Free Republic

Everything appeared to be in slow motion - except the torpedo spearing through the water towards them at 30 knots. Only five minutes earlier, the USS Tang had been in the middle of a feeding frenzy that would secure its position as the most successful American submarine in the Pacific Ocean. But its last torpedo had turned sharply left - and was now coming straight back at the Tang. Of the 87 men on board that early morning in October 1944, as many as 50 were killed instantly when the torpedo hit. Of the survivors, most were injured. One of...