USS Tullibee (SS-284) - First War Patrol

First War Patrol

On July 19, Tullibee got underway for the Western Caroline Islands and her first war patrol. On July 28, she sighted a passenger-cargo ship, accompanied by an escort and an aircraft that prevented her attack. On August 5, the submarine began patrolling the Saipan-Truk traffic lanes. Five days later, she sighted smoke on the horizon that proved to be three freighters with an escort. Tullibee closed the range to 2,700 yards (2,500 m); launched one torpedo at the ship on the right and three at the vessel on the left. As the submarine fired the first torpedo, a ship rammed her and bent her number one periscope. She went deep and was depth charged by the escort as the ships sped away. As they had been set to run at a depth of 15 feet (4.6 m) — too deep for the draft of the largest target — none of the torpedoes exploded.

On August 14, Tullibee sighted a convoy of three freighters with an escort and began an end-around run to get into good attack position. She launched a torpedo from a range of 3,000 yards (2,700 m) and went deep. It missed, and she returned to periscope depth to fire three torpedoes at the last ship. It apparently saw their wakes as it turned and combed them. The submarine again went deep. When she surfaced, the targets had escaped. On August 22, Tullibee sighted a convoy of five ships escorted by two destroyers; closed to 2,000 yards (1,800 m); and launched three torpedoes at the nearest freighter. Two minutes later, she fired three more at another ship. As she went deep to avoid a destroyer heading her way, she heard one explosion. She soon heard the bursts of two more torpedo explosions, followed by breaking up noises. When she surfaced, she sighted over 1000 empty 50 USgal (190 l) oil drums, but no ships. Postwar examination of Japanese records indicated that Tullibee had damaged one freighter and had sunk the passenger-cargo ship Kaisho Maru. The patrol terminated when the submarine reached Midway Island on September 6.