[Rb ver. 2.0]

Those are great links, an excerpt from the 2nd one:

"Japanese records, and interviews with eyewitnesses conducted years later, revealed what Lockwood and his staff could only have imagined. At 0830 hours on October 11, 1943 the 6-inch shore batteries on Soya Misaki promontory sighted a surfaced American submarine making a dash through the twenty mile wide Cape Soya Strait. They immediately opened fire and the submarine submerged.

The airfield at Wakkani was notified and a total of four Japanese airplanes arrived on the scene. The submarine was initially betrayed by a trail of oil visible from the air. The pilots then reported seeing a black conning tower and hull. This they used as a point of aim, dropping bombs over the next five hours (view the official Japanese REPORT). With the entire coast now alerted to the enemy submarine's presence, two Submarine Chasers, #15 and #23, joined the battle. They made contact with the submarine and began to drop depth charges.

At 1207 hours, following a depth charge run by Submarine Chaser #15, a bright metallic object, assumed to be a severed propeller blade, was glimpsed in the ensuing explosions. Oil continued to rise to the surface. Auxiliary #18 joined the Submarine Chasers and aircraft, several more bombs and depth charges were dropped. However, no further contact with the submarine was reported.

At approximately 1400 hours a very large volume of oil reached the surface. Over the course of the afternoon the ensuing slick stretched 50 meters wide and 2000 meters long. A sample taken revealed it to be diesel fuel. The aircraft were recalled, the ships returned home and an American submarine was reported sunk. That submarine was undoubtedly the USS WAHOO. "

[Rb ver. 2.0]

Soya Strait also goes by the western name La Perouse Strait. Here's where she went down:

[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."