The USS O'Bannon once sank a Japanese submarine with potatoes.

As the story goes, the USS O’Bannon was on the hunt for Japanese vessels in the ocean, when it happened to see Japanese Submarine RO-34. The overzealous crew of the O’Bannon got a little too close to the RO-34, and its guns were unable to fire onto the Japanese. 

However, the Japanese submarine could fire back, and the US sailors began to throw whatever objects they could find onto the submarine, which included potatoes. 

The Japanese, who mistook the potatoes as grenades, panicked and started throwing the potatoes back. This gave the O’Bannon enough time to pull away from the Japanese, and which then proceeded to turn the submarine into swiss cheese.

This is a very fun story, but it does feel a little too good to be true. And that's because it kind of is. The official after-action report for the O’Bannon never mentions getting into the above situation. The O’Bannon did get within 90 yards of the submarine, but that was for a brief moment as the ship laid down depth charges in the submarine’s path. Furthermore, this report never mentions potatoes at all, which really does not help with the credibility of this story.

Does this mean that the crew of the O’Bannon never threw potatoes at the RO-34? Not necessarily. The person who submitted the report was the skipper of the vessel, who was giving out orders as the O’Bannon was fighting the RO-34. It is safe to say he was most likely not observing the crew to see if they were throwing potatoes or not. This is supported by the testimony of the veterans of that battle, who admitted to throwing potatoes at the Japanese Submarine. 

At the end of the day, it is still a fun story, about how US soldiers were able to outsmart their enemy yet again. But it is also a good story about how truth can be embellished into fiction.