An American submarine sank with its own torpedo. The fate of the survivors was worse than death

Until October 1944, it was one of the most successful American submarines of the Second World War, which operated dominantly in the Pacific Ocean. She was able to sink a total of 33 warships in the Pacific during her short combat career, the Japanese ships were rightly afraid of her. However, after fame came a sudden disaster that no one expected. But in order.

Phantom of the Pacific

The Balao-class submarine USS Tang was ordered in late 1941, launched in January 1943, and commissioned in October of that year. The submarine was to be deployed in the Pacific on a variety of missions, eliminating selected Japanese vessels. It must be said that she did very well.

On her first mission, the USS Tang sailed from the Pacific base at Pearl Harbor in January 1944 and patrolled the area of ​​the Mariana and Caroline Islands and immediately recorded the first naval engagements. The American submarine sent 6 Japanese vessels to the bottom and the total tonnage of the sunken ships was 18,000 tons. And the submarine, which over time became the terror of Japanese surface ships, continued to thrive.

More successes came soon

In the Yellow and East China Seas, the USS Tang scored further successes. She sank 10 Japanese ships, the total tonnage of vessels that sunk irretrievably to the bottom was 16,292 tons. It was no different when the USS Tang operated off the Japanese island of Honshu on another mission. In more than a month, the American submarine destroyed 7 enemy ships, one of them even with its on-board machine gun.

The USS Tang appeared to be virtually indestructible or invulnerable to the enemy. But every glory comes to an end, even if the destruction of the American submarine came completely unexpectedly. The submarine was patrolling the Taiwan Strait and initially there were no signs that tragedy was brewing. USS Tang destroyed two Japanese cargo ships on October 10, 1944, and less than two weeks later she set sail to meet a large convoy.

Sunk by own torpedo

In a daring attack, she fired torpedoes at individual vessels of the convoy, sank them, and only damaged several ships. On October 23, 1944, two Japanese ships attempted to sink the submarine by ramming (a deliberate collision), but the USS Tang made an evasive maneuver in time, waited for a suitable position, and sent them both to the bottom.

However, after these cuts, the submarine’s commander, Richard O’Kane, was horrified to discover that the vessel only had a single torpedo in its torpedo tube. So the question was what target it would be used for. O’Kane decided to send a torpedo at the damaged Japanese battleship. The convoy had already left this place before, and it was left to its own devices. The U-boat fired its last torpedo at the Japanese ship that was due to arrive for good. However, something difficult to explain happened. Due to a faulty guidance mechanism, the torpedo returned towards the submarine and hit her in the rear. A huge explosion followed and only 9 of the 87 crew members remained, including the commander.

The trouble does not end

But other unexpected troubles began for the survivors. Although they were rescued by a passing Japanese frigate, it escorted them to the POW camp, where the conditions were appalling. The Japanese wanted to literally squeeze sensitive military information out of the captives and subjected the group to brutal torture. However, the surviving sailors were lucky because the war was already over and the camp was finally liberated by the Americans.

The USS Tang is thus truly unique in American naval history. One of the most successful submarines in the Pacific, which scored significant hits on Japanese warships, sank itself with its own torpedo at the height of its glory.

Source: history.com, Business Insider

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