The Japanese Battleship Kongo-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

The Kongo was named for Mt. Kongo and built originally as a battle cruiser in England but was transformed into a battleship.

It was commissioned in 1913 and during World War I, patrolled off the coast of China during World War I.

It underwent two major reconstructions beginning in 1929 and was stationed off the Chinese coast again during the Second  Sino-Japanese War.

It fought in many engagements in World War II, covering the  Japanese amphibious landings  in British Malaysia and the Dutch East Indies in 1942 before engaging American forces at the Battle of Midway and during the Guadalcanal Campaign.

Throughout 1943 she primarily remained in the Truk Lagoon in the Caroline Islands, Kure Naval Base (near Hiroshima), Sasebo Naval Base (near Nagasaki) and Lingga Roads.  She deployed several times in response to American aircraft carrier raids at island bases across the Pacific

The Kongo also participated in the  Battle of the Philippine Sea and  the Battle of Leyte Gulf  in 1944, engaging and sinking American ships in the latter.  It was torpedoes and sunk by the American submarine USS Sealion while in the Formosa Strait on November  21, 1944, becoming the only Japanese battleship sunk by a submarine during the war.

--GreGen

Kongo-Class Japanese Battleships-- Part 3

Every battlecruiser built was always there to maximize speed and armament at the loss of armor.  The same with the Kongo-class of Japanese battlecruisers.  During the interwar period of time, all four ships in the class were  modernized and had their  armor heavily upgraded.

In addition, the anti-aircraft weaponry was also seriously upgraded.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE FOUR KONGO-CLASS SHIPS

Name, Builder, Laid Down, Launched, Completed, Fate.

KONGO:  Vickers, Barrow-in-Furness England / 17 Jan 1911 / 18 May 1912 / 16 Aug 1913 / Torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Sealion, 21 November 1944.

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HIEI:  Yokasuka Naval Arsenal, Yokosuka Japan /  4 Nov 1911 / 21 Nov 1912 / 4 Aug 1914 / Sunk during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, 13 November 1942.

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KIRISHIMA:  Mitsubishi Shipyard Co. Nagasaki, Japan / 17 March 1912 /  1 Dec 1913 /  19 April 1915 / Sunk during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, 15 December 1942.

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HARUNA:  Kawasaki Dockyard Co., Kobe, Japan  /  16 March 1912  /  14 Dec 1913  /  19 April 1915  /  Sunk by U.S. aircraft, 28 July  1945; broken up  from 1946.

Interesting that two were sunk with two days of each other.  And three were sunk in the month of November.  One was built in Nagasaki.

--GreGen

Kongo-Class Japanese Battleships-- Part 2

The Kongo-class battleships of the Japanese Navy were among the most active capital ships during the war.  The Hiei and the Kirishima acted as escorts during the attack on Pearl Harbor while the Kongo and Haruna supported the invasion of Singapore.  

All four participated in the  battles of Midway and Guadalcanal.  The Hiei and the Kirishima were both lost at the Naval battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942.  The Haruna and Kongo both shelled  the American Henderson Field airbase on Guadalcanal.

The two remaining Kongo-class battleships spent most of 1943 moving between Japanese naval bases before participating  in the major naval campaigns of 1944.  They both engaged American naval forces during the Battle of Leyte Gulf  in late October 1944.

The Kongo was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Sealion in November 1944, while the Haruna was sunk at her moorings by an air attack on  Kure Naval Base in late July 1945, but later raised and scrapped.

These were the Japanese ships cartoons used to show with their huge foremast areas.  Well, after looking at pictures of the rest of the ten Japanese battleships I'd have to say all had those huge foremast areas.

--GreGen

Japanese Battleship Kongo and Her Class (Built As Battlecruisers)

From Wikipedia.

This is the battleship that the Sealion sank.

The Kongo was the lead ship of a class of four battlecruisers and was built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in Britain before World War I.   It was the last major Japanese warship to be built somewhere else than in Japan.  The other three sister ships were built in Japan.

Battlecruisers were somewhat like a battleship, but had less armor, generally somewhat smaller guns and higher speed.  The HMS Hood which was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck was a battle cruiser.

The other three sister shups of the class were the Haruna, Kirisima and the Hiei

During the late 1920s, all but the Hiei were reconstructed and reclassified as battleships.

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GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS (of the Haruna)

LENGTH:  704 feet

BEAM:  92 feet

SPEED:  27.5 knots

COMPLEMENT:  1,193

ARMAMENT:

Eight 14-inch guns in 4 turrets

Sixteen 6-inch guns

--GreGen

SS Rakuyu Maru: Carrying Allied POWs When Sunk by USS Sealion

From Wikipedia.

On the Sealion's Second War Patrol, she sank this ship which, unfortunately was carrying British and Australian prisoners of war.

I was a passenger ship built in Japan in 1921 and was part of Convoy  HI-72 and transporting 1,317 prisoners from Singapore to Formosa.  Another ship in the convoy was the SS Kachidoki Maru with another 950 Allied POWs and 1,095 Japanese on board.

On the morning of 12 September 1844,te convoy was attacked in the Luzon Strait by an American submarine wolfpack consisting of the Growler, Pampanito and Sealion.  The Rakuyu Maru   was torpedoes by the Sealion and sank towards evening.

The Kachidoki was also sunk with 488 people killed, mostly POWs.  The Japanese survivors of the Rakuyu were rescued by  an escort vessel which left the POWs in the water with rafts and some abandoned boats.

A total of 1,159 POWs died in the attack.  A Japanese  navy vessel shot and killed 350of the survivors in the boats the next day as they were rowing to shore.

The three American submarines returned the next day and rescued 149 surviving POWs on the rafts.

A Sad Turn of Events.  --GreGen

USS Sealion (SS-315) (SSO-315)-- Part 11: Conversion to a Troop Carrier

The USS Sealion was decommissioned  on 2 February 1946 after an eventful World War II career.  However, this was not the end of the ship's service.  She came back.

A year and a half later, the Sealion, along with the USS  Perch (SS-313) were designated to conversion as a troop carrier and in April 1948, she entered  the San Francisco Naval Shipyard for the eight-month conversion.  Her torpedo tubes and forward engine room were removed in order to provide berth for 123 troops.

The wardroom was redesigned as an operating room and the beam of the ship aft of the conning tower was extended and a large, watertight cylindrical chamber was  installed abaft the conning tower to store amphibious landing equipment.

On 2 November 1948, the Sealion was recommissioned as a Submarine Transport with the hull classification SSP-315.  Training exercises were then conducted off both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts that went to 1950.

In 1960, she was decommissioned until 1961 and then back in service and took part in the  Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.  On 20 February 1970 she was decommissioned for the final time and stricken from the Naval Register 15 March 1977 and  sunk as a target off Newport, Rhode Island, on 8 July 1978.

--GreGen

USS Sealion (SS-315)-- Part 10: Fourth to Sixth War Patrols: Sank Two More Ships

The Sealion's Fourth War Patrol was from 14 December 1944 to 24 January 1945 and was a return to the South China Sea with the submarines USS Blenny (SS-324) and USS Caiman (SS-325).  Poor weather plagued success.  She did sink the supply ship Mamiya  on 21 December.

She then performed reconnaissance duty for the reoccupation of the Philippines. and then headed to Australia, arriving on  24 January and ending the Fourth Patrol.

The Fifth War Patrol began 19 February and again to the South China Sea.  On 17 March she sank the  Samui with torpedoes and at the end of the month, received downed  aviators from the USS Bream and transported them back to Subic.

She took on passengers and headed for Pearl Harbor.

From there, she headed to San Francisco for a complete overhaul, but by then the war was over so deactivation work was done and she was decommissioned on 2 February 1946.

But, her career wasn't yet over.

--GreGen

USS Sealion (SS-315)-- Part 9: An Audio Recording of the Attack

It was not customary for submarine crews to make audio recordings of attacks.  However, the crew of the Sealion  had obtained  behind by a CBS war correspondent who had debarked at Midway, and when ordered to battle stations after encountering the Japanese battle group, one sailor  positioned the microphone  by an intercom in the cunning tower.  

That recording, along with a similar one of an attack on a Japanese oiler during the Sealion's Fifth War Patrol were then preserved by the  Naval Underwater Sound Laboratory and are thought to be the only surviving  sound recordings of World War II submarine attacks.

The Sealion continued to patrol between Mainland China and Formosa for the next several days before returning to Guam.

--GreGen

USS Sealion (SS-315)-- Part 8: Four Torpedoes Named Foster, O'Connell, Paul and Ogilvie

After firing off its torpedoes, the Japanese escorts came after the Sealion. but they searched east and the Sealion had gone west.  By 3:10, the Sealion had reloaded her torpedoes and began tracking the Japanese ships again.  The thought on board was that they had just dented the battleship's armor belt.

By now, the enemy formation was zigzagging and the sea and wind had increased.  They split into two groups and the Sealion began tracking the slower of the two which consisted of the Kongo, Isokaze and Hamakaze.  

At 5:24, a huge explosion lit the area and the battleship Kongo disappeared.

It was customary for American submarines to write a name on then head of each torpedo as it was loaded  into the tube.  They usually bore the names of  the torpedo crews' wives or girl friends.  Some would carry the name of a factory worker who had sold the most war bonds.  

That night, however, four of the Sealions fish (torpedoes)  carried the names Foster, O'Connell, Paul and Ogilvie.  These were four men who had been killed on the first Sealion three years earlier.  (I will do posts about that submarine soon.)

--GreGen

USS Sealion (SS-315)-- Part 7: Third War Patrol and Sinking the Kongo and Urakaze

From Saipan, the Sealion returned to Pearl Harbor on 30 September 1944.  After resupplying, she left on  31 October with the USS Kete (SS-369) and headed east.  In November the Sealion encountered two problems. First her Number 8 tube was accidentally fired with both doors closed and then there was a hydrogen explosion in the battery space of the torpedo in the  Number 5 tube.

At 00:20 November 21, she made contact with an enemy formation going through the Taiwan Strait at about 16 knots and not zig-zagging.  By 00:48, they were made out to be two battleships and two cruisers.  At 1:46, three additional  ships, escorts, were  spotted.

The Sealion had intercepted a very powerful surface fleet consisting of the battleships Yamato, Nagato, Kongo, cruiser Yahagi and destroyers Hamakaze,  Isokaze,  Yurakaze, Yukikaze, Kiri and Ume.

At 2:45, the Sealion, which was ahead of the fleet, turned and fired six torpedoes at the second ship on line, the Kongo.  At  2:59, she fired three at the  Nagato.  At 3:00 the crew heard three hits from the first salvo.  They had hit the Kongo and flooded two of the ship's boiler rooms and gave her a list to port.  

The Nagato, alerted to the presence of an enemy submarine turned hard and the second salvo missed her but ran on to hit the destroyer  Urakaze which was struck her magazines.  She blew up and sank quickly, taking with her all hands.

--GreGen

USS Sealion (SS-315)-- Part 6: The Japanese Ships Were Carrying Allied POWs and 1159 Died

On September 15, the three submarines reformed their scouting line.  That afternoon, the Pampanito radioed the other two that they were to return to the scene of action from the 12th.  The Rakuyo Maru had been carrying Australian and British prisoners of war, 1159 who had been either killed in the  attack or thereafter.

By 20:45, the Sealion had taken on 54 POWs and started back to Saipan.  All of them were coated with crude oil and were in poor health health suffering from malaria, nutritional diseases such as pellagra and beriberi and exposure.  Three of them died on the way before they reached Balintang Channel of September 17.

On September 18, the USS Case (DD-370) rendezvoused with the Sealion and transferred a  doctor and pharmacist's mate to them.  A fourth POW died, and on September 20, the Sealion reached Tanapag Harbor where they transferred the surviving 50 POWs to the Army hospital there.

There was a movie made about this called "Return  from the River Kwai" (most of the POWs had been involved with the construction of the bridge over that river), but it was never released in the United States.  Most information of the battle is brushed over and  with little or no information that the attack was ordered by American high command and carried out by U.S. submarines and killed so many Allied  prisoners.

More Than a Bit Embarrassing.  --GreGen

More About the USS Sealion (SS-315)-- Part 5: The Second Convoy and the Sinking of Two Ships Carrying Allied Prisoners

About 2:00 on 12 September, the Growler attacked the Japanese convoy, followed by the Pampanito and the Sealion.  The Growler's torpedoes hit the destroyer Shikinami and it went down.  The Sealion launched two torpedoes that missed, then came under fire from the other escorts and was able to outrun them until they returned to the convoy at 3:30.

About an hour and a half later, the Sealion caught up with the convoy  At 5:22, she launched  three torpedoes at a tanker, then swung to fire at the SS Rakuyu Maru, the last ship in the nearer column.  At 5:24, the Zuiho Maru, possibly hit by torpedoes from both the Pampanito and the Sealion, burst into flames.  

The Kachidoki Maru was disabled and swung into the burning tanker and was soon ablaze herself.  This illuminated the Sealion's second target, the Rakuyu Maru and at 5:25 she fired two torpedoes on the ship.  Both hit and the ship began to burn

Unfortunately, the sinking of the Kachidoki Maru and the Rakuyu were carrying  Australian and British prisoners and nearly 1200 of them died.

--GreGen

More About the USS Sealion (SS-315)-- Part 4: Second War Patrol

The Sealion was refitted at Midway by the USS Fulton (AS-11), she departed on her second War Patrol on 17 August 1944 with the USS Growler (SS-215) and USS Pampanito (SS-383).  On 31 August the Sealion conducted a nighttime surface attack on a Japanese convoy.

The Sealion sank the minelayer Shiratake and also came under heavy depth charge attack, but was not damaged.

Low on torpedoes and fuel, the Sealion returned to Saipan and refueled and armed.

On 11 September, she rendezvoused with two other submarines and together the group attacked and decimated a convoy en route to Formosa.   The information for this attack was achieved by American code breakers deciphering  a coded message.

What they didn't know was that the convoy was carrying British and Australian POWs from the infamous Thai Burma Railway.

--GreGen

Some More About USS Sealion (SS-315)-- Part 3: First War Patrol Sank Three Japanese Ships

She arrived at Pearl Harbor on June 8, 1944, and headed out for her first war patrol.  She sailed with the submarine USS Tang and glanced off a whale on June 15.  On 23 June she undertook her first attack which was unsuccessful and also underwent her first depth charge attack.

The two subs were joined by a third, the USS Tinosa.  On 28 June, the Sealion caught and sank the Japanese naval transport  Sansei Maru.  On July 26, the Sealion attacked a two ship convoy and sank one, but was attacked by the Japanese destroyer escorting but escaped unscathed.

On 11 July, she sank  two freighters.

Having fired her last torpedo, she went to Midway and was refitted for her second war patrol.

--GreGen

Some More About the USS Sealion (SS-315)-- Part 2: General Characteristics

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

CLASS AND TYPE:  Balao-class, diesel-electric submarine

LENGTH:  311 feet 9 inches

BEAM:  27 feet, 3 inches

SPEED:  20.25 knots surfaced, 8.75 knots submerged

RANGE:  11,000 nautical miles, surfaced at 19 knots surfaced

ENDURANCE:  48  hours at 2 knots submerged

TEST DEPTH:  400  feet

COMPLEMENT:  10 officers, 70-71 enlisted

ARMAMENT:

Ten 21-inch torpedo tubes:  six forward and four aft

one 5-inch deck gun

Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

Packed a Punch.  --GreGen

Some More About the USS Sealion (SS-315)-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

The USS Sealion (SS-315) was a Balao-class submarine and the second ship in the U.S. Navy with that name.  (The Balao-class of submarines was the largest class of submarines in the Navy with 120 ships.)  She was sometimes called the Sealion II, since there was an earlier one of that name sunk during the opening days of World War II for the United States in the Philippines.

As a matter of fact, the Sealion's first skipped, Lt. Commander  Eli Thomas Reich had also served on the first Sealion as executive officer.

The Sealion was the only U.S. and Allied submarine to sink an enemy battleship during World War II.

Her keel was laid down  on 25 February 1943 by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut and was launched  on 31 October 1943.  Commissioned 8 March 1944.

--GreGen

USS Sealion (SS-315)-- Part 6: The Rest of Her Career

The Sealion ended the war with five Battle Stars and a Presidential Battle Unit Citation.  It was decommissioned in 1946 and brought back into service in 1948 and converted into a troop carrier which could carry 123 troops and a support helicopter on its deck.  It conducted many  exercises and patrols off the coast of the United States.  

And these included training with the U.S. Marines and  the Navy's Underwater  Demolition Teams until it was again decommissioned in 1960.

That didn't last long as she was again brought back during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1961 where it supported the blockade of that island.  During the rest of the 1960s, the Sealion continued to help train the U.S. Special Forces, including the Seals.

In 1970, this legendary submarine was decommissioned a final time.  Eight years later she was sunk as a target off Rhode Island.  

A Famous Submarine.  --GreGen

USS Sealion (SS-315)-- Part 5: The Sinking of the Japanese Battleship Kongo

Thinking that its torpedoes had only dented the Japanese battleship's armor as the ship was still moving, the Sealion withdrew to reload its torpedoes to make another attack.  The Japanese destroyers then started dropping depth charges, but in the wrong area, much to the relief of the American sub's crew.

The Kongo, meanwhile, slowed down and the destroyers broke away, so the Sealion was preparing for another attack when one of the crew on the audio was heard to say, "Wait a minute!  Something's happening over there."

The Kongo was more injured than initially thought.  At 5:24 am, the ship exploded  which drew cheers from the Sealion's crew.  Some 1,200 of the Japanese battleship's crew went down with her, including the captain and the commander of the Third Battleship Division.

With the sinking of the Kongo, the Sealion became the only Allied submarine to sink an enemy battleship in World War II.

By the end of its Third War Patrol, the Sealion had sunk at least 13 ships: six tankers, five freighters, one destroyer and one battleship.  Even though there would be three more patrols, the Sealion didn't repeat the success of the Third one.

--GreGen

USS Sealion (SS-315)-- Part 4: Sinking the Japanese Battleship Kongo and Destroyer Urakaze

But, the Sealion's 3rd patrol was something else.

After the Japanese battleship group had been detected,  the submarine's commander, Eli Reich ordered his crew to battle stations, and one submariner set up a film recorder that a CBS war correspondent had left aboard and placed a microphone up near the ship's intercom speaker in the conning tower.

The audio of the event offers  rare insight into what a World War II submarine attack sounded like.

Believing the lead and rear ships of the column were cruisers and the second and third vessels were battleships, , the Sealion decided to attack the battleships.  Two of the three destroyers were also near the middle of the group, increasing the likelihood that if a torpedo missed the battleships, it might strike one of them.

At 2:56 a.m., the Sealion fired six torpedoes from its forward torpedo tubes at the first target.  Three minutes later, it fired three more torpedoes from its aft torpedoes at the second target.

The Sealion's crew reported three of the first torpedoes hitting the first target, which turned out to be the Japanese battleship Kongo.  One sailor can be heard to say "three hits to the Japanese 'B'  That will put them in drydock at least."

The second salvo of torpedoes missed the Battleship Nagato, but one of them struck the destroyer Urakaze, which then exploded and sank with all hands.  A Sealion crew member can be heard heard shouting "Woo" in celebration.

--GreGen

USS Sealion (SS-315)-- Part 3: The First Two War Patrols

FIRST WAR PATROL

The Sealion's First War Patrol began on June 8, 1944.  While operating around Korea, Japan and northeastern China, it survived repeated depth charge attacks and sank at least five ships, one of them with its deck gun.

SECOND WAR PATROL

The Second War Patrol began on August 17, 1944,  and saw it operating in the South China Sea along with the U.S. subs Growler (SS-215) and Pampanito (SS-383).  The subs attacked a Japanese convoy on August 31, during which the Sealion survived a hail of gunfire to heavily damage a tanker and sink a minelayer.

On September 12, the three American subs attacked another convoy near the Taiwan Strait, sinking four ships and two escorts.  The Sealion again took gunfire from Japanese ships while on the surface.

One of those ships was transporting British and Australian prisoners.  Days later, upon learning there were survivors in the water, the Sealion returned and picked up 54 survivors., four of whom died before reaching the U.S. hospital in Saipan.

--GreGen

Only U.S. Sub to Sink Enemy Battleship in Combat, the USS Sealion (SS-315))-- Part 2

Twenty minutes after midnight on November 21, 1944, the U.S. submarine Sealion made radar contact with a group of Japanese  warships in the Taiwan Strait.

The ships weren't zigzagging to avoid submarines and the Sealion went for a closer look to see if an attack was possible.

By 1:48 am, the Americans thought they were trailing two battleships and two cruisers escorted by three destroyers.  They had actually stumbled upon three battleships (including the Yamato (the largest and most powerful battleship ever built).  The other two were the Kongo and Nagato, as well as the cruiser Yahagi and three destroyers.

It was too good of a opportunity to pass up so the sub's commander, Lt. Cmdr. Eli Thomas Reich so the crew went to battle stations to prepare to attack.

The Sealion was a Balao-class submarine commissioned in March 1944 and it had become quickly battle-tested.

--GreGen

The Only U.S. Sub to Sink an Enemy Battleship, the USS Sealion (SS-315)

From February 1, 2022, Yahoo! News  "The only US sub to sink an enemy battleship during WW II made recordings of the attack that you can still listen to" by Benjamin Brimelow.

**  On November 21, 1944, the U.S. submarine USS Sealion came upon a group of Japanese ships by the Taiwan Strait.

**  Over several hours that morning early that morning, the Sealion attacked the Japanese ships, sinking the battleship IJN Kongo.

**  The Sealion was the only Allied submarine to sink an enemy battleship during the war. and the event was captured on tape.

--GreGen

WW II Alabama Soldier Identified-- Part 2: Bill Morrison

After the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe.  AGRC conducted several searches and investigations in the Hurtgen Forest and surrounding areas between 1946 and 1950 but was not able to find and recover Bill Morrison's remains

He was declared non-recoverable in December 1951.

During a study conducted by a DPAA historian it was determined that one set of remains, designated X-4470 Neuville, originally discovered by a German citizen and recovered by the AGRC in 1946 possibly belonged to Morrison.

The remains were buried in Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950.  The remains were disinterred in April 2019 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska for identification.

Scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological and material evidence to identify the remains.  Also DNA to identify him.

Glad He's Coming Home.  --GreGen