USS Robalo (SS-273) found after 75 years.
Sept 16, 2019 18:40:04 GMT 8
EXO, Karl Welteke, and 3 more like this
Post by snake on Sept 16, 2019 18:40:04 GMT 8
The Gato-Class Submarine USS Robalo (SS-273) departed Fremantle, Australia, on June 22, 1944, with 81 crew on her third war patrol, Commander Manning M. Kimmel’s second on the boat, with orders to pass through the Balabac Strait and proceed to the Gulf of Siam (Thailand) for patrols against Japanese shipping and remain there until dark on August 2.
She was last heard from on July 2 when the Commander reported sighting a Fuso Class Battleship with destroyer escorts and air cover but couldn’t close to attack. When the submarine didn’t return from patrol and repeated attempts to make contact had failed, she was presumed lost.
Evidence later came to light suggesting that the sub was sunk by a mine off Palawan.
Evidence later came to light suggesting that the sub was sunk by a mine off Palawan.
Four crew members were known to have survived the sinking but were captured on a nearby island and taken to the Japanese Prison Camp at Puerto Princesa on Palawan Island, where they were held as spies and not POW’s. The exact fate of these men is unknown, but it’s presumed that they were put on a destroyer for transport to Japan for interrogation, before the massacre of prisoners at the camp on December 14, and that they perished when the ship was torpedoed by a US Submarine.
While interned at the camp, one of the survivors dropped a note from his prison cell window on August 2 which was picked up by another inmate and smuggled through to the wife of the deceased Guerrilla Leader, Dr Mendoza, giving the names of the four crewmen and indicating that the sub had hit an enemy mine on the night of July 26 while transiting the Strait on the surface, however, the location given, two miles off the western coast of Palawan, has been proved to be inaccurate. The date also implies that the submarine was returning from patrol early.
Dr Mendoza had been captured and beheaded by the Japanese in January 1944.
The Sea Scan Survey Team, with some good research at hand, carried out the search for the Robalo on May 23, 2019, and found the wreck with the side scan sonar on the first pass!
She is lying upright on the seabed with the stern completely destroyed by the mine up to the maneuvering room which discounts two theories that the explosion occurred in the vicinity of either the forward or after battery compartments. The latter is just aft of the conning tower.
The orientation of the wreck shows that Robalo was returning from patrol when sunk, so what happened during the three and a half weeks since the last radio contact on July 2? This will remain a mystery, but it would appear that the radio equipment must have failed for some reason after this date. We can only speculate why it failed, but Commander Kimmel’s father was Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, Commander and Chief of the US Fleet at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. He was subsequently blamed (wrongly so) for the disaster for not being prepared and was retired in disgrace.
It is said that his son was eager to redeem the Kimmel name and his first patrol on the sub, Robalo’s second, was reported as being “wildly aggressive”. You can bet that this last patrol, wherever they went, would have been no different. Perhaps Commander Kimmel was returning early because he had run out of torpedoes.
Discovered in 2009, another Gato-Class Submarine, the USS Flier (SS-250), departed Fremantle on August 4, 1944, with 86 crew on her second patrol with orders to proceed to French Indochina via the Mindoro Strait, but her orders were changed on August 13 to take the Balabac Strait and intercept a Japanese convoy off the west coast of Palawan. Eighteen days after Robalo sank on the night of August 13, the USS Flier, on her way out, was transiting the Strait on the surface when she struck a mine amidships on the starboard side under the conning tower, sending her to the bottom in seconds.
Fifteen crew topside survived the sinking but only eight managed to make the marathon swim of 18 hours north to Byan Island where they were rescued by US Army coastwatchers and Filipino guerrillas and then taken back to Australia aboard the USS Redfin (SS-272). These men were the only US Submariners to survive a sinking and not be taken prisoner during WWII.
The Balabac Strait had been mined by the Japanese as early as 1941, but mines were known to break free of their moorings due to rough seas and currents after about six months. Forty transits had been made through the Strait since by US Subs without incident, including the Robalo in April and the night of July 3 on her way out. What HQ didn’t know at the time of the Robalo and Flier briefings though, was that the Japanese minelayer Tsugaru had come from Palau and replenished the mines in March.
Robalo and Flier's Operation Orders stated "Use deepest water routes in transiting Sibutu Passage and Balabac Strait", which we can only presume Commander Kimmel did in April and possibly on July 3, but there was obvious complacency in regard to the minefield as shown by his return route and Flier’s route through the Strait. Not knowing that the mines had been replenished in March sealed both their fates.
Both these submarines are war graves with 159 crew on Eternal Patrol and we fear that once the illegal scrappers have cleaned out the Indonesian and Malaysian wrecks, they’ll be heading this way.
The US Navy in Washington DC has been notified of the discovery.
Discovered in 2009, another Gato-Class Submarine, the USS Flier (SS-250), departed Fremantle on August 4, 1944, with 86 crew on her second patrol with orders to proceed to French Indochina via the Mindoro Strait, but her orders were changed on August 13 to take the Balabac Strait and intercept a Japanese convoy off the west coast of Palawan. Eighteen days after Robalo sank on the night of August 13, the USS Flier, on her way out, was transiting the Strait on the surface when she struck a mine amidships on the starboard side under the conning tower, sending her to the bottom in seconds.
Fifteen crew topside survived the sinking but only eight managed to make the marathon swim of 18 hours north to Byan Island where they were rescued by US Army coastwatchers and Filipino guerrillas and then taken back to Australia aboard the USS Redfin (SS-272). These men were the only US Submariners to survive a sinking and not be taken prisoner during WWII.
The Balabac Strait had been mined by the Japanese as early as 1941, but mines were known to break free of their moorings due to rough seas and currents after about six months. Forty transits had been made through the Strait since by US Subs without incident, including the Robalo in April and the night of July 3 on her way out. What HQ didn’t know at the time of the Robalo and Flier briefings though, was that the Japanese minelayer Tsugaru had come from Palau and replenished the mines in March.
Robalo and Flier's Operation Orders stated "Use deepest water routes in transiting Sibutu Passage and Balabac Strait", which we can only presume Commander Kimmel did in April and possibly on July 3, but there was obvious complacency in regard to the minefield as shown by his return route and Flier’s route through the Strait. Not knowing that the mines had been replenished in March sealed both their fates.
Both these submarines are war graves with 159 crew on Eternal Patrol and we fear that once the illegal scrappers have cleaned out the Indonesian and Malaysian wrecks, they’ll be heading this way.
The US Navy in Washington DC has been notified of the discovery.