US submarines torpedo POWs

12th September 1944: An attack on a Japanese convoy has tragic consequences for hundreds of Australian and British POWs

There were no distinguishing signs on the Rakuyo Maru to suggest she carried over a thousand POWs.

On the 9th September 1944 FRUPAC, the US Fleet Radio Unit, Pacific, intercepted a Japanese message about a convoy en route to Japan. As a consequence a US submarine wolf pack, the USS Growler, USS Sealion and USS Pampanito were sent to lay an ambush. They…