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

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

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