This action killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and ushered in the nuclear age. It also ended the war: Japan’s Emperor Hirohito accepted the terms of unconditional surrender proposed by the Allies, so long as Japan could keep its emperor.
World War II was over.
Just before midnight on August 14, Admiral Chester Nimitz sent the following message to all Navy units, including submarines.
Cease offensive operations against Japanese forces. Continue search and patrols. Maintain defense and internal security measures at highest level and beware of treachery or last moment attacks by enemy forces or individuals.
When word came that hostilities had ceased, Herman Kossler, skipper of the USS Cavalla (SS-244), was patrolling near Tokyo Bay. To celebrate, he ordered a small ration of medicinal brandy mixed with pineapple juice to be distributed to the crew.
At that moment, an airplane buzzed toward the submarine. The skipper cleared the bridge and the Cavalla dived. When Kossler asked the executive officer whether the brandy had been given out yet, the exec told him the crew decided it might be best to hold off.
“ ‘Captain, I talked it over with the boys and they decided to wait until the treaty was signed.’ ”
In August, at the Omori prisoner of war camp in Japan, captors had put Tang’s captain Dick O’Kane and other POWs to work digging bomb shelters and caves in preparation for the expected invasion of Japan by Allied forces.
“Thirty of us had been detailed for this daylight-to-dark work, but by the end of the second week only ten of us could even walk the six miles to the site,” Dick said. By now, something called gyp corn, normally used to feed hogs, had replaced the rice the prisoners had been given to eat.
General Douglas MacArthur and General Jonathan Wainwright in September 1945 after Wainwright’s release from a POW camp.
“Just when everything seemed its darkest, Emperor Hirohito’s voice went over the 1MC at the work site. We understood one key expression—‘The war is over.’ It was August 15, 1945.”
On August 28, Captain Harold Stassen arrived at the camp to begin to make arrangements to evacuate the POWs to American ships waiting offshore. He had planned to begin the operation the following day. One look at the condition of the men spurred him to begin moving them immediately.
“We all weighed in the 90s, but my high temperature sent me to isolation. For some of us it was a long and trying voyage home, but once there our recovery was complete,” said Dick.
Admiral Charles Lockwood was shocked when he saw Dick for the first time. “He was just skin and bones. His arms and legs looked no bigger than an ordinary man’s wrists, his eyes were a bright yellow from jaundice (the result of rat-contaminated rice, I was told) and the dysentery from which he suffered would have killed him in a few more weeks. Dick’s was the worst case I saw but many others were in pitiable condition.”
Writing about Dick after the war, submarine historian Clay Blair remarked on his record: “In just over four war patrols, Dick O’Kane sank twenty-four confirmed ships for 93,824 tons, which made him the leading skipper of the submarine war in terms of ships sunk. (Slade Cutter and Mush Morton tied for second place with nineteen ships each.) In addition to the Medal of Honor, O’Kane received three Navy Crosses and three Silver Stars and a Legion of Merit.”
Some of Dick’s fellow prisoners and crew members from Tang left for civilian life, while others decided to stay in the Navy. “There was no assurance that we would return to submarines,” said the brave skipper and POW survivor. “But at sea or ashore, none of us would ever take our wonderful land with all of its freedoms for granted.”
On September 2, 1945, the surrender documents ending the war in the Pacific were signed on the deck of the battleship Missouri. During the ceremonies, General Douglas MacArthur declared:
“ ‘Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world, and that God will preserve it always. These proceedings are closed.’ ”
By spring 1945, the war in Europe is drawing to a close. Hitler commits suicide on April 30; the Germans surrender in Italy on May 2; and on May 8, Hitler’s successor authorizes Germany’s unconditional surrender.
JANUARY 9: US troops land on Luzon, main island of the Philippines, with support from surface ships in Lingayen Gulf.
JANUARY 13–MARCH 3: In the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur goes ashore on Luzon on January 13, with the Army reaching Manila in early February; a fierce, destructive battle lasting several weeks takes place within the city, which is liberated by early March.
FEBRUARY–JUNE: By February 26, the United States has recaptured Corregidor, “the Rock.” Efforts to fully liberate Luzon and clear Manila Harbor of mines continue until the end of June.
MARCH: In attempts to force the Japanese government to surrender, the United States begins B-29 bombing raids against major Japanese cities, including Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka, and Yokohama, killing thousands of civilians. Submarines support the raids by performing lifeguard duties for downed aviators. In 1945, eighty-six different submarines rescue 380 airmen.
APRIL 1: US forces invade the island of Okinawa, Japan, with resistance ending on June 21. Submarines play a small role in reconnaissance.
APRIL 12: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies.
MAY 8: Germany surrenders, ending World War II in Europe.
JUNE 4: Nine submarines in three wolf packs enter the Sea of Japan. Bonefish is lost.
AUGUST 6: The US drops the first atom bomb, on Hiroshima, Japan.
AUGUST 9: The US drops a second atom bomb, on Nagasaki, Japan.
AUGUST 14: Japan surrenders, ending World War II.
SEPTEMBER 2: Surrender documents are signed aboard the USS Missouri.
What we saw and did during those years was much like what thousands of other submariners saw and did…. Although war was and is no way for human beings to live, there are times when there is no choice, for a nation and its citizens, but to fight.
—REAR ADMIRAL CORWIN MENDENHALL
Submarines lost at sea are considered to be on “eternal patrol.”
The first confirmed sinking of a Japanese ship in the Pacific by a submarine in World War II was made by the USS Swordfish (SS-193) on December 9, 1941. It was recorded as attack number one. The last confirmed sinking belongs to the USS Torsk (SS-423) in the Sea of Japan on August 14, 1945. It is listed as attack number 4,735.
The first submarine lost in the Pacific was the Sealion at Cavite on December 10, 1941. The last was not Lawrence Edge’s Bonefish but the USS Bullhead (SS-332), which left on her third patrol on July 31, 1945, with eighty-five on board, and most probably was sunk by Japanese aircraft.
Below are the fifty-two submarines lost in World War II in the Pacific in chronological order (read down each column):
Here are some facts and figures about US submarines in World War II:
• On December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the US Navy had 111 submarines; of these, 51 operated in the Pacific, with 29 attached to the Asiatic Fleet at Manila in the Philippines and 22 with the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
• No submarines were lost in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
• During the war years, a total of 288 US submarines went to sea.
• In World War II, 52 US submarines were lost—almost one in five.
• Of the 16,000 US submariners who served in war patrols, approximately 3,500 died, giving the silent service a casualty rate of nearly 22 percent, the highest for any branch of the military.
• Submarines fired 14,748 torpedoes; 465 different skippers commanded boats in combat, and 6 received the Medal of Honor.
• Including attacks by Allied submarines, a total of 4,742 separate attacks were logged in the Pacific and Far East against the Japanese.
• Although figures have continued to be updated in the postwar years with new information from Japanese sources, it’s estimated that US submarines sank 1,314 Japanese vessels—for about 5.3 million tons.
• Casualties inflicted by US submarines on the Japanese merchant marine were extremely heavy; it’s estimated that more than 16,200 men were killed and another 53,400 wounded in submarine attacks.
• The US Submarine Force, including backup personnel, totaled about 50,000, representing 1.6 percent of the US Navy but accounting for 55 percent of Japan’s maritime losses.
• Postwar analysis concluded that submarines contributed substantially to US victory in the Pacific. “ ‘The war against shipping was perhaps the most decisive single factor in the collapse of the Japanese economy and logistical support of Japanese military and naval power. Submarines accounted for the majority of vessel sinkings and the great part of the reduction in tonnage.’ ”
• Each submarine kept a logbook. These Submarine War Reports, which have been declassified and are housed online at the Historic Naval Ships Association (HNSA) website, provide hour-by-hour accounts of events. According to the HNSA website, over 1,550 patrol reports filling approximately 63,000 pages of text were created.
PEOPLE (AND DOGS)
• Captain Edward L. Beach Jr., officer on the Trigger and Tirante; named skipper of Piper in final months of the war; author whose books include Run Silent, Run Deep
• Joseph M. Eckberg, crew member on the Seawolf
• Lawrence Lott Edge, skipper of the Bonefish
• Robert “Bob” English, commander of Pacific Fleet submarines at Pearl Harbor until his death in an airplane crash in January 1943
• George Grider, third officer on the Wahoo who went on to command the Flasher
• Admiral Thomas Hart, commander in chief, Asiatic Fleet, encompassing surface ships and submarines (SubsAsiatic Force)
• Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, Jr., commanded SubsAsiatic Force in 1942; in 1943, moved to command Pacific Fleet submarines; helped solve torpedo problems
• Luau, mascot on the Spadefish
• General Douglas MacArthur, commander, US Army forces in the Far East, supreme commander for Allied Powers, Southwest Pacific Area
• Martin Matthews, fifteen-year-old sailor at Ford Island Naval Station at Pearl Harbor
• Dudley “Mush” Morton, Wahoo’s skipper
• Admiral Chester Nimitz, commander in chief, US Pacific Fleet
• Richard O’Kane, executive officer on the Wahoo; skipper of the Tang
• Penny, mascot of the Gurnard
• William Bernard “Barney” Sieglaff, Navy official on Admiral Lockwood’s staff, for whom Operation Barney was named
• Forest Sterling, yeoman on the Wahoo
• Hideki Tojo, prime minister of Japan
• Frederick B. Warder, skipper of the Seawolf
• John Wilkes, commanded the Asiatic Fleet of submarines (SubsAsiatic Force) under Admiral Hart until replaced by Lockwood in spring 1942
• Lucy Wilson (Jopling), US Army nurse evacuated from Bataan and Corregidor on the Spearfish
• Walter Pye Wilson, longest-serving crew member on Trigger; one of the most well-known African American submariners in the war
• Isoroku Yamamoto, Fleet Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy
EXPERTS
This book relies on primary sources, memoirs, and works by notable historians. Here are three naval experts whose names appear frequently in these pages:
• Clay Blair, Jr. was a submariner, historian, and journalist whose Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War against Japan (1975) is considered the definitive history of submarines in the Pacific. At more than a thousand pages, it was informed by interviews with many people who’ve since passed away. Blair served on a submarine tender and two patrols of the Guardfish during the war.
• Samuel Eliot Morison was a naval historian and Pulitzer Prize–winning author who served in both world wars. Morison wrote a fifteen-volume history of US Navy operations in World War II. I relied on an abbreviated version, entitled The Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War.
• Theodore Roscoe was the author of United States Submarine Operations in World War II, published by the Bureau of Naval Personnel in 1949 and compiled from official material. The title may sound boring, but it’s a large, beautifully designed book, full of photographs, illustrations, and maps. (It’s also quite hefty—it’s said the first draft of the manuscript weighed ten pounds.)
In war patrol reports, submarine captains included the dates, times, and estimated results of their attacks on the enemy, such as whether torpedoes hit or a ship sank. But the information was incomplete: It wasn’t always possible for a submarine commander to see how damaged a target was, or stay in the area long enough to see a ship sink.
After the war, teams from the Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee (JANAC) went to Japan to attempt to compile losses from Japanese sources. Over time, more data has been added to the JANAC findings. In the postwar years, formerly secret Japanese radio messages and documents were declassified and translated, allowing researchers to more accurately confirm the outcomes of attacks.
Note: Data is from Silent Victory by Clay Blair, Jr., as of 1975, pp. 984–990 (based on JANAC—Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee).
• acey-deucey – sailors’ version of backgammon
• AO – a ship carrying oil used to fuel other vessels
• approach – torpedo attack
• archipelago – a group of islands
• AS – submarine tender
• ASR – submarine rescue vessel
• ballast tanks – tanks that can be filled or emptied with water in order to submerge or surface a submarine; submarines also had fuel ballast tanks
To see diagrams of a WWII submarine including its tanks and compartments, visit the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association and click on the appropriate diagram: http://maritime.org/doc/fleetsub/appendix/index.htm.
• BB – battleship
• bow – front, or forward, part of a ship
• COMSUBPAC – Commander, Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet
• conn – running the ship; can also refer to the conning tower
• conning tower – compartment above the control room used for navigating and directing attacks and using the periscope; located midship, and above it was the bridge deck, radar and radio antenna, and periscope shears (housing and support for periscopes)
To see these above-deck features clearly (including a broom such as the one Wahoo boasted), view the USS Pampanito at the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association at http://www.maritime.org/tour/pier.php.
• DD – destroyer
• depth charge – an antisubmarine weapon consisting of explosive charges and a fuse set to detonate at a specific depth and dropped by a ship or plane into the sea. Depth charges subjected the submarine to powerful and destructive shocks; to avoid detection and damage, submarines would remain silent and dive deep.
• exec, XO – executive officer, second-in-command
• fish – torpedo
• head – toilet, water closet
• Mark XIV (Mark 14) torpedoes – two-speed, steam-powered torpedoes
• mess, messroom – crew’s eating area, counterpart of the officers’ wardroom
• OD, OOD – officer of the deck, who conns the ship on the surface
• old man – slang for captain
• outer doors – movable covers over the torpedo tubes
• PCO – prospective commanding officer
• plank owners – members of a crew when a ship is placed in commission
• port – left side of a ship
• screws – ship’s propellers
• skipper – captain
• SM – submarine minelayer
• SS – submarine
• starboard – right side of a ship
• stern – the rear or aft part of a ship
• TDC – torpedo data computer used in setting up torpedo shots
• tin can – nickname for a d
estroyer
• trim dive – a dive done to adjust the weight and relative buoyancy of a submarine so that it can move up and down in the water; trim is a maritime term
• True – Abbreviated as T (as in the war patrol report on page 103); a maritime navigation term referring to True North Pole
• wardroom – eating area for officers
There’s so much to learn about submarines and World War II. Below I’ve listed online resources to get you started. Site addresses can change, so please ask a librarian if you need help locating information or expanding your search.
TOP RECOMMENDATIONS
Find a Submarine or Maritime Museum Near You
Check here for a list of submarines at museums in the United States. http://www.submarinemuseums.org/
Remembering Those on Eternal Patrol
This site is dedicated to all men lost in the US Submarine Force. Photos of sailors lost on boats featured in this book, including Tang, Trigger, Seawolf, and Wahoo, can be seen by clicking on the submarine, then on the individual’s name. http://www.oneternalpatrol.com/
PRIMARY SOURCE: SUBMARINE WAR REPORTS, HISTORIC NAVAL SHIPS ASSOCIATION
At the end of each war patrol, submarine commanders created a report. During WWII, over 1,550 reports—totaling some 63,000 pages—were generated. During the 1970s, these were reproduced on microfilm. In 2009, a digital version became available online.
The reports are microfilmed images, so you may want to ask a librarian for help. You can access these at: http://www.hnsa.org/resources/manuals-documents/submarine-war-reports/
OTHER RESOURCES FOR THE US NAVY, SUBMARINES, AND SUBMARINE HISTORY
African American Submariners in the US Navy
Dive! World War II Stories of Sailors & Submarines in the Pacific Page 19