When Five Ships were Sunk in 30 minutes - Ramage's Rampage

This video was sponsored by Wren.

Sources:

Evan Mawdsley, The War For the Sea: A Maritime history of World War 2
Phillips Payson O’Brien, How the War was Won
Stephen Moore, Battle Surface
“Submarine Warfare: With Emphasis on the 1936 London Protocol”, International Law Studies – 60
Tales from the Diesel Boats -Wolfpack Operations – Vadm Lawson P. Ramage (Ret.)

Music Credits:

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

[questionmark]

Major respect for him giving recognition to the crew.

[adamdapatsfan]

I was most excited to see him give proper credit to his crew - the battle might be named after him, but he recognized that it took hard work from everyone involved.

[jerrymccrae]

I am VERY honored to have been a friend of ADM RAMAGE. He was very kind and answered all my many questions about the USS PARCHE and the subs he served on. RIP ADM. RAMAGE. I will never forget your words or kindness.

[tytaylor]

I'm a plankowner on the USS Ramage (DDG-61), named after VADM Ramage, commissioned in Boston Harbor, July '95...his widow was in attendance and instructed the crew to "Man Your Ship". Still gives me chills to this day.

[LokiLaughs]

Japan losing 2 oil tankers is far more painful that most people here imagine. Japan only started the war with 49 tankers and their logistics were stretched extremely thin before any casualties. The loss of 2 oil tankers at this point in the war would be worse than losing Musashi and Yamato.

[The_Starfleet_Ensign]

sometimes I have to imagine how much slower the Japanease would've been, had the US brought working torpedoes at their start of WW2

[Kitkat-]

The USS Tang is also a pretty awesome US sub. It once killed 4 ships with a single spread of torpedoes. Another time, when attacking a heavily defended convoy, it surfaced in the middle of the convoy and fired torpedoes in all directions like the death blossom from The Last Starfighter, accelerated at the last moment to narrowly avoid being rammed by two enemy ships and causing them to ram each other, the Tang then fired its aft tubes into the two Japaness ships and sunk them as well. The Tang also holds the record for the most kills in a single sortie, at ten sunk ships, having expended every single torpedo in its hold. The Tang had a reputation for a daring captain and excellent accuracy with its torpedoes, despite the unreliability of US torpedoes in the war.

[hethinkshesfunny]

My Father served on 6 patrols including this one. He never spoke unless he had a couple of swigs. However the Parche was mostly a tight crew right on through many conventions. The Parche conning tower and mast are both on display in Pearl. My dad is truly my hero along with his shipmates who signed a blank check to serve this great country!

[shawnheidingsfelder]

Loading torpedoes in those small WWII era subs was hard enough in calm times, submerged. Having to do it fast while rocking around in choppy water while getting shot at must have been insane.

[Rossem]

I am not sure if it’s mentioned here but what is unique in his attack is that at that time you would have had to dive below the surface to Load torpedos. Had they done that, they would have died. He ordered the crew to manually load the torpedos above water so they didn’t have to waste time diving below. That crew did amazing things and there was an amazing sense of forever family of every crew member on that ship. Thank you parchee crew!

[electrosindustries]

Just have to say that the unconfirmed hit happening just offscreen is an act of genius.

[Gallagherfreak]

US subs adopted the night surface attack, perfected by Otto Kretchmer, a U Boat ace, early in the war against Great Britain. The U boats pretty much abandoned this tactic, as convoy escorts, and anti submarine war planes were outfitted with radar, taking the night advantage away from the U Boats. Luckily for the US subs, few Japanese escort ships were equipped with radar.

[mafiousbj]

The "sad" thing about US submarine service in WW2 is that due to the secrecy of their operations (while German U Boat attacks were widely reported on the news) their achievements are rarely talked about...and arguably they sank bigger value targets than the Germans did in the Atlantic (capital ship wise of course).

Thanks for covering this. To a foreigner this is a fasctinating topic!

[operaguy]

Thank you for clearly enunciated human voiceover and lack of stupid music. That is top professional.

[MrSoccerball]

2 things really stuck out for me in this amazing attack. 1) Was the skillful maneuvering of the sub to avoid the collision and 2) the ability to reload with the water being so violent which was extremely risky but from what I read the crew had drilled for that exact scenario and pulled it off flawlessly. Stories like this make me so proud of my country.

[mereth]

Incredible credit to those torpedo teams - that reload time is unbelievable, especially on a Balao-class sub, and doubly so unsubmurged.

[pp]

Excellent video. My Grandfather, retired CPO, was a forward torpedoman during this action, one of his three submarine war tours. I remember him describing and diagramming this battle, and I have his Presidential Unit Citation and most of his service records. Grear memories, thank you.

[stevenmccart]

That was a particularly good crew to complete a mission like that. How gracious a captain he must have been to acknowledge his crew and how important a great crew is. Salute to all aboard.

[PlymouthVT]

Damn...all in 34 minutes. What incredibly brave sailors & Captain. I love this channel so entertaining and well done I can watch the same video over and over.

[dcxplant]

I had no idea about US submarines in the Pacific. Thank You!! Wonderfully done, and I was on the edge of my seat.