USS Seawolf, SS-318
Western Pacific Ocean, Near Wake Island
March 14 1939
Lt j.g. Jim Smith was currently standing on the conning tower of his boat. He had taken command of the Seawolf on February 14th following the death of Lieutenant Reyes the former XO of the ship. His injuries had finally gotten the better of him and he was buried at sea by Smith and the rest of the crew. The former CO Lt Commander Jackson died back in January when the Japanese attacked Guam. Jackson never even made it back to the boat. It was the same attack that had wounded Reyes. Yet following the death of Reyes the command of the Seawolf passed to Smith. It was why the young jaygee was in a billet that normally when to a Lt Commander.
Under Smith the Seawolf had already a pair of victories. Granted they were merchants a Japanese tanker and Soviet[1] merchant ship, but the US was already operating under unrestricted submarine warfare rules. Currently the Seawolf was doing a swing by Wake Island on its way to its new home port at Rabaul. This was done as Guam[2] had fallen to the Japanese seven days ago and there was no chance of resupplying there. Rabaul was the closest port still in US hands were the Seawolf could resupply and keep up its war against the Japanese and other enemies of the United States.
At the moment the Seawolf was about 200 miles away from Wake as it was making it way south to Rabaul. Fuel limited the Seawolf’s approach to Wake as Jim wanted to have some fuel held in reserve in case he and his boat ran into the Japanese and needed it. Even then it his tanks would be damn near empty by the time he reached Rabaul. Then again his boat had already fought off Guam made a trip to Formosa and already started back to Guam when they were waved off from Guam to Rabaul then ordered to pass by Wake before making it back to Rabaul.
Looking through his spy glass Jim spotted something. It took a moment for it to come into focus. Pulling away the spy glass from his eye, “Dive the boat!” He screamed as he started to perform the task he needed to rig the boat to dive. A surface submarine against a naval task force is a losing proposition. The rest of the crew was running about to do the same thing to rig the boat to dive. Smith was the last person off the conning tower after making sure everyone else was already in the boat. Once everyone else in the boat he climbed down the ladder and closed the hatch to allow the boat to dive.
It took just under 95 seconds to start the dive of the boat. Jim was now in the bridge of his boat, “Put us at periscope depth. Bring us to a heading of two-seven-one, ahead slow. Sound General Quarters.” He called out as he was getting his plan of action together in his head. The crew of the boat were answering his calls as they when about putting the boat in the position he wanted to as the GQ alarm rung out throughout the boat. It took over a few minutes for this to happen.
Once everything was in the position he wanted Jim called out, “Up scope.” The quartermaster pulled the level to bring the scope up so his captain could see what was going on up top side. Jim quickly saw what he had seen up top and called out, “Mark one!” It was a few more seconds before he called out, “Mark two! Down Scope.”
At that he when over to the plotting table to start putting information on to the map as one of his enlisted men started putting information into the torpedo data computer. He looked at his XO who prior to the death of the older CO and XO had been the navigation officer of the boat, “Jack its going to be a long day.”
Jack looked at the map. He could see that Jim had marked down a pair of cruisers and six destroyers on the map. “Damn, we should at least make sure they get a nice welcome.”
The chief of the boat who was also qualified as an officer of the watch called out, “All sections report they are at their GQ stations.”
“Captain has the conn!”
“Aye, Captain has the conn.” the chief of the boat said letting it know he had turn over the watch of deck to his CO.
Turning to his XO Jim said, “Yep, my thoughts as well XO.” Unknown to Jim and Jack they had ran into one of the screening elements for the third attempt to invade Wake Island. A screening element made up of two light cruisers and seven destroyers.
Over the next 90 minute Jim made two more visual checks on the Japanese task force he had spotted as he had slightly adjust the course of his boat to give him a better angle off the bow so when he launched he had a better chance of hitting his target. For the fourth time since diving the boat Jim called out, “Up scope!”
Again the quartermaster raised the periscope up. Once the scope was up Jim quickly called out, “Mark One!” Then seconds later he called out, “Mark two.” Then he paused for a moment, “Fire One!” The whole boat shook as the first of the forward tubes fired its torpedo out into the warm Pacific. The Seawolf had a total of 10 tubes, six forward and four aft. Jim was about to use all of his forward tubes to press on his attack before diving the boat. Over the span of 54 seconds Jim fired all of the forward tubes. “Down scope.”
With his orders given the boat started to dive. Jim was looking at his stop watch as it would be just about five minutes before the torpedoes he fired should hit their targets. It was just now a waiting game.
It was at five minutes 15 seconds that the crew heard the sounds of an explosion. Then seconds later they heard another explosion. Jim called out, “Up scope!”
The quartermaster raised the scope and Jim started to look through it. It was clear that they had stuck one of the light cruisers. “Down Scope! Set deck to 500 feet!” Now came the hard part.
[1] The Soviet merchant fleet are still making port calls in Japanese held waters and are free game for American submarines.
[2] Think of the 1944 Battle of Guam instead of the Battle of Guam 1941 to how violent the battle was.
