U-Boat Scourge

by J Eugene Porter

  Burton stood, looked at the commander while rubbing his hands on a dirty rag, and said, “What’s up that requires our attention at the captains’ office?”

  The commander looked at him and said, “Let’s say the captain wants to discuss the current war conditions and what your plans are to beat the Japs. How the hell do I know? All I can tell you is there is a group of officers who want to talk to you two and they are in a hell of a hurry, so wipe your hands as you walk and let’s get going.”

  Both officers rubbed their hands on the greasy rags, walked up to the conning tower, got their hats, and exited the sub where the commander was waiting on the dock. Both got to the gangway and turned to the stern of the boat and saluted the flag. Then the captain of the Greenling told the officer of the deck to hold the fort until he got back.

  Burton and Hayden were ushered into Captain Cutts office by an aide. Coming to attention in front of the captain and a full commander, they received a quick looking over by the superior officers. “Burton, you and your exec look like you have been working in the bilges. The United States provided you a new home and it looks like you have reduced it to a home for grease monkeys.” He smiled knowing what it takes to get a new boat ready to go to war. Before the two officers could make amends, the captain said, “At ease, gentlemen. Meet Commander Jameson who is on the staff of Admiral King.”

  Each of the officers looked at the commander as he put out his hand to shake theirs. Both decided, what the hell and shook the commander’s hand which now contained a good amount of grease, diesel oil, and muck. Commander Jameson was not concerned about this at all but said, “Commander Burton, I am glad Captain Cutts saved you from your work with petroleum, but I’m sure you’ll soon be able to go back to whatever you were working on.”

  Everyone smiled and Captain Cutts spoke. “Gentlemen, what the commander says from here on out is to be considered top secret. You are both trained and experienced naval officers, but you are now advised to use caution in discussing anything you hear from the commander or members of his team. Is that understood?”

  Both officers quickly agreed. Commander Jameson said, “Gentlemen, the reason we are here today is to use your boat for a few tests. These tests will be of great service to the navy, and you will find them very useful to the success of your future missions. If the captain does not mind, I will now brief the gentlemen on what we require.”

  The captain agreed and before stepping out of his office said, “Commander, if we can meet at the officer’s club at around 1800 hours, perhaps the others can meet Burton and his exec and maybe get a drink. They might all need one by then.”

  “Good idea.” Jameson turned to the two submarine officers and began telling them a story. They listened very intently and occasionally, looked at each other sometimes smiling and sometimes looking frightened at what the commander was saying.

  1800 hours came and went and only the captain had shown up at the club. He thought he had been stood up but then a navy lieutenant commander and a lieutenant junior grade, with navy wings on their chests walked in and were directed to the captain’s table. As they were introducing themselves, the special team officers walked in with Commander Jameson leading the way. The commander apologized for being late and told Captain Cutts the two submarine officers would be a few more minutes because they needed to get into clean uniforms for the officer’s club. Evidently, Cutts thought, the meeting with the secret team people went very long. Cutts did not think much of this until later when he found out what the mission would entail.

  Once the sub’s captain and exec arrived, Jameson thanked everyone for changing their schedules and getting the Greenling prepared to sail in the morning. The chief of the boat was dragging people back to the sub to get everything ready for the exercise explained to him only a few hours ago. To say he was unhappy at this late request would have been accurate. The commander then outlined the mission for the morning.

  “Captain, with your permission, I want to go over the plan for the morning. Everyone will get a copy of the plan as well because of the time constraints and the need to repeat an activity at specific times during the day.” He looked around the table and then began again.

  “We will leave the dock at 0700 hours and proceed to the training area marked on the chart. The coordinates are also marked, Captain, so that you will know exactly where the Greenling is located. Captain Burton estimates it will only take ninety minutes to arrive at the area where we will do the first test dive. We have time for two or three dives and then at 1130 hours our nemesis in the guise of Lieutenant Commander Shoemaker’s R4D will make a series of high altitude passes coming from different directions and altitudes. We figure this will take forty-five minutes. He will then circle far away finding the sub from an altitude of his choosing. Upon our sighting his plane, we will crash dive the boat.”

  Seeing everyone appeared comfortable with the plan, he continued. “After coming back to periscope depth, we will resurface and just like on an operational patrol, the conning tower lookouts will assume their position and search for an intruder. We will not know where he is or from what direction he will be approaching. Shoemaker and the others on the plane will find our sub and it is up to them to attack as best they can. Teams on both the submarine and the plane will time all events and make notations on what works best regarding defense and offense. We will continue this effort until no later than 1400 hours at which time both the R4D and the Greenling will return to base. Are there any questions?”

  Each person looked at the orders and charts Brand had handed out during the commander’s talk and understood their requirements. The only question came from the co-pilot, Lt. (jg) Arnold Miller, “Looks like we’ll be good for fuel but if we do a lot of fast climbs, we may have to go back sooner than 1400 hours. If so, should we signal you in some way?”

  The submarine captain responded, “Just wag your wings if you have to go and we will signal with a flashing light. Would that work?”

  Shoemaker answered, “Sure that works well for us. I don’t think we’ll have a problem, but it is always a contingency we have to work with.”

  The commander surveyed the group once more. “Good, if there are no other questions, let’s order some food so we can get ready for the morning.”

  With smiles all around the meals were quickly ordered. The talk now turned to the normal navy conversation, submarines versus airplanes versus anybody in the army.

  21

  23 February 1942

  USS Greenling

  The Atlantic Ocean

  near Rhode Island

  • Japanese submarine shells oil refinery at Ellwood, California.

  The USS Greenling had traveled for two hours at its normal cruising speed which was around fifteen knots. It could hit twenty-one knots if pressed but the chief of the boat would have a coronary if they pushed the new engines too much too soon. Since there was no need to be anyplace quickly, the cruising speed would work just fine for the exercises Brand had designed for the sub and the R4D. Brand had placed himself with Commander Burton in the conning tower for the first part of the journey. Once they got on station, Commander Jameson had told him in no uncertain terms he was to wait inside the sub during all the maneuvers. Flannigan would be working the exercise along with Captain Burton and the normal lookouts from the conning tower.

  Burton placed four lookouts atop the conning tower. Three were positioned on the racks bolted to the side of the tower and afforded a better view than where the captain and fourth lookout were situated. Each man had a set of high powered binoculars and scanned a hundred-degree area which gave an advantage of overlapping the person next to him. They scanned the sea first then the sky looking up about forty-five degrees from the water. They did this every few moments with deliberate precision allowing them to cover their sea and air assignments every minute. It got boring fast and many times a bird was thought to be a plane or a piece of flotsam became a ship. They would gain more experience over time, but as a n
ew crew, these were the things they had to improve to survive.

  The skipper of the boat, a “talker,” and another lookout—often a junior officer—were also on the bridge of the conning tower looking forward and to each side. This complemented the three assigned lookouts who were in the watch racks above him. Brand searched the sea with his binoculars then looked to the sky. There were broken clouds a plane could hide in at around eight thousand feet. The winds were moderate at fourteen knots coming from the north. All in all, a good day for a boat ride Brand thought and an even better day to test out his theories.

  The young ensign looked at his watch and tapped the skipper’s shoulder. When Burton turned to him, Brand said, “Sir, permission to go below. It is about time, and I think we need to get Lieutenant Flannigan up here for the next part of the show.”

  “Permission granted Mr. Brand. Send up the marine,” replied Burton as he continued scanning of the sea.

  Brand went down the slippery hatch and found himself below the conning tower in the upper periscope room, which housed the attack periscope. Farther below was the main control room with the diving officer and the plotting desk where attacks were worked up and decisions made for firing torpedoes.

  When he got down to the main control room, he spotted Flannigan talking to the XO and told him to go up and take over his place. “Now remember, once someone spots the plane, hit your stopwatch and when you get below with everyone else and the hatch is secured, hit it again. I’ll be waiting to get your number to compare with mine. I’ll have sergeant Laird work his watch as well, and hopefully, we’ll match pretty close.”

  Flannigan nodded knowing the importance of accuracy on this test. Before starting up the ladder, he warned Brand, “Take care of yourself down here. Hold on to something as we start to dive. I have been in subs before during my academy days. It’s the reason why I’m a marine.”

  The exec smiled at the young ensign and signaled for him to stand in a specific area so he would not get run over by the crew when they did the crash dive maneuver. Sergeant Laird was also set up in a similar position on the other side. He had been told in no uncertain terms by the chief of the boat not to touch anything. He told Laird earlier, “Bad luck having a woman on board a ship and even more unlucky having a goddamn marine on board. So, you better not touch anything while you are on my boat, understand?”

  Laird who was not afraid of anything, especially a navy chief, agreed to be good and not touch anything but was very afraid of being in this metal tube. The idea of going under water scared the hell out of him. The gunny told him he got this assignment because he was the biggest and strongest of the team and he was sure he would take good care of the ensign. Laird wished he was back on the plane right now instead of this damp metal tube.

  Brand listened to the orders and information flowing back and forth in the control room. Each order was precisely repeated, and the enlisted men seemed to be handling their jobs with a great amount of expertise. Less than a third of the crew had ever served on a submarine before, and the process to become a useful member of the fleet took a great amount of time and dedication. Any person who did not want to go on the cruise or decided they were no longer capable of dealing with the claustrophobic living conditions, the stress of the deployment, or the general fear of being beneath the waves had only to ask and they would be removed from the boat. The submarine service was very small and one weak or fearful person could sink a submarine.

  About ten minutes later, as Brand checked his watch to see if he had miscalculated the timetable for the R4D to arrive on station, a claxon horn went off with the words, “Dive, dive, dive. All hands below. Secure diesels, full power to the electric motors, dive planes full.”

  What appeared as total chaos was a carefully choreographed ballet of actions, movement, and awareness by the crew and the boat. The throbbing diesel engines died, and a subtle whir of the electric motors began. Tanks were blown, and the boat began to angle down, slowly at first and then very rapidly. The crew from the conning tower dropped through the hatch with Flannigan second after the talker, then followed by the four lookouts and finally the skipper who slid down the ladder like a fireman pulling a rope which held onto the heavy hatch. While he was doing this, a burly chief turned the wheel to set the seal on the hatch so the boat was now watertight. Lights went from red to green on the control boards indicating closed hatches, pumps, ballast tanks, battery conditions and other things Brand did not quite comprehend.

  The exec spoke first, “Skipper, we are at sixty feet and dropping. Speed eight knots, bearing 135 degrees.”

  The skipper looked around to see if all was going as it should and then said, “Take her down to 120 feet and then come to a heading of seventy-five degrees. Hold that course for five minutes then come to periscope depth.”

  Brand was busy writing numbers down from the other two members of the team plus his own. He asked Flannigan how all of this took place, “What was the plane’s heading? What altitude? Speed? Who saw it first?” He wrote the answers to each question and noted his own observations then quickly reviewed them all.

  “So how did we do, Mr. Brand?” inquired the skipper.

  Brand casually replied, “I would say you and your crew did very well. Let’s try it again and see how things go on the next pass.”

  *****

  Up above, the R4D piloted by Lieutenant Commander Shoemaker was heading away from the point of contact and climbing to eight thousand feet. He was cruising at one hundred sixty miles per hour, enjoying the good flying conditions, and relishing being able to play attack plane for once.

  Commander Jameson sat between Shoemaker and the co-pilot Arnold Miller. The two pilots were both smiling and enjoying the exercise. The rest of the team was onboard which gave the plane lots of eyes to scan the ocean. Half of them were given binoculars, and the others used their best vision to locate the submarine.

  Gunnery Sergeant Jones was the first to sight the sub as they flew at five thousand feet headed due south. The sub was sighted to the east of their heading and just like the U-boat sighting of a few days ago off Carolina, the wake was the first thing visible. At five thousand feet, they had a line of sight of seventy-five nautical miles. The sub was probably only fifteen miles away, but the team picked up the wake first. The gunny, being an old sea marine and having spent considerable time on watch duty back on the Saratoga, knew how to scan the seas and not be mesmerized by reflections of light. As soon as he saw the wake he notified the flight deck then scanned from his initial point of reference to where the sub was. It took him only a moment or two to pinpoint the sub and provide a bearing to the pilot.

  The pilot, plotted an intercept course with Jameson’s help, increased speed to the boat, and began a slow descent. This was part of the initial plan to establish parameters for their research. Evidently, they were discovered during the first exercise when they were some four miles out and at an altitude of twenty-five hundred feet. The sub had dived to safety before the plane could get to the point of interception. Again, as Brand had theorized, this was to be expected. Now the cat and mouse game would begin again with the R4D trying different altitudes, attack profiles, and speeds to get close enough to successfully attack the submarine. That is, of course, if they had weapons to attack a boat.

  The game continued for three more hours with a total of four more attacks and passes. Each time the plane got closer, but the sub’s crew spotted it far enough out to successfully dive. Finally, around 1400 hours, the submarine stayed on the surface as the plane dropped down for one more mock attack. As the plane passed, the pilot wagged his wings and Flannigan could almost see his team waving out of the windows.

  *****

  Down below the skipper came on the ship’s intercom, “Secure from battle stations. Let’s head back to the barn. Well done men. Liberty passes will be available for this weekend to half of the crew on Saturday and the other half on Sunday. Again, thank you for your hard work. That is all.”

 
; You could hear whoops and yells of joy from throughout the boat as the crew relished the notion they would get time off from their constant work these past eight weeks.

  Brand approached the skipper with his papers in disarray. He looked at the captain of the warship with a great deal of respect and put out his hand saying, “Sir, may I shake your hand. You have a great crew, a great boat, and I would love to serve with you anytime.”

  Captain Burton shook the ensign’s hand, thinking how clever Brand was, and how a compliment from him meant something. “Thank you, Mr. Brand. It was a pleasure to have you on board.” He stopped for a moment, then keeping the words formal but also demonstrating their importance to him and his crew continued, “The exercise you created will be very helpful when we get out to the Pacific. I think every one of us has an even better appreciation for what we are facing and I know we are in better condition than before you came aboard.” Smiling, he returned to his command post.

  22

  24 February 1942

  Office of the Commander-

  Submarines, Atlantic Fleet

  New London, Connecticut

  • Carrier task force (Vice Adm. W. F. Halsey) bombards Wake Island.

  • Submarine Swordfish evacuates United States High Commissioner F. B. Sayre from Philippine Islands.

  Before the Greenling had tied up at its dock, Brand put together several ideas based on the information recorded by the three team members. He was especially proud of the way the R4D had been handled and how much he learned from the various mock attacks by the plane on the sub. He had reached several conclusions on ASW attacks both from the air and sea and now had some ideas about how to better protect the crews of U.S. submarines from aerial attacks. Once on shore, he would advise the commander of what he wanted to do with the information.

  Throughout the evening, Brand met with Commander Jameson and Lieutenant Flannigan to first compare notes on each attack and what did and did not work. The two senior officers watched as Brand formulated his ideas on a chalkboard so he could express himself in numbers first, then in English so most people would understand. Finally, around 2300 hours, Brand gained agreement from Jameson and Flannigan as to his results and, more importantly, what he planned to do with it. Jame-son asked one of the corporals standing outside the door to find Chief Schmidt so he could send a coded message to Admiral Willson.