Cromwell, John Philip, CAPT

On 29 November, COMSUBPAC radioed Sculpin to order Captain Cromwell to activate the wolfpack. When Sculpin failed to acknowledge the message, even after several repetitions, she was assumed - correctly - to have been lost at sea. It wasn't until after the war that the details of her loss - and that of Captain Cromwell - to enemy action became known from both Japanese sources and surviving crewmembers who had been prisoners of war.

Sculpin had actually arrived on station on 16 November and made radar contact with a large, high-speed convoy on the night of the 18th. After making a fast surface run to get ahead of the quarry, LCDR Connaway submerged for an attack at dawn. As he started his final approach, however, his periscope was spotted by the enemy, and Connaway was forced to take Sculpin deep and allow the convoy to pass overhead. Then, he surfaced again to attempt another end run in broad daylight. Unfortunately, the Japanese destroyer IJS Yamagumo had lagged behind the convoy specifically to counter such a move and after forcing Connaway to make a quick dive, dropped a pattern of depth charges that - unbeknownst to the crew - damaged the depth gauge. Sculpin went deep and laid low for several hours repairing damage.

When Connaway decided to go to periscope depth, the diving officer failed to realize that the depth gauge wasn't moving, and instead of levelling off at 62 feet, Sculpin heaved herself to the surface with the depth gauge still reading 125 feet. She was spotted by the destroyer Yamagumo, which opened fire at once.

Connaway ordered a crash dive, but Yamagumo's follow up depth charge attack was perfectly timed and, with Sculpin uncontrollably submerged, Connaway was forced to surface and attempt a gun action.

Yamagumo's first salvo hit Sculpin's bridge, killing Connaway, along with his executive and gunnery officers. With the senior officers dead, Lieutenant G.E. Brown, Jr. assumed command, ordering the crew to abandon and the boat to be scuttled. Cromwell decided to go down with Sculpin, fearing that he could be forced to reveal what he knew about ULTRA and Galvanic. Ensign Fiedler, the diving officer who had failed to notice the defective depth gauge and presumably felt responsible for what had happened, also chose to go down with the boat.

The 41 survivors were split into two groups and put aboard the aircraft carriers Chuyo and Unyo for transport to Japan. In an ironic twist, Chuyo was torpedoed and sunk by Sailfishâ??the raised and renamed Squalus, which Sculpin had been instrumental in finding after she was sunk on a training exerciseâ??killing all but one of the 21 Sculpin survivors aboard.

Captain Cromwell, who knew secret details of the impending operation to capture the Gilbert Islands, deliberately remained on board as she sank. For his sacrificial heroism in preventing the enemy from obtaining this information, he posthumously received the Medal of Honor.

When the story of what Captain Cromwell had done became known after the war, he was nominated for the Medal of Honor. This was awarded posthumously to his widow. In 1954 the destroyer-escort U.S.S. Cromwell was named in his honor.