Horace Oswald Plummer

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The U.S. Submarine, U.S.S. Sturgeon

On 5 June 1942, The United States submarine Sturgeon, commanded by W.L. ("Bull") Wright, left Fremantle in Western Australia on her fourth war-time patrol. After a six hour chase on 25 June, the Sturgeon caught up with a Japanese merchant fleet of Manila in the Phillippines. It fire three torpedoes at one of the largest ships and then evaded depth charges. The Sturgeon reported that a 'few' gauges and lamps were shattered. On 1 jul while about 65 miles west of Luzon, she attacke and sank what appeared to be an unescorted transport, the Montevideo Maru, and on 5 July scored hits on a tanker in a convoy. She was back in Fremantle on 22 July. It had been a long, dangerous and apparently successful patrol. But between leaving from and returning to an Australian port, the Sturgeon had unwittingly and for long unknowingly fired the shots which resulted in Australia's greatest tragedy at sea.

The Submarine Commander was totally unaware the ship was carrying POW' as the Japanese had not displayed that the ship was a prison ship carrying POW's and Civilian detainees, nor had that advised the allies of the fact and previously the ship had been used as a troop and provisions transport for the Japanese Navy.

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