USS Thresher (SS-200) - Third and Fourth Patrols

Third and Fourth Patrols

After refit, Thresher departed 23 March 1942 for a patrol area near the Japanese home islands. There, she was to gather weather data off Honshū for use by Admiral William Halsey's task force (the carriers Enterprise (CV-6) and Hornet (CV-8), then approaching Japan. Embarked in Hornet were 16 United States Army Air Forces B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, intended to attack Tokyo on 18 April.

Warned by of four Japanese submarines operating off Tokyo Bay, Thresher was detected by one of them and fired on, without damage.

On the morning of 10 April, Thresher sighted a large Japanese freighter. A three-fish spread was fired and all missed as the target escaped in the mist. When the target emerged from the murk, Thresher was not in a position to launch another attack and proceeded on her way.

A second target was sighted later that day, and this time the hunting was better. One torpedo broke the back of freighter Sado Maru (3,000 tons) off Yokohama, sending it to the bottom in less than three minutes. The subsequent depth charge attack was delivered by three or four patrol vessels (one of the most severe of the war), caused Thresher to lose depth control and she plunged to 400 feet (120 m) before control was regained. She then disobeyed orders and remained to assist Halsey.

On 13 April, running on the surface to recharge her batteries, Thresher took a wave over her conning tower. Water cascaded down the open hatch and rushed into the boat, shorting many electrical circuits. For a short time, there was a significant danger that chlorine gas would be released, but quick thinking and damage control prevented any hazard. Eventually, all shorts were repaired and the boat pumped out.

The next day, Thresher departed her assigned patrol area and turned her attention to gathering weather data. She conducted periscope patrols in the advance screen of Halsey's task force, searching for any enemy craft that could warn the Japanese homeland. She was detached from this duty on 16 April and, after evading two Japanese patrol planes, returned to Pearl Harbor on 29 April.

On 26 June 1942, Thresher commenced her fourth war patrol heading for waters between the Palau and the Marshall Islands. On 6 July one torpedo struck home during an attack on a tanker off Enijun Pass. The two surface escorts were soon joined by aircraft and, after a three-hour depth charging, Thresher was able to resume her search for other targets.

Three days later, midway between Kwajalein and Wotje atolls, Thresher fired two topedoes at a 4,836 ton torpedo boat tender which caused tremendous explosions as the tender sank beneath the waves. Thresher withdrew from expected countermeasures. Within an hour, two depth charges shook the boat, and ten minutes later, a banging and clanking alerted her to the fact the Japanese were apparently bringing a large grapnel into play in an attempt to capture the boat.

Thresher was hooked and fought for her life. After applying full right rudder, she made a 10 minute high-speed run which shook her free from the giant hook. Then, as a depth charge exploded near her conning tower, the boat went into deeper water. Bending on rudder, Thresher left the enemy behind, with some 30-odd depth charges exploding in her wake. Shaken but not seriously damaged, Thresher made minor repairs as she headed for Truk to reconnoiter the passes leading into this enemy naval bastion.

Missing a freighter with torpedoes on the night of 20 July, Thresher surfaced in a rain squall before daybreak the next morning. The boat's sonar picked up the sound of screws, close and closing. Soon an enemy patrol craft came into view, on a collision course. Surprisingly, the Japanese chose not to ram, but instead put turned hard right, and came to a parallel course some 50 yards (46 m) away. Thresher went deep, while the enemy's guns fired close but ineffective salvoes into the water ahead of the disappearing boat.

After escaping to the Palaus, Thresher tangled with an enemy Q-ship off Ambon in the former Netherlands East Indies. The two torpedoes she fired at the enemy failed to explode, and the Q-ship subjected Thresher to an eight depth charge salvo before giving up the attack. Since she had been reassigned to the Southwest Pacific Submarine Force, Thresher sailed away from this encounter en route to Australian waters and terminated her fourth war patrol at Fremantle on 15 August.