- 2 days ago
Why Commander Richard O'Kane fired 24 torpedoes at a Japanese convoy during WW2 — and the 24th one circled back and sank his own submarine. This World War 2 story reveals how America's deadliest submarine became the victim of a weapon defect the Navy knew existed.
October 24, 1944. Commander Richard O'Kane, commanding USS Tang, was hunting in the Taiwan Strait. His submarine had just sunk 13 Japanese ships in two days — bringing Tang's total to 33 ships destroyed, the highest record in the US Navy. Then he fired his final Mark 18 electric torpedo. The weapon malfunctioned, curved left in a circular run, and struck Tang's stern at 23:55. Every submarine commander knew Mark 18s had this defect. Two other American submarines had already been lost the same way. The Navy called it an acceptable risk — less than one percent failure rate.
They were all wrong.
What happened in the next eight hours wasn't about torpedo technology. It was about 87 men trapped at 180 feet depth with a weapon the Navy knew could kill them. Tang carried Momsen lungs — emergency breathing devices that had never been successfully used in combat conditions. The forward torpedo room had 30 survivors. The escape
October 24, 1944. Commander Richard O'Kane, commanding USS Tang, was hunting in the Taiwan Strait. His submarine had just sunk 13 Japanese ships in two days — bringing Tang's total to 33 ships destroyed, the highest record in the US Navy. Then he fired his final Mark 18 electric torpedo. The weapon malfunctioned, curved left in a circular run, and struck Tang's stern at 23:55. Every submarine commander knew Mark 18s had this defect. Two other American submarines had already been lost the same way. The Navy called it an acceptable risk — less than one percent failure rate.
They were all wrong.
What happened in the next eight hours wasn't about torpedo technology. It was about 87 men trapped at 180 feet depth with a weapon the Navy knew could kill them. Tang carried Momsen lungs — emergency breathing devices that had never been successfully used in combat conditions. The forward torpedo room had 30 survivors. The escape
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00:00At 2345 on October 24, 1944, Commander Richard O'Kane stood on the bridge of USS Tang in the Taiwan
00:09Strait,
00:09watching his radar operator track a Japanese convoy 1,500 yards ahead.
00:1533 years old, 5 war patrols, 33 enemy ships destroyed.
00:21The convoy ahead held 7 transports, 3 tankers, and 5 destroyer escorts, moving supplies toward Leyte.
00:30Tang had already fired 22 torpedoes that night, 22 hits, 2 tankers burning, 3 transports dead in the water, 1
00:39destroyer blown apart.
00:41O'Kane had 2 torpedoes left, then home to Pearl Harbor, then a hero's welcome, then promotion.
00:49The most successful submarine commander in the United States Navy was about to become a legend.
00:55But Tang was hunting with a weapon that had a fatal flaw.
00:58The Mark 18 electric torpedo had revolutionized submarine warfare in 1943.
01:06Unlike the older Mark 14, it ran silent.
01:09No wake of bubbles.
01:11No exhaust pointing back to the firing position.
01:14Japanese lookouts couldn't see it coming.
01:17Japanese escorts couldn't follow the trail.
01:20American submarines could attack from closer range.
01:23Fire more torpedoes.
01:24Kill more ships.
01:25The problem was inside the guidance system, a defect in the gyroscope.
01:31Less than 1% of Mark 18s malfunctioned, but when they did, the torpedo turned, curved, circled back toward the
01:39submarine that fired it.
01:41The Navy called them circular runs.
01:44Submariners called them boomerangs.
01:46Two American submarines had already been lost.
01:49USS Tullaby in March.
01:52Identity of the second still classified.
01:54Both sunk by their own torpedoes.
01:57Both crews dead except for one survivor from Tullaby who spent the rest of the war in a Japanese prison
02:03camp.
02:04O'Kane knew the risk.
02:05Every submarine commander in the Pacific knew.
02:08But the Mark 18s' advantages outweighed the danger.
02:12Silent approach.
02:13No visible track.
02:15Higher kill rate.
02:16The statistics were clear.
02:18Mark 18s had sunk several thousand tons of Japanese shipping.
02:22The circular run problem was rare.
02:25Unpredictable.
02:26Unavoidable.
02:27Tang had used Mark 18s on all five patrols.
02:31Never a malfunction.
02:33Never a circular run.
02:37116,454 tons of enemy shipping sent to the bottom.
02:40More than any other American submarine.
02:43O'Kane's tactics were textbook perfect.
02:45Surface attacks at night.
02:47Close range.
02:48Multiple targets.
02:50Escape at full speed.
02:51His third patrol into the Yellow Sea had sunk ten ships.
02:54More than any other submarine patrol in the war.
02:58His crew called him the best skipper in the service.
03:01Admiral Lockwood called him the submarine force's most outstanding officer.
03:05Now Tang was finishing her fifth patrol.
03:08Thirteen ships sunk in the last two days.
03:10Seven tonight alone.
03:12O'Kane had maneuvered Tang through the middle of the convoy.
03:15Fired from both sides.
03:17Dodged two tankers that tried to ram him.
03:19Watched them collide with each other instead.
03:22Blown up a destroyer at less than 1,000 yards.
03:25The most devastating attack any American submarine had ever executed.
03:29Two torpedoes remained.
03:30Tubes loaded.
03:32Gyros checked.
03:33Batteries charged.
03:34One transport still afloat.
03:36Stop dead.
03:38Burning.
03:38Listing to port.
03:40O'Kane wanted to finish her.
03:42One torpedo would do it.
03:43Save the last one for the voyage home.
03:46Tang carried 24 torpedoes.
03:48She would return to Pearl Harbor with 24 kills.
03:51If you want to see how O'Kane's final attack turned out, please hit that like button.
03:55It helps us share more forgotten stories from World War II.
03:59Subscribe if you haven't already.
04:00Back to O'Kane.
04:01The crew loaded torpedo number 23 into the forward tubes.
04:06O'Kane checked the setup.
04:08Range 800 yards.
04:09Speed setting 29 knots.
04:11Depth 6 feet.
04:13Spread angle 0.
04:15Straight shot.
04:16The transport wasn't moving.
04:18The Mark 18 would run hot, straight, and normal.
04:2140 seconds to impact.
04:23Then one torpedo left.
04:24Then home.
04:26Tang turned to firing position at 2352.
04:30The transport's silhouette filled the periscope.
04:33O'Kane gave the order.
04:35The forward torpedo room reported ready.
04:37The Mark 18 slid from tube number 3.
04:40Ran straight.
04:41The crew counted seconds.
04:4320.
04:4430.
04:46Impact.
04:47The transport's bow lifted.
04:49Broke.
04:50Settled.
04:5234 ships destroyed.
04:54O'Kane ordered the final torpedo loaded.
04:57Tube number 4.
04:58The last Mark 18 on board.
05:00The crew performed the standard check.
05:03Battery voltage normal.
05:04Gyro spin proper.
05:06Propeller free.
05:07Depth setting verified.
05:09Everything perfect.
05:10Everything ready.
05:14At 2354 on October 25th,
05:17the final Mark 18 torpedo was locked in tube 4.
05:21O'Kane studied the burning transport through his binoculars.
05:24The ship was settling by the stern.
05:26Already dying.
05:28But submarine doctrine was clear.
05:30Finish every target.
05:32Leave nothing afloat.
05:33The Japanese had pulled survivors from seemingly dead ships before.
05:38Towed damaged vessels to port.
05:40Repaired them.
05:41Sent them back to sea.
05:43Tang's torpedo officer reported final checks complete.
05:46The Mark 18 was ready.
05:49O'Kane calculated the solution.
05:51The transport had drifted 300 yards closer.
05:54Range now 500 yards.
05:56Point blank distance.
05:58The torpedo would cross the gap in 20 seconds.
06:02O'Kane gave the order to fire.
06:03The Mark 18 left the tube at 2355.
06:07The torpedo ran straight for 3 seconds.
06:10Then, the propeller wash appeared at the surface.
06:13The Mark 18 broached.
06:15Broke through the water.
06:16Porpoised.
06:17The weapon wasn't running at 6 feet depth.
06:20It was running at 0.
06:22Skipping across the surface like a stone.
06:25The gyroscope had failed.
06:27O'Kane saw it immediately.
06:29The torpedo curved left.
06:31Hard left.
06:32Turning in a wide arc.
06:34Coming back.
06:35A circular run.
06:36The 1% malfunction.
06:38The defect that had killed Tullaby and the classified boat.
06:42Now happening to Tang.
06:45O'Kane shouted for emergency speed.
06:47Tang's diesel engines roared to maximum power.
06:50The submarine began to turn.
06:52Full right rudder.
06:53The crew on the bridge saw the torpedoes wake.
06:56A white line in the black water.
06:58Curving toward them.
07:00300 yards away.
07:01Then 200.
07:03Then 100.
07:04Tang's propellers bit deep.
07:06The submarine fishtailed.
07:08Tried to swing her stern away from the incoming weapon.
07:11But a 312 foot submarine.
07:13Doesn't turn like a destroyer.
07:16Tang needed time.
07:17Distance.
07:18She had neither.
07:20The Mark 18 completed its circle.
07:22In 20 seconds.
07:24It struck Tang's stern on the port side.
07:26Detonated against the after torpedo room.
07:30575 pounds of Torpex explosive.
07:33Tore through the hull plating.
07:35The blast was catastrophic.
07:37The after torpedo room flooded instantly.
07:40Then the after engine room.
07:42Then the maneuvering room.
07:44Three compartments gone in 15 seconds.
07:4723 men trapped aft died before they could react.
07:51The explosion threw Okane and 8 other men from the bridge into the Taiwan Strait.
07:57The submarine's stern dropped.
07:59Tang went down by the tail.
08:01Emergency alarms screamed through the remaining compartments.
08:0460 men were still alive inside the submarine.
08:08Most were forward.
08:09In the control room.
08:10The forward engine room.
08:12The forward torpedo room.
08:14They felt the deck tilt.
08:16Heard the roar of water flooding aft.
08:18Knew immediately what had happened.
08:20Their own torpedo had killed them.
08:23Tang settled on the bottom at 180 feet depth.
08:26The pressure hull held.
08:28The forward compartments stayed dry.
08:31But the men inside were trapped.
08:34No surface ship knew their position.
08:36No rescue was coming.
08:37The only way out was up.
08:40Through 180 feet of black water.
08:43In the middle of a combat zone.
08:45With Japanese destroyers overhead dropping depth charges.
08:49The crew had one option.
08:51The forward escape trunk.
08:53A small vertical chamber designed for exactly this situation.
08:57But escaping from 180 feet was beyond normal training.
09:02Submarine school taught escape procedures from 50 feet.
09:05Maybe 75.
09:07180 feet meant four times the pressure.
09:11Four times the risk.
09:12Lungs could rupture.
09:14Blood vessels could burst.
09:15Men could black out during ascent.
09:17Drowned 10 feet from the surface.
09:20And Tang's crew had to use a device that had never been tested in combat.
09:24A breathing apparatus invented 15 years earlier.
09:27Called the Momsen lung.
09:29Named after the officer who designed it after watching submariners die.
09:34Trapped in USS S4 in 1927.
09:38The device was a rubber bag filled with oxygen.
09:41Recycled exhaled air.
09:44Removed carbon dioxide with soda lime.
09:47Gave a man maybe 10 minutes of breathing gas.
09:50Maybe enough to reach the surface from 180 feet.
09:53Maybe not.
09:5530 men crowded into the forward torpedo room.
09:58Publications were burned.
10:00Classified documents destroyed.
10:02No information could reach the Japanese.
10:05The men waited for the death charging to stop.
10:08Waited for the electrical fire in the forward battery to die down.
10:11Waited for their chance to escape a tomb 180 feet below the Pacific.
10:18The forward battery fire started at 0100 on October 25th.
10:23The Japanese destroyer escort overhead was dropping death charges.
10:27Not deep charges.
10:28Shallow ones.
10:29Harassing charges.
10:31The explosions rocked Tang's hull.
10:33Cracked battery cells.
10:35Released chlorine gas.
10:36Started an electrical fire that began heating the forward battery compartment.
10:40The 30 men in the forward torpedo room could smell the smoke.
10:44Could feel the heat building through the bulkhead.
10:46Paint on the interior wall began to discolor.
10:49Then bubble.
10:50Then run down in melted streaks.
10:52The temperature inside the torpedo room climbed past 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
10:57Then 110.
10:58Then 120.
11:00The crew removed their shirts.
11:02Drank the last water.
11:03Tried to breathe shallow.
11:04The air was thick.
11:06Hot.
11:06Heavy with carbon dioxide from 30 men exhaling in a sealed space.
11:11Some men were already struggling.
11:13Gasping.
11:13The weakest would die before the escape attempt even began.
11:17But they couldn't leave yet.
11:18The Japanese destroyer was still overhead.
11:21Still pinging with active sonar.
11:23Still dropping occasional charges.
11:25Any man who reached the surface would be spotted immediately.
11:28Captured.
11:29Or machine gunned in the water.
11:30The crew had to wait.
11:32Had to hope the destroyer would leave.
11:34Had to survive the heat and the smoke and the failing air long enough to make the attempt.
11:39The Momsen lung equipment was stored in lockers along the torpedo room walls.
11:43Each device consisted of a rubberized canvas bag about the size of a small pillow.
11:48Inside was a canister of soda lime to scrub carbon dioxide.
11:51A valve to emit oxygen.
11:53Two breathing tubes with one-way valves.
11:56One tube for inhaling.
11:58One for exhaling.
11:59The bag hung around the neck and strapped around the waist.
12:02When inflated, it provided flotation at the surface.
12:05If the user reached the surface.
12:07The problem was training.
12:09Most of Tang's crew had practiced with Momsen lungs exactly once.
12:12During submarine school.
12:14In a training tank.
12:15From 50 feet depth.
12:18In calm water.
12:19With instructors watching.
12:21With medical personnel standing by.
12:23This would be nothing like training.
12:25This would be 180 feet.
12:27In combat conditions.
12:29In the dark.
12:30With no help coming.
12:32The procedure was complex.
12:34Equalize pressure in the escape trunk.
12:36Flood the chamber slowly.
12:38Wait for pressure to match the outside water.
12:41Open the outer hatch.
12:42Enter the water.
12:44Breathe from the Momsen lung.
12:46Ascend slowly.
12:48Exhale continuously to prevent lung rupture.
12:50Don't hold your breath.
12:52Don't ascend too fast.
12:54Don't black out.
12:55Don't panic.
12:56Reach the surface.
12:58Survive until rescue.
12:59Simple in theory.
13:01Nearly impossible in practice.
13:03The heat in the torpedo room continued to climb.
13:06130 degrees.
13:08140.
13:09Men were collapsing.
13:11Passing out from heat exhaustion and bad air.
13:14The stronger crew members dragged them to the escape trunk area.
13:17Tried to keep them conscious.
13:19Tried to keep them ready.
13:20Because once the escape started, it couldn't stop.
13:23The men who went first would use up the oxygen in the Momsen lungs.
13:27The men who went last would have almost nothing left.
13:30Timing was everything.
13:32At 0530, the Japanese destroyer's sonar pings faded.
13:36The depth charging stopped.
13:38The escort was leaving.
13:40Moving away to rejoin the convoy.
13:42Or searching for other submarines.
13:44The crew waited another 30 minutes.
13:47Made certain.
13:48Then began preparations for escape.
13:5013 men were selected to go.
13:52The strongest.
13:53The youngest.
13:54The ones most likely to survive.
13:57The others were too weak.
13:58Too injured.
13:59Too unconscious.
14:01They would stay in the torpedo room.
14:03Die when the air ran out.
14:05Die when the battery fire burned through.
14:07Die in the dark at the bottom of the Taiwan Strait.
14:10The first man entered the escape trunk at 0600.
14:14He wore his Momsen lung around his neck.
14:16The breathing bag was inflated.
14:18The soda lime canister was fresh.
14:21He carried nothing else.
14:22No survival gear.
14:24No rations.
14:25No signaling devices.
14:27Just the rubber bag and the hope it would work.
14:31The escape trunk hatch sealed behind him.
14:33Water began flooding the small chamber.
14:36Cold seawater rushing in from below.
14:39The pressure built.
14:4030 pounds per square inch.
14:4240.
14:4350.
14:4460.
14:45The pressure at 180 feet depth is nearly 80 pounds per square inch.
14:50More than 5 times surface pressure.
14:52Enough to collapse lungs if a man breathed wrong.
14:55Enough to force nitrogen into the bloodstream.
14:58Cause the bends.
14:59Kill in minutes.
15:02The outer hatch opened at 0615.
15:05The first man pushed himself out into the Taiwan Strait.
15:09Started ascending.
15:11Breathing from the Momsen lung.
15:13Exhaling continuously through his nose.
15:15The rubber bag recycling his air.
15:18Removing carbon dioxide.
15:20Providing oxygen.
15:21Keeping him alive as he rose through 180 feet of black water.
15:25The ascent took three minutes.
15:28Maybe four.
15:29The man couldn't see.
15:31Couldn't tell how fast he was rising.
15:34Couldn't judge distance.
15:35Just kept breathing.
15:37Kept exhaling.
15:38Kept ascending.
15:40His ears screamed with pressure changes.
15:43His chest felt compressed.
15:45His head pounded.
15:47But he kept rising.
15:48The Momsen lung kept working.
15:51At 0619, he broke the surface.
15:54He was alive.
15:56The first man out.
15:57The first to prove it could be done.
16:00He inflated the flotation portion of the Momsen lung.
16:03Started treading water.
16:05Looked around for other survivors.
16:06Saw nothing but darkness and waves.
16:10The Japanese convoy was gone.
16:12The burning ships had sunk.
16:14No lights.
16:15No vessels.
16:17Just empty ocean and the first hints of dawn on the eastern horizon.
16:22The second man left the escape trunk at 0622.
16:25Then the third at 0625.
16:28Then the fourth.
16:29The process was working.
16:31Men were reaching the surface.
16:34The Momsen lung was functioning.
16:35The device that had never been used in combat was saving lives.
16:40By 0700, 13 men had exited the forward torpedo room.
16:4513 had made the attempt.
16:4713 had entered the escape trunk.
16:5013 had flooded the chamber.
16:5213 had opened the outer hatch.
16:5513 had started the ascent.
16:57Only 8 reached the surface alive.
17:005 died during the climb.
17:03The reasons varied.
17:04One man's Momsen lung failed.
17:07The soda lime canister stopped scrubbing carbon dioxide.
17:11He breathed poison.
17:12Lost consciousness.
17:14Drowned at 60 feet depth.
17:16Another man held his breath during ascent.
17:19His lungs ruptured from expanding air.
17:22He died 50 feet from the surface.
17:24A third panicked.
17:26Ripped off his Momsen lung.
17:29Tried to swim up without breathing apparatus.
17:32Didn't make it.
17:33The other two deaths remain unexplained.
17:36They left the submarine.
17:38They had working Momsen lungs.
17:40They should have survived.
17:42But they never reached the surface.
17:44Perhaps they ascended too fast.
17:46Perhaps they got nitrogen narcosis.
17:48Perhaps they simply gave up.
17:51Their bodies were never recovered.
17:53Of the 8 who reached the surface, 3 were too injured to swim.
17:57They had made the ascent.
17:58Survived 180 feet of water pressure.
18:01Broken through to air and daylight.
18:03But they couldn't hold on.
18:05Couldn't tread water.
18:06Couldn't stay afloat.
18:08They drifted away from the group.
18:10Drowned within sight of the other survivors.
18:12Five men from the escape trunk remained.
18:15Five out of 13 who attempted.
18:17Five out of 30 who had been alive in the forward torpedo room.
18:21Five out of 87 who had been aboard Tang when the torpedo struck.
18:25Commander O'Kane was already at the surface.
18:27He had been thrown from the bridge when the Mark 18 detonated.
18:31Spent eight hours in the water.
18:33Swimming.
18:34Treading.
18:34Waiting.
18:35Three other men from the bridge were with him.
18:37They had seen Tang go down.
18:39Seen the stern drop.
18:41Seen the bow rise briefly then slip under.
18:44They knew the submarine was lost.
18:46Knew most of the crew was dead.
18:48Didn't know if anyone would escape.
18:50When the men from the forward torpedo room began surfacing.
18:53O'Kane swam toward them.
18:55The group came together.
18:57Nine men total.
18:58Nine survivors.
18:59Nine Americans floating in the Taiwan Strait at dawn on October 25th.
19:04Nine submariners who had just experienced the only combat use of the Momsen Lung in World War II.
19:11At 0800, they spotted a ship on the horizon.
19:14Moving toward them.
19:15Getting closer.
19:16Hope surged.
19:17Rescue was coming.
19:19They waved.
19:20Shouted.
19:21Tried to signal.
19:22The vessel approached.
19:23500 yards.
19:25300.
19:26200.
19:27Close enough to see the flag.
19:28It was a Japanese frigate.
19:31And on her deck were survivors from the ships Tang had sumped the night before.
19:35Burned men.
19:36Wounded men.
19:38Angry men who had watched their vessels explode.
19:40Who had seen their shipmates die.
19:43Who had been pulled from burning oil and sinking transports.
19:46Men who knew exactly what had killed their convoy.
19:50They were about to meet the submarine crew responsible.
19:55The Japanese frigate stopped engines 50 yards from the survivors.
19:59Crew members lowered cargo nets over the side.
20:02Began pulling the Americans from the water.
20:05O'Kane came aboard first.
20:07Then the other eight.
20:08Exhausted.
20:10Hypothermic.
20:10Covered in fuel oil.
20:12They collapsed on the deck.
20:14Expected medical treatment.
20:16Expected to be taken below as prisoners of war.
20:19Expected to survive.
20:21Then the Japanese merchant marine survivors saw them.
20:25These were the burned men from the tankers Tang had torpedoed.
20:29The wounded from the transports.
20:31The oil-soaked sailors who had watched their ships explode and sink.
20:35Who had spent hours in the water themselves.
20:37Who had lost friends and shipmates.
20:40Some had third-degree burns covering half their bodies.
20:43Some had broken bones from explosions.
20:46All of them knew these nine Americans had killed their convoy.
20:49The beatings started immediately.
20:52Kicks to the ribs.
20:53Punches to the face.
20:55Rifle butts to the back.
20:57The Japanese merchant sailors were in a fury.
21:00Their ships were gone.
21:01Their cargo was lost.
21:03Their mission had failed.
21:05And here were the men responsible.
21:07Lying helpless on the deck.
21:09Unable to fight back.
21:10Unable to escape.
21:12O'Kane took the worst of it.
21:14He was the commander.
21:15The man in charge.
21:17The one who had ordered the attacks.
21:19The merchant sailors focused their rage on him.
21:22Kicked him repeatedly in the stomach.
21:24Struck him across the head with a rifle stock.
21:27Left him bleeding and semi-conscious on the deck.
21:30The Japanese naval crew aboard the frigate eventually intervened, pulled the merchant survivors away, separated them from the Americans.
21:38But the damage was done.
21:40O'Kane had broken ribs, a fractured skull, internal bleeding.
21:44Two other Tang survivors had concussions.
21:47One had a broken jaw.
21:48Another had lost teeth.
21:51All nine were injured beyond their initial wounds from the sinking.
21:54The frigate took them to Formosa.
21:56Then to Keelung.
21:58Then by train to Taipei.
22:00Then by ship to Japan.
22:02The journey took ten days.
22:04Ten days without adequate food.
22:07Without medical care.
22:09Without clean water.
22:10The nine Americans were kept in a cargo hold.
22:13Given rice twice daily.
22:15Given beatings when the guards felt like it.
22:18Given nothing that resembled humane treatment under the Geneva Convention.
22:22On November 4th, they arrived at Ofuna.
22:25A secret interrogation facility north of Tokyo.
22:28The Japanese Navy operated Ofuna outside the normal prisoner of war system.
22:33The Red Cross knew nothing about it.
22:35No records were kept.
22:37No notifications were sent.
22:38Men who entered Ofuna simply disappeared from official existence.
22:43The conditions were designed to break prisoners psychologically.
22:46Solitary confinement.
22:48Starvation rations.
22:50Constant interrogation.
22:51Sleep deprivation.
22:53Beatings for any infraction.
22:55The goal was to extract intelligence about American submarine operations.
22:59Tactics.
23:00Technology.
23:01Patrol areas.
23:02Radio codes.
23:04Anything that could help the Japanese Navy fight back against the submarine campaign.
23:08That was strangling their empire.
23:10O'Kane gave them nothing.
23:12Neither did his crew.
23:13They provided name, rank, and serial number.
23:17Nothing more.
23:18The interrogators tried everything.
23:20Threatened execution.
23:21Promised better treatment.
23:23Used torture.
23:24Got nowhere.
23:25The tank survivors had been trained for this.
23:27Had expected capture was possible.
23:30Had prepared mentally for interrogation.
23:32They held out.
23:33After two months at Ofuna, the nine Americans were transferred to Omori, a regular prisoner of war camp near Tokyo.
23:40The conditions improved slightly.
23:42More food.
23:43Less torture.
23:45Contact with other American prisoners.
23:47But Omori was still a brutal place.
23:49Forced labor.
23:51Inadequate shelter.
23:52Disease.
23:53Malnutrition.
23:54Guards who beat prisoners for entertainment.
23:56The tank survivors learned they were special prisoners.
24:00The Japanese considered submarine crews to be war criminals.
24:03American submarines had attacked merchant shipping without restriction since December 1941.
24:08Had sunk hundreds of cargo vessels.
24:11Had killed thousands of Japanese merchant sailors.
24:14The submarine campaign violated Japanese interpretation of international law.
24:19Submariners were not legal combatants.
24:22They were pirates.
24:23Murderers.
24:24Subject to execution if Japan chose.
24:27Okane and his crew lived with that threat every day.
24:30Wondering if this would be the day the Japanese decided to make an example.
24:34To execute American submariners as revenge for the merchant fleet losses.
24:39To show the world what happened to submarine crews who attacked civilian vessels.
24:43Winter came to Japan.
24:45December.
24:46January.
24:47February.
24:48The cold was brutal.
24:50The prisoners had thin clothing.
24:52Inadequate blankets.
24:54No heat in the barracks.
24:55Men died from pneumonia.
24:57From tuberculosis.
24:59From starvation complicated by freezing temperatures.
25:02The tank survivors barely held on.
25:05Then in March 1945, the B-29 started coming.
25:09American bombers hitting Tokyo.
25:11Hitting the industrial areas around Omori.
25:14The prisoners could see the formations overhead.
25:17Could see the fires spreading across the city.
25:20Could hear the explosions.
25:22Liberation felt close.
25:23But it also felt dangerous.
25:26American bombs didn't distinguish between Japanese factories and prisoner of war camps.
25:32By August 1945, Omori prisoner of war camp was surrounded by ruins.
25:38American firebombing had destroyed most of Tokyo.
25:41The raids came day and night.
25:44High explosive bombs.
25:46Incendiaries.
25:47The city burned.
25:48The prisoners watched from behind wire fences.
25:51Trapped between hoping for liberation and fearing an American bomb would kill them before the war ended.
25:57On August 6th, the guards at Omori became agitated.
26:02Something had happened.
26:03Something significant.
26:05The prisoners heard rumors.
26:07A single bomb had destroyed an entire city.
26:11Hiroshima.
26:12Impossible.
26:13No bomb could do that.
26:15But the guards were frightened.
26:17Distracted.
26:18Less brutal than usual.
26:19Three days later, another city.
26:23Nagasaki.
26:24Another impossible bomb.
26:26The guards stopped beating prisoners.
26:28Stopped forcing work details.
26:30Started preparing to abandon the camp.
26:33The war was ending.
26:35Everyone could feel it.
26:36On August 15th, Emperor Hirohito's voice came through radio speakers across Japan.
26:42The surrender announcement.
26:44The war was over.
26:45Japan had lost.
26:47American forces would occupy the country.
26:50Prisoner of war camps would be liberated.
26:53The nine Tang survivors had made it.
26:55Had survived the sinking.
26:57The beatings on the frigate.
26:59The interrogations at Ofuna.
27:00The starvation at Omori.
27:02The bombing of Tokyo.
27:04Ten months as prisoners of war.
27:06They had outlasted the Japanese Empire.
27:10American forces reached Omori on August 29th.
27:13Navy personnel.
27:15Marine guards.
27:16Medical teams.
27:17They came through the gates.
27:19Started processing prisoners.
27:21Started evacuation.
27:22The Tang survivors were identified immediately.
27:26Submarine crews were priority cases.
27:28High-value intelligence sources.
27:30Men who knew about Japanese interrogation techniques.
27:34Men who needed debriefing.
27:36O'Kane weighed 112 pounds.
27:38He had weighed 170 when Tang went down.
27:41The other survivors were similarly emaciated.
27:45Sick.
27:45Weak.
27:46Barely functional.
27:48They were evacuated to hospital ships in Tokyo Bay.
27:51Given medical care.
27:53Given real food.
27:55Given beds.
27:56Given the first safety they had known in 10 months.
27:58The debriefings began in early September.
28:02Naval intelligence wanted everything.
28:04What happened to Tang?
28:05How many escaped?
28:07Why the torpedo malfunctioned?
28:08What the Japanese knew about American submarine operations?
28:12What they asked during interrogation?
28:14What they knew about the Mark 18?
28:16What they knew about patrol areas?
28:19O'Kane provided detailed reports.
28:21Described the 5th patrol.
28:22The convoy attacks.
28:23The circular run.
28:25The sinking.
28:25The escape.
28:27The mumps and lung experience.
28:28The capture.
28:29The treatment.
28:30Everything.
28:31His account was the only comprehensive record of Tang's final action.
28:35The only explanation for why America's most successful submarine had disappeared.
28:40The story shocked the submarine force.
28:42Tang had sunk 34 ships.
28:44Number 33.
28:46The final transport hadn't gone down.
28:48Had been towed to port.
28:49Repaired.
28:50Put back in service.
28:51Tang's record stood at 33 confirmed kills.
28:54Still the highest total.
28:56Still the record.
28:57But the cost had been devastating.
28:5978 men dead.
29:01The best submarine commander in the Pacific nearly killed by his own weapon.
29:05The Mark 18 circular run problem became classified information.
29:09The Navy didn't want the public knowing American torpedoes were sinking American submarines.
29:13Didn't want the enemy knowing the defect existed.
29:16Didn't want families of dead submariners knowing their sons had died from defective weapons rather than enemy action.
29:23The Tang story was buried.
29:25Classified.
29:26Restricted.
29:26But O'Kane's heroism couldn't be hidden.
29:29His fifth patrol had been extraordinary.
29:31Thirteen ships sunk.
29:33Twenty-four torpedoes fired.
29:35Twenty-two hits.
29:36Aggressive tactics.
29:38Perfect execution.
29:39The fact that the final torpedo had killed his boat didn't change the achievement.
29:43Didn't diminish the record.
29:45Didn't reduce the impact on Japanese supply lines.
29:47In October, the Navy recommended O'Kane for the Medal of Honor.
29:51The citation focused on the attacks of October 23rd and 24th, the maneuvering through the convoy, the close-range shots,
30:01the destruction of 13 enemy vessels, the escape after the submarine sank, the survival as a prisoner, the refusal to
30:10break under interrogation.
30:11The highest decoration for valor would be awarded to the commander of the submarine that had been sunk by its
30:17own torpedo.
30:18The irony was not lost on anyone.
30:21The most successful submarine captain in American history, the man who had sunk more Japanese ships than any other commander,
30:29the officer who had survived the worst kind of submarine disaster, would receive the Medal of Honor for the patrol
30:35that ended with his boat at the bottom of the Taiwan Strait.
30:39On March 27th, 1946, President Harry Truman presented the medal to O'Kane at the White House, eight months after
30:47liberation, 18 months after Tang went down.
30:50The citation made no mention of the circular run, no mention of the Mark 18 defect, no mention that America's
30:57deadliest submarine had been killed by American technology.
31:02O'Kane returned to active duty after receiving the Medal of Honor.
31:06The Navy assigned him to shore positions, training commands, administrative roles.
31:11The submarine force wanted his expertise, his tactical knowledge, his combat experience, but they didn't want him commanding boats.
31:19The psychological toll was too obvious, the weight of losing 78 men, the guilt of surviving when so many died,
31:27the knowledge that his last order had killed his crew.
31:29He served on submarine tenders, testified at Japanese war crimes trials, commanded a submarine division, attended the Armed Forces Staff
31:38College, taught at the submarine school in New London, rose to rear admiral before retiring in 1957, lived another 37
31:46years, died in 1994 at age 83, pneumonia, the same disease that had nearly killed him at Omori.
31:54The other eight Tang survivors scattered after the war, some stayed in the Navy, some left.
32:00Most avoided talking about what happened.
32:03The memories were too painful.
32:04The escape from 180 feet.
32:07The Momsen lung ascent.
32:08The drowning shipmates.
32:10The beatings on the Japanese frigate.
32:12The starvation at Ofuna and Omori.
32:15The helplessness of watching friends die in prison camp.
32:18Only one other Tang crew member survived the war, separately from the Nine, a radioman who had been transferred off
32:24the submarine at Midway before the 5th Patrol.
32:27He had cut his thumb in a watertight door.
32:30The injury looked minor, but it got infected.
32:32He was left behind when Tang departed for the Taiwan Strait.
32:36The thumb injury saved his life.
32:38He was the 10th survivor, the only man who avoided both the sinking and the prison camp.
32:4478 men died with Tang.
32:46Most died instantly when the Mark 18 detonated.
32:50Drowned when the after compartments flooded.
32:52Some survived initially.
32:54Trapped in sealed spaces.
32:55Breathing bad air.
32:57Waiting for rescue that never came.
32:59Dying slowly over hours.
33:02Their names are listed on the submarine memorial in Pearl Harbor.
33:06Remembered every year when the submarine force honors its lost boats.
33:10Tang herself remains on the bottom of the Taiwan Strait.
33:13180 feet down, approximately 25 miles northwest of Turnabout Island.
33:19The exact coordinates were classified for decades.
33:21The Navy didn't want salvage operations.
33:24Didn't want the wreck disturbed.
33:26Didn't want evidence of the circular run problem brought to the surface.
33:29The wreck has never been located by civilian researchers.
33:32The Taiwan Strait has heavy shipping traffic, strong currents, poor visibility.
33:38Searching for a 312-foot submarine in thousands of square miles of ocean floor is nearly impossible.
33:44Tang remains lost.
33:46A tomb for 78 submariners.
33:48A classified grave site.
33:50The Mark 18 torpedo continued in service through the end of the war.
33:54The circular run problem was never fully solved.
33:57The gyroscope defect remained.
33:59Submarines continued using the weapon.
34:01The advantages still outweighed the risks.
34:04Silent running.
34:05No visible wake.
34:06High kill rate.
34:07The statistics justified the danger.
34:10By war's end, Mark 18s had accounted for 30% of all torpedoes fired by American submarines.
34:16Several thousand tons of Japanese shipping sunk.
34:19But Tang wasn't the only loss.
34:21USS Tullaby had been sunk by a circular run in March 1944.
34:26One survivor.
34:27The type of torpedo was confirmed as Mark 18.
34:30Other submarines reported near misses.
34:33Torpedoes that circled back.
34:34Passed underneath the firing boat.
34:36Missed by feet.
34:37Those crews survived by luck.
34:40Tang's crew had no luck.
34:42The submarine force learned tactical lessons from Tang's loss.
34:45Fire torpedoes from greater range when possible.
34:48Maneuver away from the firing solution immediately after launch.
34:52Watch for surface running.
34:54Be ready to crash dive if a torpedo circles.
34:56Train crews on emergency procedures.
34:59Install better gyroscopes when available.
35:01But mostly, accept the risk.
35:05The Mark 18 was too valuable to abandon.
35:08Post-war analysis revised Tang's kill total multiple times.
35:12Initial credit was 31 ships.
35:15Then 24.
35:16Then back to 33 after comparing American records with captured Japanese documents.
35:21The final confirmed total is 33 ships, totaling 116,454 tons.
35:30First place for number of ships.
35:32First place for tonnage.
35:34The record still stands.
35:36No American submarine in any war has exceeded Tang's score.
35:40Her third patrol into the Yellow Sea in June 1944 remains the most successful single patrol.
35:48Ten ships sunk.
35:4939,160 tons.
35:53No other submarine patrol achieved those numbers.
35:56O'Kane's tactics that patrol became textbook doctrine.
36:00Surface attacks at night.
36:02Multiple targets.
36:03Close range.
36:05Aggressive maneuvering.
36:08The Momsenlung became famous because of Tang.
36:11Before October 1944, the device had been used in one real emergency, USS Squalus, in 1939.
36:2033 men rescued from 240 feet using a rescue chamber.
36:24The Momsenlung was backup equipment, untested in actual sinking conditions.
36:30Tang proved it worked.
36:31Eight men reached the surface from 180 feet using only the rubber bag and soda lime.
36:38The only combat use of the Momsenlung in World War II.
36:41The only proof the device could save lives under the worst possible conditions.
36:46The Navy kept the Momsenlung in service until 1962, 23 years after Tang.
36:52The device was eventually replaced by the Steinke hood, a simpler system, an inflatable lifejacket with an air bubble hood,
37:00easier to use, less training required.
37:03But the Momsenlung remained in submarine legend, the device that saved eight Tang survivors, the device that almost worked for
37:1113.
37:12Tang received four Battlestars for her five war patrols, two presidential unit citations.
37:17The only other submarine to receive two presidential unit citations was USS Flasher.
37:24Tang's record of 33 ships sunk has never been broken.
37:28Her third patrol record of 10 ships in one patrol has never been equaled.
37:33Her name remains at the top of every list of most successful American submarines.
37:37A second USS Tang was commissioned in 1951, SS-563, a diesel-electric submarine that served until 1980.
37:47She carried the name with honor, never forgot the original Tang, never forgot the 78 men who died.
37:54The second Tang's crew maintained traditions, honored the memory, kept the story alive.
38:00In 2001, the National World War II Museum in New Orleans opened an exhibit called Final Mission, a recreation of
38:08Tang's last patrol.
38:10Visitors enter a simulated submarine, receive cards with names of actual Tang crew members, experience the events of October 24th
38:19and 25th, feel the torpedo hit, watch the submarine sink, understand what the crew faced.
38:26The exhibit has introduced hundreds of thousands of people to Tang's story, kept the memory alive for new generations.
38:34O'Kane wrote two books after retirement, Clear the Bridge, about his service on Tang, Wahoo, about his earlier service
38:42under Dudley Morton.
38:43Both books became required reading at the Naval Academy.
38:47Tang's tactics are still taught at submarine school.
38:50Her patrol reports are still studied.
38:53Her record is still the standard.
38:55The nine survivors stayed in contact after the war.
38:59Reunions every few years.
39:01Letters.
39:02Phone calls.
39:03Shared memories that nobody else could understand.
39:06What it felt like to escape from 180 feet.
39:09What it felt like to watch shipmates drown.
39:12What it felt like to survive when 78 didn't.
39:16By 2014, all nine were gone.
39:20The last survivor died at age 91.
39:23Tang's story now belongs to history.
39:25The 78 men who died deserve to be remembered.
39:29Not as statistics.
39:30Not as casualties of a defective weapon.
39:33But as submariners who served on the most successful boat in the Pacific.
39:37Who sank 33 enemy ships.
39:39Who cut Japanese supply lines.
39:42Who contributed to victory.
39:44Who died doing exactly what they had volunteered to do.
39:47Tang was more than a submarine.
39:50She was a legend.
39:51The deadliest boat in the fleet.
39:53The most aggressive.
39:55The most successful.
39:57Commander O'Kane was more than a captain.
39:59He was the best submarine officer America ever produced.
40:02The man who proved that aggressive tactics and careful planning could sink more ships than any other approach.
40:08The circular run that killed Tang was a tragedy.
40:12But it doesn't diminish what she accomplished.
40:1433 ships.
40:18116,454 tons.
40:215 patrols.
40:228 months of combat.
40:24A record that still stands 80 years later.
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40:43Stories about submariners who sank 33 ships with 24 torpedoes.
40:47Real people.
40:48Real heroism.
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