By the fall of 1944, the USS Tang submarine had accumulated one of the best records in
the United States Navy, sinking dozens of Japanese ships across the Pacific.
But although the vessel had a promising career and one
of the most renowned and notorious commanders in the entire theater,
Tang's run suddenly came to an unfortunate end when it sank due to its own errant torpedo.
USS Tang
USS Tang was a Balao-class diesel-electric submarine with a crew of up to 10 officers
and 80 enlisted men. With 120 boats, the Balao was one of the largest submarine
classes within the United States Navy. After being built at Mare Island Naval Shipyard
in California, USS Tang first sailed in the summer of 1943, launched and commissioned in the fall.
By the time Richard H O'Kane was appointed as the ship's commander, the Lieutenant was already one
of the most well-known submariners in the Navy. During his tenure as executive officer of USS
Wahoo under the command of legendary Dudley "Mush" Morton, O'Kane played a central role in
the Gato-class submarine's early achievements, serving on five successful war patrols.
After the vessel completed fitting out at Mare Island, she moved south to San Diego, California,
for 18 days of training exercises before sailing to the Pacific Theatre.
Tang finally arrived at Pearl Harbor on January 8, 1944,
where she prepared for combat for two more weeks.
Although there were only two more years left in the war, USS Tang would become top of the class
and have the best record of any United States Navy submarine.
Promising Career
Commander O'Kane resumed his winning ways as he took command of USS Tang.
On her first-ever war patrol around the Mariana and Caroline islands beginning on January 22,
1944, Tang’s crew was credited with sinking six Japanese ships with an outstanding
18,000 tons worth of shipping materials. After taking down the enemy with its 24
torpedoes and scoring 16 hits, the submarine then arrived at Midway base for a refit.
Her second war patrol took place around Palau, in the Philippine Sea,
and the Japanese naval bases in the Truk Islands. And although she did not sink any enemy ships,
the submarine rescued 22 Navy airmen who had been previously shot down during an attack.
Her third war patrol was in the Yellow and East China seas,
and it became one of the most devastating American submarine
deployments against Imperial Japan shipping lanes during World War II.
While there, Tang wreaked havoc on shipping vessels between the Asian mainland and Japan.
In only one day, on June 24, 1944, Tang sank the Japanese ships Tamahoko Maru, Tainan Maru, Nasusan
Maru, and Kenichi Maru, and during the entire patrol, Tang sank 39,160 tons of enemy resources.
Now a seasoned and successful veteran of the seas,
Tang was ordered to sail to the island of Honshu to operate directly off the Japanese coast.
During the submarine's fourth patrol, on August 11, Tang spotted two enemy freighters
and two escorts. The crew then launched three torpedoes at the larger freight vessel and two
more at another ship. The large freighter exploded immediately after her boilers were
hit by the underwater missile. After launching the attack,
Tang went deeper into the water, and after 38 minutes of depth charges, it resurfaced
back to periscope level. Only two escorts were around now, and one was rescuing survivors.
Days later, on August 14, Tang continued her relentless attacks,
sinking a Japanese patrol yacht boat and a 225-foot patrol boat a week later.
On August 23, Tang fired three torpedoes at an enemy ship where the crew spotted white
uniforms on its superstructure. The hits sent the 8,135-ton transport Tsukushi Maru to her grave.
The patrol ended two days later when the submarine sank an enemy tanker and an escort.
Fifth Patrol
Despite her impressive track record during the first four patrols,
USS Tang would soon meet an untimely end, and the story of
Tang’s final patrol would be recounted in Commander O'Kane's official report.
During her fifth patrol, the submarine refueled in Midway and set sail for the Taiwan strait on
September 27. This was a vital shipping route connecting Japan to the rest of the empire.
In order to reach the strait, the submarine had to pass through narrow waters heavily
patrolled by the Japanese Navy, and the area was believed to be heavily mined.
O'Kane was given a choice to either go through the passage independently or join a coordinated attack
group with the USS Silversides, Trigger, and Salmon submarines commanded by John S. Coye Jr.
Despite the apparent dangers, Lieutenant Commander O'Kane chose to make the passage alone.
The other submarines would never hear from Tang again after she left Midway.
The fifth patrol actually began with several triumphs.
On October 10, the submarine sank two cargo ships, and almost two weeks later, Tang spotted a
five-ship convoy with several destroyer escorts. In a daring attack, Tang charged into the convoy,
firing torpedoes in all possible directions and sinking and damaging many ships.
Two of the Japanese vessels tried to ram the submarine, but they collided with each other
after the Tang’s crew conducted impressive evasive maneuvers.
As the American submarine began to withdraw,
she fired four more torpedoes from her stern that finally sank both enemy ships.
The following morning, Tang spotted another large convoy, and the crew decided to shadow
the ships until the sky went dark and they could begin their final attack.
Tang then spotted her targets: a large three-deck vessel, a smaller transport ship,
and a big tanker, and launched torpedoes at them, blowing up the tanker and hitting the transport.
As the American submarine tried to escape the enemy fire, a destroyer headed towards her.
However, the approaching foe was hit with two torpedoes a few seconds later.
With only two remaining torpedoes, Tang headed towards the stricken destroyer to finish it off.
The first deployed torpedo headed straight for the transport. Tang then launched what would become
her last Mark 18 electric torpedo, an American copy of the problematic German G7e missile
that was plagued with issues and malfunctions. The second torpedo eventually surfaced and
curved to the left in a circular run heading back, straight for Tang.
When O'Kane realized the torpedo was heading towards them, the commander immediately ordered
the crew to accelerate at full emergency power to try and get ahead of the incoming weapon.
However, it was too late. The missile's 570-pound warhead hit the empty
aft torpedo room and detonated without mercy. Half of the 87-man crew perished instantly.
Tang’s rear compartments soon began to flood, and her stern section finally gave up.
The submarine was longer than the water was deep, and as she went down,
the buoyancy of the unflooded rooms kept the bow above the water.
Out of the nine men on the bridge, only three were able to reach the surface by swimming.
Tang eventually sank and hit the seafloor 180 feet below.
Thirty men remained trapped in the forward torpedo room and went on to burn sensitive documents,
even enduring a Japanese attack before attempting their escape.
The sinking of Tang was the first time that sailors managed to escape by using
the Momsen lung, a rudimentary personal underwater rebreather.
Out of the 13 sailors that managed to leave the forward torpedo room,
eight swam safely to the surface, but only five survived.
By the time the last man had exited the room, the heat from the battery fire was so intense
that the paint job on the bulkhead was scorching, melting, and running down.
Meanwhile, another survivor escaped the conning tower and used his pants as a flotation device.
Tang lost 78 crewmen, over 85 percent of her crew.
The actual cause of the missile's malfunction has
never been officially established and will likely remain unknown forever.
On Eternal Patrol
On the morning of October 25, nine sailors, including commander O'Kane,
were spotted and picked up by a Japanese frigate ship that was already carrying the
survivors of the vessel that Tang had attacked the night before.
The enraged Japanese sailors immediately charged at the captured Americans.
According to Commander O'Kane's official report of the incident:
[QUOTE] "When we realized that our clubbing and kickings were being administered by the burned,
mutilated survivors of our handiwork, we found we could take it with less prejudice."
The defeated survivors were taken to the Ōfuna war camp on Honshu and put into
solitary confinement, where they were battered and interrogated by Japanese Intelligence.
They stayed there as prisoners of war for the remainder of the conflict.
Ultimately, Tang is credited with having sunk 33 enemy ships,
totaling 116,454 tons of material sent to the bottom of the ocean and
making it the most successful US Navy submarine in history because of this.
She would eventually receive four battle stars and two Presidential Unit
Citations for the crew's brave service before the submarine's untimely end.
By then, Richard O'Kane was regarded as a legendary commanding officer
and received the Medal of Honor for his performance on Tang's final patrol.
Bill Leibold, Tang's former chief boatswain's mate and one of the submarine's survivors,
recalled his experiences for the National World War II Museum. To him, Tang was a legendary
submarine that performed exceedingly well until her unfortunate sinking: [QUOTE]: "That last run,
all in all, it was a pretty successful run, except for the final loss. That was us."
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