Operation Storm: Japan's Top Secret Submarines and Its Plan to Change the Course of World War II (33 page)

Nambu must have swallowed his anger at the rashness of Ariizumi’s plan. He was ready to die in pursuit of the mission, but what was the point of dying before they’d even left Japan? Nevertheless, Nambu instructed the navigator to plot a course for Shimonoseki, and went about his business.

It was customary for large warships to leave port at night to avoid Allied detection. Since the
I-401
was the world’s largest sub, she left that evening under the cover of darkness. When they arrived at Shimonoseki the next day, the view from the bridge reaffirmed Nambu’s concern.

There were so many sunken ships, their masts looked like a forest of iron trees.
¹⁷
It seemed impossible that a sub could pass through all that and still avoid a mine. Nambu cut the engine’s RPMs to prevent any sound-activated mines from being triggered and slowly entered the strait.
¹⁸
Next, he began gingerly weaving his sub through the forest of sunken masts.
¹⁹
If he could skirt close enough to a wreck, he might be able to hide in its magnetic field and avoid triggering a mine. It was a risky tactic, but the masts would serve as his guide.

Nambu sweated freely as he navigated the slow-motion slalom course.
²⁰
There was nothing more disconcerting than watching a sunken ship slip by, each wreck a testimony to the impossibility of their task. While the
I-401
glided quietly on the surface, individual crew members visited the sub’s shrine to ask Ise for protection.
²¹
The snail’s pace of their journey, combined with the visible failure
of all those who’d gone before them, only made the crew more nervous. While the lookouts held their breath, Ariizumi remained silent and unreadable.

Fortunately, Ise watched over them that day. When the
I-401
emerged into the Sea of Japan, Nambu felt relief. He was also in for a surprise. There were a shocking number of shipwrecks along the coast
²²
—evidence that enemy mines weren’t just confined to the Inland Sea. The wrecks also suggested U.S. subs might be operating in the area, which would make training a lot more hazardous.

As the
I-401
headed northeast toward Nanao, the attack on the Panama Canal entered its final stage of preparation. Only a few weeks more, and they would be on their way. Nambu’s successful navigation of the Shimonoseki Strait had proved the gods were still on their side. They had come too far not to succeed.

W
HEN THE
S
EGUNDO
’
S SECOND WAR PATROL FINISHED
, C
APTAIN
Fulp headed for Guam. The patrol had been successful—sinking three ships and surviving a flood were no small accomplishments, despite losing a man. Neverthless, when Fulp sailed into Apra Harbor on January 5, 1945,
¹
Guam came as a relief.

Fulp released his crew for two weeks of rest and recuperation at Camp Dealey. Dealey had been open only six weeks
²
and was still a rude collection of Quonset huts and tents. The Marines had recently recaptured Guam, killing more than 18,000 Japanese in the process. Still, the island wasn’t as quiet as it looked. The United States might have regained control of the shell-cratered speck, but a handful of Japanese remained hiding in the mountains. Some sub crews hunted Japs for pleasure.
³
The practice ended in December, however, when five submariners were ambushed and killed.
⁴
The
Segundo
arrived shortly thereafter, and though most Japanese holdouts had been reduced to carrying spears, Guam was still not secure.

Ens. Lewis Rodney Johnson learned this the hard way his first night at Dealey. Johnson was fast asleep, about 200 feet from the cook’s tent, when he was awakened by popping noises.
⁵
Jumping out of bed, Johnson was surprised to see Japanese soldiers running past him. The holdouts regularly stole food at night, and the camp’s cooks were chasing them off with rifle fire. Johnson was probably in more danger of being shot by a chef than injured by a hungry Japanese soldier. Still, it was impossible to get a good night’s sleep knowing the enemy was near.

The problem persisted throughout their stay. One afternoon a
Segundo
crewman waiting for chow noticed a gap in the line ahead of him. When the crewman took a closer look, he saw a man standing in the gap with no one around him. Realizing it was a Japanese soldier, he gave the man a wide berth. Others in line did the same. The Jap wasn’t a threat, he was just hungry,
⁶
but it was another sign of just how poorly the war was going for Japan. The Japanese soldier was taken into custody shortly afterward, but at least he got a free meal.

T
HE
S
EGUNDO
LEFT
Guam on February 1, 1945, for her third war patrol. Destined for the East China Sea, she was accompanied by the USS
Razorback
and USS
Sea Cat
(SS 399).
⁷
The East China Sea could be dangerous. Known for its shallow water and poor sonar conditions,
⁸
it was a tough place for a sub to hide. Of more concern was the shrinking number of enemy targets. Of the 87 war patrols mounted from Pearl Harbor between January and March 1945, almost 70 percent returned without sinking a single enemy ship.
⁹
In fact, Japanese targets were so scarce, Pacific-based subs were reduced to attacking smaller vessels like fishermen and coastal merchants. If Fulp didn’t know the exact statistics, he certainly knew it was difficult to find the enemy. The
Segundo
’s third war patrol would be no exception.

A month went by without Fulp sinking a ship. Aside from the accidental triggering of a fire extinguisher, which “considerably bolstered the boat’s CO
₂
content,”
¹⁰
the only other notable event came while the sub was off Nagasaki. Seas were calm, and Ensign Johnson had the watch, when the
Segundo
’s periscope punctured the waves and spotted an I-boat on the surface. It’s tempting to think the Japanese submarine that Johnson saw was the I-401, since Nambu was conducting shakedown training in the area at this time. We’ll never know for sure because the I-boat turned and headed into Sasebo harbor before Captain Fulp could get off a shot.
¹¹

Eventually, the three U.S. sub captains became so frustrated at the enemy’s absence, they broke up their wolf pack. They hoped to improve their chances of finding a target by patrolling individually.
¹²
But aside from spotting two Japanese hospital ships, the
Segundo
continued to lack enemy contact.

Fulp had already radioed ComSubPac requesting an extension to his patrol when he finally encountered the enemy. It was March 6, and the
Segundo
was in shallow water off the Korean coast. Normally, Fulp would have let the ship go (she was that small), but they’d been out for a month with nothing to show. He was desperate for action.

Fulp closed the target to within 1,300 yards before letting loose with four torpedoes. If it was overkill, he wasn’t taking any chances. Incredibly, all four missed. Errors related to the torpedo spread were responsible, which just goes to show what happens when you get the math wrong. Fulp considered a gun attack, but the sea was too rough to be accurate.
¹³
Consequently, the first real target of their patrol escaped without a scratch.

Fulp’s luck improved the next evening. It was nearly three in the morning when radar identified a target at 16,000 yards. The ship was the
Shori Maru
, a smallish freighter weighing 3,087 tons. Fulp remained on the surface as he made his approach, despite the sea being so phosphorescent it seemed white. Thirty-six minutes later he launched the first of four torpedoes.

His lead fish ran erratically, so Fulp aimed for the middle of the target. The second one blew the ship’s stern clean off, while the third struck amidships. It didn’t matter that the fourth went missing because two minutes later the
Shori Maru
was gone.
¹⁴

Fulp intended to pick up survivors but called it off when radar reported a convoy nearby. Two transports accompanied by two destroyers were too juicy a target to pass up. Japanese warships were always more desirable than merchants, and though destroyers were dangerous, Fulp hoped to make a clean sweep of them.

With three torpedoes remaining in the bow and a full nest aft, Fulp made for the convoy. As dawn broke, the
Segundo
was still 4,100 yards away. Since the transports would soon reach the safety of a
nearby island, he had to act fast. Unfortunately, one of the escorts, sensing the
Segundo
’s presence, closed to within 2,400 yards, forcing Fulp to break off the attack.

Two weeks later the
Segundo
was ordered to Pearl for refit.

T
HE
S
EGUNDO
LEFT
on her fourth war patrol on April 26, 1945.
¹⁵
When she arrived in Saipan on May 8, a dinner was held to celebrate her one-year anniversary. Germany’s recent surrender must have contributed to the good cheer. Certainly, the newly installed ice cream freezer didn’t hurt. U.S. forces continued to face a daunting enemy though. Germany had been defeated, but the Japanese showed no inclination to surrender. And though enemy targets were in decline, the
Segundo
was still in danger from sea mines or a Japanese destroyer bearing a grudge.

Once again Fulp headed for the East China Sea. It was his eleventh war patrol, fourth as captain of the
Segundo
. Though eleven patrols were a lot for a submariner, Fulp showed no sign of fatigue. He’d worked these waters before, and even though he knew they were dangerous, he was eager for action.

As proof, a crewman spotted an untethered mine bobbing on the surface. The sub’s 40mm guns quickly dispatched it.
¹⁶
On May 18 they passed two cadavers floating in the sea, “one Jap, one Yank.”
¹⁷
It was a grim reminder of the war’s toll on both sides.

On the afternoon of May 29, Fulp encountered six Chinese junks destined for Korea.
¹⁸
Junks (also called sampans) were small wooden sailboats used for coastal transport. They had a large mast aft, a smaller one forward, and a jib. The Japanese had come to rely on them as their merchant fleet was destroyed. There was something suspicious about an identical fleet of junks all heading in the same direction, so Fulp surfaced for a closer look.

As the
Segundo
passed the first vessel, Fulp reduced speed and ordered the .50 caliber machine guns manned. After closing to within 50 yards, he looked each junk over, then let them pass—until somebody noticed a Japanese insignia on one of the last boats. Fulp ordered a warning shot, intending to sink the
vessel, but instead of abandoning the sampan, her crew scurried below deck. It was strange behavior, which didn’t deter Fulp. He sank the ship anyway.

The
Segundo
inspected 14 junks that afternoon.
¹⁹
It wasn’t difficult to guess which ones were the enemy. As the
Segundo
approached, the Korean crews bowed and smiled at the passing sub. The Japanese crews, however, changed course, trying to hide their bow markings. As the
Segundo
’s patrol report noted, the enemy crews appeared “stalwart, surly and unbending as you would expect Japanese to be.”
²⁰

Ens. Vic Horgan was topside when a
Segundo
crewman charged up on deck waving a .45-caliber sidearm. When the man began shooting at the Japanese crews, Horgan felt disgust. He could understand blowing a ship out of the water. But shooting individuals? That wasn’t what they were about.
²¹

A total of 60 junks appeared that afternoon,
²²
which must have given Fulp pause, since he was outnumbered. He still managed to sink seven of them though, demonstrating just how granular the Pacific war had become.

As the days passed, the
Segundo
continued reaping small rewards. On June 3 she encountered a four-masted schooner from an earlier age. Over 200 feet long, she was fully rigged with great billowing sails and classic lines.
²³
Fulp launched two torpedoes at 500 yards, both with zero angles and a 90-degree port track. Thirty seconds later the explosion from the first torpedo broke the schooner in two. The second torpedo missed due to a bad gyro angle, but it didn’t matter. The ship was destroyed.
²⁴

The only significant opposition Fulp encountered on the
Segundo
’s fourth war patrol came late on the evening of Friday, June 8. Near Port Arthur, China, the sub spotted a good-size tug. Fulp suspected a trap, since the Japanese were known to use heavily armed Q-boats disguised as freighters to lure U.S. submarines to their doom. The tug appeared to have a ship in tow, but it was pitch black, and Fulp wasn’t sure what he was seeing. He prepared to attack anyway.
²⁵

The
Segundo
closed to within 600 yards before letting two torpedoes go. The target immediately turned to confront them. It might have been a tug, or it might not; Fulp had no way of knowing.
^*
Unfortunately, both torpedoes missed, and whatever it was set course to ram them. Fulp ordered full speed ahead to avoid a collision. Even then the “tug” missed by only 100 yards. Fulp was in no mood for retreat, so he called for a “down the throat” shot, the most difficult kind to make. He slowed the
Segundo
to ten knots before letting loose with a torpedo from his aft nest. Even at a “kissing distance” of 580 yards, it somehow missed.

Embarrassed at having wasted three good torpedoes, Fulp took a moment to consider his options. The night was too dark for effective gun action, and the water too shallow to dive. His only choice was to risk a high-speed surface attack.
²⁶
Hiding in front of an island’s black silhouette, he gave his gun crew 20 minutes to adjust their eyes to the darkness. Then, at 22 minutes past midnight, he began his charge.