July 1944 – The Pacific

The Montipellar and Salem transited the Panama canal and headed west toward Japan. Air recon photos of Japanese coastal areas were given to Mush just before he sailed. Once west of Pearl they would transit the Pacific alone and bombard selected targets on the Japanese coast. The crews of both boats had been increased by eight men for the gun crew and an ammunition ready box had been placed on the deck behind the gun. This sealed box held over a hundred rounds of five inch, enough to keep the gun firing for a time. The Harrisburg and Boston would be entering the same areas but they would attack shipping to create a diversion.

Both boats had thirty torpedoes and they were able to make use of most of them. Mush sank three destroyers who tried to stop his bombardment on the third night and the Salem sank two tankers in a harbor with the deck gun.

The international press picked up a planted story that the bombardment had been done by a special battleship the Americans had developed that could be made invisible. The American people heard the story from this source and the morale boost was far more significant than the damage which was far from trivial. At one port a tank farm was destroyed and the fire spread to warehouses of supplies for the Japanese army in Canada. Air recon photos a week later showed the damage and supported a return raid. All of this action was done with the old five inch deck gun. Mush had proven that the deck gun could be effective even if it was puny.

August 6 1944

Captain Russell yawned as he read the reports from the Montipellar and Salem and looked at the photos of from the B-17’s. If this much damage could be done by a puny five inch with nothing but better ammunition handling then all the work he and his men had done, the weeks of sixteen hour days, they were worthwhile. He had worried about pushing the men so hard for so long but the schedule called for a test of the new submarine in early August. The ship wasn’t even completed when he was given the schedule. Getting ready for a shakedown of a new model of ship just wasn’t possible in ten weeks he told the Admiral in mid-July, let alone the six allotted, but when the officers and men were briefed they pitched in. Now five weeks and three days later they were sailing for the last test before leaving for combat. Russell marveled at what they had accomplished. He was tired, the men were tired, maybe they would be able to get some rest on the trip to the Pacific.