Reprinted from POLARIS with permission

The specific details of this patrol were taken from Gail Diamond’s concise hand written daily diary written half a century ago. With his help and explanation, Marion L. Shinn (RT 2/C USNR, USS GUAVINA) compiled them into this narrative.

In the first two weeks in the war zone the officers and men on the SCORPION (SS-278) had a taste of most of the hazards of submarine life. They laid mines, engaged in four gun battles, sunk enemy vessels with torpedoes, felt the impact of depth charges, had one of their officers killed in action by enemy gunfire, and five crew members injured by bullets.

USS SCORPION (SS-278)

The SCORPION went in commission in January 1942 at Portsmouth N.H. LCDR W. N. Wylie was the C.O. and the XO was LCDR R. M. Raymond. Mr. Raymond was aboard to get a little more experience before getting his own command. The crew was given thorough training to be prepared for all kinds of emergencies. The training continued as the boat went to Panama, traveled through the canal, and on to Pearl Harbor.

On 5 April 1943 the boat left Pearl for the war zone. There were 9 officers and 60 enlisted men aboard. In the forward torpedo room we were carrying 11 torpedoes and 12 mines; the after room had 3 torpedoes and 10 mines. I was a First Class Torpedoman and was in charge of the after room. Our first priority was to lay the 22 mines in the traffic lanes outside Yokohama harbor, which was on the main Japanese island of Honshu. After laying the mines we were free to use our guns or torpedoes to attack the Japanese.

The International Date Line was crossed on 10 April and that day was lost, according to the calendar. We were making about 15 knots on the surface. About 0200 the morning of 19 April we approached the Japanese coast; the lookouts started sighting small Japanese boats. At one time eight small vessels were in view; some were patrol boats and others were fishermen. It was hard to tell them apart. Most of the little boats were from 30 to 60 feet long; no guns were visible on any of them. Mr. Raymond, our XO, made the remark that “we could hold a field day on them (the little boats) before we left to go back to Pearl Harbor.”

Our first concern, of course, was to dispose of our mines. At about 2100 hours a terrible banging sound on the outside of the boat startled the whole crew. Most of us were very scared; not even the Captain knew what was happening. Later we determined that the boat was hung up in a Japanese fishing net. The crashing sounds we heard were the glass balls on the net being banged against the hull. Much of the net clung to the boat until we surfaced, but the balls were broken and the banging ceased.

There was enough confusion and noise around us that the patrol boats were alerted. Two of them tried to locate us with grappling hooks. The clanging of the chains on deck rattled throughout the boat. In an attempt to escape the patrol boats, we went to 430 feet. The boat had been tested for only 300 feet; probably we could have gone deeper, but none of us wanted to try it. When the sound above stopped and everything appeared to be clear we worked our way close to the beach and prepared to lay our mines. The mines were slightly less than 21 inches in diameter. Two mines were stored on one torpedo skid and they fit snugly into the torpedo tubes when they were ready to fire.

One at a time, the mines were shot out of the torpedo tubes with compressed air -- the same as torpedoes. Sea water rushed into the open torpedo tubes after the firing; the air used to push out the mine was bled back into the submarine to prevent a bubble rising to the surface. The extra air increased the pressure in the boat, but we could not run our air compressors because of the noise.

The crew in the forward room started laying mines about 1700 hours. The twelve mines were out and the job completed in about an hour and a quarter. At 1830 hours, the after room started putting our 10 mines out. The mines we had shot out were resting on the bottom at a depth of about 200 feet. Our escape route was back over them. The time clocks on the mines were set to start releasing a cable with the explosive head in about three hours. A cable arrangement allowed the buoyant explosive head to slowly rise in the water to the assigned depth.

At 2015 we surfaced after being submerged 16 hours and 15 minutes. Everyone was complaining of headaches; the increase of pressure inside the boat made us very uncomfortable.

About 1130 hours on Tuesday, 20 September, the alarm sounded for Battle Stations - Torpedo. the Executive Officer passed the word over the loudspeaker that a freighter was in view about 7000 yards away and she looked like a sure thing. The order was given to make three torpedoes ready forward; about four minutes later the after room was given the same instructions. Almost immediately the order was given “FIRE 8, FIRE 9, FIRE 7!”

A minute and 20 seconds after the ship was hit with one torpedo, she sank stern first. The man on the periscope could see 8 survivors clinging to 3 different pieces of wreckage and not making out so hot. The ship was small; about 3,000 tons. It was real exciting to me; I had painted NORMA, my wife’s name, on the torpedo that hit the ship. The after torpedo room men were all excited; the SCORPION wasn’t a virgin any more.

Minutes after midnight 21 April we dove and prepared for Battle Stations -- deck guns. As the gun crew waited in the conning tower, the Captain told us that we had a boat lined up to sink. It was about 160 feet long with a 10 foot beam; there was no way to determine whether she was armed, but we would try our luck with our deck guns.

The three-inch deck gun crew included the trainer, pointer, sight setter, first loader, hot shell man, second loader, and several ammunition passers. My battle station was trainer and my responsibility was to train the gun horizontally. Mack was the pointer; he moved the gun vertically and fired the gun with a foot pedal when given the word by the sight setter. I was a little scared. The gun crew had fired the three inch gun many times in practice, but this was the first time at a live target. We had never been in a position where someone might shoot back at us.

We surfaced at 0500 and manned all guns. In addition to the three inch we had the 20mm, the .30 cals; and 2 tommy guns. The first shell in the three inch was a misfire; what an awful time for that to happen. The target was about 1,000 yards away and we were heading straight for it.

While we moved toward the target the 20mm gunner was firing at will. When our gun was clear and reloaded, Mack and I trained on the target and the sight setter gave the word to fire. The first shell went through the wheel house; the second hit below the deck and ripped a big hole. The 20’s were raking the vessel from bow to stern. The next 3 inch shell hit the engine and exploded as fire broke out midships. Our sound man picked up the noise of a set of screws; we left the area in a hurry.