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Authors: Richard O'Kane
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attack.
Instead of the formal position slips that had been required when I was in the navigator’s shoes, I had requested that Fraz bring his chart to the wardroom after supper. At other times I would see it on the chart desk. On the evening of January 26, the exact 2000 position, run ahead from his evening star fix, showed that we were 20 miles ahead of the position laid down on our track. We had gained a little each day in spite of our recent dives. This fitted in well with converting safety tank back to its normal function, for the diesels had now used somewhat more fuel from our regular tanks than safety held. The oil was transferred without incident, butbefore flushing safety we changed course to north. Any oil slicks that we might leave while flooding and blowing safety to rinse it out would lie on a north-south line and would not disclose our track. After an hour’s run and half a dozen blows,
Tang
came back to the course for Wake.
Taking a tip from the “remarks” section of two patrol reports that discussed radar detection, we kept our SJ radar trained clear of the bearing of Wake Island as we moved in on the night of the 27th. Frazee’s navigation was exact and we needed no range to the atoll, so why take the chance of advertising our approach with radar signals? At the crack of dawn,
Tang
dived five miles northeast of Wake.
2
Frank took the dive as we slid under the sea and leveled the boat off at 64 feet. He soon requested one-third speed and reported a satisfactory trim. On the first periscope observation it was still too dark to distinguish any details. Then, just as darkness had come quickly, so did daylight. I made a fast sweep in low optical power, with its wide field, for a submarine never knew what might have moved in during darkness. All was clear. Then I flipped the handle to high power and made a slow search. The tops of structures on Peale Island popped above the horizon, as if coming up out of the sea. Everyone was quiet. “Bearing—mark. Down scope,” I called. “Zero zero six,” said Jones, as he read the relative bearing from the azimuth scale on the scope housing and lowered the scope simultaneously.
Fraz had already converted the relative bearing to true and was laying down the line as I stepped over to the chart desk. The line bisected the high point of the island, the northernmost part of Wake Atoll. I sketched in very lightly the track we would follow past the islands. It would keep us three miles off the reef but still close enough for the reconnaissance we wanted. Fraz smoothed out my sketching with sharp, straight lines and entered the course to be steered on each leg. I brought
Tang
to the first leg.
“Will you take the con and call me when we reach here,” I said, indicating a point where we would change course in about a half hour, and then gave search instructions. We would expose no more than three feet of periscope and would take looks every five minutes. In this manner we would not be surprised by a plane that might take off and be overhead were the interval much longer.
I went below, for I had a reason for wanting my executive officer to close the island. It hearkened back to an experience I had had in
Wahoo
as Mush Morton’s exec. We were both on the bridge closing a promontory at dawn and dived a little too early. Before we could do anything about it, a fine ship whipped around the point and was gone. I remember Mush’s exact words when we discussed ourfailure later. “With two of us up there we’re just too cautious. From now on you’ll take her in, dive, and call me when you’ve got a ship in sight.” I might not go quite that far, but there were bound to be many times when Fraz would have to carry the ball, and a good place to start was right here.
Fraz and I took turns on the periscope that morning, changing at about two-hour intervals. First came Peale Island, which had once held the Pan American Hotel in the China Clipper days of the mid-1930s. It
Instead of the formal position slips that had been required when I was in the navigator’s shoes, I had requested that Fraz bring his chart to the wardroom after supper. At other times I would see it on the chart desk. On the evening of January 26, the exact 2000 position, run ahead from his evening star fix, showed that we were 20 miles ahead of the position laid down on our track. We had gained a little each day in spite of our recent dives. This fitted in well with converting safety tank back to its normal function, for the diesels had now used somewhat more fuel from our regular tanks than safety held. The oil was transferred without incident, butbefore flushing safety we changed course to north. Any oil slicks that we might leave while flooding and blowing safety to rinse it out would lie on a north-south line and would not disclose our track. After an hour’s run and half a dozen blows,
Tang
came back to the course for Wake.
Taking a tip from the “remarks” section of two patrol reports that discussed radar detection, we kept our SJ radar trained clear of the bearing of Wake Island as we moved in on the night of the 27th. Frazee’s navigation was exact and we needed no range to the atoll, so why take the chance of advertising our approach with radar signals? At the crack of dawn,
Tang
dived five miles northeast of Wake.
2
Frank took the dive as we slid under the sea and leveled the boat off at 64 feet. He soon requested one-third speed and reported a satisfactory trim. On the first periscope observation it was still too dark to distinguish any details. Then, just as darkness had come quickly, so did daylight. I made a fast sweep in low optical power, with its wide field, for a submarine never knew what might have moved in during darkness. All was clear. Then I flipped the handle to high power and made a slow search. The tops of structures on Peale Island popped above the horizon, as if coming up out of the sea. Everyone was quiet. “Bearing—mark. Down scope,” I called. “Zero zero six,” said Jones, as he read the relative bearing from the azimuth scale on the scope housing and lowered the scope simultaneously.
Fraz had already converted the relative bearing to true and was laying down the line as I stepped over to the chart desk. The line bisected the high point of the island, the northernmost part of Wake Atoll. I sketched in very lightly the track we would follow past the islands. It would keep us three miles off the reef but still close enough for the reconnaissance we wanted. Fraz smoothed out my sketching with sharp, straight lines and entered the course to be steered on each leg. I brought
Tang
to the first leg.
“Will you take the con and call me when we reach here,” I said, indicating a point where we would change course in about a half hour, and then gave search instructions. We would expose no more than three feet of periscope and would take looks every five minutes. In this manner we would not be surprised by a plane that might take off and be overhead were the interval much longer.
I went below, for I had a reason for wanting my executive officer to close the island. It hearkened back to an experience I had had in
Wahoo
as Mush Morton’s exec. We were both on the bridge closing a promontory at dawn and dived a little too early. Before we could do anything about it, a fine ship whipped around the point and was gone. I remember Mush’s exact words when we discussed ourfailure later. “With two of us up there we’re just too cautious. From now on you’ll take her in, dive, and call me when you’ve got a ship in sight.” I might not go quite that far, but there were bound to be many times when Fraz would have to carry the ball, and a good place to start was right here.
Fraz and I took turns on the periscope that morning, changing at about two-hour intervals. First came Peale Island, which had once held the Pan American Hotel in the China Clipper days of the mid-1930s. It
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