USS Triton (SS-201) - Third Patrol

Third Patrol

Triton (now in the hands of C.C. Kirkpatrick, Class of 1931) got underway on 13 April to return to the East China Sea. Ten days later, the submarine contacted a 2,000-ton trawler near Marcus, astonishingly stopped and not blacked out. After missing with two torpedoes (at point blank range), she surfaced to engage with her deck guns, firing 19 rounds of three-inch (76 mm) and "a hurricane of small-arms", leaving the trawler a sinking wreck, giving Triton the first confirmed sinking of an enemy vessel by deck gun fire by an American submarine.

Amid shallow, glassy seas and poor sonar conditions, on 1 May, she sighted six freighters, in two columns, escorted by a single torpedo boat. She launched two torpedoes, and both hit the leading ship, Taei Maru (2,200 tons), which sank, then two more at the next freighter; both missed. She fired at a third cargoman but the torpedo ran deep; a second torpedo, set shallow and aimed at a different ship, broke the back of Calcutta Maru (5,300 tons), which promptly sank.

Triton contacted an escorted convoy on 6 May and launched two torpedoes at the trailing ship; one sank soon after leaving the tube, the other missed ahead. She next spotted a destroyer coming to the rear of the convoy, fired two more (both set shallow) at this same ship from 1,200 yards (1,100 m), and went deep to elude. Her sonar heard two violent explosions; Taigen Maru (5,600 tons) had sunk. At that point, the submarine maneuvered around and ahead of the convoy to position for another attack. When she attained the desired position, she launched four torpedoes—two at the third ship and two at a fourth. Triton heard two explosions from the first spread (one in the third ship), none from the second (which had avoided), as she was forced to take evasive action from the escort. The submarine later returned to periscope depth, but no ships were in sight. The convoy had cleared the area. On 15 May, she sank two deep-sea fishing boats with her deck guns.

The next day, after monitoring orders to other boats attempting to intercept without success, Triton ran into position and at 15.20 spotted the crippled Shōkaku and a destroyer, returning from the Battle of Coral Sea. At 6,700 yards (6,100 m), with the target making 16 knots (30 km/h), Triton could not close the range, despite surfacing and bending on 19½ knots (36 km/h). She sent a contact report, but it was not acknowledged.

One day later, 17 May, in "one of the luckiest finds of the war", I 64 surfaced right in front of Triton; she fired her last bow torpedo from 6,200 yards (5,700 m) and parts of the target were blown 100 feet (30 m) into the air. I 64 (1,700 tons), the fourth Japanese sub sunk by the Pacific Fleet Sub Force, went down by the stern. Four days later, Triton fired her last four torpedoes at another enemy submarine; all missed. The patrol earned her credit for five ships of 24,200 tons (reduced to 15,800 postwar), terminating at Pearl Harbor on 4 June, as the Battle of Midway began.