The Sunfish was on the surface one dark night, up in the waters of northern Japan, charging batteries and lurking on the surface. The skipper, E.E. Shelby, ordered them into a harbor where they spotted four ships docked to a pier with no flags visible. He, the skipper, called SM1C W.M. Gail to the bridge with his light gun and told him to signal the ships and find out just who in the hell they were. Dad did this and three ships raised Russian flags. Now a word here to those who might not understand. The USSR had not declared war on Japan yet; that is, not until August of 1945, and then only to grab the Sakhalin Islands but I'm getting sidetracked here. The skipper ordered a photographer to the bridge and he started taking pictures of the whole affair. The fourth ship raised a German flag and after a quick setup and shooting, the Sunfish loosed her tin fish and blew the hell out of the ship! They retired from the harbor posthaste, licking their chops. Upon returning to Guam (this happened in 1944) there was a ton of brass on the pier waiting for the Sunfish to dock. They came aboard and wanted to know what had happened out there. Well, thank God that the skipper had the photos to prove his story. Evidently, the Russians protested the sinking of one of their ships and ol' Josef Stalin was short one ship to the Sunfish. It seems that the ship thought that the Sunfish was a U-boat. Maybe he should have paid a little more attention to his ship ID book. They were told never to discuss this and it went into the many pages of untold tales of the Silent Service.

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