Hell Below

Narrator: Summer 1944.

After an american submarine commander...

Man: Fire!

Narrator:...Launches an attack from within an enemy convoy...

Man: It's clear ramage is suffering

From what we'd call target fixation.

He can only see the ship that he's about to torpedo.

Man: Ship! Starboard bow.

It's on a collision course.

Sir!

Man: I'm not going to lose this ship!

Narrator:...The commander's dangerous focus

Forces his crew...

Man: All ahead flank!

Narrator:...To take their survival into their own hands.

In world war ii,

A subsea weapon allows warriors

To fight from beneath the waves.

With cunning, force, and tenacity,

Their enemies strike back.

Revolutionary but still sometimes primitive,

It's a desperate bid

To change the course of war.

Their stories are legend.

February 14, 1943.

The american submarine uss trout

Prowls off the island of borneo in the southwest pacific.

Crewman: Target, portside!

Narrator: Just after dawn, the crew sights a japanese ship

Five and a half miles away.

Commander lawson ramage identifies the vessel

As a tanker, which transports oil for japan's war machine.

It is a prime target.

Lawson ramage: Clear the bridge!

Narrator: Ramage decides to sneak closer.

Trout submerges to home in on their prey.

Crewman: 2,000 yards.

Ramage: Prepare torpedo tubes one and two.

Narrator: With torpedoes ready, at a range of 700 yards,

Ramage begins his attack as the skies brighten.

Ramage: Fire one.

Fire two.

Narrator: Two torpedoes rush from trout's tubes.

The first shot strikes the target.

Ramage: Hit. Crewman: Hit.

Narrator: The japanese ship suffers damage

But remains afloat.

The crew waits for another hit.

But the second torpedo proves to be a dud.

Ramage has fired six defective torpedoes during this patrol.

This one should have sunk his target.

His anger boils over.

Stephen moore: You can see that in his report.

He's got capital letters and exclamation points

To emphasize his level of frustration.

Narrator: Nicknamed "red"

By friends and fellow officers...

...Lawson ramage was in pearl harbor

On December 7, 1941,

When the american naval base was attacked by japan.

Moore: When he sees the devastation

To the pacific fleet, that is a big motivator

For him to go forward and get revenge.

Narrator: With much of the surface fleet

Damaged or destroyed,

Only u.S. Submarines are left to take the war to japan.

So, more than a year later,

When ramage's personal campaign against the japanese

Is thwarted by a dud torpedo,

He takes the failure to heart.

Jonathan parshall: For someone of ramage's character

Who is extremely aggressive,

This is very personal, this is a grudge match.

Narrator: Having lost confidence in his torpedoes,

He decides to finish off the enemy ship a different way.

Ramage: Down periscope.

Moore: Ramage decides, if I can't kill it with my torpedoes,

I'm going to go in and go after it with my guns.

Ramage: Battle surface.

Crewman: Prepare to surface.

Narrator: Trout surfaces and closes in

On what they believe is a japanese tanker.

Ramage's crewmen load shells

Into the submarine's deck gun.

Ramage: Fire!

Narrator: But after a few rounds,

The japanese ship fires back.

Ramage was wrong; it is not just a tanker.

It is a freighter retrofitted

By the imperial japanese navy for war.

Moore: All of a sudden, the enemy is firing back at him,

And the next thing he knows, he has blood all over his deck,

And he decides, this is not the right choice here.

Narrator: With his surface attack on the japanese ship

Proving a miscalculation,

Ramage must find a way to safely disengage

His submarine and crew.

Crewman: Bearing 220, range...

Narrator: He realizes only one option remains...

Crewman: Ready stern torpedo!

Narrator:...And swings uss trout around

To ready another torpedo.

Ramage: Fire!

Narrator: Luckily for ramage, this torpedo scores a hit.

The japanese ship begins to sink.

Ramage shifts focus to his crew.

At least ten are injured.

For those struck by machine gun fire,

Their wounds are too serious

To be treated aboard the submarine.

Ramage will set course for the american submarine base

In fremantle, australia, to get the medical care.

But he continues to brood over the faulty torpedoes

And the consequences for his men.

Parshall: It's infuriating.

You're putting your life on the line,

The lives of your entire crew.

That's absolutely unacceptable.

Narrator: In australia,

Ramage confronts rear admiral ralph waldo christie

About the dud torpedoes that plagued uss trout's patrol.

James scott: Christie tells ramage that the problem

Is not his torpedoes but that he's a bad shot

And that he and his crew need to perform better.

Parshall: The confrontation does not go well,

And fairly soon thereafter, christie's chief of staff

Kind of grabs ramage by the scruff of his neck

And says, "it's time to leave."

Narrator: Even worse, on trout's next war patrol...

Ramage: Give me a bearing.

Crewman: Bearing, 120.

Narrator:...Ramage fails to sink a single ship.

Moore: He's got a lot of misses and one dud,

And although he may chalk it up to poor torpedo performance,

His superiors think otherwise.

Narrator: Christie decides that it's time for a change.

Scott: There's obviously some frustration

Over ramage's performance, but rather than relieve him,

Christie chooses to send him back to the u.S.

Narrator: On the east coast,

Ramage is assigned to a new submarine

Still under construction at the portsmouth navy yard--

Uss parche.

Parche is of the new balao class.

Thicker pressure hulls allow these submarines

To safely dive to 400 feet,

100 feet deeper than their predecessors.

At a cost of about $3 million each,

The u.S. Navy will build more of the balaos

Than any other class of sub.

With their greater depth range,

Lawson ramage and a new crew return to the pacific.

Ramage: Thank you, son.

Crewman: Thank you, sir.

Narrator: In July 1944, they hunt targets

In the luzon strait.

The passage is a crucial sea route for the japanese

Between the philippines

And the island of formosa,

Or modern-day taiwan.

Scott: This is really the back door to the japanese empire.

They have no choice but to continue to send supplies there

In order to keep the home islands afloat.

Narrator: But like allied shipping in the atlantic,

Japan's supply vessels now sail in large convoys

With escort ships and anti-submarine technologies

Missing earlier in the war.

In response, american submarines also adopt a tactic

From the battle of the atlantic.

They begin to hunt in groups,

Like hitler's famous wolf packs.

Here in the luzon strait,

Uss parche operates as part of a wolf pack.

But american submarine commanders

Do not welcome the change.

Scott: These guys are inherently individualists and loners,

And forcing them to work in wolf packs,

It was not the desired assignment.

Narrator: There is another difference.

Unlike nazi wolf packs, which receive orders

From the u-boat command based on shore,

A senior officer on board one submarine in the group

Coordinates american wolf packs.

For this patrol, the wolf pack coordinator

Is experienced submarine captain lew parks.

Parks' job is to direct uss parche

And two other packmates.

For ramage, the problem is that parks is on his submarine.

Moore: There's a lot of challenge

With having two senior officers on board a submarine,

So that's going to create some tensions.

Narrator: It is all about to come to a head.

After limited success, at 2016 on July 30, 1944,

Parche receives a message from one of its packmates.

The contact report reveals the location of a japanese convoy.

Captain parks orders ramage to give chase.

Parche charges toward an epic showdown at full speed.

Narrator: July 30, 1944.