- 2 days ago
An in-depth look at the remarkable history of USS Silversides and its key role in the Guadalcanal Campaign.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00In the early days of the war in the Pacific,
00:03an American skipper confronts unexpected threats to a submarine.
00:11At that time, probably that was regarded as pretty serious damage.
00:14And to his crew.
00:16I think they have very few information about the Japanese,
00:19and they only want to pick up the ships.
00:23As they set out to support Japanese expansion in the Pacific.
00:27In World War II,
00:31a subsea weapon allows warriors to fight from beneath the waves.
00:40With cunning, force and tenacity,
00:42your enemies strike back.
00:47Revolutionary, but still sometimes primitive,
00:50it's a desperate bid
00:53to change the course of the war.
00:57Their stories are legend.
01:08May 10th, 1942.
01:11An American submarine approaches its assigned area in Japanese home waters.
01:18Lookouts spot an enemy vessel only four miles away.
01:21Get the captain!
01:22Get the captain!
01:23Get the captain!
01:32It is the first war patrol of both USS Silversides and Lieutenant Commander Crete Burlingame.
01:3937-year-old Burlingame is one of the Navy's new generation of skippers.
01:42He was a swashbuckler.
01:44In fact, Time Magazine had called him that during the 1940s.
01:48Like a lot of skippers during this time period,
01:50he lacked any combat experience at the start of the war.
01:52But he more than made up for that with a desire to want an exact revenge upon the Japanese for the attack on Pearl Harbor.
01:58Burlingame decides the small boat does not warrant an expensive torpedo.
02:03He expects Silversides' deck gun will do the job.
02:09From its crew of 70, young officers and sailors hustle to their battle stations for the first time.
02:15Stand by deck gun!
02:17Level up!
02:18Their 3-inch, .50 caliber gun can fire 24-pound armor-piercing shells at up to 3 rounds per minute.
02:26At a range of nearly 15,000 yards.
02:29The weather is awful this day.
02:32Gray skies, heavy seas.
02:34The gunners that are racing around on deck are just struggling basically to stay upright.
02:38Burlingame unleashes his attack.
02:41Fire!
02:42Fire!
02:48Fire!
02:49Fire!
02:50But the Japanese boat returns fire when a gun battle erupts.
02:55Elevate, Timothy!
02:57Fire!
02:58Fire!
03:00The Ebisu Maru No. 5 is a 131-ton wooden fishing crawler.
03:05Even civilian ships like fishing boats have been armed to defend Japan.
03:10At that time, Japan had no radar.
03:11So, simple method for Japan, Imperial Japanese Navy, is to use the land-based naval aviation for the air air patrol.
03:20But there are huge gaps.
03:22So, Yamamoto put several picket boats lines.
03:25Mainly about 150 degrees east.
03:28The distance from mainland Japan to that area is about 800 nautical miles.
03:33So, long enough to provide Japan all they want.
03:38Fire!
03:39Fire!
03:49Japanese machine gun bullets whizz past the sailors, who ping off the conning tower.
03:56Basically, they are armed, mainly the machine guns, and two or three, you know, the depth charges.
04:02And, of course, the radio.
04:05I don't think the silver sides have the right idea of the mission of the ship.
04:10Burlingame has underestimated the enemy.
04:13So, at this point, it's all hands on deck.
04:16Not only are the gunners working topside, but crews down below are literally ripping open ammunition boxes,
04:20and forming an ammo chain to hand these projectiles up from the submarine, all the way up so that they can be fired from the gun.
04:27Fire!
04:29As the gunfight is unfolding, the crew's shots are getting more and more accurate.
04:36So, they're actually punching into this Japanese trolley, and it suddenly erupts in flames.
04:41Rather than run away, it ultimately turns and starts charging toward the silver sides.
04:46The Ebisu Maru continues to fire its machine gun on the submarine.
04:50So, the crew on deck is having to take cover.
04:52His bullets are literally zinging past.
04:55Fire!
04:59One of these bullets ultimately hits one of the men in his helmet, and he says it's like a sledgehammer.
05:04Knocks him down, knocks him down.
05:06Despite the injury, the ammo chain continues, the shells passing from hand to hand.
05:15But then another crew member, Mike Harbin, turns to pass a shell to the next loader in line, and he is hit too.
05:23It takes a second. Mike Harbin drops to the deck, and the other crews continue to hand the shells off, one after the other.
05:29And then everybody stops and looks down and realizes that Mike Harbin has gone down, and there's blood coming out on the deck around him.
05:36In shock, the crew freezes, despite the ongoing firefight.
05:40To snap them out of it, Worthington unholsters his pistol, lowers it by his side, and he shouts to the men,
05:46Get back on that damn gun, or I'll shoot everything.
05:48Let's move now! Load it, let's go! Keep firing fighters!
05:55Faster, go! Keep moving! Keep moving!
05:59Keep moving!
06:09Finally, engulfed in flames, the picket boat stops firing.
06:14Burlingame calls off the attack and expects it to sink, but it does not.
06:18In the first battle of their first patrol, a crew member has been killed.
06:27It's something that haunts Burlingame. The Ebisu Mara wasn't worth the price of a torpedo, but in the end, it costs much more.
06:33Throughout 1942, the Japanese looked to consolidate their hold on the Pacific.
06:47Japan wanted to make the war as short as possible.
06:52Australia is one of the largest obstacles for the Japanese war effort, because it's so close to the South China Sea.
07:01Australia has a huge potential to be the base camp to make the counter-attack against Japan.
07:08So, Japanese next step is to isolate Australia.
07:11Japanese Navy started building their air bases at the southern tip of the Solomon's Island. That's the Guadalcanal.
07:20Best strategic spot to control that area from the air.
07:27To halt Japanese expansion, on August 7th, 6,000 American Marines land on Guadalcanal to seize the island.
07:34The first offense of the United States mouths in the Pacific is Guadalcanal.
07:41In itself, Guadalcanal is not where you'd really like to be.
07:45But Guadalcanal is a place from which you can get further.
07:49If you know it matters, it means that you'll fight for it.
07:54And that grinds down a fair amount to the Japanese Navy.
07:58They inflict very serious losses on us.
08:00By November, the numbers are staggering.
08:04The Japanese have landed over 30,000 troops.
08:08Many quickly become casualties.
08:10They continue to fight to retain control, despite the brutal standoff.
08:15Reinforcements will prove critical.
08:19On December 17th, 1942, USS Silversides departs the American submarine base at Brisbane, Australia.
08:26They head to an area south of the island of Truk on their fourth war patrol.
08:32Lieutenant Commander Burlingame's submarine must prevent Japanese supplies and reinforcements from reaching Guadalcanal.
08:41Burlingame and his crew have come a long way in the eight months since their first patrol.
08:44They've gone from being a young, inexperienced group of sailors to being hardened veterans.
08:50They've survived death charge attacks, aerial bombs.
08:53They've lost one of their own crew members.
08:55All of this has made them a tight-knit crew.
08:57Five days into the mission, Silversides passes by the Japanese stronghold of Rabaul New Britain.
09:10In order for Japan or Yamamoto to really cut the communications between Australia and the United States,
09:17and also to guarantee the safety of the South China Sea.
09:22At the very beginning of the war, Yamamoto sent a carrier force to take Rabaul.
09:32As Silversides powers deeper into enemy territory,
09:3622-year-old pharmacist's mate Tom Moore has been up since 4 a.m.
09:41Several sailors have been suffering from nausea since they left Brisbane.
09:47A pharmacist's mate has a job description is pretty much what it is now.
09:52In World War II, they were trained in first aid.
09:55They could suture wounds.
09:57They could treat colds.
09:59They could treat minor illnesses, that type of thing.
10:02But one patient is different.
10:0418-year-old petty officer, third-class fireman, George Platter,
10:08complains of sharp pain in his abdomen.
10:12Moore assigned bed rest as he did with the others.
10:15But hours later, Platter's condition worsens.
10:19His pain is more intense.
10:21The pharmacist's mate starts to worry.
10:24Moore thinks he knows the diagnosis.
10:27Acute appendicitis.
10:29A serious medical threat in a world without antibiotics.
10:32If you had an ill shipmate who had appendicitis and you let it go to any length of time,
10:38if it became acute appendicitis, the appendix would burst.
10:42And that was essentially a sentence of death.
10:46Moore believes Platter requires surgery.
10:49He asked Burlingame to request a flying boat, an aircraft that can land in water.
10:55To collect Platter, fly him to Australia for the emergency operation.
10:58Burlingame must decide whether to expose the submarine and its crew to evacuate the patient,
11:05or risk losing another sailor on his watch.
11:08But he realizes that even requesting an evacuation could alert the Japanese to their presence.
11:15Burlingame decides against the request.
11:18By 9 p.m., Platter's condition is critical.
11:26The pharmacist's mate, Tom Moore, believes Platter will die.
11:31Yes, sir. It's Platter. He's not doing too well.
11:34Moore and Burlingame debate the unthinkable.
11:37In order for George Platter to survive, he must have his appendix removed,
11:40aboard a submarine in enemy waters, without a surgeon.
11:45It is very risky.
11:47Even with skilled surgeons, it was considered a complex procedure.
11:52Because antibiotics were not available, you could die even if you were operated upon by a skilled surgeon.
12:00And Moore has never performed surgery himself.
12:03To do so without training violates all professional standards and official Navy orders.
12:08Do what you get up there.
12:12Yes, sir.
12:13Operating would put Moore at risk of being court-martialed.
12:17But Platter could die if he doesn't.
12:20Moore must weigh the options and make the call.
12:25December 1942.
12:28A crew member aboard the American submarine USS Silversides has appendicitis
12:33and may not survive without evacuation from the sub.
12:36Without a surgeon on board, the pharmacist mate risks court-martial if he performs the operation.
12:43Despite all the risks, Tom Moore decides to perform the surgery.
12:50They prepare the submarine to become an operating room.
12:54A World War II submarine that has very little sterile anything on it.
12:58These guys are breeding diesel fumes all the time.
13:02The water is not the best.
13:05It's a closed, confined environment.
13:08Burlingame orders Silversides to dive about 50 miles off Rabaul, a key Japanese naval base.
13:15Slipping beneath the dark water, they level off at a depth of 100 feet.
13:19The submarine sits vulnerable to enemy ships and aerial surveillance all around.
13:25It's unnerving while on active patrol, let alone aboard a floating operating room.
13:31The skipper of Silversides, Lieutenant Commander Crete Burlingame, he supports Tom Moore any way he can.
13:40He tells Moore, I'm going to take the boat down to 100 feet, 120 feet, so it'll be stable, it won't be rocking and yawing this way and that, and you'll have a stable platform.
13:49Moore will operate with his assistants, a radio operator, a signalman, a gunner's mate, and second in command, Roy Davenport.
13:59They squeeze into the cramped ward room.
14:02A narrow rectangular dining table bolted to the floor to where the rough seas is their operating table.
14:08The instruments Moore has on the submarine, he has scalpel blades, he has a scalpel handle.
14:14He has suture material, he has gauze that he can use for sponges.
14:20He doesn't have retractors, which are going to be needed for the surgery, but he has a machinist mate who takes some spoons and bends the handles back.
14:28So he has his retractors and he has some novocaine, which he's going to use for his spinal anesthetic.
14:36Moore measures 150 milligrams of novocaine.
14:39He does know the spinal procedure because he's assisted many times in the past.
14:44He rolls the patient on his side with assistance from one of the other people on his team, and they find the place where the needle needs to be inserted.
14:52And he puts the needle in and then he very carefully withdraws some fluid with a syringe to make sure it's clear.
14:58And he's not in a blood vessel, because if he would inject novocaine into a blood vessel, he could kill the patient.
15:04Fluid is clear, he mixes some of the novocaine with it in the syringe, he reinjects it, and now, within a minute or so, the patient is unconscious and he's ready to do his work.
15:16More estimates that his anesthesia will last about roughly an hour, an hour and a half.
15:23He figures that's probably going to be enough time to finish this operation.
15:30And he finds the appendix rather quickly.
15:33It's adhered to the cecum, which is not a good sign.
15:37The appendix is attached to platter's intestine.
15:40More slowly and carefully prize the appendix free.
15:42And he has to be very conscious of not puncturing the appendix, which is filled with all this pus and material from the infection.
15:53The 30-minute surgery appears to be a success.
15:57The rest of the crew is relieved.
16:00Below periscope depth, the only way to monitor traffic from the Japanese base at Rabaul is through their hydrophones, listening for threats.
16:19But when Moore tries to close up his patient, he discovers bleeding inside platter's abdomen.
16:25He thought if there was a bleeder, it was inside the patient.
16:29And having not found it, he's worried that he's going to sew him up and he's going to continue to hemorrhage.
16:36And he's going to die of internal hemorrhage.
16:41Moore wheels platter's intestines slowly through his hands, searching for the source of the blood.
16:47But he finds nothing.
16:49Ten minutes slip past.
16:50Then 30.
16:53And finally an hour.
17:07Platter's anesthetic starts to wear off.
17:10You come around and when your intestine is hanging out of an incision, it's going to hurt most likely.
17:14And platter begins to moan and it doesn't take many seconds for someone to realize our patient is waking up and the operation is not over.
17:24Moore instructs Davenport, Silverside second in command, to open some ether to sedate platter.
17:30Aether is a very volatile material.
17:31It tends to settle along the floor, generally even in an operating room.
17:41But it's very volatile, it's very explosive.
17:44And the blowers are going.
17:45So anything that takes place in the atmosphere in this boat is going to be generalized to the whole boat.
17:51So pretty soon everyone on the boat is going to smell ether.
17:54So ether was not recommended for submarine service.
17:59Nervously, Davenport spills ether onto the patient.
18:02Right away, Stiegel, who's holding the incision open using bent spoons, begins to feel woozy himself.
18:11Davenport splashes the ether into the mask.
18:14He doesn't quite understand, and you wouldn't if you weren't trained, that you need to drip it at a certain rate.
18:19And it's a very slow rate.
18:21So if you pour it, you're giving the patient much too much ether.
18:24Moore's amateur assistants now add to the threats the patient faces.
18:32Calmly interrupting the procedure, Moore moves over to show Davenport how to administer ether properly.
18:42With the correct dose, Stiegel also feels better.
18:47Moore returns to the surgery.
18:50For two and a half hours, Moore searches for the source of the blood and realizes there's nothing more he can do.
18:57Moore begins to suture his patient up, knowing the unidentified source of bleeding might cost Platter his life.
19:05As he's closing, and he's doing this almost under protest within himself.
19:10He knows something is dreadfully wrong. He doesn't know what the source of the blood is.
19:14But as he's closing, he sees the bleeder. It's right there in front of him.
19:17He realizes the clamp has slipped. He can fix this. This is easy. And he does. He fixes it within seconds.
19:22The bleeder is taken care of. He breathes a sigh of relief.
19:27That he has not left this patient hemorrhaging.
19:30Put yourself in that situation where you're called upon to save a human life.
19:34And you have very few things to work with.
19:37Accept your skill and good luck.
19:40Tom Moore's efforts on that particular day were heroic.
19:44There's no question the word heroism is the only word that I would use to describe what he did.
19:49Almost four hours after they first submerged the submarine for the surgery,
19:55Burlingame orders Silversides to the surface.
19:58They need to charge their batteries.
20:01A little after 3 a.m., lookouts spot a darkened ship.
20:08All agree that it appears to be a submarine.
20:14Burlingame works his way around to better identify it.
20:19Burlingame suspects this could be another American vessel.
20:22So he heads to the west. And when he does so, he crosses a moonslick.
20:25And the lookouts on the other vessel spot it.
20:26The vessel turns towards Silversides and begins to approach.
20:36His lookouts report the vessel closing in.
20:39Burlingame orders his signalman to flash a recognition signal in Morse code.
20:43The vessel continues to charge.
20:48A second signal is answered with a green flashing light.
20:55It's not Morse code. It is definitely an enemy vessel.
21:01Burlingame orders all head full to outrun the ship.
21:07Then he orders the crew to battle stations to ready their stern torpedoes.
21:19As the pursuer closes to 4,000 yards, Silversides fires.
21:31The first torpedo explodes prematurely 2,000 yards from Silversides.
21:35The second torpedo fails to hit.
21:39The enemy continues to close the distance on the submarine.
21:43They don't have time to set up another attack.
21:47Burlingame orders they dive to get out of the range of possible depth charges.
21:56Topside, the enemy ship prepares to drop special underwater bombs
22:01to sink submarines called depth charges.
22:03Submarines are invisible if you're on the surface.
22:06So, if you want to attack a submarine, there has to be some way of getting close to it,
22:11even if you don't know exactly where it is.
22:14During World War I, the British discovered that if you explode something very close to a submarine, it'll sink it.
22:20The water will act as a hammer, it'll punch in the submarine.
22:23So, they invent the depth charge.
22:26Depth charge is a kind of explosive, fused in such a way that when it hits a certain set depth, it goes off.
22:34The sailors hear the unmistakable click of the depth charge detonation switches.
22:39Some of the men described as the sound of two rocks clicking together.
22:44At that point, everyone throughout the boat is just holding on really for dear life, waiting for that charge to explode.
22:49The first of four depth charges explodes a stern of Silversides.
22:59You guess the depth of the submarine. Typically, you drop a lot of depth charges.
23:18You're supposed to do it in a pattern so that even if your guess is wrong, you'll probably get the sub or shake it up badly.
23:25Okay, I'm gonna go.
23:28The attacker drops a second barrage.
23:32Coming at us.
23:34Brace!
23:49The enemy ship 300 feet above stops to pinpoint the submarine below.
23:56It uses sonar pings to locate the sub.
24:05Silversides must evade this new threat and return to its mission of stopping Japanese ships reinforcing Guadalcanal.
24:13Southwest Pacific, December 1942.
24:2350 miles off the Japanese stronghold of Guadalcanal, USS Silversides is under attack.
24:28A Japanese destroyer targets the submarine with depth charges.
24:41The ship stops overhead and performs a sonar search for the submarine.
24:46The men can hear the vessel above.
24:47They listen in silence.
24:48You know, the Japanese anti-submarine operations, both equipments and tactics, are very infant, even at the beginning of the World War II.
25:05Japanese Navy allocated almost all the possible resources on the battleships and cruisers and destroyers.
25:18Anti-submarine capability of the Japanese Navy is left behind.
25:21The Japanese Navy has made one other miscalculation.
25:26American submarines can dive 20 to 30 percent deeper than their own subs.
25:31The depth set to detonate is much shallower than the U.S. submarines' real diving capability.
25:39So there are some mismatches together with the Japanese' less developed equipments and tactics.
25:46Depth charges rattle the submarine, but none come close enough to inflict serious damage.
25:51As morning breaks, Burlingame creeps up to periscope depth.
26:04But the destroyer charges and drives them back down.
26:11On their second approach, the skipper finally gets a good look at his attacker.
26:16It's a two-stack destroyer.
26:17Burlingame considers a counterattack, but they are too far away.
26:22He watches the destroyer disappear over the horizon.
26:26As the threat passes, Burlingame uses the opportunity to get some rest.
26:31On combat patrol, crews are often up for days at a time, and this can really lead to exhaustion and the possibility of mistakes.
26:42Sailors collapse into their bunks.
26:44Some have been on duty for 30 hours.
26:47But they don't sleep for long.
26:51A periscope sweep just before 9 a.m. reveals a Japanese plane overhead.
26:59Now, periscope. Get the captain.
27:02Before Silversides can dive deeper, the plane drops three death bombs.
27:06Burlingame is violently tossed from his bunk.
27:13Glass shower down on Burlingame, and in the forward and after-torpedo rooms, its sailors are literally cut by flying glass, and others are tossed out of their bunks.
27:21Every man standing is thrown off his feet.
27:25Burlingame later described it as feeling like the conning tower was about to be wrenched from the pressure hole.
27:31The explosion was so powerful even that the attacks on the cork began to pop out.
27:34In the wardroom, Flatter, who's recovering from the surgery, is tossed off of the transom onto the deck.
27:40Burlingame and his crew scramble to battle stations.
27:44Burlingame takes over as diving officer, and forces the submarine into a steep dive as they wait for the next round of attack.
28:03The blast has burst a pipe in the pump room.
28:06In the control room, Burlingame discovers another problem.
28:09Burlingame's jammed.
28:10Here, get up.
28:11Shift your hand.
28:12Two sets of diving planes, one at the stern and another set at the bow, control the pitch of the submarine, moving the sub up and down.
28:24The submarine's bow planes have jammed into a hard dive.
28:29Your problem with the bow planes is that if you keep going forward, and the planes are jammed down, you'll keep going down.
28:35You can try to take manual control of the planes, and there are wheels that allow you to adjust them, although the wheels are not normally used.
28:44It's a very hard job physically.
28:46Worthington and his crew struggle to manually reset the bow planes.
28:50Take over.
28:52Some reason designed to operate down to a certain depth, because the structure can only take someone's water pressure.
28:58Typically what happens is you have a rated depth, and then below that there's a crush depth, or collapse depth.
29:05If you go below collapse depth, the name will come through and it'll be like that.
29:11They must regain control of the submarine before it's too late.
29:15December 1942, in the southwest Pacific, an American submarine is in a forced dive, because its diving planes were damaged by a depth charge attack.
29:31A couple thousand pounds, forward trim, half trim.
29:33It takes 15 minutes to get control of the bow planes by hand operation.
29:45The submarine levels off short of crush depth.
29:53To add insult to injury, the Japanese destroyer in the area returns and makes another run.
29:58They drop another round of depth charges overhead.
30:28Eventually, the ship shuttering attacks come to an end.
30:39Burlingame is rattled at this point.
30:40Rather than face another attack, he opts to stay submerged until after dark.
30:45He later in his patrol report said this was the most unpleasant day he ever put in.
30:50Yet praise their patient whom Burlingame said,
30:52Convalesced to the tune of a torpedo firing, two depth charge attacks, two crash dives, and an aerial bombardment, which knocked Platter out of his bunk.
31:03Remarkably, George Platter returns to duty six days after the surgery.
31:08At 7.42 p.m. on December 23rd, Silversides surfaces to assess their situation.
31:23Damage apart!
31:25Silversides takes damage that looks very impressive at the beginning.
31:29The worst of it is that the planes are jammed down.
31:32They have other things, the antennas are mashed up, the periscope is broken.
31:37At that time, probably that was regarded as pretty serious damage.
31:40Later in the war, that would be described as superficial.
31:43Critically though, Silversides still travels under its own power.
31:48His diesels still work.
31:50He's able to make high speed on the surface.
31:52That was one of the great things about the Gaedo class that Silversides was a unit of.
31:56At 1 a.m. on December 24th, Silversides hobbles into the assigned patrol area between outlying islands of Papua New Guinea.
32:09They're supposed to be patrolling off truck to stop the movement of Japanese troops and materials heading to Guadalcanal.
32:17Instead, they use the cover of darkness to make repairs.
32:21Captain, I think we got this under control.
32:23The U.S. submarines were very tough.
32:27That meant that you could take a terrible beating and come back in one piece.
32:31Starting on Christmas Day and for the next three weeks, Burlingame and his crew stalk sightings.
32:44And dive periodically when patrol planes pass overhead.
32:48On January 18th, their luck finally changes.
32:53The Silversides patrols 90 nautical miles southwest of truck.
32:58Lookouts spot a large tanker.
33:00Get the captain up here!
33:02Tankers matter because oil matters.
33:05The world runs on oil.
33:06It runs on oil in World War II.
33:08It runs on oil now.
33:10If you can cut off the oil supply, it's over.
33:12In the Japanese case, tankers are even more important because Japan doesn't produce any oil.
33:18So the oil has to come from elsewhere.
33:21The tanker travels a zigzag course with a patrol boat escort.
33:25Burlingame begins a submerged approach around 2.20 a.m.
33:33Stand by torpedoes.
33:35By 2.55, Silversides is in position.
33:40The four stern tubes are loaded and ready.
33:43Fire!
33:44Less than a minute after the first torpedo is fired, it strikes the bow of the tanker.
33:57A huge column of spray, white in the moonlight, obscures the bow of the ship.
34:03Second and third torpedoes hit the midships.
34:06Smoke and flames burst from the tanker.
34:08The pillar, Burlingame estimates, is easily 200 feet high.
34:14But the battle is not over.
34:16A patrol boat charges towards Silversides.
34:19Dale Periscope, take us deep!
34:21Burlingame commences evasive tactics and orders the submarine deeper.
34:26But the tanker's escort streaks across Silversides' stern and drops eight explosive depth charges.
34:32The detonations knock out gauges and blow off a gasket.
34:56Air escapes to the surface, betraying their position.
35:00to the Japanese escort.
35:08The enemy ship drops another barrage of death charges, which does more damage to the submarine.
35:21After ten minutes, the charges grow distant.
35:24By seven a.m., the enemy ship reverses course and pulls out of sight.
35:31With more repair work, Silversides is able to return to its patrol.
35:49Two days later, 286 miles from the truck, Silversides nears the end of its patrol, when smoke is sighted on the horizon.
35:59Captain, five degrees.
36:02Burlingame closes in until he identifies four freighters.
36:05Conditions are too clear for a daytime attack.
36:08For six hours, the submarine stalks the convoy.
36:14By dusk, they know its zigzag plan, its speed, and its course.
36:19At 6.18 p.m., they begin a submerged approach, and all six forward torpedo tubes are prepped and ready.
36:29Suddenly, the convoy zigs away, and if they shoot now, there's no guarantee that their torpedoes will hit.
36:39One of the escort ships turns directly towards their position.
36:42He's picked up our screws.
36:43But an unusual setup has developed. All ships are now in an overlapping formation.
36:50So if Burlingame's gonna shoot, he has to do it now.
36:53Let's get rid of these fish. Fire!
36:55Fire!
36:57They launch six torpedoes into the cluster of ships.
37:03At the same time, the patrol boat closes in on the submarine.
37:06Burlingame lowers the periscope and orders the submarine deep.
37:12Just before they dive, the crew hears the sounds of five torpedoes hitting, followed by the sounds of ships breaking up.
37:26The patrol boat performs a sonar search for the silversides, then drops six rounds of depth targets.
37:36Fire!
37:37Fire!
37:38Fire!
37:57But unknown to the crew, a greater threat remains aboard the submarine.
38:01While they heard five torpedoes strike, it turns out they should have been worried about the sixth.
38:10Let's get rid of these fish! Fire!
38:13Fire!
38:15About 286 miles south of the truck, USS Silversides fire six torpedoes at a Japanese convoy.
38:22The crew believes that they have sunk three ships.
38:25Below periscope depth, they cannot confirm the kills.
38:28The Navy grants them one sunk and two damage for the record.
38:35Their attack attracts another round of enemy depth charges.
38:45And develops another potentially troublesome air leak.
38:48Silversides has survived, but at a cost.
38:51Silversides is so mired in electrical and mechanical problems at this point from all the attacks it's endured, that it's beginning to become a liability.
38:59The submarine's main tactical advantage is its ability to hide.
39:03And if air bubbles are giving away its location, then it loses that tactical advantage.
39:08The crew must find a solution.
39:11The next night, Burlingame sends a diver overboard to investigate the air leaks.
39:16And the diver discovers that five of the torpedoes left the tubes, but the 6-1 dangles from the bow.
39:21A ticking time bomb.
39:23Burlingame has a serious problem.
39:24He must eject the armed torpedo without exploding it.
39:29If anything goes wrong with the torpedo when you fire it, if, for example, it just sticks in the tube,
39:35you worry that anything you do may set it off, and it's quite enough to blow the front end of your sub off and sink you.
39:41The plan is unusual, but it may be their only hope.
39:45Burlingame will simply fire the torpedo out of the tube again, while simultaneously backing away at high speed.
39:52There's a risk the torpedo will detonate, but it's their best bet to expel the defective warhead.
40:01Throughout the Silversides, the men were quiet, pale, anxiously waiting to see whether or not this would work.
40:07All back, emergency.
40:11The submarine shudders as the diesel engine is going to reverse at top speed.
40:29Thin wake spurts from the bow of the sub.
40:32There she goes.
40:34Travels off into the distance, then disappears.
40:41There she goes.
40:47With the ongoing mechanical issues, Burlingame decides to leave the patrol area, two days ahead of schedule.
40:56And on January 31st, 1943, after 47 days, USS Silversides ends her fourth war patrol at Pearl Harbor.
41:06Silversides has gotten up close to the enemy and paid the price.
41:11But despite a string of disasters, Silversides and her crew pull through.
41:15In their report, they list everything that goes wrong, among other things, so that back home afterwards, the builders and further submarines will know what to worry about.
41:26It's the best test you could get.
41:28One of the jobs of a patrol report is to lay out everything that went wrong, what went right, you don't talk about, so that it can be fixed.
41:38Back on shore, a Navy medical officer, Dr. Hart, attacks Tom Moore's decision to perform an amateur appendectomy at sea, and threatens him with court martial.
41:51Burlingame intervenes on behalf of the pharmacist's mate, and Admiral Chester Nimitz leaks the story to the press.
41:57All threats against Thomas Moore cease.
42:04Post-war analysis reveals USS Silversides sank three of the enemy ships they fired at.
42:10They'd also learned the ships were loaded with Japanese reinforcements.
42:13American forces continue to consolidate their hold on Guadalcanal.
42:20By February, the island is completely in American hands.
42:25The fighting is won by ground forces, but submarines like Silversides disrupt shipping and the arrival of reinforcements, making it increasingly difficult for the Japanese to fight back.
42:36But, you know, that's a kind of the body blow of the 13-round boxing game.
42:43If your question is, is there any immediate visible impact, the answer is no.
42:50But, you know, the accumulation of the gains by the submarines became the body blow of the Japanese defensive posture on the Solomon Islands, starting from the Guadalcanal.
43:011942 is a big learning curve for these American skippers. By 1943, the lessons have been learned, and the skippers are really starting to hit their stride.
43:11After a full overhaul, Burlingame and USS Silversides are ordered back out on patrol.
43:18What you're watching is a submarine has been damaged, but the damage isn't fatal.
43:23So Silversides has taken a beating, and what that teaches the crew and the captain and others is you can survive even if they find you.
43:35Commanders like Creed Burlingame have set an aggressive example for the skippers that are going to follow them as America heads into the second four-year of the war.
43:43Silversides would complete 14 patrols and survive the war. It rests today in Muskegon, Michigan as a museum, an ongoing testament to an extraordinary history.
43:55We'll see you next time.
Recommended
44:00
|
Up next
46:24
44:00
44:00
44:00
1:57
1:10:30
1:35:32
1:25:53
45:22
1:37:37
52:00
1:25:55
26:04
26:06
46:24
44:00
Be the first to comment