Ghost Sub - Shch-138?

Discussion in 'The War at Sea' started by canuck, Jan 4, 2019.

  1. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    Of ghosts and submarines
    Was it a submarine or a whale? If it was a submarine, was it Japanese or Russian? A mystery from the war endures
    • Vancouver Sun
    • 18 Aug 2008
    • BY BRENDAN COYLE
    [​IMG]WINSTON LUZIER/REUTERS/VANCOUVER SUN FILES
    A disused Russian submarine awaits its new life as a movie prop in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 2000. Was it a Russian sub that was sunk more than half a century earlier while spying off the north coast of North America?


    July 9, 1942 — 130 kilometres northwest of British Columbia’s Queen Charlotte Islands Flying Officer W.E. Thomas was at the controls of his outmoded RCAF Bolingbroke bomber No. 9118.

    His four-man crew scanned the churning water below for signs of Japanese submarines. One month earlier the Japanese navy had attacked Alaska in two air raids at Dutch Harbor and seized two westerly islands of Alaska’s Aleutians.

    Before that, Japanese submarines had reconnoitred the West Coast, making sporadic attacks on shipping and coastal installations. Indeed, two ships were torpedoed off Cape Flattery and the submarines I-26 and I-25 had shelled radio direction finding stations at Hesquiat, B.C., and Astoria, Ore.

    Thomas’s No. 115 Bomber Recon squadron was one of six RCAF units sent north to Alaska at the behest of the United States. But the reality of duty in southern Alaska was summed up with an entry in an RCAF base log book, “. . . chances of seeing enemy action whilst here seems extremely remote.”

    But halfway into the patrol, one of the crew phones a sighting to the cockpit and Thomas banks the aircraft back toward the target. Below, a cigar-shaped object with white “smoke” breaking the surface. Reported Thomas, “we thought it was a whale.” But below was the silhouette of a submarine, the outline definitely not one of the sleek American fleet subs or older “S” boats.

    Bomber 9118 delivers a 500-pound anti-submarine bomb, forward of the target’s conning tower and warships are despatched to the site. U.S. Coast Guard vessels McLane, patrol vessel YP251 and Royal Canadian Navy minesweeper HMCS Quatsino converge on the coordinates off Dixon Entrance and note diesel oil on the surface.

    A search grid using hydrophones and asdic (sonar) is initiated in an area showing shallower water at 52 fathoms. A submarine commander could shut down his wounded boat here to effect repairs rather than being caught in the deep water off Prince of Wales Island.

    Near 0800 McLane signalled a contact and closed for an attack. One depth charge set for 90 metres failed to explode. Asdic contact was lost but a sound contact re-established at 0905 followed by asdic contact again at 1540.

    On board the submarine, some critical systems would be damaged after the earlier air attack. Gauges and lighting glass would be shattered, breathing air stale and the sub’s interior operating by emergency lights. On the surface, McLane sights a single torpedo which passes harmlessly astern of YP251 — a desperate move for a submarine which reveals its location.

    The warships move in, dropping three depth charges set at 75 to 90 metres. Following the detonations the report reads cryptically, “large air bubbles and diesel fuel where the periscope was sighted.” Another depth charge is detonated at 120 metres and large amounts of oil, air and a substance resembling rock wool boils to the surface. No loose debris is noted and all sound contact ceased.

    So just who or what was destroyed off the north coast some 65 years ago? The submarine was officially listed as the Japanese RO32, but this was formally retracted when the submarine showed up as a derelict hulk in Paramoshiro following Japan’s surrender. Japanese records revealed no submarine fatalities in southeast Alaska or B.C.

    One suggestion is the McLane’s target was actually a whale. But McLane’s skipper, Lt. Ralph Burns was a seasoned veteran of the northwest and the submergence of the target was beyond the endurance of any whale. Compounding this account is the references to periscope and torpedo sightings as well as the “rock wool” substance that came to the surface.

    Rock wool is a mineral fibre that was universally used on submarines as an insulator and sound-deadening agent. The lack of other debris other than the fibre, large air bubbles and fuel oil would indicate the hull may have split enough to sink the submarine but not enough to let out flotsam.

    So who, then? Jim Johnson of Markham, Ont., had been the RCAF photographic technician at Annette Island, Alaska home base to bomber 9118. He had kept a photo from 9118 that clearly shows a detonation just forward of the conning tower. Submarine experts in Japan, Europe and the U.S. were unable to identify the type of submarine.

    However, early Japanese RO type submarines from post First World War into the 1930s had been purchased outright from the BritishVickers Engineering Co. or built to those same plans in Japanese yards. The Soviet Navy also had these same Vickers-designed submarines in their Pacific fleet. Both countries operated the vintage boats through- out the Second World War.

    Could the mystery target have then been a Russian submarine mistaken for a Japanese RO boat? Why would a Soviet submarine be so far south, almost into B.C. waters?

    Scant records indicate Soviet submarines frequently traversed the west coast en route to and from the Atlantic war theatre via the Panama Canal. Indeed, Soviet submarine L16 would be torpedoed accidentally by the Japanese submarine I-25 off the Pacific Northwest the following October with the loss of the entire crew.

    However, Soviet submarines making the long journey to the canal and beyond would grudgingly require American assistance in the way of fuel and provisions. They would also need to inform friendly forces of their presence to avoid the fate of L-16. While technically they were allies, the relationship between western and Soviet powers was rife with suspicion. Not being at war with Japan, the Soviets imprisoned the crew of an American bomber who were required to make an emergency landing in Siberia.

    Such an incident was typical of Soviet behaviour. With no war to fight in the North Pacific, Soviet submarines were tasked with monitoring the militarization of the west coast. Military bases, ports, airfields, troop deployments and the Alaska Highway were being fast-tracked close to Soviet territory and the Soviets were leery of an allied invasion. The submarine was an excellent platform for the Soviets to spy on the West. The unauthorized presence of Soviet subs would also explain the disproportionate number of confirmed submarine sightings compared to the documented Japanese forays to the west coast.

    Other indicators point to a Russian submarine. The sub in the photo resembles a Soviet “D” class boat. On July 10, 1942, the Soviet sub Shch-138 out of its port near Vladivostok was reported missing — the same day of the reported sinking by the McLane. While the Soviet Navy noted the loss of Shch-138 due to a torpedo malfunction, it would be unlikely to ever admit to submarine espionage on an ally. In close examination of the original Johnson photo one can make out a numeral “8” among some indiscernible figures. Also, Soviet subs of the Pacific fleet were painted grey like the sub in the photo to differentiate them from the black-painted Japanese subs.

    Whatever happened in this obscure battle may never be known. The actions in the North Pacific faded as American forces moved in on Japan from the south. Somewhere in those dark Queen Charlotte waters may lay the bones of a submarine and her unknown crew.
    alaska.jpg

    Battle of Annette Island and the ghost sub
     
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