| CHUYO (December 4, 1943)
The Imperial Japanese Navy escort carrier of 17,803-tons, torpedoed and sunk by the USS Sailfish making her tenth patrol under the command of Lt. Cdr. 'Bob' Ward. In mountainous seas and driving rain the Chuyo (Captain Okura) sank in about six minutes after being hit on the port side by two torpedoes. Around 1,250 officers, men and passengers died in the Chuyo, 160 Japanese survivors being rescued by the escort destroyer Urakaze. Among the casualties of the Chuyo were twenty American prisoners of war, half of the survivors from the USS Sculpin sunk earlier off Truk Island. Only one of them survived, machinist's mate George Rocek, who was hauled on board the Urakaze being mistaken for a Chuyo crew member. (Before the war the Sailfish was the USS Squalus which sank with the loss of a number of her crew. The submarine was salvaged and relaunched as the USS Sailfish. When the Squalus sank, the first on the scene of the tragedy was the USS Sculpin!)
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On weald of Kent I watched once more
Again I heard that grumbling roar
Of fighter planes; yet none were near
And all around the sky was clear
Borne on the wind a whisper came
'Though men grow old, they stay the same'
And then I knew, unseen to eye
The ageless Few were sweeping by
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