The Last Torpedo Sinking of World War II

On August 14, 1945 the last torpedo sinking of World War II by a U.S. submarine was carried out by USS Torsk (SS-423).

USS Torsk in Feb 1945 (from US Naval Historical Center)

Unaware that she was beginning her last and most successful day of war, Torsk was patrolling off Amarubi Saki on the morning of August 14, 1945 when she spotted a freighter accompanied by two escort ships and began to pursue the enemy. Plans for the attack had to be quickly modified as the freighter closed on the harbor at Kasumiko and Torsk had to open seaward to avoid entering the harbor. Torsk fired two torpedoes at the freighter, one of which exploded either on a shoal or on the harbor entrance anti-torpedo nets and the other missed the target. Alerted by the explosion, the two escorts moved to find and attack the submarine. Torsk defended herself by firing three torpedoes at the escorts, one at one escort and two at the other, sinking both escorts. As another anti-submarine ship and an airplane came out to continue the attack, Torsk made for deep water.

In this action, Torsk earned the distinction of sinking the last Japanese combatants of World War II, Coastal Defense Vessels No. 13 and No. 47, both Type C class escorts. 

Japanese Type C Escort (from the CombinedFleet.com website)

On August 15, 1945 Torsk received word of the ceasefire. A few days later she returned to Guam, then sailed on to Pearl Harbor, the Panama Canal, and finally to New London.

In the Remarks section of the patrol report, Torsk’s commanding officer, Cdr Bafford Lewellen, wrote:

The TORSK hereby lays claim not only to having sunk the last ship of the war, but to being the only ship to sink two enemy men-of-war on the last day before the final gong. Substantiation of these claims would be appreciated.

This request would later be granted by the Navy.

In addition to this being an interesting historical note, the action by Torsk also has a link to the Seattle Base in that one of our base members, Ervin Schmidt, was on board Torsk during that last attack.

Ervin Schmidt

Ervin is a great guy and has an interesting history. His Naval service reads like an adventure novel where the fictional character is always around important historical events. Ervin’s wartime story begins on December 7, 1941 when, as a crew member of the battleship USS California (BB-44), he witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. When the crew of the damaged battleship was doled out to other ships, Ervin ended up on the heavy cruiser USS Chicago (CA-29). While on Chicago, Ervin took part in the Battle of Coral Sea, the invasion of Guadalcanal, the Battle of Savo Island, and the Battle of Rennell Island, where Chicago was sunk by Japanese torpedo bombers. After that Ervin transferred to USS Saury (SS-189), making 4 war patrols on the sub. He was then rotated back to the US becoming a plankowner on USS Torsk and participated in the final U.S. submarine attack of World War II.

RM1 Ervin Schmidt (left) playing the guitar as Torsk returns from the second war patrol (from www.usstorsk.org)

While Ervin wasn’t at the official surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay, which would have been fitting, he was present at the first and last combat actions of the war, putting him in a pretty rare and historic group of people.