March Anson and Scoot Bailey of the U.S. Navy

by Marshall McClintock

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  VISIT TO WAKE ISLAND

  They went all the way to Pearl Harbor on the surface. They hadbeautiful clear weather each day. Jap ships and subs and planes hadbeen cleared from the entire area so effectively that Americansubmarines did not need to fear being mistaken by their own patrols forJap subs. They made good time, and the crew and officers alike werehappy, in the highest of spirits.

  March laughed, one day, as he looked down from the bridge and sawclothes drying on the line, put there by the crew who took the firstopportunity to give their things a good sunning.

  “This doesn’t look much like war,” he mused. “Very domestic scene,really. And some of the men have been on deck enough to get a littlesunburn. Not the usual picture of the submariner, pale and dehydrated,after his long days beneath the waters of the deep.”

  But he knew there would be plenty of that life ahead of them. He washappy that this part of the trip was so pleasant. It meant a lot to thecrew, who were inclined sometimes to be superstitious, despite allprotestations to the contrary. They felt that everything would go wellwith them since the start of their real patrol had been so auspicious.

  The Skipper had opened his orders twelve hours out from San Francisco.They were no great surprise to anyone. They were to go by way of PearlHarbor to a submarine base in the southwest Pacific, a tiny islandwhere a sub tender nursed its brood of pigboats, fed them oil andtorpedoes and supplies before sending them out to break up the Japshipping lines.

  The stop at Pearl Harbor was short, but March enjoyed it, rememberingwhen he and Scoot had left the _Plymouth_ there, heading back for theUnited States and their training in submarines and airplanes. Much tohis surprise there was a letter for him. He had not thought anyonewould have a chance to write since learning his San Francisco address.The envelope, a plain one with a typed address, gave him no clue:

  It was from Scoot! Dated three weeks before, it said, “In case you comethis way you’ll get this. I’m on the carrier _Bunker Hill_ heading forwhere all of us head when we get out here. Don’t forget to come andsave me from those Japs when I holler for you!”

  That was all, but it was good. It was just like Scoot and it made Marchfeel fine to read it and to picture again his old friend. He showed thenote to Larry when he went back to _Kamongo_, and told him about ScootBailey.

  “Sounds like a swell guy,” Larry said. “Why couldn’t he have gone intosubmarines, too?”

  “No—he’s swell, but he’s not right for pigboats,” March said. “Too muchof an individualist. He’ll take orders fine, do a swell job, but he’sbest when he’s on his own. Flying a fighter plane off a carrier is justexactly right for Scoot.”

  “Well, you never can tell—maybe we’ll run into him,” Larry said.“Stranger things have happened in wartime.”

  They sailed from Pearl Harbor looking for action, but several days wentby without a sign of ship or plane of any kind.

  “We’ve got to run into something,” Larry said one day in the wardroom.“I’d hate to show up at the base with all my torpedoes intact, withouta single Jap ship accounted for. Why, we’re going through about ninehundred miles of enemy waters and we’ve got to get something on theway.”

  “The boys out here have been scaring them into their ratholes,” McFeesaid. “They don’t come out any more than they have to.”

  “But that’s the point,” Larry said. “They’ve got to come out sometime.They’ve got garrisons on a lot of these islands, and garrisons need tobe supplied.”

  “Well, they’re just letting the garrisons on lots of those islandsstarve to death,” Stan said.

  “Sure, in the Marshalls and a few other places where we’ve got ’emsurrounded,” the Skipper said. “But they’re still supplying andreinforcing plenty of places around these parts. They lose some shipsevery day. I just want them to lose a couple to us, as we’re passing byon our way to more important things.”

  “What about Wake Island?” March asked.

  “Yes, they’re still supplying Wake,” Larry said. “We’re not too faraway from it any more, but we haven’t got it really cut off. But ourcourse isn’t very close to Wake.”

  “Couldn’t we just edge over that way and have a look?” March asked.

  “Well, now, maybe we could,” Larry said. “Nobody told us just whatcourse to follow out here. When we get a bit further we’ve got to runsubmerged most of the time anyway. We just laid down the straightestroute to our destination. But a little detour wouldn’t do any harm.Lieutenant Anson, carry us over near Wake.”

  With a smile, March left the wardroom and went to the navigating desk.There he plotted the course for Wake Island, went up on the conningtower for a shot of the sun to check his course, and gave the newcourse to the helmsman. Then he went back to the wardroom.

  “About six hundred Army-Navy time, courtesy of Whoozis watches,” heannounced, “we shall sight Wake Island.”

  “Hm, works out very nicely,” Larry said. “Tomorrow morning just afterdawn. We can travel on the surface all night and submerge just beforethe approach.”

  Everyone was up and about early the next morning, even those who hadbeen on watch during the night. Breakfast was over and officers and menwere at their stations before dawn.

  “We may get nothing, of course,” Larry said. “We mustn’t get our hopesup.”

  “Okay, Skipper,” McFee said. “We’re just dropping by for a look and ifanything’s there we’ll try to take care of it.”

  “Rig ship for diving,” the Skipper said, and the word was passedthroughout the boat. One by one the departments reported back to Marchthat everything was ready. The long slim boat slid under the water, thewhine of the electric motors replacing the throbbing of the Diesels. AsMarch handled the diving operations, he recalled the days when it hadseemed to him such a complicated and difficult task. Now it was asimple straightforward job, especially when carried out by a crew thatknew its job.

  After about twenty minutes, March turned to Larry. “I think we ought tobe able to have a look now,” he said.

  “Up periscope,” Larry said, reaching forward to grab the adjustinghandles as they rose into position. He adjusted the eyepiece andlooked, focussing with the handles. March saw his mouth open slightlyin a whispered exclamation.

  “Have a look, March,” he said. “I think we’ve raised something.”

  March looked and saw the low-lying atolls where the Marines had for solong battled the Japs against great odds. It would do his heart good tokill a few Japs at Wake, entirely apart from the excellence of the ideain general. He located the harbor and then saw two dark blobs in it.

  “There’s something there, all right,” he said. “Can’t be sure what theyare yet, though.”

  “Down ’scope,” Larry said. “We’ll get a little closer and have anotherlook.”

  There was almost nothing said as the boat moved silently forward underthe water, until Larry ordered the periscope up again. Then heexclaimed aloud at what he saw.

  “Three of ’em!” he cried. “Looks as if they just got here themselves,probably came in under cover of darkness. Lighters are just tying up tothem to unload.”

  “What are they?” March asked. “Can you make out?”

  “One’s a troopship,” Larry replied, “loaded to the gunwales! The men’llgo ashore in the lighters. They haven’t even started yet. Must berelief for the garrison—old ones will be going back.”

  _He Adjusted the Eyepiece and Looked_]

  “Oh, no they won’t,” March said. “Not yet, anyway, because their reliefis going to be cut down in number right soon now.”

  “Here, March, have a look,” Larry said. “I think one’s a tanker, one anammunition ship, or a freighter with the supplies.”

  March stepped to the periscope and looked carefully.

  “Tanker and troopship are certain,” he said. “Can’t be sure about theother, though. How many do you think we can get?”r />
  “Not more than two,” Larry said. “They’ll get planes after us thatfast. We’ll have to get away after two, maybe after one. Can’t telluntil we’re in the middle of it. But what about all the reefs aroundhere? Can we get in position to fire?”

  “If we’re good we can,” March said. “Come on, I’ll show you. I’ve beenstudying the Wake Island chart, and we know it’s right.”

  Larry followed March to the navigation desk, where they both studiedthe chart of Wake Island.

  “We have to go west first,” March said. “Then cut back sharply in ahairpin turn—go in about four hundred yards, turn about thirty degreesto starboard without going forward too much, fire and then back away.Backing will be slow, but we can’t turn her for a couple of hundredyards. Think we can make it?”

  “Deep water out here?” Larry asked, pointing to a point about a mileoff shore.

  “Plenty deep,” March replied.

  “Then I think we can do it,” Larry said. “Those ships are worth thechance, anyway. If we’re slow getting the first one, we’ll cut and run.”

  “Which one first?” March asked.

  “The tanker,” Larry said. “Most important. Planes can’t fly without thegas and oil it carries.”

  “Not the troopship?”

  “No, too many of the men will be able to swim or get ashore some way,”Larry said. “We could count on about fifty percent casualties there.But the tanker—that’ll be all gone, and maybe set fire to a few otherthings. Tanker first, then troopship.”

  The Skipper gave orders to move the boat to the west around the reefsas March had indicated. March stood close by the soundman, who couldtell at every instant just how far they were from the rocky shoals thatmight trap them.

  Slowly the boat moved forward and then, when March gave the word, itturned and moved in toward the island.

  “I hope I’m right,” March said to himself. “There’s not very much roomhere, though if those ships got through, we surely can.”

  The sound man picked up reefs to the right and then to the left—nothingahead, and March breathed more deeply. They went forward for a fewmoments, still moving slowly.

  “About now, March?” Larry asked quietly.

  “Yes, this ought to be it,” March replied. He saw Scotty at thesoundman’s side, the other crew members standing by their levers andvalves. They were all calm and quiet, but with just a touch of excitedexpectancy in their manner.

  The Skipper gave the order for the turn to starboard, for the cuttingof motors. Then he called for the periscope. As it rose from its wellin the deck he crouched and grabbed it. Then March realized why Larrywas a good Skipper. In just about two seconds he had seen everythingthere was to see. He called out the course settings for the torpedoes,first for two to go into the sides of the tanker, then for two to gointo the sides of the transport.

  The settings were called back to him, and he called, without a moment’shesitation—“Fire one! Fire two!” He waited a moment, glancing at hiswatch. “Fire three! Fire four!”

  Stepping away from the eyepiece he called, “Down periscope!” andfollowed it immediately with “Reverse motors!”

  As the whine of the motors started and the boat slid backwards in thewater, he kept his eyes on his watch, finger in the air as if counting.He lifted his eyes and—thud! The submarine trembled and shook from theexplosion of a torpedo against the side of a ship. There was a wild crythroughout the pigboat as the crew whooped with glee, so loud that italmost drowned out the roar of the second torpedo hitting home againstthe tanker.

  Men danced and jigged, but not for a moment did they take their handsfrom their levers or wheels, or their eyes from the dials they watched.

  “You can turn now, Skipper,” March said quietly, and Larry gave theorder for the ship to turn and dive deep as it cleared the reefs.

  The words were not out of his mouth when another roar sent a tremblethrough the submarine and another shout arose. It was a short roarbecause the men stopped to listen for the second torpedo that had beensent against the troopship. But nothing came, and it was Larry whobroke the silence.

  “A miss, men,” he said. “Only one got through.”

  “Well, what can you expect?” Scotty demanded. “After all, the positionwe were in!”

  “Are still in!” Larry exclaimed. “Only a hundred feet! Take her totwo-fifty!”

  Everybody adjusted his body to the slope of the boat as it slid rapidlydown in the water. In a few minutes, they knew, depth charges would bedropped in an attempt to locate them. Certainly planes would be in theair and perhaps fast small boats something like our own PT-boats wouldbe dashing out of the harbor after them.

  Larry grabbed the phone from the interphone orderly and spoke into it.

  “You heard the blasts,” he said, knowing that men all over the boatwould hear him. “Two into a Jap tanker. One into a troopship. Secondone there was a dud. You can expect some depth charges, but I thinkwe’ll be down away from them. Later we’ll go up for a look and I’lltell you what we did.”

  March knew that all the men appreciated that. They were tense andexcited and they wanted to know exactly what was going on. TheirSkipper didn’t keep them waiting long. They were part of this just asmuch as he was.

  They leveled off at two hundred and fifty feet just as they felt thefirst bumping rattle of a depth charge explosion. But it was far awayand hardly bothered them. In two minutes another came a little closer.Everyone gripped the nearest solid support and held on. March said tohimself, “You’re going through a depth bombing. This was the one thingthey couldn’t simulate at New London. Well, how do you like it?”

  And he answered himself, “It’s not so bad.”

  He looked around at the men in the crew. They held on and theylistened, but they did not look frightened. Larry grinned at him.

  “Lousy aim they’ve got,” he said. “They’re not coming very close.”

  “What about a little zigzagging?” March asked.

  “No, we might zig or zag into something,” Larry said. “They obviouslyhaven’t located us and are just dropping at random. Also, we’re deepenough to be below the explosions. After all, the biggest force of theblow is above the exploding charge. We’ll just keep sliding along theway we’re going. They’ll give up after a while.”

  The charges exploded regularly, but not for long. Soon they hardly felta jar when one went off.

  “They think we’re hanging around back there for a look,” Larry said.“They don’t know how safe we play. I’m not going back for my look fortwo hours. So just keep going.”

  They did keep going, and for two hours. By the time they circled aroundand came back toward the island there were no more depth charges. Abouta mile away they surfaced quickly and the Skipper took a quick look.Then the ’scope went down and March ordered another dive.

  “Sorry you couldn’t have had a look, March,” Larry said, “but I didn’t—”

  He was interrupted by a shaking roar that almost spilled him off hisfeet. March, who had one hand against the bulkhead, grabbed him.

  “As I was saying,” Larry went on with a smile, “I didn’t want to keepthe ’scope up any longer than I had to. They spotted it pretty fast,didn’t they?”

  Another roar was the answer, followed by another and another, and halfa dozen more. They were bad shocks, worse than those they hadexperienced at first, but the sub had got down fast enough to get awayfrom the worst effects.

  “What did you see?” March asked between blasts.

  “Listen,” Larry said. He took the interphone and gave his news to thewhole ship. “Tanker down—only the bow showing, oil-covered waterblazing over the entire bay. Total loss for the Nips on that one.Troopship looks half busted in two, but still afloat, though listingbadly. No men on her. Plenty of bodies in the water. Lots got ashore,I’m sure, but plenty got burned in the oil trying to make it.”

  A loud cheer rose through the ship as Larry handed the phone back tothe orderly.

 
; “Well, anyway,” he said. “It was certainly worth four torpedoes!”

  As the _Kamongo_ slid down through the dark waters, the depth chargesgrew less intense. Finally they got away from them entirely, andresumed the course for their southwest Pacific base.

  “Don’t let that fool you,” Larry said, as they sat in the wardroomhaving a cup of coffee. “There weren’t any sound detectors there, so wegot away pretty easily. When the destroyers are after you, they_follow_ you—and their depth charges are bigger. This was a setup!”

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