Figure 1: USS Mississinewa (AO-59) anchored in the Hampton Roads area, Virginia, on 25 May 1944. Photographed from a NAS Hampton Roads aircraft, flying at an altitude of 300 feet. The ship is painted in camouflage scheme Measure 32, Design 3AO. Official US Navy photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Mississinewa (AO-59) underway, circa May 1944. Ship is painted in camouflage scheme Measure 32, Design 3AO. Official US Navy photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Mississinewa (AO-59) burning and sinking at Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands on 20 November 1944, after she was hit by a Japanese "Kaiten" human torpedo. A small aircraft carrier (CVL) is anchored in the foreground. Official US Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
Figure 4: USS Mississinewa (AO-59) sinking at Ulithi Atoll, 20 November 1944. The capsized ship's bottom can be seen at the base of the flames, with bow or stern toward the left. NOTE: Identification provided above is provisional. The original caption reads: "Casualty at Iwo Jima -- While the battle raged ashore, a U.S. Tanker goes up in flame and smoke as the result of enemy action." The identity of this ship, if lost at Iwo Jima, is unknown. However, the circumstances seen in the photo appear to be correct for the loss of USS Mississinewa. The presence of many anchored cargo ships and oilers, plus the several fleet tugs and salvage ships, looks more like Ulithi Atoll than Iwo Jima. Official US Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Mississinewa (AO-59) sinking in Ulithi Atoll anchorage after she was hit by a Japanese suicide torpedo, 20 November 1944. Photographed by Storekeeper 1st Class Simon ("Sid") Harris, from on board USS Munsee (ATF-107). The original photograph was received from USS Ajax (AR-6) in 1987. US Naval Historical Center photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: Japanese "Kaiten" Human Torpedo photographed while on exhibit at Mystic Seaport, Mystic, Connecticut, in March 1970. This example, similar to the one that sank USS Mississinewa, was later transferred to Commander, Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet, for display at Pearl Harbor. US Naval Historical Center photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: Japanese "Kaiten" Type 1 Human Torpedo after recovery by US forces at Ulithi Atoll in 1945. This is the after half of the "Kaiten." The forward portion, including warhead, forward oxygen & fuel tanks and the crew compartment, is missing, and may have been destroyed after the warhead exploded. It is not known if this is the same “Kaiten” that destroyed USS Mississinewa. Official US Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: A destroyer-escort (DE) dropping depth charges while searching for Japanese submarines in Ulithi anchorage on 20 November 1944, following the sinking of USS Mississinewa (AO-59). A Fletcher class destroyer is steaming past in the foreground. Two light cruisers (CL) and several other ships are in the distance. Photographed from the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17). Official US Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: A destroyer-escort (DE) drops depth charges while searching for Japanese submarines in Ulithi anchorage on 20 November 1944, following the sinking of USS Mississinewa (AO-59). A Cleveland class light cruiser (CL) and other ships are in the distance. Photographed from the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17). Official US Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: Destroyer-escorts (DE) drop depth charges during the search for Japanese submarines in Ulithi anchorage following the sinking of USS Mississinewa (AO-59), 20 November 1944. A Fletcher class destroyer is in the left-center background and an anti-submarine net is in the distance. Photographed from the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17). Official US Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after a
river in Indiana, the 25,425-ton USS Mississinewa
(AO-59) was a Cimarron class oiler that was built by the Bethlehem-Sparrows
Point Shipyard at Sparrows Point, Maryland, and was commissioned on 18 May
1944. The ship was approximately 553 feet long and 85 feet wide, had a top
speed of 18 knots, and had a crew of 298 officers and men. Mississinewa was armed with two 5-inch guns, four 3-inch guns, four
40-mm guns, and four 20-mm guns.
After
completing her shakedown cruise in the Chesapeake Bay, Mississinewa steamed to Aruba, Netherland West Indies, on 18 June
1944. Once there, the ship filled her spacious oil tanks and on 24 June sailed
to the Pacific, arriving at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 10 July. Mississinewa then moved on to the
central Pacific, where she began providing fuel to ships of the US Navy’s Third
Fleet. At the time, the Third Fleet was attacking Japanese targets on the Palau
Islands, Leyte in the Philippines, and the island of Formosa (now Taiwan). Mississinewa continued supplying oil to
these ships until 19 October, when she sailed to her new base at Ulithi Atoll
in the Caroline Islands.
Mississinewa provided oil to ships near Ulithi
until 15 November, when she returned to base to replenish her fuel tanks. The
next day, Mississinewa was filled
with 404,000 gallons of highly combustible aviation gasoline, 9,000 barrels of
diesel oil, and 90,000 barrels of fuel oil. At 0547 hours on 20 November 1944,
while at the Ulithi anchorage, Mississinewa
was hit by a Japanese “Kaiten” human suicide torpedo, one of five launched from
submarines I-36 and I-47.
The initial
Kaiten, Type 1, human torpedoes were the first Japanese “special attack”
weapons, vehicles whose operational use involved the certain death of the crew,
though their first successful employment followed that of the “Kamikaze”
suicide aircraft by about a month. The Kaiten was a converted Type 93 24-inch
diameter torpedo which had a new 1-meter diameter forward section which
contained the warhead, additional fuel, and oxygen tanks. The “pilot’s”
compartment was grafted to the torpedo’s middle and after sections, producing
an overall length of just over 48 feet. Speed could be varied from 12 knots,
giving a range of some 85,000 yards, to 30 knots. Range at the higher speed was
about 25,000 yards. For guidance, the pilot had a short periscope. The Kaiten’s
large, 3,400-pound explosive warhead, more than three times the size of the
Type 93 torpedo’s original warhead, was capable of inflicting enormous damage
on the ship it hit. Over 300 Type 1 Kaitens were produced by Japan from 1944 to
the end of the war in 1945.
After the
Kaiten hit Mississinewa, a huge
explosion jolted the oiler. Massive flames immediately burst from amidships and
spread forward. Fanned by a light wind, the fire spread aft quickly. A few
minutes later, the fires reached the after magazine and another explosion,
heavier than the first, tore the ship apart.
Mississinewa was quickly
abandoned and soon was enveloped in flames shooting 100 feet in the air.
At
approximately 0900 hours, Mississinewa
slowly turned over and disappeared, taking 60 crewmen with her (a remarkably
small number given the size and strength of the explosions and resulting
fires). Fifteen minutes later, the oil fire on the water was out and several
escort ships inside Ulithi anchorage dropped depth charges on suspected sonar
contacts within the harbor. Whether or not any additional suicide torpedoes
were sunk by the escorts is not known.
