ship. Not only do you send a lot of tonnage to the bottom but you send lot of Japs to their ancestors The Skipper thought we'd done O, K., too, because he got on the bat tle-announcing system and congrat- ulated all hands.
 'Later we were right fin the JapS