Patrol Report September 00 II
SS-287 Bowfin fifth War Patrol covering the period from 5/2/44 to 5/12/44
To:  ComSubPac, Commander SUBRON 4 - Manual TDC

PROLOGUE TO

Arrived Darwin 3/14/44 after fourth War Patrol.

NARRATIVE

5/2/44 departed Darwin for the Java Sea with a full load of Mark 14's. Conducted daily drills enroute and practiced rapid deep submergence. Arrived on station 5/5/44. Sea's are heavy and sky is mostly cloudy. Decide to patrol first in the Makassar Strait so head there on 2/3 power. Only making about three knots so increase speed to standard making just above five knots.

Rmks 1.  05/05/44 0430. Heavy fog as well heavy seas drops visibility to nil. Conning by radar.

Rmks 2.  05/05/55 1750. Still in fog but get a radar contact 33000 yards. Will close and try to identify the contact. 1820 Appears to be a patrol of three ships. Will evade and continue into the strait. 1920 Now up to five small patrol craft continuing through them. Seas still heavy and weather still foggy will only dive if we are spotted. 2020 in the middle of the patrol nearest ship 2800 yards still cannot see it. Decide to dive and pass the patrol at 300 foot depth. 2220 back on the surface past the main body of the patrol nearest ship 6000 yards. 05/06/44 0100 lost the last of the patrol from radar. The weather has cleared to partly cloudy and seas are moderate as we enter the Makassar Strait. 0200 didn't take long for the fog to reform conning by radar again.

Rmks 3.  05/06/44 0350. Radar contact 34000 yards coming south through the strait. Visibility is still 0. 0415 closed the range to 16000 yards. Looks like six maybe eight ships with three or four escorts. Bearing 144 speed 8.5. Close until range is under 1000 yards to nearest ship. Finally sight the near column. No escorts just smaller ships on the outside of the formation. Fire two fish at lead ship in second column by radar. Fire two fish at second ship in near column a standard merchant and one at lead ship in near column a supply ship. Swing around to fire a stern salvo also. Fire all four stern torpedo's into the mess. Sound reports one dud. The merchant and supply ship are hit at least twice each and sink. Not sure of any other damage. Reloading tubes and running parallel to the convoy at 1600 yards to the nearest ship and cannot see a thing. Looks like one ship is falling behind the pack. Decide to close and see what it is. Turn right into them as they change back to their original course. Dive to evade as ships come within 400 yards. 0510 sight a small freighter heading away from the group range 1000 yards. Open up with the deck gun he turns broadside across our bow. One torpedo at 900 yards and four shells from the deck gun sinks him. Pursue the main body at flank speed. As dawn breaks they are making about 13 knots we're doing 15. Looks like a long pursuit in the moderate seas and fog. 0600 the fog lifts ships are doing fourteen knots we are doing fifteen. Break off the pursuit and return to the strait.

Rmks 4.  05/06/44 1300 radar contact 34000 yards. Fog has rolled in again but attempt to close on the potential target in order to identify what it is. 1340 radar indicates range to nearest ship is 6500 yards and still can't see a thing. Slow to 1/3 will dive at 4000 yards whether we spot them or not. 1345 sight an ISE class BB dive to radar depth and close to attack. Fire four at the ISE and two at the CA behind range 1500 to 2000 yards then as they pass fire the four stern tubes, two at the ISE and two at the CA. One failed to arm five hits on the ISE and two on the CA. Dive to evade the escorts. Initial DC attack is not close. Return to periscope depth to survey the damage. Follow up DC attack is real close and causes leaking in Control Room, Aft Battery and forward engine room. Motor 1 damaged and Engine Four is out of service as well as the periscopes. Stabilize at 100 feet to slow the flooding and evade using sound. Sound indicates three PC's and three DD's they make one more pass but nothing close. After that pass we slowly clear the area. 1450 come to radar depth. Nearest ship is 3600 yards away no sign of the CA. 1508 surface to survey the area and sight the damaged CA about 5000 yards astern circling at 13 knots. Reload tubes for another attack. 1600 the escorts are leaving the CA behind. Surface and pursue. At 2000 yards fired one torpedo and opened up with the deck gun, at 1500 yards fired a second torpedo and dove to avoid return fire. Second fish hit and CA sinks. Eight shells also hit the CA but cleared the decks before CA was sunk. Retire to the SE to wait for nightfall. Without a periscope will need to find a night surface target for out last two fish.

Rmks 5.  05/06/44 1634. Another radar contact heading away from us at 33000 yards. Do not pursue recharging the batteries, repairing DC motor 1 and giving the crew a rest.

Rmks 6.  05/06/44 1800. Radio with status report. Ordered to return to port for repairs. Turn south from the Makassar strait and head for the channel between Bali and Lombock for the return trip. 1900 spot a large convoy on radar, report the contact and circle around to the South.

Rmks 7.  05/06/44 1950. Radar contact 34000 yards. Looks like four ships. Close to investigate. Unable to catch them on three engines so continue to the South. 2158 another radar contact dead ahead this is definitely one heavy traffic area. Close to investigate. Radar indicates four large ships with six escorts. 2300 spot one escort at 1200 yards but never sight the large ships. Continue to the South.

Rmks 8.  05/07/44 0530. Radar contact 32000 yards as we enter the Bali Sea. Still foggy but will close to investigate. 0555 range 15000 yards radar indicates a large group of ships with a couple of escorts circling the pack. Let this group pass then continue south.

Rmks 9.  05/07/44 0830. Receive radio request to conduct lifeguard duty in the Surabaya area tomorrow. Turn for Surabaya.

Rmks 10.  05/08/44 1140 receive first of three reports of downed airmen. They are on both sides of Java and in the Bay east of Surabaya where we are located. Will attempt to pick up as many as we can. 1205 pick up first airmen. Heading north past Surabaya to the location of the second downed plane. 1410 pick up second airmen head to final reported location at flank speed.

Rmks 11.  05/09/44 1229 Pick up third airman south of Java after an all night run around the island. Return to port for repairs.

Arrived Darwin 5/12/44.

Jap ASW

Escorts were heavy on task forces and light on convoys. In general they were not pinging until after we fired on them. The patrol at the South end of the Makassar Strait was large but very ineffective.

Torpedo performance summary

Attack	Fired	Type	Depth	Speed	Hit	Pre	Dud	Miss	Result
1	9	Mk.14	6 ft	High	4	0	1	4	Sank 2650 ton Supply Ship and 7450 ton Standard Merchant
2	1	Mk.14	6 ft	High	1	0	0	0	Sank 1590 ton Small Freighter in conjuction with 4 deck gun shells fired
3	10	Mk.14	6 ft	High	7	0	1	2	Sank 35,800 ton Battleship-Carrier ISE class, damaged Takao class CA
4	2	Mk.14	6 ft	High	1	0	0	1	Sank 15,780 ton Takao class CA in conjunction with 8 deck gun shells fired
5	- -	- -	- -	- -	- -	- -	- -	- -	Fired deck gun into Surabaya, no damage noted
Totals	22	- -	- -	- -	13	0	2	7	2 torpedoes not fired

Torpedo performance

All appeared to perform well. The high number of misses in the first attack were caused by firing using radar information only as the row of ships fired upon was never sighted.

Deck Gun

Gun was used and all shells hit their targets except for the shells fired into Surabaya.

SJ Radar Performance

Made contact at about 30000 to 34000 yards.

SD radar

No aircraft were detected. This unit needs to be checked out while in port.

Damage

Hull damage: light 25%
System damage: light 6%
Repair time: seven days

Weather Conditions

Terrible! Moderate to Heavy seas and Foggy while in PZ.

Endurance factors

Fuel remaining - 70%
Torpedo's - 2
shells - 88
supplies - 45 days

Photo Recons

None requested, couldn't see anything anyway.

Pilots rescued

Three from the one air attack on Surabaya on 5/8/44.

Ships sunk - five

Supply Ship          2650 tons
Standard merchant    7450 tons
Small Freighter      1590 tons
Battleship ISE      35800 tons
Cruiser Takao       15780 tons
——————————————————————————————
TOTAL               63270 tons

Respectfully,

LTCMD Ray McNeice
Commander SS-287 Bowfin