Author Topic: The last Japanse ship sunk in WWII...  (Read 7798 times)

Offline Lance Dean

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The last Japanse ship sunk in WWII...
« on: February 20, 2009, 12:43:19 AM »
You guys let me go on about the last Jap ship sunk in WWII by the Torsk was with a Mark 27 "cutie" torpedo.  That's not right at all!  Who told me that or did I make it up?  According to the war patrol reports, it was a Mark 14 steam powered torpedo that did the job.

Right?

Offline Darrin

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Re: The last Japanse ship sunk in WWII...
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2009, 02:07:02 PM »
Lance,
at the end of WWII the Mk 27 was a very new weapon and was classified as SECRET, the war patrol report shows using a Mk 14 and a amendmant was attached to the patrol report classified as SECRET showed the actual weapon used to sink the last warship and that was a Mk 27. Up to that point the Mk 27 had been used but not very much from what I remember being told by our WWII TM's that used to come up for the work weekends, sadly only 1 came up last year and I didn't get a chance to talk to him before he left and the previous year I don't think that we had any WWII TM's onboard.

Hopefully that clears up any confusion that you may have about the real weapon used by the Torsk sinking the Costal Defense warship just prior to the end of the war.

Offline Lance Dean

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Re: The last Japanse ship sunk in WWII...
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2009, 03:49:47 PM »
Well dang, thank you for the explanation!  That one had me baffled. 

Offline Darrin

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Re: The last Japanse ship sunk in WWII...
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2009, 04:16:35 PM »
The Navy didn't want it known that they had used a new weapon to sink the Japanese ships and after the war they started using them but I don't know when they actually put out what weapon was used to sink the Japanese ship. Maybe Gil or Bruce would know but I don't have a clue ;)

Offline Gil Bohannon

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THe last sinking
« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2009, 06:08:37 PM »
Torsk did indeed sink the last ship of WWII using a combination of a MK28 torpedo and MK27 Torpedo. This attack does NOT appear in her regular patrol report, but is attached as a Secret Addendum to the patrol. In the actual patrol report, if you notice on 14 August at 1209, she sighted a second frigate (ship contact 11) and commenced approach. Then at 1214, the patrol report shows that the escort made contact with Torsk by echo ranging and began an approach. The next entry in Torsk's report is at 1220, showing that she went to deep submergance and rigged for depth charge and silent running. So, the regular patrol report actually makes no mention of the MK28/MK27 attack on the ship contact 11, which turned out to be the final sinking.

Now to the secret addendum (which I have a copy of here). At 1217, Torsk fired a MK28 at the Mikura Class frigate while at a depth of 65 feet, from Tube #10. She then started deep, and 5 minutes and 33 seconds later, fired the MK27 torpedo from a depth of 180 feet, from Tube #7. Not long after the MK27 was fired, the MK28 hit the frigate, followed by the MK27. From the report: "Immediately after the Mark 28 hit, the screws and pinging stopped. One minute and 02 seconds after the first loud explosion a second was heard, which might have been the Mark 27". And further on: "One loud explosioin was heard, followed by a second lesser explosion. The screws and pinging stopped immediately after the first explosion. Loud breaking-up noises were heard on the target's bearing. The target was very close when hit, and the breaking-up noises were unmistakable".

The regular patrol report picks back up at 1245 with JK sonar picking  up echo ranging at 090, with reinforcements still arriving. At 1305 she commenced evasive tactics, and so on.

I have copies of the secret addendum that I can scan if anyone is interested in seeing it. Its not part of the online patrol report on the HNSA site. I also have copies of her secret report of the transit of the Tsushuima Straits, when she penetrated in to the Sea of Japan through two minefields using instruments only! That is also not part of the regular patrol report.

Kind if makes you wonder about all the other secret addendums that arent part of the regular patrol reports for all the boats that made war patrols. There has to be plenty of them, much more that is currently available online!

Gil

Offline Darrin

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Re: The last Japanse ship sunk in WWII...
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2009, 06:24:12 PM »
Thanks Gil, I was close on the report but couldn't remember all of the details in the sinkings ;)

Offline Lance Dean

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Re: The last Japanse ship sunk in WWII...
« Reply #6 on: February 22, 2009, 07:15:50 PM »
Gil, thanks so much for that useful information!   I had noticed a mention of something "extra" not being included in the war patrol reports on the Torsk on the HNSA/John Clear stuff.