"The
fourth war patrol of the USS Darter embraces one of the most
outstanding contributions by submariners to the ultimate defeat of the
Japanese Navy." - Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, Commander 7th Fleet,
1944
Thinking
about that statement, it certainly did... Darter found herself in a
position to do unprecedented damage to the Japanese fleet in a surprise
attack, before anyone else even knew where the fleet was. It was the
shot of a lifetime. Though the crew was unaware at the time, they
nearly sent Admiral Kurita to the bottom of the Pacific, which could
have "cut the head off the sea serpent" so to speak and crippled the
Japanese Naval command enough to hasten their defeat. The Darter-Dace
wolfpack took an incredible risk against impossible odds that night, attacking an
enemy fleet head on without support. Had the aim of their torpedoes been
truer that day, much would have been different. And the crew was even luckier to survive the encounter with no loss of life.
No comments:
Post a Comment