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Submarine Polar "Firsts""Like a snowman in a coal pit" - TIRANTE's (SS 420) April 1945 Heroics
TIRANTE (SS-420) was laid down on 28 April 1944 by the Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard, launched on 9 August 1944, and commissioned on 6 November 1944, LCDR George L. Street III in command. Following shakedown training in Long Island Sound and training in waters off Panama and off Oahu, Hawaii, TIRANTE departed Pearl Harbor on 3 March 1945, bound for Japanese home waters.
TIRANTE's late entry into the war meant the depleted Japanese ships would be hard to find. With more than 170 US submarines operating in the Pacific, searching for a dwindling supply of targets, 70% of war patrols were failing to sink a single ship. Informed of the Japanese ship shortage, LCDR Street set out to look for ships in locales where the Japanese would not expect a submarine. Concluding that the marus were following evasive routes through shallow coastal waters, where US submarines had not dared to venture, LCDR Street took TIRANTE to shallow water on a hunt that became one of the epic tales of World War II.
Prowling to the westward of Kyushu, the submarine patrolled the approaches to Nagasaki. She had good hunting. She sank a 703-ton tanker on 25 March and followed this success with the sinking of a 1,218-ton freighter three days later. After the latter attack, Japanese escorts kept TIRANTE down for seven hours, before she slipped away from her hunters, unscathed.
The submarine soon shifted to waters off the south coast of Korea, near the Strait of Tsushima. At twilight on 6 April, she battle-surfaced and captured a small Japanese fishing vessel and took its three crewmen prisoner before sinking the prize. The following day, TIRANTE torpedoed a 2,800-ton cargo freighter loaded with a deck cargo of oil drums. The submarine surfaced, looked over the debris, and directed nearby Korean fishing craft to pick up two survivors who were clinging to pieces of wreckage.
Having broken the Japanese codes, American naval intelligence men were able to anticipate Japanese movements. One intercepted enemy message told of an important convoy steaming toward TIRANTE's area. In response to this information, the submarine laid an ambush on 9 April. Picking out two targets, she fired three torpedoes at each. One spread missed, but the other struck the 5,500-ton transport NIKKO MARU- carrying Japanese soldiers and sailors from Shanghai. As the important auxiliary slipped beneath the waves, enemy escorts leapt to the offensive. To ward off the counterattack, TIRANTE fired a "cutie" (homing torpedo) at one of the escorts and heard subsequent "breaking-up noises."
On the night of April 12, TIRANTE received an intelligence report indicating that a large Japanese transport was seeking refuge in a small harbor on Quelpart Island, approximately 100 miles south of Korea. These waters were heavily mined and obstructed by shoals, and patrolled by radar-equipped patrol vessels, in addition to being covered by five shore-based radar stations. Under cover of darkness, with only one chart (a captured Japanese aviation chart) from which to plot their course, TIRANTE boldly began her approach on the surface with gun crews at their stations. In defiance of possible enemy radar or patrolling planes or ships, she closed the coast within the 10-fathom curve line. If detected, TIRANTE would have to shoot its way out, since the waters were too shallow for it to dive. Prepared for a fight, TIRANTE entered the harbor where she found three targets: two escort vessels and the 4,000-ton transport JUZAN MARU.
TIRANTE launched three torpedoes at the maru, which blew up in an awesome explosion, alerting the escort vessels NOMI and KAIBOKAN NO. 31. "In the glare of the fire," Captain Street would report, "TIRANTE stood out in her light camouflage, like a snowman in a coal pit." Clearly illuminated, TIRANTE was immediately pursued by the two escort vessels. While she headed back out to sea at flank speed, TIRANTE launched a spread of torpedoes which hit and destroyed both pursuers. En route to Midway, the submarine captured two Japanese airmen (bringing her prisoner total to five) and concluded her first war patrol on 25 April.
TIRANTE's stellar performance earned LCDR Street the Medal of Honor. LT Edward L. Beach, the executive officer-and later commander of TRITON (SSRN-586) during the submarine's submerged circumnavigation of the globe-received the Navy Cross. TIRANTE, herself, was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.
President Harry S. Truman presented then Commander George L. Street with the Medal of Honor on 5 October 1945 for conspicuous gallantry on the first war patrol with TIRANTE (SS 420). Edward L. Beach, Executive Officer of TIRANTE on its 1st patrol recalled, "when President Harry Truman placed the starred blue ribbon, from which hung the Medal of Honor, around our Captain's neck, he told our skipper that he would rather wear that medal than be President of the United States."
To see TIRANTE (SS 420) actual war report of the attack and other cool documents click here
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