James Henry Culp – On Eternal Patrol Aboard the Submarine USS Tang

James Culp was born near Denver Colorado, on November 17, 1913. From the 1920 U. S. Census we learn that James’ father William, 34, was a proprietor of a coal station. His mother, Blanche, 34, had three children; James 6, Christina, 4 and William, 1. They all lived on 1200 California Street in Denver.

The 1930 census showed the two boys living with their father William, on 3420 Larimer Street. Their mother was now living at 1651 Welton Street in Denver.

James joined the navy in 1936 at 24 years old. Culp had several experiences as a crew member aboard four different submarines, traveling from California to Pearl Harbor to the Aleutian Islands and ending in the South Pacific.

James muster date was June 30, 1939 aboard the USS S-18 (SS-123) which was a first-group (S-1 or "Holland") S-class submarine of the United States Navy. Her keel was laid down on 15 August 1918 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation's Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched on 29 April 1920 sponsored by Miss Virginia Bell Johnson, and commissioned on 3 April 1924 with Lieutenant Elliot M. Senn in command. Transferred to the Pacific fleet in 1930, she departed New London on 24 May 1930, operated off the California coast into the fall, and arrived at Pearl Harbor, on 7 December 1930. For the next 11 years, S-18 remained based at Pearl Harbor. In September 1941, she returned to the West Coast. Three months later, after the United States had entered World War II, submarine S-18 was ordered to the Aleutian Islands.

Culp mustered aboard the USS Narwal (_SSN-671) _on three different tours of duty: Narwhal - June 30 1939, 7 Sep 1942, and 31 Mar 1943;_** **_1st-3rd Patrols and overhaul, February 1942-April 1943; On her first war patrol from 2 February-28 March 1942, Narwhal, with Lieutenant Commander Charles W. "Weary" Wilkins in command, departed Pearl Harbor to reconnoiter Wake Island on 15–16 February, then continued on to the Ryukyu Islands. On 28 February, she made her first torpedo attack of the war, heavily damaging Maju Maru. Six days later, the submarine sank Taki Maru in the East China Sea.

His third boat was the USS Nautilus (SF-9/SS-168), a Narwhal-class submarine and one of the "V-boats". Aboard, James participated in the US Navy World War II Submarine Patrols to the Mariana Islands, Xlibris and Bloomington. He joined this crew on June 30, 1943.

We know Coffin mustered aboard the submarine USS Tang on October 31, 1943, according to US Navy WWII Muster Rolls. He attained the rate/rank of Chief Electrician’s Mate and his Navy service number was 371 78 23.

From the Together We Served website, a summary of Culp’s Navy assignments is listed here:

Jun 09, 1936, Service Entry Date & Enlisted Serial Number 371-78-23

May 16, 1939, Received on USS S-18

Feb 16, 1940, Promoted to EM1c

May 10, 1940, Temporary Transfer to US Naval Hospital Pearl Harbor

Jun 01, 1940, Received from US Naval Hospital Pearl Harbor

Jun 07, 1940, Honorable Discharged

Jun 08, 1940, Re-Enlisted on USS S-18 for 4 full years

Feb 08, 1941, Transferred to USS Widgeon for Duty

May 16, 1941, Received on USS Litchfield from USS Widgeon

Sep 26, 1941, Temporary Transfer to US Naval Hospital Pearl Harbor

Dec 09, 1941, Received from US Naval Hospital Pearl Harbor

May 13, 1942, Transferred to USS Narwhal for Duty

Dec 01, 1942, Promoted EMC (Chief Petty Officer)

Jan 07, 1943, Temporary Transfer to US Naval Hospital Mare Island CA

Jan 21, 1943, Received from US Naval Hospital Mare Island, CA

Jun 24, 1943, Transferred to ComSubDiv-42 on USS Nautilus

Jul 01, 1943, Transferred to ComSubAd for Assignment by ComSubLant

Oct 15, 1943, Received on USS Tang

Jul 25, 1944, Honorable Discharged

Jul 26, 1944, Re-Enlisted on for 4 full years

Oct 25, 1944, Declared Missing In Action later changed to death Date

According to the U.S., Navy Casualties Books, Culp was married to Bobby Jo Yowell. A Denver newspaper from October 14, 1942 had this caption under a picture of James and Bobby Jo:

The Navy Gets Things Done as everyone knows, but the J.K. Yowell family of 3805 Lowell Boulevard wasn’t exactly prepared for the speed at which things have been happening lately. Bobbie Yowell, 18, the only daughter, met Sailor James Culp at a theater two weeks ago and now that the first parental objections have been removed, they will be married Thursday. And that’s not all. Seeing his daughter “joining the navy” so quickly, the father followed up his approval by joining the navy himself. The father, the sailor and the bride are shown in the picture below.

James Culp, along with 77 other sailors, were tragically lost when a faulty torpedo, fired by his own submarine, circled 180 degrees and exploded, sinking the Tang. This took place early in the morning of October 25, 1944 in the Formosa Straights between China and, what is now Taiwan. A memorial stone honoring his service was placed at the American Memorial and Cemetery in Manila, Philippine Islands. He was awarded a Purple Heart posthumously.

Details of Tang’s amazing history and final patrol are given below: (Compiled by Paul W. Wittmer and Charles R. Hinman, with editorial notes by Robert H. Downie, originally from: U.S. Submarine Losses World War II, NAVPERS 15,784, 1949 ISSUE.)

TANG, under CDR R.H. O'Kane, set out from Pearl Harbor on 24 September 1944, to begin her fifth war patrol. On 27 September she topped off with fuel at Midway and left there the same day, heading for an area between the northwest coast of Formosa and the China Coast.

In order to reach her area, TANG had to pass through narrow waters known to be heavily patrolled by the enemy. A large area stretching northeast from Formosa was known to be mined by the enemy, and O'Kane was given the choice of making the passage north of Formosa alone, or joining a coordinated attack group (SILVERSIDES, TRIGGER, SALMON, under Commander Coye in SILVERSIDES) which was to patrol off northeast Formosa, and making the passage with them. TANG chose to make the passage alone and these vessels never heard from TANG, nor did any base, after she left Midway.

The story of TANG's sinking comes from the report of her surviving Commanding Officer. A night surface attack was launched in the early morning hours of 25 October 1944 against a transport, which had previously been stopped in an earlier attack. The first torpedo was fired, and when it was observed to be running true, the second and last was loosed. It curved sharply to the left, broached, porpoised and circled. Emergency speed was called for and the rudder was thrown over. These measures resulted only in the torpedo striking the stern of TANG, rather than amidships.

The explosion was violent, and people as far forward as the control room received broken limbs. The ship went down by the stern with the after three compartments flooded. Of the nine officers and men on the bridge, three were able to swim through the night until picked up eight hours later. One officer escaped from the flooded conning tower, and was rescued with the others.

The submarine came to rest on the bottom at 180 feet, and the men in her crowded forward as the after compartments flooded. (Editor's Note: According to Commander O'Kane, when the torpedo struck Tang, the three after compartments flooded instantly and the submarine sank by the stern, with her bow hanging at a sharp angle above the surface. Personnel in the control room leveled off the boat by manually flooding number two main ballast tank, bringing her to rest on the ocean floor.) Publications were burned, and all assembled to the forward torpedo room to escape. The escape was delayed by a Japanese patrol, which dropped charges, and started an electrical fire in the forward battery. Thirteen men escaped from the forward torpedo room, and by the time the last made his exit, the heat from the fire was so intense that the paint on the bulkhead was scorching, melting, and running down. Of the 13 men who escaped, only eight reached the surface, and of these but five were able to swim until rescued.

When the nine survivors were picked up by a destroyer escort, there were victims of TANG's previous sinkings on board, and they inflicted tortures on the men from TANG. With great humanity, O'Kane states, "When we realized that our clubbings and kickings were being administered by the burned, mutilated survivors of our own handiwork, we found we could take it with less prejudice."

The nine captives were retained by the Japanese in prison camps until the end of the war, and were treated by them in typical fashion. The loss of TANG by her own torpedo, the last one fired on the most successful patrol ever made by a U. S. submarine, was a stroke of singular misfortune. She is credited with having sunk 13 vessels for 107,300 tons of enemy shipping on this patrol, and her Commanding Officer was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

On her last patrol TANG fired twenty-four torpedoes in four attacks. Twenty-two torpedoes found their mark in enemy ships, sinking 13 of them; one missed, and the last torpedo, fired after a careful check-over, sank TANG. This vessel was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation twice during her career. Commander O'Kane has been called the Submarine Force's most outstanding officer; he served as Executive Officer of the very successful WAHOO before taking command of TANG.

In her five patrols, TANG is credited with sinking 31 ships, totaling 227,800 tons and damaging two for 4,100 tons. This record is unexcelled among American submarines. In her first patrol, spending February 1944 west of Truk and Saipan, she sank three freighters, a large tanker and a submarine tender. TANG's second patrol was in the area west of Palau, east of Davao and at Truk. She made no ship contacts worthy of attack, but at the latter island she rescued twenty-two Navy airmen during a carrier based strike at Truk on 30 April-1 May 1944. This vessel's third patrol was in the East China and Yellow Seas. Here she sank six freighters, a tanker, and a large aircraft transport. She covered the waters along the southern coast of Honshu in August 1944. She sank a freighter, a large transport, a tanker and two patrol craft, while she damaged another freighter and small craft.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Resources:

http://www.oneternalpatrol.com

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=2324&h=108640&tid=&pid=&queryId=4f090c9d7e1f846e2a86b27a2d81fc09&usePUB=true&_phsrc=tqd3453&_phstart=successSource

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/6117702:6061?indiv=1&tid=&pid=&queryId=bb35d08719f7b33d33232103d5301a1e&usePUB=true&_phsrc=tqd3469&_phstart=successSource

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/101515115:6224?indiv=1&tid=&pid=&queryId=033c88c8d7abd6af8899de555118691e&usePUB=true&_phsrc=tqd3463&_phstart=successSource

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/42603035:1143?indiv=1&tid=&pid=&queryId=feb157cd7ceb2096c93b8a9d67122934&usePUB=true&_phsrc=tqd3442&_phstart=successSource

https://navy.togetherweserved.com/usn/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=Person&ID=488692&source=fold3

Culp, James Henry, CEM