April 15, 1943 to June 8, 1943
by Bill Gleason
Published in POLARIS June 1985
Sunday, April 15th. We started on patrol, and I found out that we are not going to stop at Johnston Island this time instead it will be Midway, the Island we hit only once before. The seas were smooth and we had very nice sailing this first day, running on the surface. Using one and two main engines.
Monday, the 16th. Underway as before, all well and good.
Tuesday, the 17th. All clear as before and we moored at Midway. This place is a mess, nothing but sand and more sand. I went ashore and saw the B24 Lame Duck, which just came back from island bombing duty. We drank beer, went back aboard the submarine and went swimming, had a good time.
Wednesday, the 18th. Today we refueled and made ready to shove off. We left the Island at about 1400. After we had been underway and out of the sight of land, Captain Andrews spoke over the I.C.C. He told us of our perils if by chance the Gurnard would be sunk, explaining that we would be in a tight spot if we were captured by the Japanese He said that we were to make the Celebes Sea our patrol area this time and the Nips were heavily concentrated there. The Celebes are located south of the Philippines.
Thursday, the 19th. Still all clear, making headway as before. We were to cross the international data line soon and so some of the fellows started the head shaving. Parks and Miller shaved each other and they looked so funny. For laughing I was the next to get separated from my hair. I have a very good suntan now, but after we start running submerged it won't be long before I turn green. I still have the 0000-0400 watch in the control room.
Friday, the 20th. We crossed the date line today and therefore we gained a day. It has rained all day long. I went topside to get some of the rain and air. All is clear as before.
Saturday, the 21st. All clear, calm seas.
Sunday, the 22nd. Today we passed within sight of Wake and Guam Islands, as you know they are held by the Japanese now. Rose held church in the crew's mess, but I couldn't attend because I was on watch at the time. Everything still okay, only 2000 miles from home station.
Monday, the 23rd. Still all clear. We had a mock battle surface stations and I had the submarine gun on the bridge, more fun! I dropped the drum!
Tuesday, the 24th. Only 1500 miles to go, traveling this far last run we were in sight of the lights of Tokyo. The seas are getting very smooth.
Wednesday, the 25th. We had a little excitement today; we were dive bombed by a Jap "Betty." We took one depth bomb and surfaced but just a little too soon because she laid another one just a might closer. We dove again and the plane came back and dropped another. Sweat, sweat, sweat!
Thursday, the 26th. All clear up till 12 o'clock when we were forced to clear the bridge and dive again after sighting another enemy bomber who made a run on us and dropped his load. This was a long-range bomber. At night we sighted some flares and everyone on board was puzzled.
Friday, the 27th. Nothing new, just had to dive because of the dive-bombers again. We passed an uncharted Island also.
Saturday, the 28th. Everything the same, all clear. We are now 900 miles from stations and we soon will be running submerged. I was in the forward torpedo room with Parks and we autographed a torpedo for Tojo from the folks back home. The fish we carried are steam driven and have 900 Ibs. of torpex in the warhead.
Sunday, the 30th. We received word over the radio that there is a convoy in this area. We tried to contact it but unsuccessfully and we gave up after some hours and returned to our course and proceeded towards stations.
Monday, May 1st. Chased another convoy but found out that it was just radar interference. We seem to be getting a lot of pips on the radar now but most of them are rainsqualls.
Tuesday, May 2nd. We ran into a very bad storm today, we are also losing lube oil fast. Pretty close of our stations now.
Wednesday, May 3rd. All clear, it seems that the Japs are hiding. We passed Paiau Island, it's really funny that we were not forced down by planes, because at this stage in the war this Island is one of the Japanese's heaviest fortified.
Thursday, May 4th. We are now among the Sangihe Islands. The scenery is very beautiful, I wish I had a camera to take this scene back home with me. We sighted debris and what a lookout said was dead Japs. As we passed through these Islands into the seas I could notice the change in the color of the water, it became a lovely shade of blue, almost like azure.
Friday, May 5th. We passed an active volcano (Siool) 5850 feet. All clear but we are bound to intercept a convoy soon.
Saturday, May 6th. At the time we were making our trim dive at dawn, one of the lookouts sighted smoke on the horizon. We made plans to attack and proceeded at all flank. In two hours time we had reached firing range. This convoy was composed of seven ships. We attacked submerged, firing 6 torpedoes forward and all 6 fish were clean hits. Four of the seven ships sank immediately, the damaged one we sank later plus another fish that night with 22 rounds of 4" ammunition. During the day we were forced down for ten hours and were under a terrific depth charge attack, taking 205 charges, some of them pretty darn close. There were four destroyers and one cruiser. We saw them when we surfaced that night to sink the last ship. For this day's work we later received the unit citation. The water was lust cluttered with debris when we came back to the place where the ships went down. We started after the rest of the ships.
Sunday, May 7th. We followed the other out to sea but lost them. We ran patrolled submerged all day. Saw a Japanese P.C. boat one half mile from land.
Tuesday, May 9th. Still nothing new, submerged yet, between Mindanao and Balutt Island in Davao Gulf where the "Death March" ended.
Wednesday, May 10th. Received message from Bonefish, saw and chased two Cruisers and two transports all night long but they got away.
Thursday, May 11th. Submerged all day again, heading back toward Sangihe Islands.
Friday, May 12th. Ran on the surface all day, changed positions. Everything all clear. Report from base confirmed our sinking of the 5 ships.
Saturday, May 13th. Still no excitement, we are now off Manganie Peninsula. Wish I were home. We left to go back to our old area. All clear.
Sunday, May 14th. We are in Moro Gulf. Submerged all day again.
Monday, May 15th. Nothing new, ran on the surface today, it was rainy and stormy, we saw a lot of whales, sharks, also some porpoises.
Tuesday, May 16. We really had a close one today, had to crash dive from a Torpedo Plane. Plenty close!! it made us dive again. There are Japanese planes all over the skies; something is bound to happen soon!
Wednesday, May 17th. We were called to battle stations, but the ship turned out to be a Japanese Hospital Ship. Two cruisers and a battleship ran into the harbor under its protection as we watched.
Thursday, May 18th. Battle stations again. This time we had a big one. A battleship and its escorts. The speed of the target made us fire in a hurry at a longer range than we would have fired at any other ship. We fired four fish forward at 3800 yards and two of them hit it astern at 4500 yards. The target sank at the stern but was able to get away because we were driven down as soon as we fired. We came close to getting ours this time, the charges the Japs dropped were too close. One sprung a leak in the forward engine room.
Friday, May 19th. All clear four miles off land, saw flares and lots of planes. Was dived bombed again.
Saturday, May 20th. As I went on watch we had battle stations again but the target was too small and we didn't fire. We are still patrolling four miles off Balutt. I'm getting tired of this patrol.
Sunday, May 21st. We held church services in the crews mess and I attended this time. Again there were a lot of Jap planes around.
Monday, May 22nd. This routine is pretty nerve racking now. Had contact with our 39th plane today. I wish Screws would stop his teeth gritting, he lays in his sack and just grinds away. Submerged all day.
Tuesday, May 23rd. Still dead as all get out, we patrolled at 60 feet all day long again. I really am getting tired now.
Wednesday, May 24th. We had battle stations three times today. One ship was a large fleet tanker and we hit her with four fish. The captain said she just blew sky high. We fired two more torpedoes at an A.T.S. and also sank same. We then were held down for fifteen hours, we took only 30 depth charges.
Thursday, May 25th. I sure am tired of this sea. Here we are still outside the harbor waiting for the carrier to come out. The Captain says we now have the Presidential citation in the bag.
Friday, May 26th. Nothing new, things still are dead, still running submerged. We are to leave stations in four days.
Saturday, May 27th. Today the diving officer had the periscope in the wrong focus and a Japanese destroyer almost rammed us before we could get down, it dropped a charge on us before we could get deeper than 60 feet. This really frightened everyone. The Japs echo ranged all day long on us, we were at silent running all this time.
Sunday, May 28th. All clear, still submerged, we went up into Davao Bay and were within one-half mile of the city Davao. As we were leaving the bay at flank speed, a Japanese destroyer came into the bay and we submerged and went under it and we escaped from it in this way.
Monday, May 29th. Today we were very near the spot, where the prisoners from Corrigidor were marched. We could see the lights of the camps. Battle stations but they were just small ones and we let them go.
Tuesday, May 30th. We ran into a Japanese task force, it was a very large one. They outran us because we were submerged. With only five fish could have only sunk one or two of them. They were traveling at a high rate of speed, about 45 Knots.
Wednesday, May 31st. We are now headed for home, and all the Pollywogs were initiated (myself included). We can see land on both sides now. We are going through Makassar Straits. Plenty of Sand Pans around. We rammed one accidentally and it sank, we had to take about 14 Moros aboard. They had Japanese money in their possession. Finally we put them aboard another sandpan and gave them food.
Thursday, June 1st. We find ourselves very low in fresh water, because we had used it for initiation purposes when we crossed the equator yesterday. Last night we passed Lombok and Bali and went through the straits of Lombok. We could see the Japs radar and gun emplacements. Through here we had to leave the speed at all flank. Two of our subs have been lost going through here, but the time saved is valuable, about one week.
Friday, June 2nd. Well we should be getting in soon now, we are going to moor at Darwin, Australia, and then go on down to Perth. We have a total of 21 Jap ships now. The water situation is getting bad.
Saturday, June 3rd. Making very good time, only 1000 miles from Darwin.
Sunday, June 4th. Still headed for Darwin, 500 miles away. Water very low.
Monday, June 5th. Pulled in at Darwin. This place is said to have one of the largest tides in the world. When we wanted to go ashore we had to put a ladder straight up to get up on the dock and when we came back to the ship after the tide came in, we walked up to get aboard the sub. The city of Darwin is really a mess, it was really bombed out. Nothing that I saw was left untouched. I met my first Aussies today. We refueled and shoved off for Perth, really down under. We are now traveling in the Indian Ocean, the roughest water to keep from getting seasick in I ever sailed.
Tuesday, May 6th. Still underway as before.
Wednesday, May 7th. Still under-way as before.
Thursday, May 8th. Well, here we are finally in Perth, the Sub sailor's (so I hear) heaven.
