Here’s an interesting story – with a personal hook – about the USS Wahoo, the famed World War II submarine whose final patrol lasted 63 years:
The Wahoo became one of the most-celebrated submarines of World War II. In a year and a half, Morton’s crew sank at least 19 Japanese ships ‚Äî more than any other submarine of the time.
Shortly after Wahoo left for her seventh patrol, a brother of one of the crew members came home to find his mother crying -
“I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ And she showed me the newspaper. It said USS Wahoo was overdue and presumed lost.” Overdue and presumed lost. The phrase was accurate as far as it went; all the Navy knew was that the Wahoo had not returned to base.
Logue kept looking for his lost sibling:
(He) pored through naval records, made contact with Japanese researchers, traveled to Japan in search of the lost submarine, and helped erect a peace monument there.
And then, an extraordinary thing happened. War records showed that on Oct. 11, 1943, at 9:20 in the morning, an American submarine had been fired upon in the La Perouse Strait.
A Russian expedition came to the strait in August 2006. And there, in 200 feet of water, they found the wreck of a submarine.
Three weeks ago, the U.S. Navy confirmed it is most likely that of the USS Wahoo.
They’re still on patrol, the crew of the Wahoo. They’re just not lost anymore.
Absolutely incredible. Morton was one of my boyhood heroes. I remember, as a young kid, reading about Mush Morton and the crew of the Wahoo. I believe the name of the book was “The Wake of the Wahoo.”
I hope that the exact position of Wahoo is never made public.
Rest in peace sailors.
Shipmates,
AS a kid, I thought that submarines were the coolest things in the world. There were the movies like “Run Silent, Run Deep”, and “Tokyo Bay”, and model kits galore. I must have boght everyone of those Renwall kits of SSBN’s that had the clear hull half and the interior details.
My folks were convinced I was going to be a submariner, and I would have, except for that one summer when I took my first plane ride. Ah well…..
After learning the ASW trade, I became even more admiring of those fellows. I hold the greatest respect for them, especially those who took what were essentially submersible surface runners across the vast Pacific. They were very brave, and so many never made it home again.
God bless them one and all.
Respects,
They died hard, if you read the Japanese accounts. No quitters, they.
Here (in Russian) is the first-person account of a Russian who was one of the first to see Wahoo, Boris Postovalov. He says that a Japanese bomb got right in the middle of the conning tower. The blast was so huge that it completely destroyed the conning tower and ripped the hull almost down to keel. No chance of survival, most of the crew had died instantly.
AA guns are still trained on the sky. Numerous dents on the hull suggest that Wahoo took some serious depth-charging, too. All torpedo tubes are closed, but if there were torpedoes on board, they’d surely detonate under the blast, so, all the fish was most probably spent.
Planes’ position indicate that Wahoo was caught while starting to dive. Propeller, tailplanes and rudder are all intact, so the submarine had lost power before she touched bottom, the blast could simply tear engines off their housing.
All these observations basically confirm the Japanese account of Wahoo’s last hunt. It’s even possible that the Japanese were so baffled by her stubborn survivability that even after she had sunk, they refused to believe it and continued depthcharging all over the strait.
That’s a great addition to the tale, Mike – thanks.
Interesting the phonetics of the ship’s name in Russian: ?Ǭ
That’s a great addition to the tale, Mike – thanks.
Interesting the phonetics of the ship’s name in Russian: «Ваху» = “Vakhoo” if I’m not mistaken?
Yes, ‘H’, as well as ‘KH’, German ‘H” and ‘CH’, etc. are all transliterated as ‘?ꬕ’; exceptions are words that were transliterated before WWII, when ?
Yes, ‘H’, as well as ‘KH’, German ‘H” and ‘CH’, etc. are all transliterated as ‘Х’; exceptions are words that were transliterated before WWII, when Г was used for this.
‘W’ can be transliterated as either ‘У’ or ‘В’ (in 19th century it was invariably ‘В’), both options have their advantages. So if you want to make a Russian search for Wahoo, both Уаху and Ваху must be included. To avoid this, many Russians simply write proper nouns in English.
Different transliteration systems and their changes with time lead to some funny inconsistencies: the US president Howard is Говард, but the movie director Howard is Хауард. The inventor of steam engine is Уатт, but the measurement of electrical and mechanical power named after him is Ватт.
Great to hear that the Wahoo and crew are still on patrol. Like others here I remember reading the Wake of The Wahoo (sitting in the cold rain at a Metro Bus stop in DC on the way to school). I was most amazed with the story of the war patrol where Morton and crew purposely went after Japanese DDs. Amazing. Just told my son that story about a month ago. Must have been subconciously known about the discovery.
RIP SS-238
http://www.csp.navy.mil/centennial/wahoo.htm
Go Army!