What USS Pampanito Found in the Water Three Days After It Sank a Japanese Transport in 1944

Three days after USS Pampanito torpedoed a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, her lookouts spotted men clinging to wreckage. The crew brought machine guns on deck. What they found, and what they did over the next four hours, is set down minute by minute in the submarine's own patrol report. This is the story of 15 September 1944, told from the logs of three American submarines, a decoded Japanese radio message, the executive officer's interview six weeks later, and the notebook a torpedoman kept on the run to Saipan. Sources: USS Pampanito, Report of Third War Patrol (NARA; transcription and scans via the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association, maritime.org) USS Sealion, Report of Second War Patrol; USS Growler, Report of Tenth War Patrol, and Task Group 17.17 report Lt Cdr Landon L. Davis Jr., oral history recorded 26 October 1944 (maritime.org) Robert Bennet diary and POW survivor tales (maritime.org) Capt. G. Tufnell RN, report on rescued prisoners, 3 October 1944 ULTRA summary and decoded Japanese messages on the HI-72 convoy (NARA, via maritime.org) combinedfleet.com records of movement: Kachidoki Maru, Hirado, Nankai Maru Topics covered: Convoy HI-72 · Ben's Busters wolfpack · Rakuyo Maru · Kachidoki Maru (ex-President Harrison) · Burma-Thailand railway prisoners · submarine rescue at sea · Pharmacist's Mate Maurice Demers · survivor accounts that disagree Read Unsung, 36 Pacific War stories the history books left out: https://readunsung.com