Historical & Scenario Battle

Second Patrol of USS Tautog (SS-199)

May 22 1942

Around 10:00 on 26 April while en route to her station, Tautog sighted the periscope of an enemy submarine, apparently maneuvering to reach a favorable firing position. Tautog made a sharp turn and fired one stern torpedo, evidently exploding above the target,^[9] which sank Ro-30 (1,000 tons).^[10]

Shortly after her arrival in the Marshalls, Tautog, on 11 or 12 May, Tautog launched two torpedoes at Goyo Maru, scoring one hit and suffering a circular run (typical of the erratic Mark XIV torpedo), forcing Tautog deep.^[12] (Goyo Maru beached herself.)^[13] Two days later, Tautog was alerted by ULTRA of four Japanese submarines in the vicinity, also returning from battle.^[12] She was caught by surprise by the first, and failed to attack.^[12] She detected and fired two torpeodes at the second. Although the Japanese boat was not in sight when Tautog surfaced, she was not officially credited with a sinking. Later in the morning, Tautog sighted another submarine with the designation "I-28" clearly discernible on its conning tower.^[14] Just as I-28 fired at Tautog, the American boat launched two torpedoes, then went to 150 feet (46 m) to avoid.^[12] One torpedo missed,^[12] the second sent the Japanese boat to the bottom,^[14] making her the third sunk by Pacific Fleet submarines. Tautog sighted two ships departing Truk on 22 May and made a submerged sound attack on the larger. The American submarine's crew thought they had sunk the target, but the 5,461-ton cargo ship Sanko Maru had been only damaged. Three days later, Tautog made an attack from periscope depth against a cargo ship. Her spread of torpedoes sent Shoka Maru to the bottom. The patrol ended at Fremantle on 11 June. She was credited with six ships sunk for 19,500 tons; postwar, this was reduced to three for 7,500 tons.

This battle combines the three encounters into one for playability.