1942-03-03
The loss of Perch
Java Sea, north of Surabaya
On the night of 1 March 1942, about thirty miles northwest of Surabaya, Amatsukaze and Hatsukaze found the submarine Perch on the surface. Hara had Amatsukaze. They depth-charged her and left her on the bottom. She was not sunk that night. Before sunrise on 3 March she could not dive. Ushio and Sazanami came up, and Ushio is the one said to have opened fire. The Navy loss report, written from the crew, says three destroyers opened fire and names none of them. Her own crew scuttled her, colors flying. All 59 got off. Ushio took them aboard. Six died later as prisoners. Fifty-three came home. Not credited to one destroyer. That same night Hara wrote that he saw a man light a cigarette on another surfaced submarine. That boat was not Perch. No Allied submarine is known to have been lost that night. The boat has not been identified.
A diagram of how this fight went will go here.
