Back from the Deep by Carl P. LaVO

Author:Carl P. LaVO [LaVO, Carl]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781612511702
Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Going Home

In mid-December, the Sculpin arrived off Truk, a foreboding group of fifty volcanic peaks bristling like ragged teeth raised above the horizon. Chappell moved in carefully, skirting dangerous coral reefs. Numerous inlets allowed enemy ships to come and go, the Japanese frequently changing routes to foil submarines laying in wait. But on the night of December 18, the Sculpin finally sighted an aircraft carrier led by three destroyers. At 0040, with the boat closing rapidly on the surface, she was detected. Two escorts pealed off in pursuit. The submarine turned away, trying to outrun the destroyers. For a moment, it seemed to Chappell she might make it.

But suddenly a searchlight fully illuminated the boat. Both destroyers opened fire from 6,000 yards. Shells fell in great geysers around the boat as she dove. The destroyers pinpointed her on sonar and raced over, lobbing depth charges intended to finish her.

The Sculpin slid downward in an elevator plunge to 300 feet. Anxious crewmen stopped in their tracks. Clattering diesels were stilled, as were all ventilation fans, the air conditioning, and any other mechanical devices. There was only the nearly noiseless hum of the boat’s electric motor in the keel, powering the getaway. The crewmen stood in stony silence, listening intently for the thresher-like sounds of the oncoming destroyers. The men moved about only when necessary, and then very deliberately. The officers issued few commands, passed in a hush over the boat’s telephone line to the talkers, who repeated them in a whisper to the men.

The commotion of one destroyer dropping depth charges and the two others dashing about played into Chappell’s favor, masking the Sculpin’s movements below. The enemy lost contact as the submarine proceeded away “at creeping speed,” the captain later reported. He kept the boat deep for the next three hours, moving up gradually to periscope depth where no vessels at all were detected. At 0400, the submarine burst to the surface, the crewmen throwing open the deck hatches. Simultaneously, the powerful diesels came to life, sucking cool night air through the boat in a huge torrent that practically lifted the men off the deck.

After a few hours, the boat submerged for the day and then resurfaced at sunset to resume prowling the southwest shipping lanes to and from Truk for the next several nights, sinking an oil tanker as it rendezvoused with a destroyer. A few days later, Chappell and the lookouts watched as a Japanese hospital ship passed, all lit up like a floating jewel so submarines would not attack.

On New Year’s Eve, as the boat prepared to begin the open ocean run back to Pearl, the joy of homecoming was duly noted in the Sculpin logbook: “G’bye Australia and all you diggers, Too hard there to rill your jiggers. We’ll navigate by sight and sound, We can’t get lost when we’re homeward bound.”

Meanwhile, 800 miles to the south, the Sailfish passed New Britain in the Solomons as the Japanese retreated. “The Japanese were having their own little Dunkirk at Lae and Salamaua where Australian and U.

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