USS Johnston - Antisubmarine patrol

I am looking for information on the USS Johnston's antisubmarine patrol off Bougainville. On the 15 May, 1944 she depth charged and was credited with sinking I-176. I have sent several requests for a Action report to the NARA but I keep getting back the reports for the Battle off Samar on 25 Oct. 1944. I am also looking for a TROM on the ship as well. Thanks in advance
Mike

 

Hey, Mike, my dad was in the Battle off Samar aboard the Fanshaw Bay. I'll look into my stuff to see about your query.

tom

 

I have a copy of "Haggard, Franks, and Johnston Kill I-176"

it will take a while to type out, so hold on.

 

`Another highly efficient I-boat hunt began on May 12, 1944, when DesDiv 94 (Commander J.H. Nevins,Jr.) steamed out of Blanche Harbor in the Treasuries to track down a Japanese sub spotted by a plane off Buka.
The hunting divison consisted of DD's Haggard (Commander D.A.Harris), Hailey (Commander P.H.Brady), Franks (Commander N.A.Lidstone), and Johnston (Commander E.E.Evans). Haggard, Hailey, and Johnston had been in action together at Eniwetok. Franks, a veteran of "Operation Galvanic", had witnessed terrible death throes of Liscome Bay. With that horror fresh in memory, Commander Nicholas Lidstone and his crew were doubly determined to remove the reported submarine from the Buka area.
Early in the morning of May 16 th the hunters arrived in the waters northwest of Buka where the I-boat had been spotted. The search was begun. Not long after sunrise, four destroyers of DesDiv 93 (Captain J.H.Nunn) arrived on the scene. Under Captain Nunn's direction the search intensified.
To the submarine crouching in the depths screws loudening, fading, and coming back with a roar of static, and the hour after hour tension of waiting in helpless inertia, must have created an accumulation of nerve-strain approaching the unbearable (My God that's Dramatic). As the day dragged on, the air in the I-boat fouled to gas; the humid heat within the pressure hull became stupefying. All that the sweating, stupefied Japanese crew could do was wait for their hour to come.
For the submarine I-176 that fatal hour arrived at 2145, twenty hours after the beginning of the "hold-down," when the destroyer Haggard, after making sound contact, dropped a full depth charge pattern on the hiding submersible. The stunned submarine got their I-boat out from under, but they could not escape the trap.
Destroyers Johnston & Franks closed in. At 2213 Haggards sonar again picked up the I-boat, and Commander Harris immediately treated the sub to another full depth charge pattern.
At this point Haggards gyrocompass went out of commission. But Johnston promptly stepped in, and Commander Evans let the target have a full depth charge pattern. Again the I-boat edged clear, but it was a doomed submarine.
At midnight Johnston turned over contact to destroyer Franks. Lidstone and crew had been impatiently waiting their chance, and at 0015 in the morning of May 17 th they made the most of the opportunity. Down upon the target Franks dropped a full depth charge pattern. When the thunder finally died away, the silence in the sea was that of a grave. buried in that grave was I-176.
In the morning the "gravemarkers" were drifting on the surface--bits of sandalwood, chunks of cork, some fragments of wrapping paper marked with Japanese ideographs.
Duly inscribed in Imperial Navy records, the obituary of the I-176 was found by American investigators after the war.

from the United States Naval Institute, Destroyer actions of World War II

 

From this site:

Nihon Kaigun

and this page:

Imperial Submarines

"12 May 1944:
N of Buka Island. The I-176 is spotted by an American patrol plane and her position is signaled to DesDiv 94 in the Treasury Islands. Cdr J. A. Nevins, ComDesDiv 94, steams out of the Treasuries to hunt the submarine with Cdr N. A. Lidstone's USS FRANKS (DD-554), Cdr D. A. Harris' HAGGARD (DD-555), Cdr P. H. Brady's HAILEY (DD-556) and Cdr E. E. Evans' (later MOH/Posth) JOHNSTON (DD-557).
16 May 1944:
East of New Ireland, near Buka Island. DesDiv 94 is steaming in scouting line. The HAGGARD makes a sonar contact on her starboard bow at a range of 2,800 yards. The destroyers keep the submarine down for about 20 hours. The HAGGARD, FRANKS and the JOHNSTON make five separate attacks. The HAGGARD suffers slight damage from exploding depth charges. Then between the last two attacks, a heavy underwater ripple explosion is heard.****
17 May 1944:
125 miles NE of Green Island. After midnight, the FRANKS drops a pattern of 13 depth charges and sinks the submarine - probably the I-176 - at 04-01S, 156-27E, 150 miles N of Cape Alexander, Solomons. A diesel oil slick covers seven miles of ocean and various debris, including wood, cork and a geta sandal are sighted.
11 June 1944:
Presumed lost with all 103 hands NW of Buka.
10 July 1944:
Removed from the Navy List."

tom