by gerald hall
“Slowly bring us up to periscope depth. Torpedo room, prepare to fire all six torpedoes immediately on my mark.” Captain Oxford quietly ordered.
As soon as Barramundi reached periscope depth, the captain quickly raised his periscope and looked around. He started giving a rapid series of orders after only a couple of seconds.
“Bloody hell. We’ve found ourselves a pair of Jap aircraft carriers. Bearing zero six one. Fire torpedoes….now! Dive to one five zero meters immediately after our last torpedo leaves the tubes. Change course to one five zero degrees and increase speed to twelve knots. Reload tubes as soon as possible and prepare for depth charges.”
Nearly thirty seconds passed before Michael noticed a rapid increase in speed and radical changes in course for several of the Japanese warships. A few seconds after that, everyone aboard Barramundi heard a series of four loud explosions. By then, the Australian submarine had already passed outside of the defensive perimeter of the convoy.
Everyone aboard the submarine wanted to cheer, but the captain had to quickly ask for silence once again.
“Come on, mates. We are not out of this yet. Let’s keep it quiet for a little while longer so that we can slip away from those Japanese destroyers. You can bet that they are angry as hell at the moment.” Captain Oxford quietly passed along to his crew.
About twenty minutes after the first torpedo was fired, Michael suddenly spoke up.
“We’ve got some queer noises coming from the direction of that ship we torpedoed. I had heard some additional explosions a little while after our torpedoes hit. Now, it sounds almost like someone slowly crushing a beer can.”
Captain Oxford put on a second set of headphones to listen to what Michael had described. Then he remembered what he had heard once before while on HMS Ursula after they had torpedoed an Italian destroyer. He had listened to the sound of that destroyer’s hull breaking up and being crushed underwater as it sank to the bottom.
Then Captain Oxford took off the headphones.
“Let’s keep the celebrations quiet for a while yet. But I wanted you all to know that you just sank your first enemy warship.” The broadly smiling captain announced to his crew.
“Are we going back to get another one, Sir?” One of the crew in the conning tower asked.
“Let’s focus on making sure that we survive this attack first before we start thinking about going for more, Fair Dinkum?”
The crewman nodded with a smile as the submarine continued to quietly slip away from the Japanese that were trying to hunt it down. The sounds of depth charges detonating began to fade in the distance until they stopped altogether.
After they broke off contact with the Japanese convoy, Barramundi remained on patrol for another two months before returning to Darwin. During that time, they made three more attacks on enemy shipping, sinking four transports and a Japanese destroyer. Barramundi’s crew expended eighteen out of the twenty-four torpedoes that they carried aboard her before they returned home.
When Barramundi returned to the Australian Navy base at Darwin, her crew learned to their delight that the aircraft carrier that they had sunk was the fleet carrier Soryu. They had actually hit her with only three torpedoes. The fourth explosion was another one of Barramundi’s torpedoes that had stuck the nearby heavy cruiser Mikuma and badly damaged her.
Captain Oxford and the sixty men of his crew were eager to get back to sea and continue the fight against the Japanese. But they would not be alone in preparing to strike the Japanese from beneath the ocean’s surface. The Royal Navy’s 4th Submarine Flotilla was also hunting Japanese shipping from their base in Singapore as were fifteen Dutch submarines based out of Surabaya. Unfortunately, most of the Dutch submarine force was obsolete.
But soon, another modern Australian submarine would join the fray. Her impact will be particularly important for the war effort in the long run.
HMAS Submarine B1
South China Sea
December 18, 1942
After the successful maiden patrol of Barramundi came the first patrol for the other new Australian submarine. Like the Barramundi, the B1’s crew had given her their own nickname as well. They called her the Bandfish, after another fish that was found along the Australian coast. As groundbreaking as Barramundi was, Bandfish was even more so because of the unique combination of design features that she incorporated in her spindle-shaped hull.
The RAN submarine Bandfish is ten days into her first patrol. Her current location is in the Sulu Sea between Mindanao and Borneo. Bandfish and her crew of forty-five men are commanded by Lieutenant Commander Winston Alexander, another Royal Navy officer that had been seconded to the RAN.
“It is still a little odd to be traveling underwater with our diesels running.” Bandfish’s First Officer, Lieutenant Mark Stevens noted. This had only been his third patrol aboard a submarine. Unlike Commander Alexander, Lieutenant Stevens had been commissioned in the Royal Australian Navy. But prior to becoming a submariner, the young officer had served on cruisers and other surface ships.
“In these waters, it is far safer than the alternative.”
Just then, Able Seaman Alan Carns, the boat’s sonarman on duty spoke as he was adjusting the controls on his hydrophones.
“I have a contact, bearing one-zero-two, twin shafts, Sir. I estimate that she is maybe going five knots and is about twelve thousand meters from us.”
“Do we have any other contacts?” Captain Alexander asked.
“No, Sir. Just the one.”
“That’s terribly slow for a twin-shaft vessel. Let’s turn to course one-zero-two and see if we can get a closer look at what we have here. Good job.”
“Aye, Sir.”
Bandfish turned and proceeded on their new course at about six knots so that her periscope and snorkel wouldn’t show much of a wake above her.
Commander Alexander continued to search the seas above Bandfish with his periscope as they closed upon the sonar contact.
“Are you sure about that range and bearing on that contact? I don’t see a thing out here.” Bandfish’s captain said, before freezing his scanning of the horizon and focusing on something that he missed before.
“Well, what do we have here?” A curious Commander Alexander quietly said.
He now had his periscope centered on an unknown submarine’s periscope is it slowly cruised less than a kilometer away.
“Battle stations! Immediately secure diesels. Retract the snorkel and go onto battery power. Prepare to load all torpedo tubes.” Commander Alexander quickly ordered in rapid succession.
The unknown submarine was cruising at about four knots. So far, it didn’t seem to be aware of Bandfish’s presence.
“Gentlemen. We have a submerged submarine dead ahead of us. Number One, do we know of any other Allied submarines operating in this area?”
“No, Sir. We are the only one who is supposed to be here right now.”
“Sonar. You were trained on what friendly ships and submarines sound like in addition to enemy ships. Does our target sound familiar to you?”
“No, Sir. She doesn’t sound like any of ours. I believe she’s a Jap boat based on her engine sounds though.” Carns confidently replied.
“I wonder what she is doing out here. Obviously, she is not here to benefit us. Torpedo room, prepare to fire a full salvo of torpedoes with a variety of depths. They should be set between five and ten meters. Our target may be submerged, but she is moving fat and dumb. We are going to try to close the range on her first a little more before we fire though. I don’t want her getting away.”
Commander Alexander carefully watched through the periscope as Bandfish closed on its quarry. He called bearings to his first officer, who plugged them into a lead computing device.
“We have a firing solution, Sir.” Lieutenant Stevens reported.
“Fire all six torpedoes.”
“Fire One…..Fire Two……Fire Three…..Fire Four…..Fire Five….Fire Six.” Lieutenant Steve
ns called out.
“Sir, all torpedoes appear to be running straight and true. No change with the target.” Sonarman Carns reported.
“Very good. She’s still running slow, dumb and happy, just the way that I prefer my targets.”
“Sir, the target is picking up speed and appears to be turning.” The sonarman reported just before quickly snatching his headphones off to protect his hearing from the imminent detonation.
A deep booming sound could be heard through the entire submarine’s hull as one of the torpedoes struck the unknown submarine and detonated. Almost immediately after the first explosion, there was a rapid series of additional detonations that could be heard and felt through the hull as well.
Sonarman Carns had to wait until the series of explosions subsided before putting his headphones back on again.
“Crikey! I don’t know what those were, but they sure as hell weren’t torpedoes. Anyway, I’m not getting any sounds of a vessel breaking up either on our hydrophones, just something that sounds like bits of metal hitting the ocean floor or something like that.”
“I don’t know about you. But those sure as hell sounded like mines to me going off after our torpedo hit.” Chief Petty Officer Ronald Aspen, the Bandfish’s senior enlisted man, commented.
“I know that we aren’t in the middle of a minefield, are we?” Commander Alexander asserted.
“No, Sir. I don’t think so. If you listened carefully, all of those secondary explosions came from one direction, not spread out like a minefield. Plus mines are supposed to be set up far enough apart when they are laid so that they don’t all explode if one goes off anyway.“ Sonarman Carns explained.
“Well, whatever caused those explosions is bound to draw a lot of unwanted enemy attention towards here. We better get moving and resume hunting at another location. Still, good job, gentlemen.” Bandfish’s captain told everyone before the boat quickly relocated to another part of the Sulu Sea.
Bandfish continued her patrol and sank three Japanese transports and a destroyer before returning home to Darwin. There, her crew found out that the submarine that they sank was probably the Japanese minelaying submarine I-124. This assessment was based on intercepted Japanese radio transmissions in addition to the Bandfish’s description of the multiple secondary explosions.
During the after action report, Captain Alexander talked to Harold and the Bandfish’s designer. Captain Alexander had a lot to say about his new boat.
“Sir, this is an incredible boat that you have built for us. She unbelievably fast and agile. The Bandfish is so quiet that I could sneak up on anything in the Japanese Navy without them hearing us. But we need better torpedoes, if we are going to be able to take full advantage of her.“ The Bandfish’s commander explained during his after-patrol debriefing.
“How so, Commander? Your report says that you had no malfunctions with the torpedoes that you used during your patrol.” Harold asked.
“That’s true. However, if we are going to be hunting Jap submarines, we have to have some means of ‘telling’ the torpedo where to go. I had to fire a full spread of six torpedoes to sink just one Jap submarine. That was a third of my entire torpedo load. Since this boat doesn’t have any guns to speak of, we have to be able to make every single torpedo count. Otherwise, we could end up going home with empty tubes and perhaps very little to show for it.”
Harold thought for a few moments. All of the submarines in his time used homing torpedoes of one form or another. Many torpedoes were also wire-guided until they were close enough to use their own sonar homing equipment for terminal guidance. One of his companies actually built the guidance electronics used by Australian Navy torpedoes at the time of the final war.
When Harold started building Barramundi and Bandfish, he had actually also started considering what kinds of appropriate technology that could be incorporated into them to improve their effectiveness. Dorothy had found references in the computer database to the German use during the Second World War of torpedoes that homed in on the sound that other ships made. It should be an easy enough task to build something similar to the German ‘Fox’ acoustic homing torpedo.
The bigger question now was how many homing torpedoes that Harold’s companies could actually produce. The industrial facilities that he owned or at least controlled were already working at nearly full capacity. There was also the issue of security concerning any element of technology that Harold wanted to introduce, even with it being within the overall technology level of the period.
But, now that he opened the door to the idea of submarines actively hunting other submarines, Harold needed to make sure that his people would have the best tools that he could offer, even if in only limited quantities. This was especially the case since there were only two more submarines even under construction in his shipyards. There was just no more room there to build more because of all of the other ships under construction at the shipyard.
“I think that we might be able design and build a torpedo that homed in on the sound that another ship made. It would take a few months for us to come up with something for you and your men to use against the Japanese.” Harold offered.
“Would it also work against other submarines, Sir?”
I suppose so. You would still have to be able to accurate determine the depth of whatever you were shooting at. I don’t currently have the means to change the torpedo depth after it has been fired.”
“I will have to think about that. I’m sure that we can come up with a tactic that would work and reduce the number of torpedoes needed. In any event, we appreciate whatever you can give to us to help though, Sir.”
A week later, the Commander of Royal Navy forces in Southeast Asia was at his office with one of his senior staff officers, discussing recent events.
“Sir, you read Bandfish’s report about the Japanese submarine that they sank during their last patrol, didn’t you?” Captain George Robinson asked.
“Yes, I did. They did very well for a first patrol in a brand new submarine, I must say.” Admiral Phillips noted as he drank a cup of tea at his desk.
“I thought that the most interesting part was about the submarine that they sank. Apparently, the Japanese sent out a mine-laying submarine in our direction. What do you think was its objective, Sir?”
“I have been thinking about that myself, Captain. Normally, you don’t send a submarine to lay defensive mines. So that would mean that the Japanese were intending to lay mines off of one or more of our ports. We will need to redouble our minesweeping efforts in the event another one of their minelayers reaches one of our ports.”
“I agree, Sir. We will have to requisition some more trawlers and fit them with mine sweeping gear as soon as possible. But there is another issue involved as well. Perhaps we should begin an offensive minelaying operation of our own against the Japanese? It could keep a great many of their ships in port instead of attacking us. Laying minefields outside of the main Japanese harbors could also damage or sink enough of their ships to greatly affect the war. Mines are also a very inexpensive way of fighting back against the Japanese while buying us time to build up our forces.”
“Yes, you are correct in all of your points, Captain. The biggest problem that we have however is that we have a lack of suitable platforms. Obviously, we can’t send surface ships in to lay those minefields. They would not survive the first attempt. We also don’t have many minelayers at all around here in any event.”
“We will have to find some way to deliver the mines, Sir.”
“Well, Captain. That is now going to be your job. You let me know what you need. I will see if I can provide you the resources.”
“Thank you, Sir.” Captain Robinson responded, not knowing for sure if this new tasking would be a blessing or a curse.
Royal Navy Catalina Flying Boat
Haiphong, French Indochina
January 25, 1943
As Captain George Robinson looked down upon the French Indochinese port o
f Haiphong from the Catalina flying boat’s side gunner blister, he saw the principal object of his upcoming discussion, the French submarine cruiser Surcouf. For a submarine, she was a huge craft. It could easily see the potential for what Admiral Phillips and the people from the Australian shipyard at Derby had proposed.
The hard part would be to convince the French naval commander, Admiral Muselier, to allow the Australians to make the modifications to Surcouf and then to allow the Coalition to direct the submarine’s activities afterwards.
“One step at a time.” Captain Robinson said to himself as he sat down in preparation for the Catalina’s landing in Haiphong harbor.
An hour later, Captain Robinson arrived at Admiral Muselier’s office where an aide quickly ushered the British naval officer inside.
“Good morning, Monsieur Amiral. How are you doing today?” Captain Robinson asked after rendering a sharp salute to the Admiral.
“I am doing well. Thank you, Capitaine. What brings you out here from Singapore to our lovely port of Haiphong? I was informed only a few hours ago by Admiral Phillips of your visit.”
“I wanted to discuss with you the issue of initiating a naval mine campaign against the Japanese. We would like to begin mining as many of the principal Japanese ports as possible within the next few months. This operation would use a combination of aerial and naval mine-laying platforms. Unfortunately, we have few aircraft that have the range and payload necessary to reach the Japanese home islands, much less survive to return from the mission.”
“The idea of mining enemy ports is a very good concept. What about using aircraft launched from your aircraft carriers to deliver the mines?”
“We considered that already. We could perhaps use carrier aircraft to deliver some of the mines. However, the most effective minefields would need to be laid covertly so that the enemy would not have the opportunity to attempt to clear the mines until after some of their ships have already hit mines. The best way to do this is through the use of submarines to deliver the mines.”