Russians find wreckage of U.S. submarine (USS Wahoo)

Yahoo News ^ | August 17, 2006

[knighthawk]

MOSCOW - Russian divers have spotted the wreckage of a legendary U.S. submarine that was lost in the Pacific in 1943, a Russian news agency reported Thursday.

The ITAR-Tass news agency said that a diving team from the Far Eastern State Technological University in Vladivostok found the USS Wahoo in the La Perouse Strait and took pictures of it during a recent expedition. It didn't give further details.

Under the command of Dudley "Mush" Morton, the Wahoo became one of the most famous U.S. submarines of World War II. With 19 Japanese ships sunk, Morton was ranked as one of the war's top three sub skippers.

The Wahoo was sunk by the Japanese navy as it returned from its seventh patrol on Oct. 11, 1943. All 79 crewmen died.

[Last Dakotan]

How come a Strait between Russia and Japan has a French name?

[blau993]

If we explore the wreck, we may be able to confirm what Admiral Kane (Medal of Honor and three Navy Crosses) theorized in his book about the Wahoo, i.e., that she had taken a hit from one of her own torpedos that circled back on her. He believes she was crippled, leaking oil, and not certain she could dive, which is why Morton attempted to run La Perouse Strait on the surface.

I have always wondered about this theory. The USS Tang, which Admiral Kane commanded after his stint as XO on the Wahoo, was in fact lost in that fashion (with Kane and a few others surviving to become Japanese prisoners). I always have wondered if he was "projecting" the fate of his own boat onto the Wahoo. Maybe now we will know.

Nothing we will learn, however, will ever take a thing away from Morton and his crew or from Admiral Kane and the men of the Tang. The Wahoo and the Tang and their people will always rank among "the special ones."

[G8 Diplomat]

You guys spell Russkies wrong.

[Vinnie]

Thanks for the links.
Spent the last hour reading some the logs.
fascinating.
Bookmarked for later

[G8 Diplomat]

How come a Strait between Russia and Japan has a French name?
Beats me, and there's also a body of water in Hawaii called La Perouse Bay...

[Stonewall Jackson]

I've often wondered about that. The submarines Tullibee and Tang were both lost to circular runs of their Mark 18 torpedoes and the Wahoo was carrying a number of these torpedoes.

[TXnMA]

How come a Strait between Russia and Japan has a French name?

Named for the French explorer Jean-Francois de la Perouse...

[Doomonyou]

Wahoo!

[curmudgeonII]

How come a Strait between Russia and Japan has a French name?
Named after Jean Francois La Perouse who was the first European to discover it [and a lot of other neat things].

[tryon1ja]

I served on the USS Cod AGSS-224 in the middle sixties. She was a training ship then to train a reserve division in Cleveland, OH. No screws. It was a DC, direct current, boat and we had to run motor-generator set on the pier to power the board. Everything on her still worked except the screws were removed in accordance with our treaty with Canada. No war ship can be stationed on the great lakes.

[blau993]

Admiral Kane wrote a book about the Wahoo that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in submarines at war (he also wrote one about the Tang, which is an equally good read). In it he devotes a final chapter, which he freely acknowledges is informed speculation, about the Wahoo's last patrol. He theorizes that the Wahoo was crippled by just such a circular run, had to run the Strait on the surface, was spotted, and was sunk.

[BlackElk]

Thank you! God bless you and yours.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

From what I can tell the water depths are very shallow in that strait, under 200' which gives very little room for a sub to hide.

I'd put money on there being an expedition to film the wreckage, probably have to fight the currents though.

[1rudeboy]

Say what you will about the French, but their explorers were world-class (witness most of the American Midwest).

[R.W.Ratikal]

The U. S. lost a number of submarines during WWII. but nowhere near as many Russian subs that litter the Earth's sea-bed all over the world.

U. S. subs were lost to enemy action or wartime accidents. Russian nuke subs were lost to lousy construction and inept operations.

Russian nuclear subs were about as reliable as the Yugo or East German Trabent automobile.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out.

Have you ever read Shinano by Captain Joseph Enright? It deals with the duel between the submarine Archerfish and the Japanese super-carrier Shinano off Tokyo Bay in November 1944.

[AndrewB]

John Chatterton theorized the same demise for the U-869. Perhaps a common fate for those "still on patrol".

[SkyDancer]

I read where we lost about 52 subs during WWII ... The Germans around 300+

[Popocatapetl]

Besides his great bravado, Capt. Morton should also be remembered for his "The only good one is a dead one" attitude.

In fact, the incident in which his crew fired on survivors was feared to be a major problem in his future, which became moot with the loss of the boat.

I suppose the irony was Navy Department politics were fierce at a time when they shouldn't have been. Many fine officers were relegated to the rear because of such bickering.

[Diver Dave]

This is the Gato Class USS TINOSA (SS - 283) returning from patrol, my father-in-law's boat during WWII. Bought him a TINOSA jacket a couple years ago. He's might proud to wear it.