USS Wahoo Third War Patrol 1943
When the United States entered the war following the attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines one of the first orders issued to the fleet was to execute unrestricted submarine warfare on the Empire of Japan. This meant that unarmed merchant ships were to be attacked without warning. Restricted submarine warfare required unarmed ships to be notified and an opportunity is given for the crew to abandon ship prior to being sunk either by torpedo or deck gun. The sailors who departed Pearl Harbor on war patrols, were given a first-hand look at the destruction wrought by the Japanese attack as they left harbor. Many had lost friends and family members, and nearly all of them hated the Japanese passionately.
USS Wahoo was on its third war patrol when it encountered the Japanese troop transport ship Buyo Maru. Wahoo was commanded by Lt. Commander Dudley “Mush” Morton, today a legend in the US Navy’s submarine service. Morton successfully torpedoed the Buyo Maru and then engaged two other Japanese ships in an action which lasted almost 14 hours before they eluded him, one of them, a freighter, having sustained damage from Wahoo’s deck guns. Morton steered Wahoo back to the site of the sinking transport ship, transiting on the surface to recharge the battery.
When he arrived at the site of the sinking he discovered numerous lifeboats and rafts, covered with what he described in his report as Japanese combat troops. What happened next has been misreported and apologists have tried to justify Wahoo’s actions by claiming that the Japanese fired upon the submarine from the lifeboats. Morton’s report states that he opened fire with his four-inch gun upon the largest of the lifeboats. One of the Japanese returned fire. Morton then had all of his deck guns, including machine guns, open fire on the lifeboats and the men floating in the water. On deck crew used small arms to support the ship’s heavier weapons.
At least one of the swimmers in the water was seen by Wahoo’s lookouts waving a white flag as he was brought under fire from the submarine. Another was shot down as he attempted to board Wahoo, also reportedly waving a flag of surrender. In his official report, Morton described his actions and claimed that Wahoo had killed most of the men in the water and destroyed all of the boats and rafts, leaving the survivors of the shootings to drown or the mercy of sharks. Morton estimated that 1,500 or 1,600 enemy were killed during the action. In fact, Japanese rescue ships reached and rescued many of the men in the water after Wahoo left the scene.
Examination of records after the war revealed that the Buyo Maru was carrying Japanese troops at the time of the sinking, but that it was also carrying Indian prisoners of war. Japanese records list the loss of 87 Japanese and 195 Indians. Morton’s report was endorsed by his commanding officer and Admiral Charles Lockwood, who ordered Morton to keep quiet about firing on survivors in the water. Rumors spread quickly about the act, since so many were involved, but it stayed mostly within the submarine service. Morton and Wahoo were lost to Japanese aircraft attack in October, 1943. The event was declassified in the 1960s.