Stories about and by Submariners:
Parche vs ALL HELL

(Edited from U.S. SUBMARINE OPERATIONS, WW-II, U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE)

Submarine wolf packs profited from cooperative search, but commanders soon found the coordinated attack doctrine too cumbersom 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 in indelible ink across a page of submarine history.

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, in the morning of the 30th, STEELHEAD (CDR D.L. Whelchel) 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 stern shots at another freighter. Two Japanese rocket 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 rockes now revealed several large ships in silhouette and three escorts rushing about. One of the escorts was ahead of PARCHE and tothe starbord. Two were on the submarine's port, betweem PARCHE and the convoy. As one of these was bearing down on Ramage and company, Ramage decided the pattern needed some fast alteration.

Running PARCHE at full speed, Ramage started a circular swing to <P> draw away from the oncoming escort. The AntiSubmarine vessel continued on its course while PARCHE continued her circle which brought her in behind the stern of the second port-side 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 Jap 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.

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. Ensued the maddest surface action yet fought by a submarine in the Pacific. Weaving and dodging through the convoy like a rodeo broncho 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 starbord bow, rushing to ram.

"We felt like a mouse at a bridge party", Ramage described the sensation. "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 both sides and an oncoming passenger cargo vessel looming up like the Flatiron Building dead ahead. Left with no alternative but a down-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 Whelchel 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. Whelchel was maneuvering to finish off the passenger-cargo 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 Japs 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, AND EVADE THE ENEMY'S VIGOROUS EFFORTS TO DESTROY PARCHE.