Submarine action in Palawan Passage (23 October)
(Note: this action is referred to by Morison as "The Fight in Palawan Passage",
and elsewhere, occasionally, as "the Battle of Palawan Passage").
Admiral Kurita's force at anchor in
As it sortied from its base in
, Kurita's powerful "Center Force" consisted of five battleships (
,
,
,
, and
), ten heavy cruisers (
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
and
), two light cruisers (
and
) and 15 destroyers.
Kurita's ships passed Palawan Island around midnight on 22–23 October. The American submarines
and
were positioned together on the surface close by. At 00:16 on 23 October,
Darter's radar detected the Japanese formation at a range of 30,000 yd (27,000 m). Her captain promptly made visual contact. The two submarines quickly moved off in pursuit of the ships, while
Darter made the first of three contact reports. At least one of these was picked up by a radio operator on
Yamato, but Kurita failed to take appropriate antisubmarine precautions.
Darter and
Dace traveled on the surface at full power for several hours and gained a position ahead of Kurita's formation, with the intention of making a submerged attack at first light. This attack was unusually successful. At 05:24,
Darter fired a blast of six torpedoes, at least four of which hit Kurita's flagship, the heavy cruiser Atago. Ten minutes later,
Darter made two hits on Atago's ,
Takao, with another spread of torpedoes. At 05:56,
Dace made four torpedo hits on the heavy cruiser Maya (sister to
Atago and
Takao).
Atago and
Maya quickly sank.
Takao turned back to Brunei, escorted by two destroyers—and was followed by the two submarines. On 24 October, as the submarines continued to shadow the damaged cruiser,
Darter ran aground on the Bombay Shoal. All efforts to get her off failed, she was abandoned; and her entire crew was rescued by
Dace. Efforts to scuttle
Darter failed over the course of the next week, including torpedoes from
Dace and
that hit the reef (and not
Darter) and deck-gun shelling from
Dace and later,
. After multiple hits from his
, the
Nautilus commander determined on 31 October that the equipment on
Darter was only good for scrap and left her there. The Japanese did not bother with the wreck.