World War II Pacific Naval Battles

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Baltimore hull was basis for Saipan.
USS Wasp by 09.1945 was one of Essex class carriers.

Previous Wasp, which was indeed one and only ship of her kind - was on sea floor for 3 years at this point.(sunk by IJN I-19 in what was to become probably the most succesful torpedo salvo in history)

Again better than US SSK attack in Palawan passage during Leyte Gulf battle yet enough succesful o_O

I don' t think it is necessary i go back on the destruction of Taiho ( the more sophisticated Japanse CV ) and Shokaku during Philippines Sea Battle 06/44... :eek: maybe attack not also succesful ( reasons fuel of Bornéo + very poor damage controls ) but against a big sucess of US SSKs !

Submarine action in Palawan Passage (23 October)
(Note: this action is referred to by Morison as "The Fight in Palawan Passage",
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and elsewhere, occasionally, as "the Battle of Palawan Passage").

Admiral Kurita's force at anchor in
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As it sortied from its base in
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, Kurita's powerful "Center Force" consisted of five battleships (
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,
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,
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,
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, and
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), ten heavy cruisers (
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,
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,
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,
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,
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,
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,
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,
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,
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and
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), two light cruisers (
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and
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) and 15 destroyers.

Kurita's ships passed Palawan Island around midnight on 22–23 October. The American submarines
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and
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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.
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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
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, Takao, with another spread of torpedoes. At 05:56, Dace made four torpedo hits on the heavy cruiser Maya (sister to Atago and Takao).
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Atago and Maya quickly sank.
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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
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that hit the reef (and not Darter) and deck-gun shelling from Dace and later,
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. After multiple hits from his
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, 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.

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Last edited:

Richard Santos

Captain
Registered Member
Again better than US SSK attack in Palawan passage during Leyte Gulf battle yet enough succesful o_O

I don' t think it is necessary i go back on the destruction of Taiho ( the more sophisticated Japanse CV ) and Shokaku during Philippines Sea Battle 06/44... :eek: maybe attack not also succesful ( reasons fuel of Bornéo + very poor damage controls ) but against a big sucess of US SSKs !

Those torpedo salvos only killed one CV each. The Japanese torpedo spread in question killed a CV, a DD, and damaged a BB, all with one single spread of torpedoes. I'd say that Japanese spread was the most successful single spread ever fired.

Btw, there was no such thing as an SSK in WWII. SSK designates postwar conventional hunter killer subs meant primarily to hunt submerged soviet conventional subs in the few years when conceptions of Atlantic ASW warfare hasn't yet been overtaken by nuclear submarines. No World War II subs were much good at hunting submerged submarines.
 
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