THE JACK AT TOKYO

[Music] i'm rear admiral thomas m dyke is retired in cooperation with the department of defense we bring you another true and exciting submarine story we call it the jacket tokyo if it were fiction we might well call it the tight squeeze it is the story of a slender man with a stout heart who played the key role in an agonizing dilemma on june 5th 1943 the uss jack departed from pearl harbor with orders to attack shipping in the tokyo area this is her crew not only was this the first submarine but the first ship of any kind for most of them but months of intensive training had welded them into a fighting unit in addition to the officers there was a small group of old submariners to rally around among these was chief motor machinist's mate earl archer you didn't have to worry about the engines with archer in charge here at last was the forbidding coastline of japan nearby lay the busiest port in the empire tokyo the men of the jack prepared to carry out their orders sticking their heads right into the lion's mouth so to speak they worked dangerously close to the coast of honshu and they got action a convoy of merchant ships with escorts approached the captain maneuvered his submarine into a position between the escorts and the convoy and fire go hits pick up the escorts down paris go fall ahead fall emergency 200 feet 200 feet flat negative negative flooding [Music] the escort's speeding up turn on your speaker break for depth charge break for that charge [Music] he's passing overhead [Music] [Music] [Music] that string of charges cracked something in the main induction water's running out of the drain what is it archer i can't tell but it's a solid stream of the drain if you start pumping now those japs will hear us for sure see what you can do about 200 it captain break for silent running ready for asylum running break silent [Music] running [Music] another starter to run right four-wheeler all ahead one-third right full rudder all ahead one-third no maneuvering until further notice we'll get speed changes on the telephone maneuvering until further notice [Music] we will give speed changes on the telephone secure the steering water shift to hand steering assemble all houses from the control room ready to take turns at the wheel they're not going to last long with the blowers off i assert how about the gyro i'll secure that too and use my gutter compass was doing [Music] right full runner right full rudder [Music] okay [Music] you do i know the jabs can't hear us walk but if it makes anybody feel better it's worth doing they're coming in for another run left full rudder left full rudder [Music] so [Music] [Music] so okay well we'll until archer i want to report in that league that should have brought the japs but it didn't the depth charging got farther and farther away as the jack headed slowly toward deep water it's all clear we've given him the slip secure from silent running start the pump take charge jim i'll be in the engine room the leak somewhere in this 18-inch piping board runs outside the hull could be leaking in any of a dozen places about a hundred feet of piping from the corning tower of the engine room it can hold more than four tons of water for the leak's slow now but another depth charge and she could let go all at once and then we'd go down like a rock huh any luck we'll need luck to find this one captain um first time i've seen you stump dutch it's a new one on me captain trouble is on the surface she won't leak submerged we can't get out of it the same thing happened to me once in an ass boat took the navy yard to find it well we have two choices they're both bad we go home give the japs a free run or we can stay here and fight under handicap till we find the leak we stay we risk losing this ship i'm afraid that'll have to be it [Music] the japs were aware that they had failed to destroy the intruding submarine and all-out search was ordered utilizing planes and surface ships and even pt boats running with the current the wounded jack tried to put as much distance as possible between her and the point of attack she had submerged at four o'clock that morning it wouldn't be dark until 9 30. each hour grew more critical captain battery's getting pretty low hmm maybe darken up the service in about an hour last that long just about certainly not much longer how's the leak about the same maybe a little faster if anything well at least we haven't seen tojo's boys for the past three hours if our luck holds we'll make it after this morning we've got a change of luck coming now we can feel lucky about one thing the air conditioner we were down in one of the old boats this long would be swimming in our own sweat doesn't take the place of oxygen though captain we've picked up the sound of enemy search gear i've been able to see them yet the sound man says there's more than one shift they're bearing no one have a look up their skills [Music] i don't see anything could be submarines yeah maybe and the diving officer take it up three feet cleaner up three feet here's one of them looks like a nano submarine vessel here's another and another off the beam it's a hundred killer group that's strung in a line and we're dead ahead of them [Music] we can never run around them with what's left in the battery all we can do is go deep and hope they pass over without detecting us take it out of 300 feet go below tell lebron to shut down the air conditioning the ventilation blowers fans unnecessary lights and anything else we don't have to have i'll tell you how long this will last the hunter killer group came closer and closer spaced equally each side of the position of the jack she was perfectly bracketed the setup was too good to be true for the japs there's one on each side of us and one overhead i can hear us [Applause] [Music] propellers the propellers are stopped [Music] they've shifted to the sounding machine water's about a mile deep here they get a sounding at 300 feet they'll know they're over a and submarine making this heavy captain we'll either have to pump or speed up now boys here we go i saw you lose them or bring them that poor rudder all i had two thirds left full rudder all ahead two thirds the captain knew that jack's battery would take him only one more mile before he'd have to surface he also knew he was no match for a hunter killer group there was no alternative take stations for gun action keep the guns crew below and ready until i see whether or not they spot us hi sir [Music] surface [Music] open the hatch [Music] god hold your fire he's turning around [Music] doesn't see us guns pro secure the ship had been badly battered but in the next few days and nights everything was repaired but the elusive leak day by day it got worse on june 26 1943 the jack was faced with her severest test another submarine reported by radio that a heavily escorted convoy was headed their way you should be here about daylight this is the kind of spot we've always wanted to be in they don't know we're here and we know they're coming yeah i'd be better myself except for one thing that blasted lee you're playing around with escort vessels you need your full three strikes and we'll be starting the game with two against us one strikes all you need against these guys who knows we'll be working against the new pitcher tomorrow captain we're pretty busy aren't you gonna wait it's about the leak sir what about the lead i think i know how to find it shoot i believe i'm small enough to get inside that pipe we can open the big valve in the engine room and i'll crawl through it with a flashlight until i spot the leak i don't know archer that's pretty risky you'll have to make your way through 100 feet of pipe with water pouring in all the time you get hung up in there nobody can help you i'll take my chances suppose your body blocks the pipe the water builds up around you you'll drown i'll think of that captain but it's the only way to do it we all know that okay arch if we're gonna make those repairs tonight you better get started right away you ready i'm ready well lucky it's archer how's that captain he does get hung up in that pipe i don't think he'll lose his head people panic they swell up [Music] gotta have a shirt on sure i get scratched up in that fight ah like catch on something hold me back maybe you want to grease your shoulders and make it slide through easier it might make me lose traction in case i got hung up thanks anyway thanks after this you can strip my eye any time are you all set yeah that flashlight might get flooded in there how about a spare well i didn't think i could handle it so i take this one up to keep the water out i guess you're right archer good luck thank you open the hole [Music] so [Music] how you doing hodge you're gonna make it [Music] i don't see how he has room to move [Music] [Applause] [Applause] so [Applause] so [Music] have a look every couple of minutes jim let me know if he heads this way i answer [Music] how's what's roger doing okay watch okay [Music] march you're okay go keep an eye on it destroy it i think i hear yeah them do i see his feet [Music] so [Music] so i think i can fix it we'll do it tonight now when we tackle that convoy we'll have our full three strikes close the flapper ahead arch split my eye i'm about to strike any time boy anytime [Music] they worked all night to make the repair and prayed it would hold it was none too soon the convoy they were expecting was right on time clear the deck play the bridge die die [Music] that's secure [Music] level off at 60 feet we've got five ships in column and they're closed let's make it good up periscope ready all torpedo tubes on the double get this on the number two in column white bearing three two zero angle on the bow 60 starboard mark right 1800 yards estimated speed nine knots now on periscope i don't see any escorts what about those tubes all too ready sir i'm periscope how should you manage you 37. put around for me jeffy there she is mike barry 339 set [Music] fired in the melee that followed the jack sank the number two and number three ships in column and damaged the number four the last ship stayed well as stern of the action and ran in circles the skipper left his periscope up so that everyone could have a look at their kills as they went under the last ship steadied on a course directly for the jack's periscope the jack was headed for her down the throat angle on the bow zero mark the range one thousand yards suck while concentrating on this emergency they weren't aware that another player had sneaked into the game [Applause] [Music] must be busted says we're on the surface this one checks we are on the surface take her down miles she won't go on there go flood everything start the collision alarm [Music] range to the ship 200 yards 175 150. only a miracle could prevent the ramming but it happened the submarine started down with a lurch fallback emergency blowbar buoyancy blow out ballast tanks it was five miles deep here the jack plunged out of control her crew finally stopped her descent far below the depth her designers intended any deeper she would have collapsed like an eggshell the post-war record shows that the japanese claimed a sinking for those few sinking moments no one in the submarine would have argued the point the men of the uss jack didn't need to be told what might have been or rather what would have been except for the ingenuity and courage of a slender man with a stout heart who was not afraid of a tight squeeze now my privilege to introduce to you the man with the stout heart he was a chief petty officer then but he is now lieutenant commander early marcher united states navy mr archer did the show bring back any memories to you it sure did admiral when you make a patrol like that when you never forget it must have made you feel like you were there again it did but there's one big difference i'm sure of what's that pistachio i enjoyed it this time you would decorate for that patrol weren't you yes sir the bronze star medal well congratulations to you again and continued good luck to you thank you i was especially proud to present lieutenant commander archer to you because if it had not been for his unselfish heroism i wouldn't be here you see we were shipmates on this patrol of the jack i was his skipper [Music] so you