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Map and photo
The Seiner #20 furiously burns after the USS Permit mistook her for a Japanese trawler amid foggy weather and attacked the Soviet oceanographic vessel. The incident would have international repercussions.
Document: World War II Submarine War Patrol Reports, USS Permit 9th War Patrol, RG 38, NARA; Photo: Correspondence Concerning Sinking of the Russian Trawler, USS Permit, World War II Action Reports, RG 38, NARA

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Friendly Fire in the ‘Emperor’s Bathtub’

When the USS Permit became one of the first U.S. submarines to venture into the Sea of Japan during World War II, she found plenty of targets—including one that belonged to an ally.
By Nathaniel Patch
August 2022
Naval History Magazine
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On the afternoon of 9 July 1943, the Soviet oceanographic vessel Seiner #20 was plying the oceans west of La Perouse Strait in the northern part of the Sea of Japan. The small vessel and her youthful crew of scientists were studying the disappearance of sardines that used to be in the vicinity of the strait, northeast of the large Russian port of Vladivostok.1

The Soviet vessel’s crew were not concerned about the war. The Soviet Union and Japan had had a testy neutrality since 1940, and U.S. submarines were not known to have entered the Sea of Japan because the passages into it were either mined or thought to be heavily patrolled.

The weather of the North Pacific was overcast and foggy, limiting visibility, but occasional breaks in the clouds allowed the sun to peek through. The water of the Sea of Japan was calm, making the water glassy.

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1. Report of Nicholi Troshkin, Master of Seiner #20, dated 18 July 1943; Correspondence Concerning Sinking of the Russian Trawler, USS Permit (SS-178), World War II Action and Other Operational Reports; Record Group (RG) 38 (Records of the Chief of Naval Operations), National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (hereafter NARA).

2. Report of Interview with Survivors of the Russian Seiner #20 Sunk July 9, 1943, in Japan Sea, L11-1/EF61, 1943 Secret Correspondence (formerly Security-Classified Correspondence of the Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations [SECNAV/CNO]), RG 80 (Records of the Department of the Navy), NARA.

3. Operational Order 112-43 dated 16 June 1943, Operational Plans and Orders and Other Related Documents, 1941–45 (hereafter OPOORD), RG 38, NARA.

4. Operational Order 118-43 dated 25 June 1943, OPOORD, RG 38, NARA.

5. USS Permit (SS-178), Report of Ninth War Patrol (hereafter Permit patrol report), A16-3 Copies of Submarine Patrol Reports, Confidential, Restricted and Unclassified Administrative Files, 1942–45, RG 313 (Records of Naval Operating Forces), NARA.

6. Permit patrol report.

7. Permit patrol report.

8. Permit patrol report.

9. Correspondence Concerning Sinking of the Russian Trawler, USS Permit (SS-178), World War II Action and Other Operational Reports (hereafter Permit action report), RG 38, NARA.

10. Permit action report.

11. Permit action report.

12. Permit action report.

13. Permit action report.

14. Letter from SECNAV Knox to Secretary of State, 12 July 1943, L11-1/EF61, 1943 Secret Correspondence, RG 80, NARA.

15. Report on Russian Survivors, Seiner #20, 18 July 1943, Task Force Group 16.5, World War II Action and Other Operational Reports, RG 38, NARA.

16. Intelligence Report Based on Information Received from Survivors of Soviet Seiner #20 Serial 244-43, A6 [Jacket #37], Secret Serial Files, 1940–47, RG 313, NARA.

17. Sinking of Soviet “SEINER #20” by U. S. Submarine USS Permit, L11-1/EF61, 1943 Secret Correspondence (Formerly Security-Classified Correspondence of the Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations [SECNAV/CNO]), RG 80, NARA.

18. Report of Interview with Survivors of the Russian Seiner.

19. Permit action report.

20. Attacks on Russian Shipping, Submarine Operational History, World War II, vol. 4, by Commander, Submarine Force, US Pacific Fleet, World War II Command Files; RG 38, NARA.

Nathaniel Patch

Mr. Patch is an archivist and the subject matter expert at the National Archives and Records Administration for U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard records.

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