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2024-05-26 Southeast Asia

Legendary US submarine, sunk in 1944, found near the Philippines

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Posted by badanov 2024-05-26 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11129 views ] Top

#1 Still on patrol.

Posted by Richard Aubrey 2024-05-26 06:44|| 2024-05-26 06:44|| Front Page Top

#2 ...A grim detail: one of the ships hunting Harder that day was the IJN's Patrol Boat 102.

PB 102 started life as USS Stewart (DD-224), part of the doomed US Asiatic Fleet at the beginning of the war. She had done well but was seriously damaged during the retreat to Java. Stewart was drydocked there for repairs...but the yard crew botched the process, she fell off the blocks, and had to be abandoned. When the Japanese showed up, they couldn't resist the opportunity and repaired/recommissioned her.

Somehow, PB102 survived the war to be recaptured and brought back to the states. She was sunk as a target off San Francisco in 1946.

Mike

Posted by MikeKozlowski 2024-05-26 07:37|| 2024-05-26 07:37|| Front Page Top

#3 Andrew Jackson May (June 24, 1875 – September 6, 1959) was a Kentucky attorney, an influential New Deal-era politician, and chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee during World War II, famous for his role as chief architect of the Peacetime Selective Service act. May was implicated in the leak of classified naval information, and later an unrelated conviction for bribery. May was a Democratic member of United States House of Representatives from Kentucky during the 72nd to 79th sessions of Congress.
May was responsible for the release of highly confidential military information during World War II known as the May Incident. U.S. submarines had been conducting a successful undersea war against Japanese shipping during World War II, frequently escaping their anti-submarine depth charge attacks. May revealed the deficiencies of Japanese depth-charge tactics in a press conference held in June 1943 on his return from a war zone junket. At this press conference, he revealed the highly sensitive fact that American submarines had a high survival rate because Japanese depth charges were exploding at too shallow a depth. Various press associations sent this leaked news story over their wires and many newspapers published it, including one in Honolulu, Hawaii.
After the news became public, Japanese naval antisubmarine forces began adjusting their depth charges to explode at a greater depth. Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, commander of the U.S. submarine fleet in the Pacific, estimated that May's security breach cost the United States Navy as many as 10 submarines and 800 crewmen killed in action. He said, "I hear Congressman May said the Jap depth charges are not set deep enough. He would be pleased to know that the Japs set them deeper now."

Posted by Deacon+Blues 2024-05-26 12:01|| 2024-05-26 12:01|| Front Page Top

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