Next time does not long delay in coming, for another ship is sighted several hours after daybreak. O’Kane could attack immediately, but the water is shallow and air cover excellent; consequently he tracks the ship all day submerged. Only a combination of the slow speed of the prospective target and the fact that he follows the shore line religiously, evidently in the hope that by so doing he is avoiding attack, makes this possible, for ordinarily a submarine is a target of opportunity, and must do all its chasing and end-arounding at night on the surface, or else well out of sight of possible air cover. This time, however, Tang has no difficulty in keeping up with the enemy submerged, and after dark a long, dripping shadow silently surfaces 4000 yards astern of him.
With murmuring diesels, the gray wraith ghosts on past the unsuspecting freighter. There are two small patrol vessels up ahead of the oncoming ship, apparently maintaining a permanent anti-submarine barrier. Tang avoids these neatly, gets dead ahead of the enemy ship, then turns off the track and lies to in the wallowing seas, deck aft awash with spray and spume whipped across it by the wind. She has selected her position so as to be only 500 yards away as the target comes by astern. Three torpedoes are ready aft, but this time Dick O’Kane decides to try Morton’s idea. Undoubtedly there will be many ships through this area before Tang’s time here is over. This is a straight run-of-the-mine freighter; and anyway, if the torpedo does miss him, Tang will go on up ahead of him once more and try again.
But no further attacks prove necessary, for the one single torpedo fired does the trick, hitting the target exactly in the middle with a terrific explosion. Two down.
The next few days are uneventful, but in the early morning of the 20th a small task force, consisting of a cruiser and two destroyers, is sighted headed south at high speed. Even though they cut down their speed made good by a radical zigzag plan, Tang barely is able to overtake them, racing along the surface using all available power. A normal attack from the usual position on the target’s beam is manifestly impossible, since there is not a chance of getting there before dawn. The only possible shot is one up the tail, and Tang nearly breaks her neck getting into position. Since the target is running directly away at 19 knots, and zigzagging frequently, it is necessary to get very close — not more than six hundred yards astern of him — before shooting, in order to give the fish a chance to reach him before he is off on another zig. Tang manages to get in to 800 yards before the Jap realizes that his little task force has grown. He also notices that the newcomer has the annoying habit of wanting to climb right up on the cruiser’s fantail, which would annoy any cruiser captain.
That, of course, is as far as Tang gets, for a searchlight suddenly outlines her in pitiless detail, and she barely manages to get under as the first salvo of eight-inch shells screams overhead.
Two days later another convoy is picked up on the radar, a few minutes after midnight. Its disposition is quickly made out to be roughly in the form of a cross, a single column of three tankers flanked by two freighters or transports, the whole group heavily guarded by anti-submarine vessels.
Tankers are the biggest prizes, outside of actual warships, and Tang is delighted at the prospect of getting three of them. The night is dark, and the submarine is able to track from dead ahead until, seizing a favorable opportunity, she stops, allowing the enemy ships to overtake her. As they do so, Tang turns and sets herself up for the three tankers with all torpedoes ready, six forward and four aft.
On they come, oblivious. The relatively tiny submarine is lying in their path in such a position that the column of three ships will pass across her bow, while the single flanking vessel will cross her stern. Then, when the range to the nearest Jap ship is about three hundred yards, Tang commences firing.
Two torpedoes into the first one, one into the second, two into the third. One saved in reserve forward for an emergency. The range is so close that the first two fish hit the leading tanker before the last two are fired, and he goes up in a roaring whoosh of flame, lighting up the whole scene as though it were broad daylight It is too late, of course, for any of the doomed ships to maneuver to save themselves, for the torpedoes are in the water within the space of seconds, and the range is so short that all maneuvers would be useless anyway. As Tang watches the destruction she has wrought, all three tankers burst into furious blaze — an unprecedented, unparalleled holocaust!
But in the meantime the freighter is passing astern, and Dick O’Kane must get set to let him have one or two fish. It takes only a few seconds until finally the word, “Set below!” is received on the bridge, but much has happened in the interim. The freighter alters course, having sighted the submarine’s low-lying form in the glare of the explosions and flames of the tankers. He obviously intends to ram. Also, the large freighter-transport on the far flank of the convoy has changed course and is heading straight for the submarine with the probable intention of ramming. The situation is desperate. No time to dive, for she would only be hit an even deadlier blow while on the way down. No time to fire torpedoes — they would only miss anyway. One thing to do — avoid on the surface, and trust to your superior maneuverability to get yourself out of this mess.
“Standby to ram! Collision quarters! All ahead emergency! Right full rudder!” The commands crack from O’Kane’s lips. Tang gathers way, curves to the right, across the bow of the oncoming transport. The latter alters his course to his left, in order to ram the submarine amidships. At precisely the right instant Dick O’Kane shouts the crucial command—“Left full rudder!” and swings his stern out from in front of the onrushing enemy with feet to spare. As he does so, there is the sharp rat-a-tat of machine-gun fire from the huge vessel towering above her, and Tang’s skipper sends everyone below to avoid danger of injury, remaining on the bridge alone in order to handle the ship.
Again the situation changes with catastrophic suddenness. The transport has had to continue his swing, in order to avoid the freighter which had also attempted to ram. A good chance for a shot! Four torpedoes previously made ready aft for the freighter are still ready. “New setup!” the TBT goes into action once more, and the new fire control information is set into the TDC. “Standby aft!”
Tang’s fire control party sets up the new targets in jig time. “Set below!” comes up to the skipper.
“Fire!” The order comes down instantly. Four torpedoes, spaced ten seconds apart, lurch out of the stern torpedo tubes and head for the careening transport. Suddenly, it becomes obvious that he has not been able to avoid the freighter, and with a rending, groaning crash of tortured and distorted steel the two huge hulks rip into each other — at precisely the instant the four torpedoes fired a moment before begin to hit!
A quarter of a mile away the double-barreled crash is tremendous. And the results are equally spectacular. A fantastic surrealistic V, broad and shallow, composed of two smoking, steaming ships, pitching back and forth in the roiled water of their own devastation, men leaping over the sides, bits of debris falling in the water from the explosions, and a huge pall of smoke from the three burning oil tankers covering it all, wafted like a blanket by the stiff north wind.
As Tang races away from the area, it is noticed with astonishment that the total elapsed time of the engagement, in which a whole convoy consisting of five ships has been wiped off the face of the earth, is only ten minutes.