A Day at the Races

Not since Doolittle led the raid on Tokyo has the U.S. had a glimpse inside Japan. On that occasion the enemy was seen running helter-skelter from a rain of bombs. Last week the U.S. Navy got a report of a peep through a periscope. The enemy was at a horse race.

It was a Sunday afternoon. Lieut. Commander Thomas Burton Klakring had run his submarine smack up to Japan's shore. Klakring raised his periscope. There was a big seaside town, a race track and a race, which "the whole town" had turned out to see. Klakring & crew placed some bets, "but we were just a little too far away to be sure which horse won." Anyhow, they were there to provide more exciting diversion for the people of Japan.

One day at dusk they maneuvered into the middle of a coastwise convoy of six cargo ships and three small naval vessels. Away went the sub's torpedoes and down went two Jap merchantmen. Klakring let his crew take a look through the periscope at "this very pretty sight." When the other Jap ships, panic-stricken, turned and raced for the shore, Klakring surfaced and gave chase. He dogged one ship into a cove and plumped a torpedo into her middle. It was a lucky hit at long range. But, said Klakring, a soft-spoken Marylander, "If I had missed her I would have hit a large power plant on the water's edge, where there was a tremendous tank of illuminating gas. I didn't have time to shoot at this, although it would have made a gaudy fire. Besides, I had another target."

His other target was one of the three remaining merchantmen, still outside the harbor. Coastal batteries lobbed shells at him, naval craft chased him as he ploughed off in pursuit of her. He submerged and let her have two torpedoes. "She sort of fell apart."

No Cheers. Life after that continued to be eventful. Klakring & crew spotted an 8,000-ton transport in a harbor entrance, navigated the dangerous waters inshore and sank their fifth victim. Next "we got in a tussle with seven ships, a convoy of armed merchantmen and naval auxiliaries, all firing at us. The battle . . . lasted an hour and a half, us in the middle of them all the time." Airplanes dropped depth bombs, which made a lot of noise but did no damage. This fight was also within sight of a staring audience on the shore, which inspired the mild Klakring and his crew. They sank a tanker and an armed freighter.

Before Klakring returned to Pearl Harbor he fell upon a cargo vessel plodding all alone up the coast. He torpedoed her and took her picture going down. The results of Klakring's single cruise: sunk, eight ships totaling 70,000 tons; damaged and possibly sunk, four totaling 20,000 tons.

Last week Washington announced the toll of Japanese ships in the Navy's merciless, little-publicized submarine campaign: sunk, 98; probably sunk, 22; damaged, 28. Like the beaches of the U.S. Atlantic coast, the neat white beaches of Japan were getting sprinkled with wreckage and soiled with oil.

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