It's early spring, 1943, and the US is at last finding its footing in the war in the
Pacific.
Devastated by the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the US Navy was forced to concede territory
after territory to the superior Japanese Navy.
For a year, the American Destroyer USS O'Bannon has been on the front lines of the second
world war, doing its best to buy time for America's new fleet to be built and launched.
The Battle of Guadalcanal has proven pivotal for American forces, and though the Americans
lost the greater number of forces, it resulted in a strategic victory for the US Navy which
saw attempts to reinforce Japanese bases repelled.
For some, the war is officially in an upswing, and the momentum of battle is shifting across
the war-torn Pacific.
America's sleeping giant is well and truly awoken.
Little of that matters though to the war-weary sailors of the USS O'Bannon.
Early in the morning of April 5th, 1943, the O'Bannon and the rest of Destroyer Squadron
21 is returning to resupply and refuel after shelling Japanese installations on the Solomon
islands.
As the O'Bannon is cruising along though, her radar picks up a contact somewhere near
a small set of islands called the Russel Islands.
While both the Japanese and American navies make use of radar, American radar is better
integrated into their ship's systems and more well developed than the Japanese's own.
This is largely thanks in part to the close cooperation with British researchers and an
agreement between the US and Britain that gave America access to British radar technical
know-how.
Another reason for the better performance of American radar is that the Japanese navy
placed a greater emphasis on traditional 'combat' postings over support and logistical personnel,
so the more talented and experienced officers would end up in combat positions rather than
behind radar monitors where they could further refine and develop both techniques and technology.
On that fateful day, American radar superiority would prove fatal for a submarine full of
Japanese sailors.
The O'Bannon's destroyer squadron is pretty confident that the single radar hit is not
a sizable Japanese ship- likely something small like a corvette or even a submarine
as air assets would have spotted larger Japanese ships in the area.
Perhaps even, it was a Japanese resupply ship trying to speed through the naval blockade
on Japanese island strongholds.
Either way- sub, corvette, or supply ship- it was a tempting target, and the O'Bannon
immediately changed course to intercept the contact.
As the American destroyer approached its lookouts on the deck quickly identified the radar contact-
it was a Japanese sub, cruising along the surface and completely oblivious to the incoming
destroyer.
Incredibly the Japanese crew had failed to post a lookout- either that or the sub was
desperately low on battery power and could not afford to submerge.
Either way, this was not an opportunity the O'Bannon's Captain was about to give up, and
as he ordered the ship to increase speed he set the big destroyer on a collision course
with the submarine.
Given the much greater tonnage of the destroyer versus a small Japanese sub, ramming the sub
would completely destroy it while leaving the O'Bannon relatively unharmed.
As the O'Bannon bore down on the Japanese sub, it became clear that there were no lookouts
posted, and as the ships got closer to each other the O'Bannon's lookouts were stunned
by what they see: over a dozen Japanese sailors splayed out on the deck of the sub, apparently
napping!
By now the O'Bannon was within a few hundred feet of the submarine when the Captain feared
that this sub might be full of sea mines.
If that were the case then ramming it would set off the mines in the ship's hull and send
both vessels to the bottom.
Frantically, the Captain called out for a course change, and the O'Bannon barely managed
to change course in time to avoid running straight into the Japanese ship.
Now both ships were running side by side, and the Japanese crew was very much alerted
to the presence of the American ship.
In a panic, the Japanese sailors began to prepare the three-inch guns on the deck of
the sub to fire on the destroyer.
The O'bannon meanwhile couldn’tt bring her own deck guns to bear on the sub because she
was too close, if something wasn't done quickly the sub would seriously damage the O'Bannon
and potentially even escape!
The crew of the O'Bannon realized that they were in serious trouble, and they immediately
began grabbing at anything they could get their hands on to throw at the Japanese sailors.
There was nothing on hand though except for several barrels full of potatoes, and the
men began pelting the Japanese crew with potatoes.
For their part, the Japanese were so confused by the potato attack, that they began to throw
them right back at the Americans!
Perhaps the Japanese thought that the Americans were throwing grenades, or that the Potatoes
were secretly explosives of some kind cleverly designed to simply look like potatoes.
Whatever the case, the two crews- bitter enemies of the second world war- began an epic food
fight as both ships struggled to flee from each other.
Preoccupied with throwing the potatoes back at the Americans, the Japanese sailors never
got a chance to man their guns, and the O'Bannon successfully pulled far enough away to start
lowering her formidable guns on the sub.
For its part, the sub had begun to descend, the above-deck crew rushing to get below decks
before they were caught out and drowned.
The sub slipped below the waves, but not before the O'Bannon let loose with a volley of fire
that smashed into the sub's conning tower.
The shot through the conning tower likely doomed the ship immediately, but to ensure
its kill, the O'Bannon returned and delivered a depth charge attack directly over the sub's
location.
Japanese records after the war confirmed that the sub was in fact lost to the O'Bannon's
attack.
Hearing of the crew's exploits, the Association of Potato Growers of Maine had a plaque commissioned
and sent to the crew of the O'Bannon (use plaque photo from www.historybyzim.com/2012/03/the-maine-potato-episode/).
The plaque would be hung in the mess hall and read:
A tribute to the officers and men of the USS O'Bannon, for their ingenuity in using our
now proud potato to “sink” a Jap submarine in the spring of 1943.
Presented by Potato Growers of the state of Maine, June 4th 1945.
While an incredible story though, the O'Bannon's commander, Donald MacDonald, would later say
that no potatoes were ever actually thrown by the ship's crew.
Rather, upon nearly ramming the Japanese ship, the ship's cook commented that it was so close
he was sure he could throw a potato at it and hit it.
The potato story however was a hit with the American media, who was perhaps looking for
some levity in a war that brought so much horror to so many.
The story became nationally famous and the great potato battle of the O'Bannon remains
the stuff of naval legend to this day.
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