Wreck of HIJMS Tade (蕨) / Patrol Boat No. 39 | Second World War 1939-1945, navy, shipwreck, destroyer (ship)

 Second World War 1939-1945, navy, shipwreck, destroyer (ship)

HIJMS Tade was a Momi Class Destroyer laid down in 1921 and commissioned into service with the Imperial Japanese Navy in July 1922. Based at Maizuru, the Tade made routine patrols in support of the peacetime operations of Imperial Japan before she served as a convoy escort to troopships during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937.

Deemed to be too old and outdated for frontline service as a Destroyer in 1939, the Tade was decommissioned and entered drydock at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal for conversion into a Patrol Boat. After having one of her boilers, all torpedo tubes, aft 4.7-inch main gun and minesweeping gear removed and more anti-submarine depth charges added, the former Tade emerged from the shipyard in April 1940 and was redesignated as Patrol Boat #39 assigned to the Sasebo Naval District.

Conducting anti-submarine patrols off Sasebo for a little more than a year PB #39 returned to the yard for further conversion work which included the addition of a Stern ramp to carry and launch a 46-ft Daihatsu landing craft, the removal of her aft funnel and alterations to her former boiler room to accommodate for up to 150 troops. With her second major alteration completed in November 1941, she put to sea in convoy with other elements of the Celebes Invasion Force and steamed for the Dutch East Indies. Taking part in the Invasions of Menado and Kendari on Celebes and then Ambon Island in January and February 1942, PB #39 then steamed for New Guinea and participated in landings at Fak-Fak, Babo, Sorong, Manokwari, Moemi, Nabire, Seroei, Sarmi and Hollandia in March and April 1942 before she retired to Rabaul.

Resuming the role of convoy escort, PB #39 began screening convoys of reinforcements and supplies around Rabaul for the balance of 1942 before sailing for Mako and Takao in Formosa where she continued her convoy escort service into 1943. Based at Takao full-time starting in March 1943, PB #39 and her crew received a distress call from the freighter SS Nisshin Maru No. 2 which had been severely damaged, disabled and abandoned off Formosa after hitting a field of American mines. Arriving onscene the next day, PB #39 sent a skeleton crew aboard the stricken merchant ship to determine the extent of the damage and secure the ships watertight integrity for a tow to the nearest safe harbor.

Assisted by a tugboat on the second day, the Nisshin Maru No. 2 was placed under tow, despite the ship listing over 30 degrees to Port, lacking much of her Stern and shipping considerable amounts of water. PB #39 and her crew moved to provide an escort to the towing operation but as the ships slowly made their way towards Formosa, they were unaware that they were being shadowed by the American Submarine USS Seawolf (SS-197). Having come across the drifting Nisshin Maru No. 2 shortly after the PB #39 arrived, the Seawolf and her crew had waited until all three Japanese ships were occupied with the complexities of the tow to maneuver into attack position. Lining up a two-torpedo shot at PB #39, the Seawolf succeeded in hitting the slow-moving ship in almost the same spot on her bow ahead of her superstructure.

Taken completely by surprise by the torpedo impacts, the crew of PB #39 could do little to save their ship as the extensive damage to her hull began to manifest itself by the ship's bow began wrenching itself free from the ship. The order to abandon ship was quickly passed as lookouts spotted the USS Seawolf's periscope, presumably as she lined up another torpedo shot. Remaining afloat only long enough for her surviving crew to escape to the water, PB #39's bow broke free of the ship and she quickly sank bow-first at this location on April 23rd, 1943.


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