The Rescue

"The markers for the rendezvous and pick up appeared exactly on time and in the exact positions where we expected them. The orders given the CREVALLE called for surfacing at dusk. However, we decided our chances to escape a possible ambush were much better in daylight and therefore we surfaced just before sunset, about thirty minutes early. Colonel Abcede's party appeared almost immediately.

    "My orders stated that we would bring out twenty five passengers and no baggage. Colonel Abcede had the selected twenty-five refugees in the first canoe. He also however, had sixteen other refugees sitting in a second canoe. He said that he had done this in hopes to persuade us to carry more than the twenty-five. As many of the second group of refugees were women, children, and also included four American and Filipino soldiers who had survived the Bataan Death March , had made their escape from incarceration in Camp O'Donnell, Capas, Tarlac, Philippines . and desperately needed medical treatment. We agreed quickly to take them all and called for the other canoe to come alongside. We also took off the family of an American missionary, who having seen his family to safety, returned ashore at the last minute to continue his ministry among the guerrillas - much to the astonishment of his wife who expected him to accompany them to safety.

    "Colonel Abcede dressed in a freshly laundered and starched khaki uniform, (we all thought it strange for someone who was coming out of the jungle), boarded the submarine with the first load of refugees. He immediately established his own look outs, at bow and stern. He said he had observers in the hills. They would give us warning of the approach of any aircraft from the other side of the island. We loaded the parties through the after battery hatch that was attended by the Chief of the Boat (COB) Fred "The hook" Sutter. The operation was complicated because Abcede wanted to get as many supplies and equipment as he could finagle from us. As a result it was a two-way affair. We gave him all of our small arms with ammunition. We also gave him a number of assorted tools and other miscellaneous items that his ubiquitous crew could wrangle from us. Unfortunately, because of the added load of passengers, we could not give him any food. I learned later that one item that he requisitioned was a new typewriter ribbon.

    "We established the refugees in the forward torpedo room which was empty of torpedoes that we had used to sink some ships and a large tanker on route to the pick up spot. This allowed the refugees easy passage to the forward battery room, and for them to use the wardroom, as a lounge. The Chiefs evacuated the Goat locker (Chiefs quarters) in the forward battery room. The quarters had a door at its entrance and provided the women with a space for privacy. We fed them in the crew's mess, which required trooping them through the control room. This fascinated some of the children, who took to straggling and playing with the switches, on the interior electrical control panel. The Chief of the watch solved this by putting up a sign that read "Any children found in the control room without their mothers will be shot." The mothers read this to their kids, who seemed to take it as a matter of course. Considering that some of them could not remember when they were not fugitives and in the middle of a war, this is entirely understandable.

    "We entered Molucca Passage about dawn and shortly thereafter we encountered two suspicious looking bancas that we fired upon. The crews abandoned their small boats but no prisoners could be taken due to the already over-crowded conditions existing in the submarine. A Japanese bomber broke suddenly out of the clouds on 14 May 1944 while CREVALLE was approaching the Bangka Island Passage and dropped a bomb before the boat could fully submerge. No damage thankfully was sustained. My memory is that we surfaced shortly thereafter and that this same aircraft very quickly forced us down again. CREVALLE had started a battery charge before dawn but our battery was still lower than we would have liked. The boat had only two torpedoes left (in the after tubes) and we were not looking for anything but a quick passage to Darwin, Australia.

    "After the second dive from the aircraft, we sighted a large convoy on the horizon. At first, it appeared that it would pass us and we set a course to try to cut off the last ship in the column and expend our last two fish. However, very suddenly the convoy zigzagged and headed right for us. I have often pondered the reason for this maneuver. My superiors back in Perth Australia had the opinion that the aircraft had stayed in the vicinity of our dive and had sighted our periscope and alerted the convoy to our presence in the area. In any case, this put us in front of the evading vessels and very close to their two escorts who bore down on us. There was no opportunity to shoot so I flooded the negative tank and went deep. We were at about 90 feet when the first escort passed overhead. For what seemed to be a long time, nothing happened and indeed I ordered negative blown to hold depth. At this moment, however, the first pattern (I think there was only four) of the depth charges exploded. They were very close and were followed in very short order by a second pattern of equal severity. These were the only two attacks made by the escorts, but they left us in a very bad way with various pieces of equipment knocked out, including the two gyros, sonar and the bow planes. The submarine's bilges were filled to the floor plates in all compartments and it was, without a doubt, the most severe depth charging I had ever experienced.

   "Our sonar gear was knocked out and for a awhile and there were no more attacks. We thought perhaps that our pursuers had abandoned us. However, as soon as we got the sonar running, we found out that they were right on top of us. For the rest of the day they hunted CREVALLE while we gradually crept away from them. When we surfaced that night, they were still at the location that we had deserted, continuing to search for us.

    "For the passengers it was a most traumatic experience. One of the charges must have exploded close to the forward room because when we docked, we found that the hull was slightly dished-in on the starboard side. When the first charge went off, the vent risers from the forward ballast tank opened their joints from the shock and showered the passengers with water. When we finally got down to our running depth, we were heavy and carried a large up angle, which added to the refugee’s discomfort. It was necessary to cut down on lights and shut down the auxiliary machinery. This created a dark and eerie stillness throughout the boat. The atmosphere in the boat became very foul and the entire experience must have been horrible for them. I've often wondered how many of them thought that they would never see dry land again. In my report I said that their conduct was magnificent, and it was. We had no trouble with them at all. Our only trouble was with the Japanese and our damaged boat.

    "After we had eluded the escorts, we surfaced and found everything topside smashed. This included both periscopes and the radar, which essentially rendered us, blind and prevented us from getting into any more scrapes. We immediately put distance between the Japanese and us and charged our flat battery. The rest of the trip to Darwin to disembark the passengers on the 19th of May was without incident.

    "Along with the passengers we had recovered some important documents that were utilized in the liberation of the Philippines.
 
Note: The CREVALLE's Captain and crew did not know and did not find out until many years after the War that they were carrying the Japanese plans to annihilate the Allied fleet. These plans were one of the most significant enemy documents seized during the War. They were dispatched to General Mac Arthur's headquarters and utilized for the Battle of Leyte Gulf. "The Rescue" a book by Steve Smith has been written to chronicle the events of this most fortunate and important turn in the history of World War II.

The following account of these events is reprinted through the courtesies of the editors of the "Fairmile Association History Project " of Australia.