"One of my vivid memories of the war at sea happened in the vast shallow waters and heavily mined reaches of the Gulf of Siam, now called the Gulf of Thailand, which was just opened to submarine operations. There, what little enemy shipping that remained coast crawled in the muddy waters too shallow for submerged operations, and in the dark of the moon overnighted in protected ports of the Maylay peninsular. On a black night we picked up a small convoy of three medium-sized ships with two surface and air escorts. We played cat and mouse with this group. We were unable to attack because of the shallow water while awaiting his eventual dash across the Gulf to the Mainland of French Indo China. On the night of 4 May, the convoy proceeded past its projected overnight port of Kota Baru without air cover, presenting the opportunity of a night surface attack. We selected a spot where the depth of water was sufficient to accommodate the initial dive of the torpedoes to 40 feet prior to reaching full speed to bring the fish to running depth. An attack from directly ahead was elected, presenting the smallest silhouette with the greatest closing speed. Since the torpedoes stood little chance of a successful run if launched at speeds in excess of eight knots, it was planned to charge in at maximum speed, giving a closing speed of about 34 knots, until the torpedo firing range was reached. At this point it was planned to stop all engines, back down on the battery in emergency to avoid the diesel smoke of an emergency engine back down, until an acceptable speed was reached to safely launch all ten torpedoes and then to hightail it on the surface to the ten-fathom curve some seven miles away.

Everything went just as planned. We had a beautiful, almost perfect fire control tracking solution with a cooling wind full into the face. The dark forms of all five ships were clearly visible in the binoculars of my TBT (target bearing transmitter) and constantly grew larger. Just as we approached the projected backdown point, the close 10 cm radar-equipped escort turned on his fighting lights, two red lights one over the other, and headed straight up to Baya with a zero angle on the bow. We came right to head directly at the escort. The two ships charged through the night on opposite courses like two fast moving freight trains on the same tracks to a head-on collision. At the last possible moment, almost simultaneously, both ships by seamanship training, ordered right full rudder, thundering past in the darkness, port to port, on opposite tracks, no more than twenty feet apart. In the hurried moment as the ships passed, I observed four or five Japanese sailors charging up the port side deck toward the bow to man their battle stations. In a flash I saw a naked sailor, except for his "G" string Oriental underwear with the trailing thong flapping in the breeze, step through a door to the deck immediately in front of the running group. All ended in a tangled heap as the two ships swept past in the confused darkness.

Baya continued to the right heading for the open Gulf as the Japanese enemy continued his turn until he was immediately astern at about 1200 yards. Then ensued a chase of about twenty minutes at close quarters with the Japanese illuminating us by searchlight and covering us with shellfire from his three 4.7 guns bursting above and beyond Baya, and his machine gunfire ricocheting off and around the bridge and conning tower. Over the "Wolf Pack" radio frequency, I was squawking the now renown "Baya running, Japs gunning. We need help." As the range gradually opened, the fast minelayer gave up the chase and returned to his convoy.

The submarine Lagarto (SS-371), commanded by CDR Frank Latta, one master submariner and a favorite mentor of mine, in an adjacent area, answered our plea for help and joined us several hours later. We rendezvoused, and Lagarto came alongside. We layed close by, within talking distance by megaphone, in the placid tropical water and discussed a plan of attack. Since we had been pretty well shook and shot up, Lagarto agreed to make the next attack with Baya making a second attack after 12 noon.

The Lagarto was lost with all hands in her morning attack, and Baya was repulsed a second time that night in the middle of the Gulf of Siam. The following week things took a change for the better when Baya found a smaller group of four ships under more favorable conditions in the Java Sea. We were able to wipe out the entire convoy, including a sister ship of our 10cm radar-equipped adversary of the previous week."

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