War Patrol Report (Page 7)
| CONFIDENTIAL | |
| Subject: | U.S.S. BERGALL - Report of SECOND War Patrol |
| ------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Dec. 15, 1944 | Decoded CC.T.F. 71.1's despatch directing BERGALL to rendezvous with others at North Nateona. To have complied with this would have meant taking the boat and all her personnel back during daylight, through the area in which she had transmitted during the past evening. |
| I was convinced that if no other boat was contacted, I could get through Karimata, the Java Sea and Lombok on the surface with a good chance of success. This was based on two previous trips over the same route in which no plane contacts were made. By adjusting speed to pass through and well clear of Karimata during darkness; to cross the Soerabaya - Balikpapan routes at night and to stay well north of Lombok until dark I felt sure of avoiding aircraft. Therefore I decided to head on down towards Karimata. | |
| 0950 | SJ radar interference ahead. Exchanged calls by SJ with ANGLER. |
| 1105 | Sighted ANGLER. She came close aboard to talk by megaphone. Learned of her plane contacts near the Soerabaya - Balikpapan trade route and her contact-free passage of Lombok. Everything pointed to good prospects for running the gauntlet on the surface so stood on down toward Karimata with ANGLER following. |
| 1935 | Transferred fifty-four man and one officer to ANGLER then stood on down to Karimata Strait. If mandatory we could dive in shallow water and sit on the bottom. With the ANGLER near at hand the enterprise didn't seem too bad for the skeleton crew and officers. |
| To have scuttled our ship in itself seemed unthinkable and it wasn't much further to deep water in the right direction than it was in the wrong. The weather was very much in our favor too. The sky was heavily overcast with rain storms coming from the weest northwest. |
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