Silent Service: Dace and Darter Attacks In Palawan Passage. Late 1940's ...

This is a late 1940's or early 1950's film about the USS Darter and USS Dace. My grandpa had a videotape of it he may have copied from 8mm film, judging by the quality. Well, I realized that there are absolutely NO videos mentioning the Darter at all on Youtube, and with the wealth of documentaries already on it about WWII submarine warfare, I think this story should be preserved. It was the Darter that located the Japanese fleet and fired the first shot of Leyte Gulf!

This is a dramatic reconstruction of the crew's actions aboard the Dace and the Darter, with dialogue partially lifted from the short story "Battle Stations Submerged", written by Lt. Cmdr. Benitez of the Dace crew. It is an eyewitness account, and grandma specifically mentioned that Hugh was interviewed and provided testimony so this movie could be made. This is reconstructed by actors and the style is typical of 40's war movies.  But I guarantee this video clip is one of a kind, and you won't find it anywhere else on the internet. It could very well be the only copy that survives.

The drama of the Darter-Dace incident that played out on the early predawn hours of October 24, 1944 is one of the great untold stories of WWII, and if we do not preserve these memories now they will be forgotten and lost forever.