Submarine wolf packs profited from cooperative search, but commanders soon found the coordinated attack doctrine too cumbersome for employment. This feature of wolf-packing was presently shelved in favor of independent action on the part of attacking submarines. Rugged individualism remained the sparkplug of the American submarine effort. The following action was one that wrote the name LAWSON P. RAMAGE (948-+1989) in indelible ink across a page of submarine history.

EDITOR NOTE - If you can't read the inscription, it says: "To Harry Cooper with best wishes for your continued success in the old Navy tradition of providing the bestest and the mostest."

He was a great guy, and we're proud that he was a Member of Sharkhunters until his death some years ago. On with the story...

It was the end of July 1944; USS PARCHE (Commander L. P. RAMAGE) was operating with the Park's Pirates wolf pack (Commander L. S. Parks) off Formosa in company with USS HAMMERHEAD and STEELHEAD. They were going about their business like any well organized wolf pack. So far, business had been slow and pretty much routine - that is, slow and routine as far as submarine warfare is concerned.

Then, at 1030 on the morning of the 30th, STEELHEAD (CDR D.L. Whechel) sighted a convoy's smoke. STEELHEAD trailed. The convoy was under an umbrella of air protection, and Whechel's submarine was unable to attack during the day but at 2015 STEELHEAD got off a message to pack-mate PARCHE, giving the course and speed of the Japanese ships. RAMAGE put PARCHE on the estimated track and set her plunging along on the surface, top speed.

Midnight, and the two submarines were overhauling the quarry. By 0300, morning of the 31st, STEELHEAD was boring in on the attack. At 0332, Whelchel opened fire, aiming six torpedoes at a tanker and a large freighter. One torpedo was seen to hit the freighter and a few moments later a mushroom of black smoke surged up from the tanker. Whelchel maneuvered to fire four stem shots at another freighter. Two Japanese rockets soared in the night, signaling the convoy's alarm.

These flares were seen by PARCHE. RAMAGE's submarine had made contact with one of the convoy's escorts about 30 minutes earlier and was driving forward with crew at battle stations to strike the convoy's flank. Glare of the rockets now revealed several large ships in silhouette and three escorts rushing about. One of the escorts was ahead of PARCHE and to the starboard. Two were on the submarine's port between PARCHE and the convoy. As one of these was bearing down on RAMAGE, he decided the pattern needed some fast alteration. Running PARCHE at full speed, RAMAGE started a circular swing to port to draw away from the oncoming escort. The Anti Submarine vessel continued on its course while PARCHE continued her circle, which brought her in behind the stern of the second portside escort.

"This reverse spinner play apparently confused the opposition", RAMAGE recalled afterward. "PARCHE was now between the escorts and their convoy but while this maneuver was going on, the entire Japanese convoy had reversed its field and was now headed directly for PARCHE."

RAMAGE picked out the closest target for the first shot -- a medium-sized freighter, but the range had been overestimated. Before the set-up could be made, the ship was only 450 yards away. Sharp full right rudder slid the submarine out of the freighter's path and PARCHE's bridge personnel could almost feel the breeze as the freighter went by at a scant 200 yards. 

RAMAGE swung the submarine and opened fire with two bow shots. The alerted freighter managed a lucky zig, and the torpedoes missed. But the freighter's swing blocked the rush of an escort, and a moment later PARCHE's lookouts spotted two tankers off to starboard. Starting a run for these targets, RAMAGE got in a stern shot at the freighter, and a thumping explosion registered a hit. A five-minute dash brought PARCHE within torpedo shot of the tankers.

RAMAGE fired four torpedoes at the leading tanker then swung PARCHE hard right to fire three at the second tanker. The leading tanker collected the first salvo from cutwater to wake. The first torpedo blew the ship's bow to pieces. The next three ploughed into the tanker's mid-section, quarter and stern. The ship went under immediately, leaving only a small patch of burning oil to mark the spot. The second tanker, struck near the bow by two torpedoes, staggered and slowed down - but kept on going. So did PARCHE, and she didn't slow down.

Every escort in the convoy and all of the remaining ships were now wheeling and milling. As thought his submarine were a PT-boat, RAMAGE (whose nom de guerre was `Captain Red) drove into the center of the traffic jam, shooting everything. The convoy shot back everything. There ensued the maddest surface action yet fought by a submarine in the Pacific. Weaving and dodging through the convoy like a rodeo bronco attacking a herd of wild bulls, PARCHE struck at one Maru after another. RAMAGE fired torpedo after torpedo as the enemy returned fusillades of glowing tracer and screaming shells.

The scene blazed and roared with the din of an exploding fireworks factory. Hard right, hard left, the submarine swerved and veered. In her forward and after torpedo rooms, the sweating men grunted, swore and labored like Vulcan's blacksmiths to load the tubes. Above, the T.D.C. operator `played the organ' at pinwheel pace, somehow keeping up with the spate of target data which came down from the bridge. On the bridge at 0423, RAMAGE and companions were watching two A/S vessels close in - and RAMAGE was planning the next dodge - when a small, fast Maru loomed up on the starboard bow, rushing to ram.

"We felt like a mouse at a bridge party", RAMAGE described it. "I called the engine house to pour in all the oil they had."

Halfway across the rammer's bow, RAMAGE threw PARCHE's rudder full right. Ship and submarine passed in the night with elbow room at less than 50 feet. This, as any navigator knows, is the width of a safety-razor blade. The shave left PARCHE boxed in by small craft on be th sides and an oncoming passenger cargo vessel looming up like , he Flatiron Building dead ahead. Left with no alternative but a do Nn-the-throat salvo, RAMAGE fired three bow shots at the advancing menace.

The first torpedo missed. The next two were on the nose. The ship came to a rumbling stop as if she had run her bow into a mud bank. RAMAGE drove the submarine forward, then swung hard left to bring the stern tubes to bear. Firing a single, he saw the torpedo strike the vessel amidships. At 0442, as RAMAGE was maneuvering in for a final shot, the ship put its heavy head under the sea. Then, with a rush, it was gone. RAMAGE glanced about for something else to shoot at while the residue of the convoy, firing indiscriminately, looked for the submarine.

"There were still several small craft and escorts around, but no worthwhile targets that we could see I decided to put some distance between us and this hornet's nest."

As PARCHE hauled clear, distant explosions could be heard. STEELHEAD was attacking the remnant of the convoy, which had run in that direction. At 0449 Whechel fired four torpedoes at a large passenger-cargoman and another salvo of four at a big freighter. The freighter was seen to spout lifeboats and then go under. Whechel was maneuvering to finish off the passengercargo carrier when an enemy plane attacked in the morning dusk and drove STEELHEAD deep.

PARCHE in the meantime was putting the "hornet's nest" astern. As she hauled away, one of the A/S vessels challenged her by searchlight, sending "AA-AA." This somewhat surprising flash was noted by a PARCHE signalman with the comment, "Those guys probably have a lot of forms to fill out, too." Doubtless one of the forms filled out by the Japanese convoy's survivors reported the loss of some 39,000 tons of merchant shipping.

The Submarine Service credited Commander LAWSON P. RAMAGE with something more - THE CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR.

The citation read, in part: THE PERSONAL DARING AND OUTSTANDING SKILL DISPLAYED BY THE COMMANDING OFFICER IN HIS SERIES OF ATTACKS AGAINST A LARGE HEAVILY ESCORED ENEMY CONVOY...

The concluding paragraph read: THE COMMANDING OFFICER'S COURAGE AND FEARLESS ACTIONS IN REMAINING ON THE BRIDGE OF HIS SUBMARINE DURING INTENSE AND ACCURATE ENEMY GUNFIRE IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN THE OFFENSIVE, AT ALL TIMES, ENABLED HIM TO CONTROL HIS SHIP SKILLFULLY AND EFFICIENTLY, LAUNCH HIS TORPEDOES EFFECTIVELY, EVADE THE ENEMY'S VIGOROUS EFFORTS TO DESTROY PARCHE.

Between the lines of official rhetoric, one sees a young man with carrot-colored hair and clamped jaw, clinging to the bridge frame of an embattled submarine and determined to fight it out against all opposition.

Queried about the action later, RAMAGE made a brief reply to an interviewing journalist, "I GOT MAD."

"RED" RAMAGE was a strong Member of Sharkhunters during his time with us. He retired at the rank of Rear Admiral, and is buried with so many great Americans at Arlington National Cemetery.

JIM - many thanks for this piece of research. RAMAGE and this HQ exchanged many letters and when I asked him how he knew to get inside a convoy and attack that way, he said that he had read about a guy named Kretschmer! When I told this to OTTO KRETSCHMER (122-+-1985), he was quite surprised - and honored. They were both fine men and great submarine Skippers.