The Fifth War Patrol

    CREVALLE departed on 1 September 1944 refitted once again by the submarine repair unit at Fremantle, with Lieutenant Commander Frank Walker Commanding Officer and Lieutenant William J. Ruhe as his Executive Officer. The boat was outbound for the The Flores Sea .

    It was exactly one year from the day that she would leave the States and head for the war in the Pacific.  In the year just completed, her skippers had earned a Navy Cross on each patrol and the crew was awarded the Submarine Combat Pin with three stars for the CREVALLE'S four highly successful war patrols.  The pin meant that on each, patrol, one or more Japanese ships had been sunk.

The Fifth War Patrol Sailing List:

    The CREVALLE was a badly battered boat and its crew needed rest and rejuvenation. Therefore, the boat for this war patrol was ordered to swing up through the Philippines on patrol and then on to Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for transit repairs. The boat would then proceed to Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California for an extensive overhaul and modernizing.  The submarine's problems started soon out of Fremantle.  En route to Darwin for supplies, and fuel, a very smoky fire broke out in the forward torpedo room, but it was quickly extinguished.  A shorted electrical coil in the JT sonar unit had caused the dilemma. The air-conditioning system had broken down so close to the equator, that the boat was saturated with humidity. This saturated air probably led to the coil shorting from excessive moisture. However all repairs were made at Darwin, the sonar restored and CREVALLE was again underway for her patrol.

    At dawn on 11 September big trouble started.  After making a successful trim dive, CREVALLE was making a 10-degree up angle full powered surface. This rapid surface was necessary, so that the first person could ascend the ladder quickly, get on the bridge and search for any nearby patrol aircraft. If one was spotted the boat could be submerged promptly before the plane could attack.  The sub was in sight of Makassar City, Philippines where the Japanese had a very large airfield, with a bevy of patrol aircraft constantly arriving and departing.

    What happened next is brilliantly described by retired Captain William J. Ruhe who was CREVALLE'S Executive Officer at the time, in his wonderful book "WAR IN THE BOATS" " My WW II Submarine Battles".

    "Through the periscope I watched the bow break the surface and toss the seas off the forward part of the boat.  At that moment, the quartermaster, on verifying that the upper hatch was well out of the water, by checking the depth gauge, hammered the dogs on the hatch loose.  As the hatch sprung open and only drippings of water were coming through the opening, Bill Fritchen, gunners mate second, nimbly scrambled to the bridge from his position at the top of the ladder.  Lieutenant Howard (Jim) Blind the officer of the deck (OOD) followed close behind.  But just as the third man, a lookout, was heading up the ladder to the bridge, a torrent of water poured through the upper hatch.  The solid mass of sea water entering the boat washed both he and another lookout below him on the ladder, down through the lower hatch and into the control room.  I shouted "Blow all ballast and we could hear the air going into the tanks, but to no avail.  When I swung the scope to dead ahead, the bow had disappeared below the surface and a sharp down angle had taken over the boat.  CREVALLE was inadvertently diving.

    The quartermaster of the watch tried to pull the lanyard on the upper hatch.  He hoped to pull the hatch off its catch and get it shut.  But he was swept down into the control room as well.  This left only the helmsman, who had to back away from the wheel because of the torrent of water and myself still in the conning tower.  The two men on the bridge were still topside and unaccounted for.

   Unless one of the hatches could be closed, CREVALLE was going to the bottom.  A glance at the depth gauge showed the boat passing eighty-five feet and going deep rapidly. The conning tower was filling rapidly with seawater.  I dove down to the control room hatch and saw that it could not be closed from the room, because there was floor matting stuck in the opening.  I tried to get it out of the opening but to no avail.  When I came back up a glance at the depth gauge showed 130 feet and still submerging.  The boat was vibrating from the power now being applied to the screws.  CREVALLE was backing with maximum emergency turns.  My ears had become painful from the great pressure being built up in the conning tower bubble of trapped air.

    I made another attempt at pulling the floor matting out of the lower hatch but it was futile.  Just then the upper hatch closed with a loud bang and the rushing water noise stopped.  I thought to myself that God had closed the hatch!

    The depth gauge showed 190 feet and the inclinometer had a forty-two-degree down angle when CREVALLE started toward the surface. She shot up stern first and then squatted flat on the ocean.  I then opened the upper hatch and on a quick observation I could see Jim's motionless head about twenty yards off the starboard bow while Gunners Mate Fritchen was ahead waving his arms vigorously.  The Captain came to the bridge and sent me below so that the Pharmacist Mate could have a look at me.   He conned the boat to rescue the two men in the water.  They were successful in retrieving Bill Fritchen, but soon lost sight of Jim Blind (later it was learned that Jim could not swim).  "Rest your oar sailor!"

    Upon questioning the crew, it was discovered that the stern plains had jammed in a full dive position and caused the boat to start downward after the initial surfacing. The high speed CREVALLE surfaced at contributed to the mishap, by driving the bow back under the water. It was also learned that the vents had not been shut and that would explain the lack of the boat checking itself from diving, when we tried to blow the main ballast tanks.

    The sub was a mess and it took an all hands bucket brigade to get all of the water out of the pump room that was located under the control room and dump it topside and over the side.  The boat was slowly dived by hand, as all hydraulic power was gone.  The trim, drain, and hydraulic pumps are located in the pump room. With their motors all shorted out with seawater they were completely useless.  The crew worked gallantly to restore the sub to an acceptable operating condition, for the slow trip back to Darwin for emergency repairs. 

The radio shack is in the port rear section of the control room and it was completely flooded out. As CREVALLE had no radio equipment up and running for better than a week, no communications with its base usually meant that the submarine is assumed overdue and possibly lost?  A patrol boat spotted us outside of the harbor and radioed Darwin that we were on the way in. A large group of people with a band met the boat at the pier.  They all wanted to see the overdue and possibly sunk submarine that had survived its ordeal.  CREVALLE arrived on 15 September 1944. After emergency repairs the boat was offered a tow but they refused. Opting to slowly limp back with the USS COUCAL (ASR 8) as an escort to Fremantle.  Henceforth, members of the Submarine force reverently referred to the CREVALLE as the creeping CRE.  Submariners feel that it's better to crawl in to port that to be towed in by a "target" (surface craft). CREVALLE arrived at Fremantle on the 22nd of September and the USS EURYALE (AS 22)  performed necessary repairs to once again return the boat to an operating condition.

    A board of inquiry was convened in Fremantle while the boat was undergoing emergency measures to get her to Pearl Harbor .  The board found that no one was to blame for the disaster.  They determined that the chance failure of the stern plains to come out of full dive, along with the high speed of the boat surfacing and as was the custom at that time, to have the main vents open to quickly submerge in an emergency, had caused the mishap.  There was nevertheless strong evidence that Lieutenant Howard J. Blind, USNR had sacrificed his life, by staying at the conning tower hatch, until he had unlatched it.  This courageous action allowed the hatch to close with the flow of water and thereby helped to save CREVALLE with his shipmates inside. For his unselfish and courageous action, Lieutenant Howard J. Blind was awarded the Navy Cross, posthumously

    It was also discovered that Motor Machinist First Class (MoMM1c) Robert L. Yeager, USNR unable to get in contact with any officer, took matters into his own hands. Ascertaining that standard speed was still rung up, he ordered, "All back full". This checked CREVALLE'S downward plunge and removed the appalling angle on the boat. In thinking at top speed and acting even faster to give that one command, Yeager undoubtedly saved the submarine from certain disaster. MoMM1c Yeager was awarded the Silver Star and congratulated for the "initiative" and "Presence of mind" with which he manned the phone and gave the appropriate order. The Board of Inquiry noted that "His experience as battle-station stern planesman since CREVALLE'S commissioning had probably qualified him better than any other man on board to make such a decision".

    Actually, Yeager had little time to do any deliberate "deciding" in those flying few seconds of uproar and emergency between the moment CREVALLE plunged and the moment he reached the phone. He was there in a flash, hand on button. In another flash he had given the order. These were motor responses, and the right ones. Hand and mind in the groove after months of training, days of practice and routine exercises, hours of drill, drill, drill. The motor machinist's mate was a trained professional who saw the right thing to do and did it instantaneously.

    A world famous concert pianist made the following statement.   "If I omit my practicing for one day, I know the difference. If I miss it for two days, the critics know it. And if I miss it for three days, the audience knows it."  As we have seen this was a perfect demonstration concerning reflex action and the automatic ability to do the right thing at the right moment.

    Most of the boats in the Submarine Fleet utilized this high speed-surfacing maneuver with main vents open ready to flood negative in the event of an enemy airborne attack. This was standard operating procedure when suspected hostile aircraft was observed to be lurking nearby.  The question can be poised, that if this happened to CREVALLE, how many of the "lost cause unknown" submarines, could have met their fate in a similar manner.  The only difference was that some courageous and lucky circumstances transpired that saved CREVALLE from certain sinking with the death of all hands aboard her.

    More than one submarine surfaced with open vents, and because of the lessons learned from this near disaster it became customary throughout the submarine service for all diving officers to report, "Ready for surfacing. "Vents shut". The second announcement was inserted as a reminder. It also became the custom to surface with the lower conning tower hatch shut, to minimize possible flooding of the control room if the upper conning tower hatch jammed open and water was flooding the conning tower. All submarines of this class had a tank called Safety and it carried the equivalent amount of water that could fill the coning tower. In an emergency this tank could be blown to compensate for the extra weight brought on board by this flooding.

    CREVALLE once again sailed for Mare Island Naval Shipyard, San Francisco, California, via Pearl Harbor for a long overdue overhaul.  She left Fremantle on 22 October 1944, spent 6 to11 November in Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for transit repairs, and arrived at Mare Island on 18 November 1944.

On 23 December 1944, Commander Frank Walker Jr., USN, was relieved as Captain by Commander Everett Steinmetz, USN,  Lieutenant Commander William Ruhe detached CREVALLE and took over command of The USS STURGEON (SS 187).  The STURGEON was the boat that, upon sinking her first ship, her Captain sent the message "STURGEON no longer a virgin."  From then on "Virgin Sturgeon" became a frequently used expression by United States Submarine sailors.

     After completing an extensive overhaul at Mare Island Shipyard, the submarine left San Francisco on 14 February 1945. CREVALLE engaged in a week's services off Monterey, California, in connection with aircraft (ASW) training under the direction of Commander Fleet Air, Alameda Naval Air Station. CREVALLE then proceeded directly to Pearl Harbor. Upon arrival at Pearl Harbor, the usual updating and training was completed and CREVALLE was ready for her reentrance into the War.