![]() “When it hit our stern, we went down fast. And the details are clearly imbedded in Leibold's memory: Any number of things could have happened. Possibly it was damaged during loading into the tube. Something just went wrong with the torpedo itself. “No one to this day knows what caused it to run erratic. “All of us on the bridge were concerned, but I don't think any of us fully realized it was heading back to hit us in the stern,” says Leibold, who served as chief boatswain's mate. The erratic torpedo continued to splash up and down like a porpoise in a semi-circle on the port side, as the sub built up speed to move out of harm's way. It flew out of the water and then went back down,” he recalls. “When we fired, the torpedo surfaced instead of running as it should have. In a tragic quirk of fate, as the Tang fired its 24th and final torpedo before heading home that October night, the torpedo malfunctioned. It earned the WWII reputation as the most lethal Allied sub in the Pacific. 25, 1944, the Tang was later credited with taking out 33 enemy ships, carrying out daring attacks and rescuing numerous downed airmen. The sailors were plucked out of frigid ocean water by a Japanese patrol boat after the sub had aggressively attacked its convoy in the Formosa Strait en route to the Philippines.Īfter sinking to its watery grave on Oct. Leibold was one of nine survivors of a crew of 87 on the Navy submarine, USS Tang. ![]() “I try not to think of those days,” says the Escondido resident, 97. ![]() His weight, he recalls, had dropped from 172 to less than 60 pounds. He had just been released from a secret Japanese military compound, known as the “torture farm,” after 10 months in captivity. Navy veteran William “Bill” Leibold remembers that time well. 2 marks the 75th anniversary of the formal Japanese surrender ceremony that officially brought World War II to an end.
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