Guest
Want to support this channel and help us preserve old films? Visit Browse our products on Amazon: Dating to season 1 in 1957, this episode of “The Silent Service“ is titled “The Loss of the Perch“ aka “The Nightmare of the Perch“. In the entire history of underseas warfare, there is probably no more famous “hard luck“ ship than the USS Perch (SS-176). The story of this ship and the heroism of the crew that fought in vain to save her is related in this episode. The episode was directed by Sobey Martin and written by Robert C. Dennis, and hosted by Rear Admiral Thomas M Dykers. The episode stars Jack Lord, Christian Drake, Jack Mann, Ray Montgomery, Eric Morris, Rollin Moriyama, Leonard Graves and Ron Foster. USS Perch (SS-176) was a Porpoise-class submarine. During a war patrol in March, 1942, Perch was attacked by two Japanese destroyers, causing extensive damage and flooding throughout the boat. After repairs, Perch surfaced at 02:00 on 2 March, only to be again driven down by destroyers. Her loss of oil, as well as air from her damaged ballast tanks, convinced the Japanese that Perch was breaking up and they went on to look for other kills, allowing her to escape. With Perch′s decks awash and only one diesel engine in commission, the crew made all possible repairs. During the early morning of 3 March, Perch made a test dive with almost fatal results. Expert handling and good luck enabled her to surface, and she began making further repairs. Then two Imperial Japanese Navy cruisers and three destroyers hove into view and began firing at Perch. As shells straddled Perch, her commanding officer ordered “Abandon ship, scuttle the boat.“ With all hull openings open, Perch made her last dive. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 24 June 1942. The Japanese destroyer Ushio captured Perch′s entire crew. Of Perch′s 54 enlisted men and five officers, all but five — who died of malnutrition in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps — were able to return to the United States after V-J Day in August 1945. We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.“ This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit
