Escape From the Deep (8 page)

Ever since, Beach added, Dick O’Kane had been on a “mission of vengeance.”

5

Battle Royal

D
ICK O’KANE LAY IN HIS BUNK, listening to the intercom.

Suddenly, the duty chief’s messenger burst into his cabin.

“We’ve got another convoy, captain!” said the excited messenger. “The chief says it’s the best one since the Yellow Sea.”
¹

It was well after dark on October 22, 1944, when O’Kane began to track convoy U-03, which was comprised of six ships, two of them well-armed destroyers, the
Tsuga
and
Hasu.
O’Kane considered his options. He would rather not have to penetrate the escort screen on the surface at night, but if he waited, the convoy would reach shallower water.

Howard Walker handed O’Kane a fresh cup of coffee, and O’Kane began his approach. It was around midnight when one of the Japanese escorts left the convoy to make a search. O’Kane seized his moment, ordering two-thirds speed. By 1:30 a.m. the
Tang
was poised to strike. In the conning tower, Executive Officer Frank Springer reported that all forward torpedo tubes were open. O’Kane peered through the periscope. He had a large tanker right where he wanted it.

O’Kane climbed the ladder from the conning tower to the bridge, where he soon stood beside Bill Leibold, whom he regarded as his “extra pair of eyes.”

“Constant bearing—mark!” ordered O’Kane.

“Set,” replied Mel Enos.

“Fire!”

There was the familiar shudder as one of the
Tang
’s fish headed toward its target. It did not miss. More torpedoes soon followed. Explosions lit the sky as shock waves rocked the
Tang
.

“They all hit as we aimed ’em, captain,” said Chief Quartermaster Sidney Jones.
²

O’Kane was not finished. There were still more ships to sink. He quickly prepared a stern shot on another target.

Leibold grabbed O’Kane, almost dislocating his shoulder.
³

“She’s coming in to ram!” shouted Leibold.
⁴

Leibold pointed to a Japanese ship that was bearing down on the
Tang
.
⁵
O’Kane had not seen it, so focused had he been on the target to the stern. There was no time to dive or fire torpedoes.

“All ahead emergency! Right full rudder!” ordered O’Kane.
⁶

The engines roared. Clouds of diesel smoke belched from her exhausts. The
Tang
moved to port, cutting across the bow of the approaching ship, the 1,920-ton
Wakatake Maru
. Japanese sailors on the main deck grabbed rifles and pistols and began to open fire, aiming at the
Tang
’s bridge party. It was a close-run thing, with the
Tang
avoiding the
Wakatake Maru
with only yards to spare.

“Clear the bridge!” ordered O’Kane.

Ooga! Ooga!

Men scrambled down the hatch. Then, just as O’Kane prepared to follow them, he saw an out-of-control freighter. It was headed toward the
Wakatake Maru
.

“Hold her up!” shouted O’Kane. “Hold her up!”

The
Tang
’s decks were partly under water. In seconds, she was again fully surfaced.

“New set up!”

“Give me a range and mark,” said Mel Enos.

“You don’t need one,” replied O’Kane. “Just fire! You can’t put a torpedo out without hitting this bastard.”
⁷

Torpedoes emerged from the stern torpedo tubes, aimed at the
Wakatake Maru
. They hit just as the out-of-control freighter collided with the
Wakatake Maru
“with a rending, groaning crash of tortured and distorted steel.”
⁸
Both ships disappeared for a few seconds in a giant ball of fire, smoke, and showering debris.

It was 1:40 in the morning. On the bridge, O’Kane surveyed the devastation. Two torpedoes had hit
Wakatake Maru
. One had been beautifully targeted at the rear part of the engine room on the port side to inflict maximum damage. It had clearly done so.

Suddenly, the sky was also lit with the muzzle flashes of Japanese deck guns. O’Kane watched in delight as the convoy’s escorts began to fire at each other in panicked confusion.

Wakatake Maru
quickly broke in two and, forty seconds later, dropped below the waves. In less than a minute, the
Tang
had dispatched 128 men belonging to a salvage unit, 30 crewmen, 11 ship’s gunners, and 7 passengers.
⁹

The
Tang
then slipped away into the night. Understandably, her crew buzzed with excitement. They had pulled off a truly spectacular attack, arguably the most devastating of the war. The
Tang
had hit and then sunk all of the convoy’s cargo-carrying ships. She had also caused severe damage to an escort ship in the convoy, which then burned before beaching on the Pescadores. In all, the battle had lasted less than ten minutes.
¹⁰
Once again, Commander Dick O’Kane had proven, in Floyd Caverly’s words, to be “quite the marksman.”
¹¹

IT WAS LATE ON OCTOBER 24, 1944, when blips again appeared on the
Tang
’s surface radar screen. O’Kane ordered the
Tang
to close on what appeared to be another convoy. Soon, the radar screen showed many more blips, targets galore. The
Tang
began her approach, possibly her last given that only a half dozen or so torpedoes were left.

O’Kane turned to Frank Springer: “Do you think we’ll have time before daylight to fire from the surface?”

“Yes,” replied Springer. “By the time we get into position it’s going to be just about two o’clock or two ten. We’ll have to fire then or we won’t be able to make it. We’ll be exposed to the surface.”
¹²

The
Tang
maneuvered into position.

“Fire!” ordered O’Kane.

Mark 18 electric torpedoes shot from the
Tang,
aimed to hit beneath the masts of two freighters and under the main stack of a tanker. O’Kane was at the top of his game. Explosions soon followed, their shock waves spreading across the sea and rocking the
Tang
slightly.

The
Tang
continued on the surface. More enemy ships were soon within striking distance. O’Kane ordered his men to set up for stern shots at a tanker and a transport. Torpedoes were fired at both. Before long, there was an ear-splitting explosion; the tanker erupted into a massive fireball. Clearly, she had been loaded to the brim with fuel.
¹³

The tanker blazed so brightly that the
Tang
suddenly seemed to have emerged into daylight. O’Kane and his bridge party looked around. At least one torpedo had hit the transport, which was still afloat, dead in the water. Suddenly, Japanese escorts began to concentrate their fire on the
Tang
. Volleys of machine gun bullets splattered in the sea. It was time to disappear.

Below the bridge, in the conning tower, Frank Springer pleaded with Chief Electrician James Culp for more power.
¹⁴

Culp said he was worried that any further increase in power might overload the generators. The noise from the engines was already almost deafening, their pistons hammering away as engine-men, wearing earplugs, made hand signals and a red warning light blinked steadily.

“To hell with the overload,” Frank Springer ordered. “Pour on the coal.”

Culp instructed his men to do so. The pistons began to pump more furiously as the
Tang
’s four Fairbanks Morse diesel engines thundered, powering the
Tang
’s generators, pushing five million watts through the submarine’s four main motors. The
Tang
was soon moving away at full speed, around twenty-three knots, partially hidden by a cloud of exhaust fumes.

Other captains might now have plotted a new course and not looked back. Not Dick O’Kane. At ten thousand yards from the convoy, he slowed the
Tang
. He was going back for more—to finish off the transport he’d seen dead in the water.

O’Kane ordered his torpedo mechanics to pull the last two torpedoes from their tubes and examine them. With so few left, he wanted to make sure there would be no mistakes. Pete Narowanski, Hayes Trukke, and the other torpedo mechanics carefully checked the
Tang
’s last two fish. They then loaded them into forward tubes numbered five and six.

Thirty minutes later, the
Tang
was ready to deliver the coup de grâce to the stricken transport. All twenty-two torpedoes that had been fired so far had worked perfectly. “This promised to be a typical
Tang
patrol,” Vice Admiral Lockwood would later write. “Three or four weeks packed with thrills and action and then,

‘Course 090’ [the compass course back to Pearl] with empty torpedo tubes and a full bag.”
¹⁵

The
Tang
moved forward at six knots, her bow pointing at the transport. No escorts were in sight.

Floyd Caverly looked at the screen of his SJ radar in the conning tower.

“Range: fifteen hundred yards,” said Caverly.
¹⁶

The submarine crept slowly closer.

Nine hundred yards from the target, O’Kane was ready with his remaining two torpedoes—for all he knew, they were the last he might fire in combat during the war.

“Stand by below,” O’Kane ordered.

“Ready below, captain,” replied Springer.

“Fire!”

A small jolt was felt throughout the boat as the next-to-last torpedo was fired.

On the bridge, Bill Leibold stood beside O’Kane, peering through his binoculars. He saw the electric torpedo’s phosphorescent wake as it headed straight toward the crippled transport nine hundred yards ahead of it. It was running “hot, straight, and normal.”
¹⁷

Now just one torpedo was left. Once it had been fired, the
Tang
could head back to safety, having completed one of the most destructive patrols of the war.

O’Kane called for a time check. It was 2:30 a.m. on October 25, 1944.

“Set!”

In the conning tower, Larry Savadkin operated the torpedo data computer. He pressed a button that set the final firing angle of the
Tang
’s last torpedo.

“Fire!” ordered O’Kane.

Frank Springer stood a few feet from Savadkin in the conning tower. He pressed the firing plunger. Again, a jolting
whoosh
as the last torpedo, Number 24, left the
Tang
. The submarine shuddered as compressed air forced the torpedo from its tube and seawater flooded back into the tube.

In the forward torpedo room, Pete Narowanski slammed his fist into the palm of his left hand.

“Hot dog, course zero nine zero,” he cried. “Heading for the Golden Gate!”
¹⁸

“Let’s head for the barn,” someone else shouted.

There was a massive explosion as Number 23 torpedo hit its target, sending flames and debris shooting into the sky and quickly sinking the 6,957-ton
Ebaru Maru
, officially the twenty-fourth victim during O’Kane’s eighteen months in command of the
Tang
.

On the bridge, Bill Leibold scanned the waters with his binoculars. He stood next to O’Kane. Suddenly, he saw the last torpedo, Number 24, broach and then begin to porpoise, phosphorescence trailing it. A few seconds later, it made a sharp turn to port and then, unbelievably, began to come about.
¹⁹

“There goes that one! Erratic!” shouted O’Kane.

The last torpedo was now heading like a boomerang, back to its firing point . . . back toward the
Tang
. Something had gone terribly wrong. Perhaps its rudder had jammed or the gyroscope in its steering engine had malfunctioned.

“Emergency speed!” cried O’Kane.

Below, twenty-year-old Motor Machinist’s Mate Jesse DaSilva had just left his post in the engine room, having decided to get a cup of coffee. The Los Angeles native was standing with one foot in the mess.
²⁰
Over the intercom, he could hear the bridge crew react as the torpedo headed back toward the
Tang
.

“Captain, that’s a circular run!” he heard Leibold say.

“All ahead emergency!” shouted O’Kane. “Right full rudder!”
²¹

“Bend them on,” added O’Kane. “Control, just bend them on.”

In the engine room, Chief Electrician’s Mate James Culp did his best to comply, knowing the
Tang
needed all the power she could get if there was to be a chance of saving lives.
²²

The torpedo was now making straight for the three hundred-foot submarine. The men on the bridge stood, transfixed, their eyes “popping out of their sockets.”
²³
The
Tang
was moving at about six knots, twenty less than her final torpedo.

“Left full rudder!” ordered O’Kane.

Bill Leibold watched in stricken silence as the torpedo headed right at them, coming dead-on toward the
Tang
. Then he lost sight of it as it continued down the port side.
²⁴