SENT TO BOTTOM

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 152, 29 June 1945, Page 7

SENT TO BOTTOM

NEW JAP CARRIER

SUBMARINE "X" MADE KILL

SAN FRANCISCO, June 15.

It was 4.35 p.m. when Commander L. D. McGregor and the men of the submarine X opened fire on a big, new Japanese carrier and in fifteen minutes they sent her to the bottom of the Pacific. In that brief, courageous action McGregor, the daring, sandy-haired submarine commander from Annapolis, Maryland, knocked a vital piece out of the enemy's rapidry weakening naval machine.

McGregor told the story this way in Pearl Harbour: "Commenced firing (torpedoes): First torpedo hits causing the target to stop and to commence burning aft. The target open fire, just prior to being hit, with all guns on the starboard side. Carrier continues to fire all starboard guns. Its escorting destroyers are milling about dropping depth charges indiscriminately. Reload for another shot at target. Carrier still burning. Torpedo hits carrier. The sharp crash of the torpedo explosion is followed instantly by thundering explosions, apparently from magazine and gasoline stowage. Huge clouds of smoke, flames and debris burst into the air completely enveloping the carrier. When executive officer looks several seconds later he still can't see the ship due to the smoke."

And nine minutes later when McGregor swept the seas with his periscope he could ,see only the escorting destroyers. The carrier, her decks loaded with aeroplanes, and carrying hundreds of men, had gone to the bottom.

It sounds easv enough the way McGregor told the story. His matter-of-fact account left much to the imagination. Getting away- was something else, however,. The escorts, angered at losing the carrier and no doubt thinking of the explanations they would have to give, charged in. "Hell broke loose when depth charges exploded," McGregor said. "It was tense in the submarine. No one spoke. More explosions."

McGregor came up to take another look after the explosions ceased. He could see the destroyers in the distance, apparently picking up survivors. He pulled away. It had been close, but the job was done—one of the outstanding jobs of the war.

"The men had fillings knocked out of their teeth by the severity of the explosions," McGregor added.