USS Atule (SS/AGSS-403), a Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the atule.
Construction and commissioning
Atule′s keel was laid down on 25 November 1943 by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. Atule was launched on 6 March 1944 sponsored by Miss Elizabeth Louise Kauffman, the daughter of Rear Admiral James L. Kauffman, and commissioned on 21 June 1944.
Service history
United States Navy
World War II Following a month of shakedown training along the east coast, the submarine departed New London, Connecticut, and headed south to join the action in the Pacific. During a 15-day stopover at the Fleet Sound School in Key West, Florida, she sharpened her diving skills and fighting techniques. After transiting the Panama Canal, Atule steamed to Pearl Harbor with , training intensively en route to reach a peak of combat readiness. Upon her arrival at Pearl Harbor, Atule underwent voyage repairs and torpedo training into October.
On 9 October, Atule departed Pearl Harbor on her first war patrol in company with and Jallao. Under the command of Commander Bernard Clarey in Pintado, the three boats formed a wolf pack known as "Clarey's Crushers". Atule trained with Jallao and Pintado as they traveled westward. On 11 October, Atule picked up two radar contacts, tracked them, and maneuvered around them before identifying the contacts as and . The pack arrived at Tanapag Harbor, Saipan, on 21 October, refueled, made minor repairs, and departed early the next day. On 25 October, the wolf pack made its first score when Jallao hit light cruiser Tama and sent her to the bottom. That Japanese warship already had been damaged in the Battle off Cape Engaño and was part of the broken Japanese carrier-centered fleet retiring to the north. The wolf pack then spent two more days vainly searching for enemy vessels crippled during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The boats then set course for their patrol sectors in Luzon Strait and the South China Sea.
Over the next few days, Atule made but lost several ship contacts. Shortly after midnight on 1 November, she established surface radar contact on a fast-moving escorted transport and moved in for the kill. Despite rain squalls and heavy seas, Atule was able to close the transport and fire six torpedoes. The first hit caused a terrific explosion which threw flaming material high in the air. When one of the transport's escorts began to close the submarine, she began a crash dive but still managed to hear a second explosion as she submerged. Nine depth charges exploded in the vicinity, but none was close enough to damage Atule. The crew in the submarine heard loud breaking up noises and upon surfacing, found a large oil slick and much debris. Atule was later credited with sinking the Asama Maru.
Atule continued her patrol, covering the Hong Kong-Manila traffic lane in the South China Sea and occasionally breaking off to investigate a contact report or to take special scouting dispositions by order of the pack commander. On 3 November, Jallao reported a five-ship force heading south, and the wolf pack moved to intercept. The contacts were moving at , and Atule was never able to come within range for attack. However Pintado had better luck. That submarine's target was thought to be a large escorted oiler (actually the aircraft carrier Jun'yō), but before her torpedoes could strike the oiler crossed their path and disintegrated in a tremendous explosion which was seen and heard on board Atule. The smoke screen provided by the ensuing fires protected the target, and Pintado was forced to withdraw.
During the next ten days, the wolf pack occasionally sighted ships or aircraft, but was unable to attack. On 13 November, Jallao reported an enemy ship. Pintado and Atule altered course to intercept the contact, and at 0850, Atule sighted what appeared to be the foretop of a battleship. At 1000, the enemy contact was established as an aircraft carrier, a heavy cruiser, and one destroyer. Atule maneuvered to approach the force as closely as possible, hoping that the enemy ships would initiate a "zig-zag" course which would bring them within range of her torpedoes. The Japanese force indeed did begin to "zig-zag", but, instead of making them vulnerable, the maneuver took the force out of range. At 1115, contact was lost.
Later that day and throughout the next, the submarine played a game of hide and seek with Japanese planes equipped with radar and magnetic detection devices. During this hunt, the Japanese covered all of the wolf pack's radio frequencies and intruded in Japanese as well as English, asking the Americans to "come in, please" in their best imitations of American aviators. Atule was forced to dive, zigzag, and run to evade these planes which dropped 14 depth charges. None came close to Atule, but was severely damaged. After a circuitous route to avoid Japanese planes, Atule began patrolling her assigned scouting station west of Formosa.
There, until after midnight on 20 November, she made only aircraft contacts. The submarine then sighted a slow moving surface vessel and moved in to attack. The night was dark, and the sky, clear. The enemy, identified later as Minesweeper Number 88, was protected by a squall during the early phase of Atule approach, but was perfectly silhouetted against a clear horizon when the submarine fired four torpedoes. The third torpedo hit at the forward stack with a terrific explosion. The target was down by the bow, and, less than three minutes after the hit its stern reared up as the ship slid under, depth charges exploding as she went down.
On 24 November, Atule sighted by periscope one transport with three escorts heading northeast toward Sabtang Island. The submarine surfaced at dark and set course to intercept the transport shortly after midnight. As she set her sights on the target, one of the escorts also moved into view. Atule fired six bow tubes and two stern tubes at the overlapping targets, scoring two hits on each. The escort, later identified as Patrol Boat Number 88, was claimed destroyed but survived the attack; and the transport, a 7,266-ton cargo ship named Santos Maru, went dead in the water. Atule moved out of range of the other two escorts which were wildly searching the area. The transport disappeared from view and from radar and the submarine returned to patrol.
On 27 November, a radar contact and subsequent visual sighting of a ship at anchor between Dequey Island and Ibuhos Island gave Atule another chance for action. Approaching from the north of Dequey Island, Atule closed the transport to and fired four torpedoes. The four hits spread the length of the ship; and, in the ensuing fire, the port side was seen to be blown almost completely away. The ship was racked by violent oil and ammunition explosions, and the flames were visible 15 miles away. One hour and eight minutes after the first hit, the ship blew apart. However, Atule was never officially credited with this sinking, because a postwar study of Japanese records did not substantiate the loss.
On 28 November, the submarine left her patrol station and headed for Majuro Atoll for refit alongside . Arriving on 11 December, Atule ended a highly productive first patrol in which she accounted for almost 27,000 tons of enemy shipping destroyed.
Atule spent December in upkeep and training, including a six-day coordinated convoy exercise with , , and Jallao. On 6 January 1945, she departed Majuro in company with these same ships, Commander Gordon W. Underwood in Spadefish as group commander. En route to Saipan, "Underwood's Urchins" conducted training dives, emergency drills, and radar tracking exercises.
After a brief stop in Tanapag Harbor alongside , Atule headed for her patrol area in the Yellow Sea. Since Pompon and Jallao were delayed she sailed in company with Spadefish, , and . Prior to her arrival in the patrol area, Atule took part in a fruitless search for downed aviators. Reports of sightings of the survivors were not in agreement, and the approximate location could not be determined. The search was abandoned on 17 January. Pompon joined the pack on 20 January, and, the next day, they entered the Yellow Sea.
While on patrol, Atule sighted many sampans and fishing boats, but could not strike a blow at the Japanese fleet until 24 January. On that afternoon, she commenced tracking a merchant ship. At periscope depth, the target was lost in a snow squall, so Atule came to radar depth to regain contact, closed for a stern shot, and fired four torpedoes. Two hit their marks, one abreast the stack, the second near the aftermast. The ship settled rapidly by the stern. The crew hastily abandoned the ship in time to see the stern break off and disappear. The forward section of the ship bobbed like a cork, so Atule surfaced to finish off the freighter with gunfire. The freighter returned fire, and the submarine fired another torpedo which missed the target. Atule retired to await nightfall, when she again failed to sink the hulk with gunfire. She loosed another torpedo, which hit amidships, and the freighter began settling by the bow. Atule left the empty hulk in a vertical position with the midship section high in the air. After the war her victim was identified as Taiman Maru Number 1.
Atule was assigned to patrol in the northern part of the Yellow Sea. The seas were heavy, and the snow and wind combined to create blizzard conditions. After four days, she shifted to the southwest corner of the sea between Korea and China. On 27 January, Pompon reported a convoy contact and, together with Spadefish, attacked. Atule was too distant to join in, but heard several explosions. Early the next day, she gained contact on a medium transport trying to escape the area of the attack of the previous day, and she gave chase until shoal water and the presence of an enemy escort forced her to veer off.
Floating naval mines became Atule new targets. During the rest of her patrol, she sighted 29 mines, 23 of which she sank by gunfire, and one which bounced harmlessly down the submarine's side. Atule patrolled the Chinese and Korean coastlines and traffic lanes until 22 February, when she headed for Saipan where she once again moored alongside Fulton. On 28 February she left Tanapag Harbor bound for Midway Island, where she moored on 7 March.
After refit alongside , Atule conducted extensive drills in multiple fire torpedo attacks, gunfire, sound training and evasion exercises. On 2 April, she departed Midway, bound for Guam. After one day alongside in Apra Harbor, the submarine departed on 12 April for her patrol area off Bungo Suido. covered the east entrance and Atule the west. The patrol consisted almost entirely of lifeguard duty and mine destruction. On 4 May, she sighted an enemy submarine but it escaped before Atule could close for attack. On 5 May, Atule and a B-29 Superfortress "Dumbo" plane—which carried an airborne lifeboat for air-sea rescue operations—conducted a coordinated attack on two Japanese planes. Atule acted as "fighter" director and vectored the Superfortress to the Japanese planes. She then submerged and watched as one plane fled and one was shot down in a very unusual dogfight. Atule rescued one badly burned Japanese flier from the wreckage. The war patrol ended on 30 May when Atule arrived at Pearl Harbor for a three-week refit by .