Fifth War Patrol

Japanese shipping, decimated by continual submarine and air attacks, was becoming increasingly difficult to find. When Parche left Pearl Harbor on 19 March 1945, she was headed directly for the east coast of Nonshu, one of the Japanese home islands. The Trutta and Lionfish were in company, with the group commander on the Trutta. Parche pulled into Saipan for voyage repairs after which the sub continued on her way. Friendly submarine traffic was heavy. The Sunfish was in company, and the Puffer and Peto passed the group the first day out.

After several small contacts not considered alerting the coast for, the Parche sighted a short, fat transport and an escorting 1,200 ton Destroyer (MineKaye) off Kobe Zaki on 9 April 1945, and began her approach. At 1500 yards she was in firing position, with the escort headed directly for her. She did not detect the submarine even then, beam on, and with perfect sound conditions. Captain McCrory termed the destroyer later as "the sorriest escort imaginable as he did not detect us." A final scope check showed that the MineKaye would pass astern, and so both bow and stern tubes were made ready in hopes of getting both of them at once.

Three stern torpedoes sought the escort, followed by three forward at the transport. Just as a fourth torpedo was ready to leave the tube forward, a terrific explosion rocked the submarine, and a quick check showed a column of smoke and steam rising 1000 feet, with the MineKaye's bow standing vertically in the air. The torpedo had hit a fire room.

Swinging back to the transport, the skipper could see her fishtailing madly away, having sighted and avoided the torpedoes. Deciding it would be a waste of torpedoes the sub went deep. A leak in her forward trim tank forced her to leave the area that afternoon long enough to replace a gasket on the manhole cover, but by next morning she was back on station.

A small target was picked up on radar on April 11, and the Parche made a gun attack. The ship, thought at first to be a patrol boat, turned out to be a small coastal freighter of about 800 tons. The first run was ineffective, since the 20mm and 40mm guns could not start a fire, and the five-inch would not work. Hauling out to 2000 yards, the five-inch was repaired and the second run began. The 20’s and 40’s were hitting the target and as the five-inch was just getting off a shot when, at 600 yards, the target "blew up in our faces in a tremendous red ball of fire", most likely a gasoline explosion. From the concussion all hands below thought the sub had been hit. As the pall of smoke cleared, nothing could be seen from the bridge except empty ocean.

Another small vessel the 3,200 ton Taiei Maru, was sighted the next day. Unfortunately fog and radical maneuvering spoiled two approaches before fish could be fired. On the third try, three forward torpedoes were fired. The first two torpedoes barely missed astern, but at 2014 the third caught him amidships. The hit was accompanied by a violent explosion which spread the length of the ship and blew him to bits. The target disappeared from the radar screen in 90 seconds.

April 13th was a Friday, and for a while the sub’s crew thought it was really their unlucky day. Inside the 100-fathom curve and hampered by low visibility, the ship made an approach on what appeared to be the foremast of a destroyer or a patrol craft to the north. It turned out to be stakes for a fishing net. A trawler soon appeared and began hauling in lines. For over an hour it appeared that the sub was caught in the net. She could not lose the nearest marker, there was a strange tugging sound in the superstructure and the marker continually lay over in the water as if she were tugging on it. Thinking she had probably been sighted, the Parche went to battle surface and opened fire at 2000 yards, leaving the 260 ton picket boat with her stern in the water.

Two hours later she again opened fire on a small observation vessel, leaving it with a fire raging from stem to stern. When, as stated by Captain McCrory, "two Jap planes muscled in. We dived leaving some ammunition on deck." Parche quickly went deep as a heavy explosion caught her on the way down which inflicted no damage but was very "hard on the light bulbs". Later that night she came to the surface to secure her guns and toss the water soaked ammunition over the side. Captain McCrory decided that "we would defy Friday the 13th no further!"

On April 18th the sub made a torpedo attack on a small freighter headed north along the 100-fathom curve, but missed. Four days later three small freighters were sighted in column, proceeding north along the coast of Okama Saki. With only one foot of scope out of the water, the Parche sent three torpedoes at the second tanker and then shifted to the third. The change in trim forward prevented accurate observation, but the third tanker could be seen down by the stern covered with a cloud of smoke. After the explosions only one set of screws from the original three could be heard. After one more fruitless attack, the sub was relieved by the Cero and left for Midway, arriving on 30 April 1945. The Commanding Officer was awarded the Navy Cross for this patrol.