Trapped 200ft underwater with time running out: How a sub crew escaped death… only to meet a fate MUCH worse
By TOM CLAVIN FOR DAILY MAIL
The USS Tang faced disaster in October 1944 when its own torpedo turned back toward the submarine. Moments earlier, its crew had been attacking enemy ships in the Pacific. Now, the men faced a desperate struggle to survive.
Tom Clavin’s Daily Mail account follows the sailors through the attack and its terrifying aftermath. Their story brings the dangers of submarine warfare into sharp focus.
How the USS Tang’s torpedo turned back
The submarine had just taken part in a fierce attack. Then its final torpedo turned sharply left and headed straight toward the vessel that had fired it.
The weapon raced through the water at 30 knots. For those aboard, everything else seemed to move in slow motion.
Only five minutes separated the crew’s successful attack from the disaster that followed. The sudden reversal left the sailors facing a threat from their own weapon.
The submarine carried 87 men that morning. According to the account, the explosion immediately killed as many as 50. Most of those who survived suffered injuries.
However, Clayton Decker escaped the initial blast without injury. He had been in the control room when the torpedo struck.
A desperate race to the escape chamber
Decker helped Chief Bill Ballinger to his feet. Blood flowed from a cut on Ballinger’s forehead. Nevertheless, Ballinger recognized where they needed to go.
Their chance of escape lay in the forward torpedo room, which contained the submarine’s escape chamber. Together, the two men made their way toward it.
When they arrived, they found as many as 30 other sailors crowded inside. The most seriously injured men lay in bunks. Some understood that their injuries would prevent them from escaping.
For the USS Tang survivors, reaching that room marked only the beginning of another ordeal. Clavin’s full account follows what happened next and the fate that awaited the men.
Source: Tom Clavin, Daily Mail.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail.