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USS Bluegill (SS-242) WW2

Third War Patrol:
Bluegill sinks convoy, 18 October 1944

"Patrol No. 3 of sixty-eight days was broken by a brief stop in our advance base at Mios Woendi in northern New Guinea for refueling and rearming. Part one was very active and successful. Five vessels were sunk and three damaged. The Arabia Maru of 9,500 gross tons and a four-thousand-ton transport were sunk in a daylight submerged periscope attack of six torpedoes for four hits. In a counter-attack lasting one hour, Bluegill escaped serious damage. Such is official language. Behind that officialese is encompassed the emotions of many lifetimes-drama, near tragedy touching some seventy-five young men. Fear - someone has said, the man doesn't live who hasn't felt fear. I say the submariner who does not fear the depth-charge does not exist. That is an emotion common to all. The difference lies beyond that emotion. One man, through training, has acquired a confidence that raises him to heights unrevealed and unsuspected, where the next man may dissolve in a panicky reaction. The shape of his head or the size of his biceps is no key to his reaction. The key word is character. "Heart" or "guts" mean the same thing." Admiral Christie

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