Eleventh War Patrol
Gudgeon's 11th war patrol saw a few successful sinkings of Japanese vessels, the first on 11 February. Before this sinking the submarine had a spell of bad luck where, on 2 February 1944, she had sighted a damaged aircraft carrier with two escorts. Gudgeon had closed for attack, but the escorts spotted her and attacked. A down-the-throat shot with four torpedoes temporarily discouraged the destroyers and allowed Gudgeon to seek deep water and safety, but when she surfaced the Japanese men-of-war were gone. Later in the same patrol Gudgeon was forced to try another down-the-throat shot at an enemy escort, but no hits. Success came only on 11 February. This date saw her torpedoing and sinking the already damaged (by Chinese air attack) 3091-ton merchant Satsuma Maru off Wenchow, China. On 17 February Gudgeon sank a Japanese sampan with gunfire in the East China Sea, another sampan being damaged in the attack. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 5 March 1944.
Read more about this topic: USS Gudgeon (SS-211)
Famous quotes containing the words eleventh and/or war:
“The eleventh day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Eleven ladies dancing,”
—Unknown. The Twelve Days of Christmas (l. 76–78)
“The slanders poured down like Niagara. If you take into consideration the setting—the war and the revolution—and the character of the accused—revolutionary leaders of millions who were conducting their party to the sovereign power—you can say without exaggeration that July 1917 was the month of the most gigantic slander in world history.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)