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)-- 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