It Managed To Get Out Of There
After it escaped the attentions of this Japanese vessel, the Grayback managed to sink its first ship. It was a cargo vessel that weighed 3,291 tons. The second patrol of the sub had been relatively uneventful. It ended upon docking at the Western Australian port of Fremantle. This would serve as its base for most of its service. The next two South China Sea patrols had been blighted by enemy patrol boats, difficult seas, and moonlit nights. Despite this, she was able to hit an Axis sub and merchant ships when it was out in the water. Its fifth tour started after it sailed from the Land Down Under on December 7th, 1942.
It Managed To Get Out Of There
Nothing Quite Like It Out There
On Christmas Day of 1942, the sub surfaced and caught four landing barges unaware. The Grayback sank all of them. Four days after that, an enemy vessel fired torpedoes at it, but the crew of the American vessel took on evasive action. At the start of the new year, the sub launched an attack on an Imperial Japanese Navy craft called I-18. While it managed to escape unscathed, the U.S.S. Fletcher later sank it with depth charges in the month after this incident. All 102 crewmen on board died.
Nothing Quite Like It Out There