Battle Surface! by Stephen Moore

Author:Stephen Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2011-05-20T00:00:00+00:00

Parche enters Midway’s lagoon following her third war patrol. U.S. Navy photo, courtesy of Ray Karr.

Parche passed through the eye of the typhoon this day. “It was like passing through a wall of wind and rain into a foggy, misty calm,” Erwin wrote. “It was an eerie feeling. It did not take long to move back into the storm.”20

Parche passed through Bashi Channel on 22 November and she departed the patrol area for base the following day. On 24 November, the welcome word was received to proceed toward Midway for refit. En route, she was directed to search for a downed B-29 crew that had been returning from a Tokyo raid. Lookouts had spotted four red flares, a distress signal. Parche reversed course and Bang helped join in the search for several hours. Ramage swept the area until 2200, firing Very stars every 15 minutes. Finally, at 2330, the word was passed to the subs to break off this search and proceed, as no known American crew had been lost in their area.

Parche arrived at Midway at 0827 on 2 December and ended her luckless third war patrol moored to Pier No. 7 at the sub base. The local band was on hand to greet Parche but the celebration was much more subdued than that of her previous returns to base. Pomfret and Sailfish had each scored but Parche turned in her first zero run.

Electrician Lonnie Hughes was deeply troubled by the rumors he heard that the submarine Escolar was “overdue and presumed lost.” She had been lost with all hands during October in the vicinity of Tsushima Strait, likely to an encounter with a Japanese mine. Hughes had gone through sub school in New London with one of Escolar’s crewmen, RM1c Ken Campbell, and had spent some time on liberty with Campbell again in August at Honolulu before Escolar departed on her maiden patrol. Upset by the loss of his friend, Hughes wrote in his diary soon after reaching Midway, “I can’t understand why it is necessary for things like that to happen. I’m not going to write any more this time.”21

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