There were only nine survivors, seventy eight submariners were lost! The nine survivors were picked up by a Japanese destroyer escort. Onboard they were beat half to death, because the ship was carrying survivors from the ships that the Tang had torpedoed! They languished in a Japanese prisoner of war concentration camp until the war was over.

The USS Tang was launched on August 17, 1943. The skipper was Lieutenant Commander O'Kane. As he had a new submarine and a green crew, he had to give orders for

a shake-down cruise so the crew could become familiar with the sub and each other, also to work out any "bugs" that might be found in the sub. And it is drill, drill, drill, in order to train the crew.

One of the most important drills is dive, dive, dive, clear the conning tower. Then the sailors on watch must jump quickly down the hatch (door), into the sub. The Submariners must learn to make a 311 ft. 9 inch submarine, sailing along at 20 knots, disappear completely beneath the waves.... in just under 60 seconds. And this does take lots and lots of practice, but it can mean the difference between life and death, especially if the sub has been spotted by enemy airplanes.

The USS Tang was one of the "Gato" class submarines. This was adopted as our standard type of submarine of World War Two. Two hundred of these Gatos were built during the war. They had a welded hull, which made them much stronger, and allowed them to dive down to 300 ft. if necessary. Their length was 311 ft. 9 inches and 27 ft. 3 inches wide. Their armament was 10 torpedoes (each was loaded with 1,000 lbs. of TNT), and topside on deck was either a 3 inch or 5 inch gun. Some also had either 20mm or 40mm anti-aircraft guns. The Tang had an impressive speed of 20 knots on the surface (almost 23 MPH) and half that speed when submerged. Every inch of space on a submarine has to be used. But

conditions were still very cramped; some submariner's beds were on top of the spare torpedoes. But the submarines were designed to give every consideration possibly to the crew. So morale is always very high, and it is like one big happy family. (80 sailors make a full crew) The only way you could become a submariner was to volunteer. Then the training was so tough, only 50 percent of the volunteers made it through boot camp. This was called "the silent service", even today most people know very little about it.
One out of every seven submariners lost his life, and one submarine out of four never returned. When Japan started World War Two with us, they sank and crippled our US Navy Surface Fleet very very severely. However, our Pacific submarine fleet of 55 submarines was left untouched. And during the course of the war, we built and launched 204 more.

Few people know that our US submarines waged the only complete successful submarine offensive of the war.... by completely strangling the lifelines of the maritime nation. Japan was already doomed to defeat, because their merchant ships, which brought essential supplies, had nearly all been sunk. At least 63 percent of these ships were sunk by our

submarines.

The USS Tang had only five war patrols, but established a record that was equaled by no other submarine in World War Two. On her first patrol near Truk Island, in the South Pacific, three freighters, one large tanker, and one submarine tender were sunk. In the second patrol, also near Truk, the Tang supported US carrier planes, attacking Japanese held islands there. While there, the Tang rescued twenty two carrier pilots that were shot down.

Sometimes, to accomplish this, the Tang had to slip deep into the Truk Island Lagoon. This was very dangerous, because the Truk was a very heavy Japanese stronghold. The skipper, Commander R.H. O'Kane was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was called the submarine's most outstanding officer.

The third patrol found the Tang in the East China and Yellow seas. This time six freighters, one tanker, and one large aircraft transport was sunk.

In August, 1944, the Tang was operating along the southern coast of Honshu, Japan. Here one freighter, one large transport, one tanker, and two patrol craft were sunk. Also, one freighter, and one small patrol craft were damaged.

On her last patrol, the Tang sunk thirteen Japanese ships, totaling 107,324 tons. (And damaged two more)

In the Tang's five war patrols, she is credited with sinking thirty one Japanese ships totaling 227, 800 tons. Commander O'Kane and his entire crew are all national unsung heroes of the United States Navy's "silent service".

A total of 1,292 Japanese ships were sunk by our submarines during World War Two. But we paid a price too, for 52 of our submarines never did return. They are still on patrol, somewhere in the vast depth of the Pacific Ocean. (For there are no tombstones in the sea) They are indeed "the silent service".

Sources:
Submarines of World War Two by John Ward
Military Hardware of World War Two by Eric Grove, Christopher Chant, David Lyon, Hugh Lyon
American Heritage Picture History of World War Two by C.L. Sulzberger
Illustrated World War Two Encyclopedia Volume Seventeen by H.S. Stuttman
Victory at Sea Volume One Episode Two (DVD) by Digiview Entertainment
http://www.csp.navy.mil/ww2boats/tang.htm

.