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| Muriel Wilma Delaware (Wife) b. 23 Apr 1921 in Lebanon, , New Hampshire
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| Marriage: | 13 JUN 1942 in Yuma, , Arizona |
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Individual:
Aboard submarine WAHOO World War II. MIA 1 Nov 1943; presumed dead 7 Jan 1946. No issue.
Navy department report after hostilities ceased
USS WAHOO (SS 238) Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet
October 11, 1943 - 79 Men Lost
WAHOO returned to Pearl Harbor from her sixth war patrol on 29 August 1943
with the dejected air peculiar to a highly successful submarine w
suddenly could not make her torpedoes run true. In twenty-eight days away
from port, seven of them spent in her assigned area in the Sea of Japan,
WAHOO had expended ten torpedoes in nine attacks without inflicting any
damage on the enemy. Her Skipper, Cmdr. D.W. Morton, returned to port to
have the torpedoes changed or checked, and requested that WAHOO be sent
back to the Japan Sea for her seventh patrol.
On 9 September, WAHOO again departed Pearl. She topped off with fuel at
Midway and left there on 13 September heading for the dangerous b
important Japan Sea. Shortly afterwards, SAWFISH left Midway and also
headed for this area. WAHOO was to pass through Etorofu Strait, in the
Kurile Islands, and La Perouse Strait, between Hokkaido and Karafuto, and
enter the Japan Sea about 20 September. She was to head south and remain
below 43 degrees north after 23 September, and below 40 degrees north
after 26 September. SAWFISH was to follow WAHOO, entering the Japan Sea
about 23 September and patrolling the area north of WAHOO.
No transmission was received from WAHOO, either by any shore station or by
SAWFISH, nor was she sighted by SAWFISH after she left Midway. She had
orders to clear her area not later than sunset 21 October 1943, and to
report by radio after passing through Kurile Island chain en route to
Midway. This report was expected about 23 October, but Midway waited in
vain. By 30 October, apprehension was felt for WAHOO’s safety and an
aircraft search along her expected course was arranged. When th
revealing nothing, WAHOO was reported missing on 9 November 194
Although no transmission was received from WAHOO after her departure on
patrol, the results of one of her attacks became known to the world via
Tokyo broadcast. Domei was quoted as reporting that on 5 Octobe
“steamer” was sunk by an American submarine off the west coast of Honshu
near the Straits of Tsushima. It was said that the ship sank “aft
several seconds” with 544 people losing their lives. The submarine could
have been none other than WAHOO: none other was operating in that area.
In this reporting broadcast, TIME magazine of 18 October 1943 stated:
”KNOCK AT THE DOOR”
“In the rough Tsushima Straits where two-decker, train carrying ferries
ply between Japan and Korea, an Allied Submarine upped periscop
unleashed a torpedo. The missile stabbed the flank of a Jap steamer. Said
the Tokyo radio: the steamer went down in ‘seconds’ with loss of 544
persons aboard.
“Fifty miles across at their narrowest, the Tsushima Straits are Japan’s
historic doors the Asiatic mainland. Over them centuries ago Rege
Hideyoshi’s armada sailed to battle the Koreans and send home 38,000 enemy
ears pickled in wine. Upon them in 1905 crusty Admiral Togo smashed the
Russian Fleet. Presumably the submarine knocking at the door last week was
American. It had achieved one of the World War II’s most daring submarine
penetrations of enemy waters, a feat ranking with German Gunther Prien’s
entry at Scapa Flow, the Jap invasion of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. raid in
Tokyo Bay.”
Information gleaned from Japanese sources since the cessati
hostilities. Indicates that an antisubmarine attack was made in La Perouse
Strait on 11 October 1943. This was two days other SAWFISH went through
the Straits. Supplementary data on the attack of 11 October state, “Our
plane found a floating sub and attacked it, with 3 depth charges.” SAWFISH
was attacked here while making her passage, and that attack is n
mentioned in Japanese records; the primary attacking agency in that case
was a patrol boat, and about five depth charges were dropped. Thus it is
safe to assume that the attack cited here was made on WAHOO, and is not
the attack on SAWFISH with an incorrect date. Both Tsushima Straits, where
the attack on the steamer was made, and La Perouse Straits, through which
WAHOO was to make good her exit from the Japan Sea, are known to have been
mined. This despite the fact that SAWFISH transited La Perou
October and reported no indications of mining. It is felt, however, that
WAHOO succumbed to the attack referred to above, and not a min
WAHOO was one of the Submarine Force’s most valuable units during her six
patrols, and her feats have become submarine legend. She sank 27 ships,
totaling 119,100 tons, and damaged two more, making 24,900 tons, in the
six patrols completed before her loss. Her patrolling career began in
August 1942 in the Carolines. On this patrol WAHOO sank a freighter. Her
second patrol was in the Solomons, and she sank a freighter. WAH
conducted her third patrol in the Palau area. She sank two lar
freighters, a transport, a tanker, and an escort vessel. In addition, she
entered Wewak harbor, on the north coast of New Guinea, seriously damaged
a destroyer, which was later found beached there, and obtain
reconnaissance data. For her fourth patrol, WAHOO went to the Yellow Sea
west of Korea. Here she sank eight freighters, a tanker, a patrol craft
and two sampans in March 1943.
Going to the Kurile chain for her fifth patrol, WAHOO sank two freighters
and a large tanker, also doing damage to another freighter and a large
(15,600-ton) aircraft transport. The sixth war patrol of WAHOO was the
disappointing one in the Japan Sea due to poor torpedo performance. Not
one of the many attacks on merchantmen resulted in a torpedo hit; WAHOO’s
only sinkings were of three sampans by gunfire. WAHOO was awarded the
Presidential Unit Citation for her third patrol. Commander Morton was
considered one of the topnotch officers in the submarine force, and the
loss of this ship was in irreparable blow to the Service.
Japanese records now reveal that the following ships were sunk in the Sea
of Japan shortly before WAHOO’s loss: TAIKO MARU 2,958T., 25 Sept.; KONRON
MARU 7,903T., 1 Oct.; KANKO MARU 1,288gt., 6 Oct.; and KANKO MA
2,995gt., 9 Oct. WAHOO was the only submarine who could have sunk these
ships.
Sailors Lost On USS WAHOO (SS 238) 10-11-1943
Anders, F. MM3
Andrews, J. S. EM1
Bailey, R. E. SC3
Bair, A. I. TM3
Berg, J. C. MM3
Browning, C. E. MOMM2
Brown, D. R. LTJG
Bruce, C. L. MOMM1
Buckley, J. P. RM1
Burgan, W. W. LT
Campbell, J. S. ENS
Carr, W. J. CGMA
Carter, J. E. RM2
Davison, W. E. MOMM1
Deaton, L. N. TM1
Erdey, J. S. EM3
Fielder, E. F. LTJG
Finkelstein, O. TM3
Galli, W. O. TM3
Garmon, C. E. MOMM2
Garrett, G. C., Jr. MOMM2
Gerlacher, W. L. S2
Goss, R. P. MOMM1
Greene, H. M. LT
Hand, W. R. EM2
Hartman, L. M. MM3
Hayes, D. M. EM2
Henderson, R. N. LT
Holmes, W. H. EM1
House, V. A. S1
Howe, H. J. EM2
Jacobs, O. MOMM1
Jasa, R. L. MM3
Jayson, J. O. CK3
Johnson, K. B. TM1
Keeter, D. C. CMOMMA
Kemp, W. W. GM1
Kessock, P. F1
Krebs, P. H. S1
Kirk, E. T. S1
Lape, A. D. F1
Lindemann, C. A. S1
Logue, R. B. FC1
Lynch, W. L. F1
MacAlman, S. E. PHM1
MacGowen, T. J. MOMM1
Magyar, A. J. MM3
Manalisay, J. C. ST3
Mandjiak, P. A. MM3
Massa, E. E. S1
Maulding, E. C. SM3
Maulding, G. E. TM3
McGill, T. J. CMOMMA
McGilton, H. E. TM3
McSpadden, D. J. TM1
Mills, M. L. RT1
Misch, G. A. LTJG
Morton, D. W. CDR
Neel, P. TM2
O'Brien, F. L. EM1
O'Neal, R. L. EM3
Ostrander, E. E. MM3
Phillips, P. D. SC1
Rennels, J. L. SC2
Renno, H. S1
Seal, E. H. Jr. TM2
Simonetti, A. R. SM2
Skjonsby, V. L. LCDR
Smith, D. O. BM1
Stevens, G. V. MOMM2
Terrell, W. C. QM3
Tyler, R. O. TM3
Vidick, J. EM2
Wach, L. J. COX
Waldron, W. E. RM3
Ware, N. C. CEM
White, W. T. Y2
Whipp, K. L. MM2
Witting, R. L. MM3
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