US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

316 Arnpbibians Canze To Conquer
United States Amphibious Forces therein. So on the 800-mile run from
Auckland to the Fiji Island rendezvous, his 26-ship task force zigzagged
during daylight, but not during dark.
On 29 July 1942, Rear Admiral Turner wrote to Rear Admiral Crutchley,
who was concerned over the task force not zigzagging at night and possible
submarine attacks:
I agree that submarines are a menace in this operation, but not very much
so. The Japs have few submarines down here, and it is a very large ocean, so
these few cannot cover much of it. I do not believe we are likely to find any
in this immediate vicinity, though of course, I may be surprised. Ordinarily
we will zigzag during daylight.
I have considerably greater concern over the dangers of an air attack, than
over the dangers of a submarine attack, particularly in the early stages of the
action after arrival in the Tulagi Area.T4
However, Rear Admiral Crutchley was not dissuaded. On the next day
he replied:
As regards the Znd paragraph, your intelligence is probably much more
complete than mine, but we have had persistent reports of growing numbers
of submarines in the Rabaul area as well as reports of large and small
(R.O. Class or even Midget) submarines in the Solomons.
I regard the former as a menace at sea and the latter as a great menace
after we have arrived for their small size makes them very difficult to detect
by ASDIC. I hope that I shall prove wrong.”
Rear Admiral Crutchley very politely did not add that a Japanese submarine,
later learned to be I-169, had just sunk the Dutch Ship Tjingara
close to New Caledonia. The survivors had been picked up by the UN
Platte on 27 July 1942. Nor did he add that the Army Air Force had reported
the presence of midget submarines in the Solomons just as the task force
left Auckland, and regular-sized submarines off Santa Isabel Island only
60 miles from Guadalcanal as Task Force 62 moved towards Koro Island
in the Fijis.’e
The Japanese Navy reacted with their submarines to the 7 August
landings by ordering seven additional submarines from Truk to the lower
Solomons, and by concentrating in Indispensable Strait, which separates
Guadalcanal Island from Malaita Island to the northeast, those submarines
“ RKT to Rear Admiral Crutchley, RN, personal letter, 29 Jul. 1942.
n Crutchley to RKT, personal letter, 30 Jul. 1942.
m (a) USS Platte to COMAIRSOPAC 262010 Jul. 1942; (b) Hashimoto, p. 258; (c) CM-IN-
7335, 7/2 l/42, CM-IN–7634, 7/22/42, CM–IN–8247, 7/24/42. The Archives Branch of the
Federal Records Center, Suitland, Md.