Fifth and Sixth War Patrols
Mingo began her fifth war patrol on 27 August. Although her primary operation was lifeguard duty in support of the US Thirteenth Air Force strikes on the Philippines and Borneo, she sank four coastal freighters. Mingo did a noteworthy job as lifeguard as she rescued 16 B-24 Liberator fliers shot down off Balikpapan, Borneo; six of them from rubber boats in Makassar Strait and the other 10 from the beach of Celebes Island. She moored in Fremantle on 13 October.
Her sixth war patrol, mostly reconnaissance duty, took place west of Borneo. On 25 December, Mingo made a night torpedo attack on a Japanese convoy on a run between Singapore and Brunei, Borneo. Beside damaging an escort gunboat, she sank loaded 9,486-ton tanker Manila Maru. The sinking of a maru of that name was prophetic, for the Japanese were only three months away from losing their hold completely on the ship’s namesake, the Philippine capital. After assisting two other submarines in successful attacks, she returned to Fremantle on 29 December for repairs.
Read more about this topic: USS Mingo (SS-261)
Famous quotes containing the words sixth and/or war:
“Thou shalt not kill.”
—Bible: Hebrew Exodus, 20:13.
The sixth commandment.
“No spoon has yet destroyed a mouth, but the knife of war cuts portions that are hard to swallow. Perhaps the big mouths of the privileged are able to cope with them, but they dull the teeth of the little people and ruin their stomachs.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)