Patrol Report May 00 II
SS-184 Skipjack seventh War Patrol covering the period from 1/4/43 to 1/25/43

To: ComSubPac, Commander SUBRON 4 - Auto TDC

PROLOGUE TO

Arrived Fremantle 11/22/42 after sixth war patrol. Was transferred from SUBRON-7A to SUBRON-4 per ComSubPac orders of 1/1/43. Used auto-TDC for all torpedo's.

NARRATIVE

Departed Fremantle 1/4/43 for the Philippine Sea. Proceeded to West Side of the Philippines since that is where we had our best hunting on our fifth patrol.

Arrived on Station 1/13/43.

Rmks 1. 1/13/43 09:45 radar contact while patrolling on course 0 in the main shipping lane bearing 180 at 14000 yards. Appears shipping lanes have not changed since last September. Convoy is two CA probably a Myoko and a Takao with three escorts. Could not close within 5000 yards lose contact at 12:30. Resume patrolling on course 000.

Rmks 2. 1/14/43 03:32 radar contact 12000 yds. Turn and close at full speed. Spotted two escorts. Radar indicated two large and seven small ships, sound only detected one set of low speed screws. Did not site a target worthy of torpedoes. No moon so visibility is limited to 3500 yards.

Rmks 3. 1/14/43 10:43 radar contact 13000 yds bearing 340 turn and close at full speed. This group is a Kuma class CL with seven escorts. Fire three torpedo spread at 2250-2500 yards. Premature allows CL to avoid the other two. Fire final forward fish at 1000 yds. CL avoids as well. Dive deep and evade. Lose escorts after three passes and about one hour. Escorts depart to the SSE. Continue patrolling to the North.

Rmks 4. 1/14/43 17:14 radar contact 14000 yds bearing 020. Radar indicates at least three ships and three aircraft. Turns out to be two heavy cruisers with seven destroyers and three aircraft. Fire four forward fish at nearest CA, at 2000 yds. Two premature's alert the convoy the other two miss. Damn the torpedoes. Dive to 300 feet and get a thorough workover. 18:45 surface to recharge batteries and reload forward tubes.

Rmks 5. 1/14/43 20:11 radar contact 13000 yds bearing 000. Not sure if this is the same group or not so close with the moon behind them to investigate. This is an unescorted convoy in four columns. Fire two from the stern at the second ship in the West column and one at the first. Two premature's and one hit, on the second ship, with no effect. Convoy turns away except for a tanker which departs at 13 knots on same base course. Chase the tanker and fire one forward torpedo at 2000 yds hit and target sinks. Pursue the rest of the group to the East. Fire one torpedo each at two separate merchants one in the East and one in the West columns, both duds. Fire two torpedoes at the first merchant in the East column, both hit, he is on fire convoy turns towards. Line up stern shot on last merchant in west column. Dud. Fire again after passing through the convoy. Hit, this ship is also on fire. Fire last stern shot to finish this ship off, hit, it does. Fire last bow fish at last ship, converted factory ship, in the middle column. Hit, slight slow down of ship. Surfaced and engaged convoy with the deck gun. It took 48 shells to sink the factory ship. Another 20 to sink the damaged merchant. Also sunk a supply ship with 17 shells. Left the other two ships depart due to lack of ammunition.

1/25/43 arrived in Fremantle.

Ships sunk

Oil Tanker      11480 tons
Merchant        13200 tons
Factory Ship     3490 tons
Merchant        13200 tons
Supply Ship      1550 tons
��������������������������
TOTAL Tonnage   42920 tons

Torpedo performance summary

Attack one.  All fired at depth 6 feet high speed.

     Hit  Prem  Dud   Miss
     ���������������������
      0    1     0     3      Result: nothing

Attack two.  All fired at depth 6 feet high speed.

     Hit  Prem  Dud   Miss
     ���������������������
      0    2     0     2      Result: nothing

Attack three. All fired at depth 8 feet high speed.

     Hit  Prem  Dud   Miss
     ���������������������
      7    2     3     0      Result: two ship's sunk and two ship's damaged.

Totals

     Hit  Prem  Dud   Miss
     ���������������������
      7    5     3     5

Torpedo performance - hit and explode versus duds was slightly better then in previous patrols although the premature's were more costly resulting in more misses.

Deck Gun - fired 85 shells at three different targets all hit but three. Would recommend a larger caliber weapon as it took a lot of shells to sink these targets.

SJ Radar - Performance varied but generally made contact at about 13000 yards.

SD radar - Aircraft were detected at 17000 yds during the patrol.

Damage - NONE

Weather Conditions - Fair and smooth to moderate seas while in PZ.

Respectfully,

LTCMD Ray McNeice
Commander SS-184 Skipjack