POW Rescue Video from USS Pampanito and USS Sealion
During September of 1944, submarines USS Growler, USS Pampanito and USS Sealion attacked a Japanese convoy. Unknown to the Allies, there were over two thousand British and Australian prisoners of war aboard these ships. These were the survivors of the fall of Singapore and forced labor on the Burma-Thailand railroad ("Railway of Death"). Four days after the attack Pampanito returned to the area and found and rescued 73 of the prisoners of war. Sealion was alerted and returned to rescue 54 men. Both boats had 16 mm periscope cameras that they used to film some of the rescue. The un-edited clips below are now in the US National Archives. Sealion RG 428-NPC-5864, RG 428-NPC-5865. Pampanito RG 428-NPC-5743. Note that film clips appear in the order they were pieced together by the Navy and are now in the archives, not in the order in which events occurred. So for example, the film clips of the survivors being delivered in Saipan appear before the rescue.
The story of Pampanito's Third War Patrol is at the Third War Patrol Page.
POWs Rescued by Pampanito
(Solutions to video problems.)
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