16 Jul 1942

French Indochina
  • The USS Seadragon (Lieutenant Commander W. E. Ferrall, USN) sighted a Japanese transport ship at 0923 hours, beraing 301-degrees at a range of 16,000 yards. 10 minutes later, Seadragon sighted a convoy of four ships. The submarine sped toward the convoy, and once in attack position, fired two torpedoes at the second ship in the column from a range of about 1,250 yards; both missed, hitting the beach beyond after almost 5 minutes. All ships in the convoy then turned toward USS Seadragon and started firing their guns. Two more torpedoes were fired from the stern at the last ship of the column at the range of about 2,750 yards. The ship, 5,303-ton Japanese transport ship Hakodate Maru, en-route from Taiwan to Bangkok, Thailand, was struck by both of them and sank 2 miles off the coast north of Cape Varella, French Indochina. Seadragon meanwhile had submerged to 100 feet. At 1052 hours, Seadragon returned to periscope depth and could see only three ships. After the sinking, Seadragon set sail for Fremantle, Australia. ww2dbase [Seadragon | Hoa Tam, Annam | CPC, HM]

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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