Sunk by Potato! The Odd Story of the USS O'bannon the American Destroyer that Sunk a Japanese Submarine with Produce in 1943
In the middle of the night during April of 1943, while cruising off the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean, lookouts aboard the heavily armed destroyer USS O’bannon spot an unusual silhouette in the distance. The O’bannon is attempting to return to its home port after having engaged in shelling of Japanese positions in support of the American amphibious invasion of New Georgia Island, and all hands are on edge, and on the lookout, for signs of enemy naval activity. In the darkness members of the ship’s crew notice that the odd silhouette is creeping closer and closer until it’s nearly astride their ship itself. What the crew is seeing is the silhouette of the Japanese submarine RO-34. The RO-34 is a small submarine by the standards of the Second World War, one of a fleet of tiny “midget” submarines that the Japanese Navy uses to infiltrate and wreak havoc on unsuspecting American shipping convoys, but when it is first...