HIJMS Submarine RO-101: Engagements with USS Taylor 12 July 1943 Kula GulF: RO-101 is on the surFace recharging her batteries at approximately 08-00S, 157-19E. At 1650, Cdr (later Rear Admiral-Ret) Benjamin Katz’s USS TAYLOR (DD 468), escorting a convoy, picks up a contact on her SG radar. At 1654, the destroyer’s lookouts have a visual ID on the submarine’s conning tower 2,500 Ft away. TAYLOR illuminates the target with her searchlight and opens Fire. RO-101’s torpedo oFFicer, Lt Tokugawa Hiromu (65) and two lookouts are killed with the First hits. LtCdr Orita has to drag their bodies away beFore he can descend into the conning tower and close the upper hatch, so that the submarine can Finally dive. RO-101 dives to 460 Feet. Orita orders the main tanks blown in an attempt to stop the sinking. [2] At 1710, TAYLOR drops two more depth-charges that render periscope No. 1 inoperable. RO- 101 remains submerged For the next two hours. The temperature aboard rises to +104 F (+40 C). Towards evening, RO-101 surfaces and proceeds to the NW coast oF Kolombangara Island For makeshiFt repairs. Inspection oF the boat indicates numerous dents in the hull and that the periscope must be replaced. AFter sunset, her crew hears heavy gunFire and observes several searchlight beams (Battle oF Kolombangara). RO-101 is ordered to rescue the survivors From JINTSU, but cannot execute it. 18 August 1943: The Battle off Horaniu Rear Admiral (Vice Admiral, posthumously), the Baron, Ijuin Matsuji (Former CO oF KONGO) leads SAZANAMI (F), HAMAKAZE, ISONAMI and SHIGURE screening 13 Daihatsu barges and three motor torpedo boats. They are carrying IJA and SNLF troops From Buin to Horaniu on Vella Lavella, Bougainville. Captain Thomas Ryan is dispatched to intercept the Japanese with the NICHOLAS (DD 449), O'BANNON (DD 450), CHEVALIER (DD 451) and TAYLOR (DD 468). At 0040, a Japanese scout plane drops Flares and illuminates the American destroyers 15,000 yards W oF the convoy. Between 0046 and 0055, Ijuin's destroyers launch 31 torpedoes at the Americans, but Ryan turns into them and they all miss. Both sides open Fire, but the range is long and the gunFire is ineFFective. The convoy scatters. Admiral Ijuin withdraws to the NW. Ryan sinks two small subchasers, but the barges later rescue 9,000 Japanese troops From Kolombangara. About 0100, in RO-101, LtCdr Orita spots gunFire Flashes to the north through his periscope. At 0200, his sound operator picks up destroyer screws coming down the “Slot”. Orita quickly sets up and at a range oF only 600 yards Fires Four torpedoes at the second destroyer, but they all pass astern! The destroyer is making 30 knots, much Faster than Orita calculated. 15 September 1943 S entrance to Indispensable Strait, Guadalcanal: A submarine attacks a convoy oF two cargo ships en route to Espiritu Santo. At 1011, the convoy’s escorts, old Four-stack minelayer USS MONTGOMERY (DD 121) and Cdr B. F. Brown’s new SAUFLEY (DD-465) sight a torpedo wake. MONTGOMERY’s sound gear is inoperative, so SAUFLEY begins to search down the track oF the torpedo’s wake. At 1251, she makes sonar contact at 3,000 yards. Over the next three and one-halF hours, SAUFLEY makes Five depth charge attacks. At 1443, the submarine surFaces. SAUFLEY’s five-inch batteries and machine guns open up on her conning tower. Overhead, Lt W. J. Geritz’s PBY-5 “Catalina” patrol bomber oF VP-23 joins the attack and drops two depth charges. The First charge misses, but the second hits. At 1446, the submarine —in all likelihood RO-101 — disappears, then the destroyer’s crew hears a heavy underwater explosion. By 1735, a diesel oil slick covers a square mile oF the ocean at 10-57S, 163-56E. .