Patrol Report July 00 I
SS-184 Skipjack
Tenth War Patrol - covering the period from 7/4/43 to 7/25/43
To: ComSubPac, Commander SUBRON 4 - Manual TDC
PROLOGUE TO
Arrived in Fremantle 5/28/43 after ninth patrol. Damage from Ninth patrol repaired and bathermograph installed. Transferred from SUBRON 4 to SUBRON 10 then back to SUBRON 4 since now using Manual TDC.
NARRATIVE
Departed Fremantle on 7/4/43 for the South China Sea. Escorted by Destroyer until dark then proceeded to PZ at 2/3 speed. Arrived in PZ 7/13/43.
Rmks 1. 7/13/43 12:25. Spot two fighting tops bearing 090 turn bow on and stop to get an estimated course and speed to plan our attack. Appears to be two BB's probably Fuso class one CA with three visible so probably four escorts. Just zigging to course 180 range about 20,000 yards speed estimated at 22. At 12:33 they zig towards and first SJ contact at 14,500 yards. Fire three torpedo's at a Kongo class range 1800 yards and one at the Fuso then dove at full speed to avoid the lead escort. Apparently no hits. Minor damage from depth charging on first pass. The escorts lost the contact after that pass.
Rmks 2. 7/14/43 01:20. SJ Contact 12500 yards. These ships will be coming at us with the setting moon behind them. Three or four large ships plus escorts. Turn and run in to sight the enemy. 01:38 fired four torpedo's from the stern at CVE. Two prematured alerting convoy. The carrier and cruisers circled around giving us a bow setup at 2200 yards. Fired four torpedo's at the carrier. One hit the carrier slowed to 13 knots. Escorts did not drop any DC's.
Rmks 3. 7/15/43 00:20. SJ Contact 13,500 yards. This is a CL group with five escorts. Just as he is getting into firing position they zig away and never zig back towards our direction. Lose contact at 0135, Not sure if they saw our scope reflecting the moonlight or were just lucky.
Rmks 4. 7/15/43 0800. SD contact. Soon spot a cruiser and two escorts through the periscope. SD indicates at least 3 aircraft as well. They also do not come close enough and cannot surface to pursue.
Rmks 5. 7/15/43 2210. SJ contact 13500 yards. Looks like four ships on radar. Turns out to be five unescorted merchants. Oil tanker leading followed by standard merchant two armed cruisers with a supply ship between them. At 1800 yards fire two fish at the tanker and two at the standard merchant. A miss and a hit on the tanker sink it. A hit and a dud on the standard merchant. Dry forward so turn to set up a stern shot. Fire two more at the standard merchant first hit second missed forward as he slowed and turned. Fired two at the first armed cruiser one hit and one dud. Dry all around so will wait and see if anything is damaged enough to be finished off with the deck gun.
Rmks 6. 7/15/43 23:45. Surface action fire 20 shells at the standard merchant range 1800 to 1500 yards all hit and sink it. Pursue the supply ship. Fire 35 shells to sink that range 2200 to 1800 yards all but one hit. Pursue the damaged armed cruiser. He is moving faster then we are so I open up at 6900 yards to see if we can slow him down. Of the first twenty shots only about 6 hit but that slows him enough. As we close, continue firing and only miss twice out of the last 20 shells. Armed cruiser escapes but is burning and only traveling at about 8 knots.
Rmks 7. 7/15/43 04:00. After pursuing cruiser for a while move off to the SE. SJ contact turns out to be two unescorted CL's. Shadow until just before dawn transmitting contact direction and speed at each zig. Break off the shadow and return to base.
Arrived Fremantle 7/25/43.
Jap ASW
Did not run into the same number of escorts or the fierce counter attacks experienced in the last patrol.
Torpedo performance summary
Attack one. All fired at depth 10 feet high speed.
Hit Prem Dud Miss 0 0 0 4 Result - no confirmed hits, one possible.
Attack Two. All fired at depth 5 feet high speed.
Hit Prem Dud Miss 1 2 0 5 Result - One hit on Taiyo class CVE, slowed to 13 knots.
Attack Three. All fired at depth 5 feet high speed.
Hit Prem Dud Miss 4 0 2 2 Result - Sunk Oil tanker, damaged Standard Merchant and Armed Cruiser.
Totals
Hit Prem Dud Miss 5 2 2 11
Torpedo performance
Hit and explode versus duds was about the same as last patrol; around 25% failed. The premature's were still at 10% and probably caused the misses on the CV. Many of the misses were probably the result of lack of experience with manual TDC and high speed targets. Although the first salvo may have just run too deep.
Deck Gun
Expended all shells, approximately 70 hits for 95 shots on three different ships. Elite gun crew is great. Very fast reloads.
SJ Radar
Performance varied but generally made contact at about 12000 to 14500 yards.
SD radar
Aircraft were detected at around 17000 yds during the patrol.
Damage
Hull damage: moderate 12%
System damage: none
Repair time: three days
Weather Conditions
Fair with Moderate seas while in PZ.
Ships sunk - three
Oil Tanker 11580 tons Standard Merchant 5210 tons Supply Ship 3170 tons ������������������������������ TOTAL 19960 tons
Respectfully,
LTCMD Ray McNeice
Commander SS-184 Skipjack