USS Tang ( SS - 306 ) USS " Tang " ( SS - 306 ) was a " Balao " - class submarine of World War II , the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the tang . She was built and launched in 1943 . In her short career , " Tang " sank 33 ships totalling 116 , 454 tons Commander Richard O ' Kane received the Medal of Honor for her last two engagements ( 23 and 24 October 1944 ) . " Tang " was sunk during the last engagement by a circular run of her final torpedo , going down in of water . Several of the crew managed to reach the surface , and some survived to be captured by the Japanese . These were the first American submariners to escape a sunken submarine using a Momsen lung . Construction . The contract to build " Tang " was awarded to Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 15 December 1941 , and her keel was laid down on 15 January 1943 . She was launched on 17 August sponsored by Mrs . Antonio S . Pitre , and commissioned on 15 October 1943 with Lieutenant Commander Richard O ' Kane , former executive officer of , in command , and delivered to the Navy on 30 November 1943 . " Tang " completed fitting out at Mare Island and moved south to San Diego for 18 days of intensive training before sailing for Hawaii . She arrived at Pearl Harbor on 8 January 1944 and conducted two more weeks of exercises in preparation for combat . First war patrol . " Tang " stood out of Pearl Harbor on 22 January 1944 to begin her first war patrol , destined for the Caroline Islands - Mariana Islands area . On the morning of 17 February , she sighted a convoy of two freighters , five smaller ships , and their escort . The submarine tracked the convoy , plotted its course , and then prepared to attack . An escort suddenly appeared at a range of and closing . " Tang " went deep and received five depth charge s before the escort departed . Undamaged , she returned to periscope depth and resumed the attack . The range on the nearest freighter closed to , and " Tang " fired a spread of four torpedoes . Three hit , and " Gyoten Maru " ( 6 , 800 tons ) sank by the stern . The submarine cleared the area by running deep and then attempted to get ahead of the convoy for a dawn attack , but the remaining freighter passed out of range under air escort . During the night of 22 February , " Tang " made a surface attack on a convoy of three cargo ships and two escorts . She tracked the Japanese ships , through rain squalls which made radar almost useless , for 30 minutes before attaining a firing position , on the surface , off the port bow of a freighter . A spread of four torpedoes hit " Fukuyama Maru " ( 3 , 600 tons ) from bow to stern , and the enemy ship disintegrated . Early the next morning , " Tang " made another approach on the convoy . The escort of the lead ship , the 6 , 800 ton " Yamashimo Maru " , moved from its covering position on the port bow , and the submarine slipped into it and fired four more torpedoes . The first hit the stern of the cargoman , the second just aft of the stack ; and the third just forward of the bridge , producing a terrific secondary explosion . The ship was " twisted , lifted from the water " , and began belching flames as she sank . On the morning of 24 February , " Tang " sighted a tanker , a freighter , and a destroyer . Rain squalls hampered her as she attempted to attain a good firing position , so she tracked the ships until after nightfall , then made a surface attack . She launched four torpedoes and scored three hits which sank the freighter " Asama Maru " . The two remaining ships commenced firing in all directions , and " Tang " submerged to begin evasive action . She shadowed the enemy until morning and then closed the tanker for a submerged attack from extremely close , just , barely enough to allow her torpedoes to arm . Additional lookouts had been posted on the target ' s deck and , when the spread of torpedoes from " Tang " struck her , they were hurled into the air with other debris from the ship . " Echizen Maru " sank in four minutes as " Tang " went deep and rigged for the depth charge attack that followed . During this evasion , a water leak developed in the forward torpedo room , and " Tang " exceeded her depth gauge maximum reading of 612 feet . Fortunately , the crew was able to get the submarine back under control and eventually return to the surface . ( Postwar , JANAC denied credit for the tanker seen to explode . ) " Tang " contacted a convoy consisting of a freighter , transport , and four escorts on the evening of 26 February . She maneuvered into position to attack the wildly zigzagging transport and fired her last four torpedoes and believed she missed ; JANAC credited her with sinking " Choko Maru " , a 1794 ton cargo ship . Having expended all 24 of her torpedoes and scored 16 hits , the submarine put into Midway for refit . Second war patrol . " Tang " s second patrol began on 16 March and took her to waters around the Palau Islands , to Davao Gulf , and to the approaches to Truk . She made only five surface contacts and had no opportunity to launch an attack before she was assigned to lifeguard duty near Truk . " Tang " rescued 22 downed airmen , including some rescued by John Burns ' Vought OS2U Kingfisher , and transported them to Hawaii at the conclusion of the patrol . Third war patrol . Her third war patrol was one of the most devastating carried out against Japanese shipping during the war . " Tang " got underway from Pearl Harbor on 8 June and hunted enemy shipping in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea areas . On 24 June , southwest of Kagoshima , the submarine contacted a convoy of six large ships guarded by 16 escorts . " Tang " closed for a surface attack and fired a spread of three torpedoes at one of the ships and quickly launched a similar spread at a second target . Explosions followed , and " Tang " reported two ships sunk . However , postwar examination of Japanese records revealed by the Japanese government show that two passenger - cargo ships and two freighters were sunk . The ships must have overlapped , and the torpedo spread must have hit and sunk two victims in addition to their intended targets . Those sunk — " Tamahoko Maru " , " Tainan Maru " , " Nasusan Maru " , and " Kennichi Maru " — added up to 16 , 292 tons of enemy shipping . On 30 June , while she patrolled the lane from Kyūshū to Dairen , " Tang " sighted another cargo ship steaming without an escort . After making an end around run on the surface which produced two torpedo misses , " Tang " went deep to avoid depth charges , then surfaced and chased the hapless ship until she closed the range to . A single torpedo blew " Nikkin Maru " in half , and the merchantman sank . The next morning , " Tang " sighted a tanker and a freighter . While she sank freighter " Taiun Maru Number Two " , tanker " Takatori Maru Number One " fled . The submarine trailed until dark , then launched two torpedoes which sent the latter down . " Tang " celebrated 4 July at dawn by an end - around , submerged attack on an enemy freighter which was near shore . However , with rapidly shoaling water and her keel about to touch bottom , " Tang " backed off , fired a spread of three with two hits , and then surfaced as survivors of the 6 , 886 tons cargo ship " Asukazan Maru " were being rescued by fishing boats . That afternoon , " Tang " sighted " Yamaoka Maru " , another cargo ship of approximately the same size , and sank her with two torpedoes . The submarine surfaced and , with the aid of grapnel hooks and Thompson submachine gun s , rescued a survivor who had been clinging to an overturned lifeboat . While prowling the waters off Dairen late the next night , the submarine sighted a cargo ship and , during a submerged attack with her last two torpedoes , sank " Dori Maru " . Credited with eight ships for 56 , 000 tons at the time , the score confirmed postwar by JANAC for her third patrol was 10 ships for a total of 39 , 160 tons . Fourth war patrol . Her fourth war patrol was conducted from 31 July – 3 September in Japanese home waters off the coast of Honshū . On 10 August , she fired a spread of three torpedoes at a tanker near the beach of Omaezaki with no hits . The next day , after locating two freighters and two escorts , she launched three torpedoes at the larger freighter and two at the other . The larger freighter ( " Roko Maru " ) disintegrated apparently from a torpedo which exploded in her boilers . As the submarine went deep , her crew heard the fourth and fifth torpedoes hit the second ship . After a jarring depth charge attack which lasted 38 minutes , " Tang " returned to periscope depth . Only the two escorts were in sight , and one of them was picking up survivors . On 14 August , " Tang " attacked a patrol yacht with her deck gun and reduced the Japanese ship ' s deck house to a shambles with eight hits . Eight days later , she sank a patrol boat { " No . 2 Nansatsu Maru " } . On 23 August , the submarine closed in on a large ship ; Japanese in white uniforms could be seen lining its superstructure and the bridge . She fired three torpedoes , and two hits caused the 8 , 135 ton transport " Tsukushi Maru " to sink . Two days later , " Tang " attacked a tanker and an escort with her last three torpedoes – the tanker { " No . 8 Nanko Maru " } sank – and returned to Pearl Harbor . Fifth war patrol . After a refit , " Tang " stood out to sea on 24 September for her fifth war patrol . After topping off with fuel at Midway Island , she sailed for Formosa Strait on 27 September . In order to reach her area , " Tang " had to pass through narrow waters known to be heavily patrolled by the enemy . A large area stretching northeast from Formosa was known to be mined by the enemy , and O ' Kane was given the choice of making the passage north of the island alone , or joining a coordinated attack group ( , , and , under Commander John S . Coye , Jr . , flag in " Silversides " ) which was to patrol off northeast Formosa , and making the passage with them . " Tang " chose to make the passage alone and these vessels never heard from " Tang " , nor did any base , after she left Midway . The story of " Tang " s fate comes from the report of her surviving commanding officer . On the night of 10 – 11 October , " Tang " sank the cargo ships " Joshu Go " and " Ōita Maru " . The submarine continued on patrol until 23 October , when she contacted a large convoy consisting of three tankers , a transport , a freighter , and numerous escorts . Commander O ' Kane planned a night surface attack . " Tang " broke into the middle of the formation , firing torpedoes as she closed on the tankers ( later identified as freighters ) . Two torpedoes struck under the stack and engine room of the nearest , a single burst into the stern of the middle one , and two exploded under the stack and engine space of the farthest . The first torpedoes began exploding before the last was fired , and all hit their targets , which were soon either blazing or sinking . As the submarine prepared to fire at the tanker which was crossing her stern , she sighted the transport bearing down on her in an attempt to ram . " Tang " had no room to dive , so she crossed the transport ' s bow and with full left rudder saved her stern and got inside the transport ' s turning circle . The transport was forced to continue her swing to avoid the tanker , which had also been coming in to ram . The tanker struck the transport ' s starboard quarter shortly after the submarine fired four stern torpedoes along their double length at a range of . The tanker sank bow first and the transport had a 30° up - angle . With escorts approaching on the port bow and beam and a destroyer closing on the port quarter , " Tang " rang up full speed and headed for open water . When the submarine was from the transport , another explosion was observed , and its bow disappeared . On the morning of 24 October , " Tang " began patrolling at periscope depth . She surfaced at dark and headed for Turnabout Island ( ) . On approaching the island , the submarine ' s surface search radar showed so many blips that it was almost useless . " Tang " soon identified a large convoy which contained tankers with planes on their decks and transports with crated planes stacked on their bows and sterns . As the submarine tracked the Japanese ships along the coast , the enemy escorts became suspicious , and the escort commander began signaling with a large searchlight . This illuminated the convoy , and " Tang " chose a large three - deck transport as her first target , a smaller transport as the second , and a large tanker as the third . Their ranges varied from . After firing two torpedoes at each target , the submarine paralleled the convoy to choose its next victims . She fired stern torpedoes at another transport and tanker aft . As " Tang " poured on full speed to escape the gunfire directed at her , a destroyer passed around the stern of the transport and headed for the submarine . The tanker exploded , and a hit was seen on the transport . A few seconds later , the destroyer exploded , either from intercepting " Tang " s third torpedo or from shell fire of two escorts closing on the beam . Only the transport remained afloat , and it was dead in the water . The submarine cleared to , rechecked the last two torpedoes which had been loaded in the bow tubes , and returned to finish off the transport . The 23rd torpedo was fired at and was observed running hot and straight . " Tang " s score for the night would later be confirmed as the freighters " Kogen Maru " ( 6600 tons ) and " Matsumoto Maru " ( 7000 tons ) . At 02 : 30 on the morning of 25 October , the 24th and last torpedo was fired . It broached and curved to the left in a circular run . " Tang " fishtailed under emergency power to clear the turning circle of the torpedo , but it struck her abreast the aft torpedo room approximately 20 seconds after it was fired . The explosion was violent , and men as far forward as the control room received broken limbs . The ship went down by the stern with the after three compartments flooded . Of the nine officers and men on the bridge , including O ' Kane , three were able to swim through the night until picked up eight hours later . One officer escaped from the flooded conning tower , and was rescued with the others . The submarine bottomed at and the thirty survivors crowded into the forward torpedo room as the aft compartments flooded , intending to use the forward escape trunk . Publications were burned , and all assembled in the forward room to escape . The escape was delayed by a Japanese patrol which dropped depth charges , and started an electrical fire in the forward battery . Beginning at 6 : 00 AM on 25 October , using the Momsen Lung , " the only known case " where it was used , thirteen men escaped from the forward torpedo room . By the time the last had exited , the heat from the battery fire was so intense , paint on the bulkhead was scorching , melting , and running down . Of the 13 men who escaped , only nine reached the surface , and of these , five were able to swim until rescued . A total of 78 men were lost . Those who escaped the submarine were greeted in the morning by the sight of the bow of the transport sticking straight out of the water . Nine survivors , including O ' Kane , were picked up the next morning by Japanese frigate . Survivors of " Tang " s previous sinkings were on board , and they beat the men from " Tang " . O ' Kane stated , " When we realized that our clubbing and kickings were being administered by the burned , mutilated survivors of our handiwork , we found we could take it with less prejudice . " The nine captives were placed in prison camps until the end of the war . " Tang " was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 8 February 1945 . Awards . " Tang " received four battle star s and two Presidential Unit Citation s for World War II service . Her commanding officer received the Medal of Honor for " Tang " s final action . During the war , " Tang " was credited with sinking 31 ships in her five patrols , totaling 227 , 800 tons , and damaging two for 4 , 100 tons . This was unequaled among American submarines . Postwar comparison with Japanese records by the Joint Army – Navy Assessment Committee ( JANAC ) reduced this to 24 ships , totaling 93 , 824 tons , placing her second on the list for ships sunk after ( with 26 ) and fourth behind , , and for total confirmed tonnage . These figures have since been revised to 33 ships totalling 116 , 454 tons , placing her first for number of ships and tonnage . " Tang " also retains the best patrol by number of ships sunk , her third , with ten for 39 , 100 tons . Television . " Tang " was the subject of an episode of the syndicated television anthology series , " The Silent Service " , which aired during the 1957 – 1958 season .