/ / IMMEDIATE / /
To:
ComSubRon 4A
CC:
ComSubPac
From:
CMDR Ronny Gundersen
Date: 15
March 1944
Subject:
Patrol Report, Cycle 10 (December 2002)
Remarks:
1st War Patrol, USS Pampanito SUNK IN
ACTION
Sub: USS Pampanito
SS-383 Class:
Balao
Crew: Green Status: SUNK
Hull Damage: TOTAL System
Damage: TOTAL
Total Patrol Time: 12
Days Repair
Time: N/A
Fuel Used: N/A Realism Rating: 115%
Ships Sunk: 0 Tonnage:
0
Warships: 0 Merchants:
0
Pilots Saved: 0 Photo
Recons: 0
Weather: Foggy Sea:
Calm
Patrol Mileage: N/A
Ordnance Remaining: N/A
(Silent Hunter Awards: N/A)
Total: N/A
Damage Sustained:
Aircraft Encountered:
0
Depth Charges:
51
Commander’s Comments:
March 2, 1944
Left Pearl Harbor and headed for
Southern Japan.
We arrived zone SJ-9 11 March at
17:12. We sat course to SJ-6. The weather is partly cloudy
/foggy and the sea is calm.
Extensive training of the crew on
this new boat has been done during the transit here.
00:29
We arrived our patrol zone SJ-6. The
weather is clear and the sea is calm. We start to search
for enemy shipping.
00:30
Convoy detected by radar at 29,450
yds heading 324'T. We continue on course to intercept.
01:24
The convoy zigged away from us and
got away. By the speed I suppose it was warships.
We abort the chase and resumes
patrol.
19:00
Received coded message from our
SubRon CO. We are to hunt down and destroy IJN subs that are
leaving via Bungo Suido until
daybreak of March 14.
The sea is moderate and it's mostly
cloudy this night.
19:07
Radar detects a small surfaced
object 67'R 34,460 yds away. I guess this is a taipan or a sub.
We change speed and course to
intercept.
19:26
Another small dot appears on the
radar screen about 15-20,000 yds behind the first. This can
be the subs we are looking for.
20:10
At 4,400 yds a sub is spotted by the
lookouts. At a speed of 17 kts it's heading 183'T
surfaced. Torpedo depth is set to 7
ft. We dive to periscope depth (PD) to remain unseen, but
they must have spotted us anyway as
they also start do dive.
A few minutes later we spotted their
periscope. New torpedo depth is set to 15 ft.
Before we could launch a torpedo
they dived again and this time we lost them.
No sign of them on the sonar either.
20:30
Surfaced again and searched for the
other sub by radar. Found it 28,550 yds west of us.
I order to head towards them at
flank speed.
00:20
We must end our chase as we're
entering SJ-5. We're returning to Bungo Suido to scan for more
subs.
05:30
As the day breaks I realize that my
mission is an absolute failure. Two subs have been spotted
and none of them sunk. We didn't
even launch a torpedo. At least I can verify the suspicion
about enemy subs leaving via Bungo
Suido every night.
19:08
On surface again. The sea is calm
and it's foggy weather. Radar has detected an unescorted
convoy bearing 298'R at 28,320 yds.
I order to speed up and intercept the convoy.
21:59
Closed in to under 1,000 yds but the
fog was too thick to get a firing solution. We go back to
patrol and hope for better weather.
01:32
New convoy detected by radar bearing
092'R at 30,770 yds.
02:33
Suddenly two destroyers comes out of
the fog at full speed with barking deck guns. As we
dive for "safety" we're
hit by gunshells. They knock out our periscope and in the aft engine
room engine 3 and 4 are heavy
damaged. In our fwd engine room our hull is damaged and a heavy
leaking has started. I decide to
stay at 120 ft. depth to reduce the leaking.
Apparantly we have stumbled across a
CV group.
A few minutes later we're hit by two
depth charges (DC). The conning tower takes a hit and
heavy leaking is the result. Our
steering gear in the control room are heavily damaged making
turning very difficult. In the fwd
torpedo room we have a moderate leaking and our bow dive
planes are heavily damaged makind
depth changes harder too.
03:08
Another hit by DC! This time tube 3
is damaged, heavy leaking in the officers quarters, SD
radar is heavily damaged and severe
leaking in the control room, aft batteries damaged
beyond repair and another severe
leaking here too. Engine 1 is damaged beyond repair, the same
with engine 4. DC engines 3 and 4
heavy and critical damage respectively. In the aft torpedo-
room the outer doors of tubes 8-10
are damaged and the stern dive planes are heavily damaged.
So far sonar has detected only three
destroyers up there, but they sure are good at what they
do! I guess these guys didn't skip
their homework in the "How to kill your enemy effectively"
class.
03:24
More damage! Result: moderate
leaking in the aft torpedo room. No biggie.
03:36
More hits on the way. This time the
deck gun bought it, and a moderate leaking in the pump room
is new. Luckily the pumps are
keeping up quite well.
03:48
No more luck! A DC hit us in the aft
torpedo room and the Pampanito is lost at sea with all
hands.
CMDR Ronny Gundersen
CO: USS Pampanito, SS-383
SubRon 4A
U.S. Navy
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