Another fascinating and informative docudrama, this series really does show the bravery of those men who served aboard what were, and in some cases still are, little more than sardine tins, with very little between them and certain death. Lest We Forget. Thanks for sharing this with us all. 👍.

I remember seeing these episodes on TV in the early 60's !

What an incredible tale. Got to hand it to those brave men who crewed the vintage S class boats.

Those old S boats were outdated when the war started but did yeoman service once the torpedo issues were figured out. In the past we got shows like this and WWII in Colour while now we get the Kardashian's, the past really was better.

The S-34 was commissioned on July 12, 1922, and decommissioned on October 23, 1945. During those 23 years, she served in a number of areas including the East Coast, the Carribian, the West Coast, the Phillipians and Alaska. On May 31, 1943, the S-34 recorded her one and only kill a 3,000-ton freighter so not all of her patrols were unsuccessful.

Darn, I was lucky enough to be younger and serve on FBM submarines. When I reported to my first submarine in 1979 there was a man, Machinists Mate Master Chief Brooks who had first served on diesel boats early in his career, though not in WWII. However, even though I was in Weapons and not in Engineering department he never hesitated to help me in my Submarine Quals. He never once failed to teach me a concept successfully.

Hal Smith ("Otis" from "Andy Griffith Show" fame) has a small role in this one as "Wiggins."

makes you realise how good the Gato and Balau boats were well off so to speak

"We're low on air, captain." Puff on cigarette.

I live subs. My dad was Navy 38-58. I worked on subs for 43 years in Groton . 690 boat up Go Navy. 🇱🇷

I've watch several of these old Silent Service tv series. I just realized the contol room was actually in the sail.

I'm surprised Otis didn't break into the "depth charge medicine" locker.

Good ep, although it's always been kinda sad they only had the fleet boat sets to work with, using them for both S-boats and U-boats.

I am glad they did not add romance to the story.

I just can't overcome the fact that this episode was shot aboard a fleet boat, when the story entails an S-class.

One hard luck sub! But she was already 20+ years old when WW2 started, for the US. Luckily, she made it through the war.

This one could have been named "Worst Sub Commander Ever"....

At 3:34 and following, the round, white thing hanging from the man's neck is the circular slide rule used for torpedo and other calculations.

Thanks for uploading this series. I’ve never heard of the series before finding this link. It’s really entertaining. I wonder if anyone remembers what network carried this?

Love these stories! Considering most subs didnt make it back. Damned shame all those great men!

My Grandfather was LT. Quentin R. Thomson aboard the USS Skate S-34. I will say this show did not portray him at all. He never had a beard, he had a lung condition and would never smoke a pipe, and yes he was Southerner from Lake Charles, Louisiana, but absolutely did not have that thick of an accent. The full incident at Sarana Bay is an incredible story and it’s a shame they didn’t cover the whole thing. They got some parts, but definitely not the whole story.

It seems like ships and submarines could be equipped with some sort of smoke bombs that float like little buoys in the water and conceal their position long enough to get a head start at getting away... better yet, that smoke shield could contain tear gas to discourage ships from going that direction. They'd be half blind anyway...

I was not a military man. I like watching these shows. Why didn't they just leave the area and surface some where else for safety ? Perhaps come again after refreshing themselves, etc.

on my dad's ship the engineering officer had a beard so all of the black gang tried to grow one too. the all started smoking pipes imitation of him too

So they are running low on air and the XO is smoking?

Thank you, Tommy.

Interesting how the guest always look at the cue card, teleprompter or whatever device they had instead of looking at Admiral Dykers..

The octopus was a plot device of the Silent Service show for this episode. Personal accounts and the official account record had nothing about an octopus. Perhaps since they decided to omit the captain giving up and accepting that they would be prisoners of war when they were stuck on the reef, they had to find something else to fill in. Critical events to the survival of the S-34 have been left out of this show, likely because they subverted the traditional naval chain of command. People were smoking and crying like they were about to die, because they were. A torpedo was jammed partially deployed in a forward tube, that's something else that was omitted.

I never could figure why they did not porpose.. fill the front ballast with air and slide up and forward... then down and forward

You never hear them describe a course AWAY from the destroyers that are moving away from them. I would want to increase distance especially is my crew was suffocating.

They are showing a fleet boat in the show not an S class

Supposedly the Cuban Missile Crisis was ended this way. The American ships just sat on the Russian Subs till they had to come up for air.

in the end it smells fishy to me , hugs and lovs bab for ever

... the captain didn't have the 'foggiest what to do .....

How many sustained Brain damage from Carbon monoxide poisoning?

Great

Was it an octopus or a Jules Verne giant squid? Because that was one noisy octopus.

If you are low on oxygen and are going to stay down, PUT OUT THOSE CIGARETTES!

Great show. Hot stinky smelly boats. Hard to believe they smoked in there....constantly.

Wow, this is a scary one.

Holy sht

👏👏👏👏👏🇧🇷

More commercial breaks I later episodes.

They didn't have M-38s in 1942...

4:33 GQ

never use a knife on a plate. sigh....

giant octopus

Bearded smoker tells the crew to stow their idle chatter to save oxygen..smoke cigarettes instead😢

They took to long to calculate

Yikes