Built by: Electric Boat
Design: EB 230A
Keel laid: 16 January 1939
Launched: 20 December 1939
Sponsor: Miss L. L. Ellia
Commissioned: 3 June 1940
First Skipper: LCDR John W. Murphy

In the light of possible war, USS TAMBOR was already on patrol off Wake Island when the Japanese planes were attacking Hawaii. There were two days of aerial pounding by Japanese planes before the fleet arrived with three light cruisers, six destroyers, two transports and a pair of submarines. TAMBOR and TRITON were on the patrol off Wake at that time.

TAMBOR received word of the Pearl Harbor strike on their radio. The bridge watch could see the fires burning on Wake and through the periscope, could see the approaching fleet but she was unable to close the range and launch an attack on the Japanese ships. Later TAMBOR, like so many other American submarines, were recalled to Pearl Harbor for refit to enter combat again.

Then came the brilliant trap by Admiral Nimitz at the Battle of Midway, and TAMBOR was one of many American submarines in a line to intercept Japanese shipping in any quadrant – TAMBOR was in the line at 150 miles out from Midway, and that line of submarines was covering from north to southwest. As the action heated, many of these submarines on the “ring” were ordered in to attack the Japanese fleet. In went TAMBOR.

On 5 June, just past 0200, TAMBOR (still under command of Murphy) spotted four large ships some 89 miles off Midway. They had been warned that American forces might be operating in the area so to avoid accidentally firing at American ships, he followed.

After running parallel to the ships until there was enough light to make out shapes, they determined that the ships were Japanese cruisers. They were SUZUYA, KUMANO, MIKUMA and MOGAMI. The dawn broke a little past 0400, TAMBOR was forced to dive and her slower speed allowed the cruisers to move away from her. The cruisers had detected the submarine on their starboard beam, and so headed off to port at high speed. In the confusion, MOGAMI accidentally rammed MIKUMA at full speed, doing considerable damage to her bow and to the port quarter of MIKUMA. Admiral Yamamoto thereupon ordered the cruisers out of the bombardment of Midway.

Due to this damage caused at the spotting of TAMBOR, both cruisers speed was cut to about 17 knots and they were leaking fuel heavily. They were too far from the submarine for her to make an attack, but Army and Marine pilots gave chase and in the battle that followed, MIKUMA went to the bottom. MOGAMI was battered terribly but somehow managed to remain afloat even though one of her turrets was smashed, funnel blown away and the decks shattered, she made it to Truk.

In late 1942, October and November, there were not enough good torpedoes to arm all the boats, so many were sent on missions to lay mines in Japanese held ports and sea lanes. TAMBOR, now under command of S. H. Ambruster, entered the Tonkin Gulf on 2 November to lay her mines at the eastern end of the Gulf. She had one mine arm and detonate prematurely. No damage to the boat.

When it was time to go back to the Philippines TAMBOR was sent in with 50,000 rounds of .30 cal. ammunition, 20,000 rounds of .45 cal. ammunition, $10,000 cash and a landing party under LCDR C. Parsons, near Pagodian Bay at Mindanao on 5 March 1943.

The push to sink tankers got off to a big start on 3 January 1944 when TAMBOR, now under command of LCDR R. Kefauver, when she sank the 8,496 ton GOYO MARU in the East China Sea. Other American submarines quickly followed suit that month.

In November, TAMBOR was part of a pack under command of CDR “Burt” Klakring, and the group was called “Burt’s Brooms” as the submarines were to sweep all the Japanese picket boats from the 180-mile wide corridor where Mitchner was going to bring his carriers. The picket boats were far more heavily armed than thought and one of TAMBOR’s men was wounded in the shooting, as were several men from other American submarines of “Bert’s Brooms”.

USS TAMBOR took some damage on 3 February 1044 during her 9th war patrol, from 32 depth charges in the East China Sea. She was depth charged by a Japanese destroyer shortly after diving. The first six charges forced the sub onto the bottom at 268 feet of water, and 26 more charges rained down on her. The bed plates of both high pressure air compressors fractured around complete periphery. Both low pressure air compressors were dislodged from their foundations. Conning tower after bulkhead door frame cracked. Fore and aft fuel oil filling line hull valves jarred partially open and plugs on topside standpipes backed off, allowing oil to leak to sea and thereby disclosing the submarine’s presence to the enemy destroyer. Oil also leaked from NFO No. 5 and FBT No. 5 (source not reported).

Operating mechanism for ship’s supply ventilation hull valve was damaged and valve could not be close again after it was opened on surfacing. Low power field of No. 1 periscope was deranged. All gyro spindles were bent and torpedo guide studs and tube stop bolts were damaged. High pressure air leaks developed at No. 1 air bank in forward battery well. Stern plane drive shaft pinion bearing was damaged, causing high noise level. Radio antenna trunk partially flooded. QC sound gear training motor housing broke and motor was torn loose from bulkhead. Temporary repairs were made; ship remained on patrol.

That was from the official US Navy report. Here is how some of the crew remembered their time riding USS TAMBOR.

Crew Memories

“The TAMBOR, under the command of LCDR John Murphy, was the flagship of the Sixth Subron, patrolling off Wake Island. TAMBOR was one hell of a good boat and today, after some 50 or more years, it somehow still feels strange to use the word “was”. We who served in her can recall the many engagements she endured and her ways of always somehow managing to come out in one piece. Well, nearly in one piece. TAMBOR was the first to report a Japanese task force off Midway Island and this, for the TAMBOR and her crew, was the beginning of action. Action which today reflects a unique achievement & well deserved glory.

In the Battle of Midway, TAMBOR received half credit for sinking the Japanese cruiser MIKUMA and also for inflicting heavy damage to the cruiser MOGAMI without firing a shot. The two Japanese cruisers, sailing in parallel column, tried to ram TAMBOR as she ran submerged down the middle, and they ran into each other. When the Japanese made a concentrated effort to salvage parts of the heavy cruiser USS HOUSTON, TAMBOR was dispatched to stop that operation. Further, TAMBOR transported ammunition, medical supplies and guerillas to the Philippines, laid mines in Hainan Strait and engaged in many ‘wolf pack’ operations. For this, TAMBOR was featured in LIFE Mag.

Landing the guerillas in Pagadian Bay in Mindanao became a motion picture with John Wayne in the leading role. In another action when TAMBOR sank a Japanese gunboat, we made the front page of the New York Daily News and we were written up and pictured in newspapers across the entire United States. The depiction of these actions can be read quickly and effortlessly, but the reading and visualizing can in no way be a substitute for the physical and emotional stress endured by the Captain and the crew, not to mention feeling the inherent quality and character of a submarine like the TAMBOR. We remember TAMBOR for what she was. She survived more than 70 depth charges in just one attack in the China Sea. She could almost be heard to console us; ‘Don’t worry, I’ll bring you home.’

With LCDR Kefauver in command we were making an end-around run to get ahead of a small Japanese convoy of one freighter, a tanker and one brand new destroyer. The calculation was that the convoy would reach its destination the following day. Therefore, we had to close in quickly for our attack. With the sky brightening in the east, we knew we had a now or never situation.

The tracking group began its work. Bill Shoop was on the radar in the conning tower calling out readings to Plotting Officers William Wood and Elmer Atchinson, Radar Officer Vito Vitucci and T.D.C. Operator Walter Post. Battle stations sounded at 0400.

In a flooded down approach, with Executive Officer Ed Spruance as Assistant Approach Officer, were on the bridge. Bill Reynolds was on the port side of the periscope shears, Tom Lampley on the starboard, and Clarence Erich to the stern.

Bill Reynolds was directly facing the convoy – later he said that he got a queasy feeling in his stomach and a trembling in his hands and legs as he heard the target ranges shorten and the targets become discernable. The freighter and the tanker loomed into view, but the escorting destroyer was hidden by the haze.

The order to fire was given and there was the usual gentle tug on the boat as the high-pressure air expelled the torpedo from the tube. Bill Reynolds’ glasses were on the freighter ARIAKE MARU. He saw the first hit – a plume of seawater spewing upward and a split second later, the loud explosion! One Japanese freighter consigned to the deep. Bill shifted his glasses to the tanker, GOYO MARU. The methodical calculations, the torpedo on its way, then the geyser and the explosion. Bill said he saw a flicker of flame appear from the stack, and then it died down completely but in the next instant, there was a sight never to be forgotten. The whole horizon turned into day as the tanker exploded, lighting up the whole China Sea.

While our radar had picked up the relative position of the escort destroyer, we at last saw her in the brightness of the exploding tanker. Radarman Bill Shoop’s voice rose to a high pitch. The angle on the bow was 90º starboard. Within seconds it was zero on the bow. The range was closing fast! The klaxon sounded. DIVE! DIVE! All hands below!

The bridge was cleared, the last man closing the hatch. Vents were opened and all eyes were on the depth gauge. The needle seemed to just hang there…..an eternity before the bow got on the down angle and we were headed below.

The Japanese destroyer had no intention of losing us. Even as we were diving, he was right on us. On his first run, he dropped about a dozen depth charges. We were forced to take evasive measures and race for deeper water.

Gordon ‘Red’ Mayo was on the sound gear and we heard the destroyer change to short scale pinging and increase her speed. It meant we could expect another run. Captain Kefauver decided to head for the sea floor. Down…..down…..down until we finally settled on the sand at 268 feet. We were now a completely silent submarine, just sitting and waiting.

The next stream of charges were too close, far too close. Something was betraying our position to the destroyer up there, and that destroyer was stubborn! For the next 15 hours the TAMBOR was taking depth charge after depth charge. Every man was wondering how much pounding the TAMBOR could take without splitting her hull.

The depth charges came, one on top of another, and with the most uncanny accuracy! It was Bob Freedman who asked, “Was that one closer than before?”

Sitting next to him, Claude Brown just shrugged and didn’t bother to define close or closer. The depth charge landed on the sub’s deck with a loud, ominous sound. It rolled very slowly – thump! Thump! Thump! Several times over the slotted wood deck.

We were in water shallow enough to hear the destroyer’s screws above us – the sound was like a freight train crossing a railroad trestle. First there was a distant sound, like a hum then increasing rapidly in volume to a roar as he approached, and then the sound decreasing quite rapidly. And on each run, we had to take two depth charges. We could hear them hit the water, then came the click of the firing pin, the snap of a detonator and then the loud rumble of the depth charge. When a depth charge is close, you lose the sound of the detonator and hear only the click and very loud explosion. The sound and implication of a depth charge landing on deck, rolling slowly thump, thump, thump, thump then bounding on the outer hull and sloping in the sand can only b understood from experience. It can put dryness in your throat and dampness in your pants.

Pause – and then the renewed attack. We can think of it now, many years later, and it still produces chills up and down your spine. Any one of those depth charges could have been the last one we would ever hear……….

The movie depictions of a depth charge attack, with the violent rocking of the boat (in the studio set-up) and the crew being tossed around is ludicrous. In reality, it just doesn’t happen that way as anyone in the crew can tell you. What really happens is something like an instant concussion! A shock! It can cause a light bulb hanging from a six inch cord to burst. The shock of the concussion will cause pipe connections, gauge glasses and mirrors to break.

Enginemen Ray Bouffard and Warren Link were standing at the throttle of the engine room when one of the blasts went off and in that instant, they found themselves staring as a wall of water.

“This is it!”, they thought. Jack Semmelrath and John Scaduto, standing alongside Ray and Warren thought the same thing – “Trapped! No Escape!” but the strange thing was that the wall of water didn’t move. Reacting automatically, the men put their hands out to stem the flow, but their hands went right through the water! They realized then the cooling water gasket flange on the number two main engine had been forced loose and water was shooting across the entire area of the engine room.

Ray resolved the problem almost as quickly as it had happened. We waited and listened. The sound of air escaping under pressure was definite and unmistakable. We agreed we had ruptured a line to our air bottles in the fuel ballast tank located just aft of the battery compartment bulkhead. The situation was serious because escaping air would indicate our position to the enemy. Knowing our depth and the run of the current, that destroyer could figure out our exact location.

Captain Kefauver came through later for a personal assessment of our problem and the boat’s condition. We had done the best we could under the circumstances and the Captain knew it. he took the time to speak to each man individually. When living in close confinements for a long period of time, you get to know unique characteristics that lock a man in memory and Captain Kefauver added to that moment a personal remark to each man that fitted the occasion and made the incident very special for us. As the Captain was turning to leave, he gave us a long look and said ‘Good luck. I’m proud to be your shipmate’. Yes, sir. We were proud to be in the TAMBOR with him!

Topside, that destroyer was making perfect runs, dumping depth charges all the time. He just wasn’t going to stop until he was sure he’d done a complete job.

In the TAMBOR, everything was a mess. The conning tower pump room bilges were full of water. With the air conditioning out, we were breathing humid air. Cork was everywhere. No need to say the situation was wearing us down. The crew members in sleeping areas not assigned to specific duties tried to get what sleep they could.

But sleep was impossible. Two depth charges were laid on top of us! The destroyer turned and put two more so close that our ears rang. This was a contest – who could stand the hammering best, the crew or the TAMBOR. It was definitely not the time for humor, but there’s always in every crowd. Fred Richardson said that when you hear the rumble of depth charges, you knew that TAMBOR has made another attack. He was right – we never sank an enemy ship without getting depth charged.

Carlos “Nip” Howard, a very popular and valued shipmate, just five days earlier had saved us from being rammed. During a lull after Fred’s wry humor, we had time to reflect how Nip had fired his 20mm gun at nearly point blank range at the bridge of the SHUNAI MARU with the startling result that the enemy ship lost control and gave us the momentary advantage and time in which to sink him. Now Nip was sitting on the floor of the control room, staring into space. He asked if his friends were scared and when they said they were not, he said that he wasn’t either. At this point, the only thing we had was a kind of suppressed bravado.

We went back to sweeping cork, paint chips and glass on the control room deck. It was better to keep busy than to wonder how many more depth charges would be dropped on us and how we would react to them. As two more depth charges went off, one of the men shook his head in wonderment and said ‘Some boat! She sure can take it!’ Now thinking back, the remark certainly did justice to the glory of the TAMBOR.

The maneuvering room was having its troubles. The packing glands of both screw shafts were leaking. Long ago we had conceded that Roy ‘Foo’ Rausher was the strongest man on the boat. When ‘Foo’ tightened something, it always took two men and a boy to loosen it yet even his strength was to no avail as he struggled to crank tight the six large nuts in an effort to stop the shaft leaks. When the water reached the motor room deck plates, we had to form a bucket brigade to the after torpedo room with five guys. They worked feverishly, bailing and passing buckets as fast as they could after every depth charge attack. Anticipating the next depth charge, they’d shut the watertight door and wait it out.

The after torpedo room was having water problems. They had to chain-fall the escape hatch as well as the torpedo loading hatch because the latch dogs wouldn’t hold tight after a close depth charge. The torpedo room bilges could accept more water than the maneuvering room, and the above procedure was necessary to protect the main motors from getting wet.

By now it was getting late in the day and we were counting on the tell tale escaping bubbles to be difficult to spot by the enemy. Also we felt our silence on the sea floor should make him believe he had destroyed us. After all, what boat could withstand seventy depth charges, placed quite accurately, and survive?

The hours passed. TAMBOR lay silent on the ocean floor. All we could do was remain silent – and wait……….

No sound was reaching us from above for quite some time and Captain Kefauver decided to risk surfacing. Was the enemy cunning enough to be waiting for us? There was no way to tell. We went into action, but deciding to surface and really surfacing were two different things. TAMBOR had been sitting on the bottom for over fifteen hours & the sand had locked her in solidly. Instead of being at 268 feet, we had settled to 280 feet! Even with all the tanks blown, she wouldn’t budge. Power to the screws had to be used cautiously. They wouldn’t turn. We were stuck!

(This is a long story, so it will be concluded in KTB #176 next month)

Sinkings by USS TAMBOR
Under S. H. Armbruster
07.08.42	SHOFUKU MARU	tender	891 GRT
21.08.42	SHINSEI MARU	collier	4,928 GRT
03.11.42	CHIKUGO MARU	freighter	2,444 GRT
Three ships – 8,263 GRT
02.05.43	EIKA MARU	picket	1,248 GRT
29.05.43	EISHO MARU	freighter	2,486 GRT
29.01.44	SHUNTAI MARU	freighter	2,254 GRT
03.02.44	GOYO MARU	tanker	8,469 GRT
03.02.44	ARIAKE MARU	tanker	5,149 GRT
12.02.44	RONSAN MARU	tanker	2,735 GRT
26.05.44	CHIYO MARU	supply	657 GRT
13.08.44	TOEI MARU	freighter	2,324 GRT
Eight ships – 25,322 GRT
Under R. Kefauver
16.11.44	TAIKAI MARU	picket	95 GRT
One ship – 95 GRT
TOTAL for TAMBOR was twelve ships – 33,680 GRT

USS TAMBOR was decommissioned and stricken 10 December 1945 and used as a reserve training ship in Detroit. She was delivered for scrap to Bultema Dock and Dredge in Manistee, Michigan for $45,107 sometime between 1947 and 1959.

USS TAMBOR received 11 Battle Stars for her actions in WW II.

More USS Tambor [KTB 176]