by James Scott
NOTE ON SOURCES
The Silversides and Drum live on today as museums—in Muskegon, Michigan, and Mobile, Alabama, respectively––that help tell the important story of the submarine service’s role in winning World War II. I depended on both to research this book along with almost three dozen other archives, libraries, and museums scattered across several continents. Each submarine returning from a war patrol prepared a roughly thirty-page report, the final touches often finished as the crews moored the submarine in the waters of Pearl Harbor, Brisbane, and other bases across the Pacific. Patrol reports from more than 1,500 war patrols conducted by American submarines in the war total over 60,000 pages. The reports for Silversides, Drum, and Tang total 1,012 pages and cover just thirty-two patrols. These reports provide exhaustive details, including ship contacts, tides, weather conditions, food, and often the exact second each torpedo was fired. The patrol reports coupled with the deck logs on file in the National Archives provide a wonderful day-to-day—and in many cases, minute-by-minute—accounting of life on board each submarine.
The Navy provided skippers with ship recognition manuals to help them identify targets damaged and sunk on patrol. But these manuals left much to interpretation. “After an attack, the officers would come show you the recognition book,” observed Slade Cutter, one of the war’s top skippers. “So you and they picked the biggest ship that looked like that silhouette—just human nature.” To more accurately tally Japanese naval and merchant ship losses, the military created the Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee. This committee compared American and Japanese records, producing a report of its findings in February 1947. Often referred to by the acronym JANAC, the report revised downward the tallies of almost all skippers. The JANAC report was not perfect—particularly in the eyes of many submarine skippers—but the record remains an unbiased benchmark to help chart Japanese losses.
I consulted other important references, including John Alden and Craig McDonald’s United States and Allied Submarine Successes in the Pacific and Far East During World War II, a vital reference that charts every successful attack throughout the war. Another excellent reference that I depended on was a privately translated copy by William Somerville of the Japanese Senji Yuso Sendan Shi, a compilation of many of Japan’s wartime convoys that includes convoy compositions, departure and arrival times and dates, cargoes, and the outcomes of attacks by American and Allied forces. The stealth nature of submarine warfare makes tallying precise losses a virtual impossibility and with so many sources there naturally are differences. In general, I relied on JANAC for overall tallies, given the report’s status as the only official governmental tabulation. In the case of discrepancies, however, I explain the differences in the notes.
I conducted more than a hundred interviews with World War II submarine veterans—cooks, electricians, engineers, torpedomen—to learn about life on a diesel boat. Many skippers later wrote about the war, including Richard O’Kane, whose published book, Clear the Bridge!, proved an invaluable resource for information on Tang. The memoirs of many others I depended on are unpublished, including those of Jack Coye, Robert Rice, Mike Rindskopf, and Murray Frazee, Jr. Rosamond Rice, daughter of Vice Admiral Robert Rice, recorded a series of interviews with her father in the 1970s. She copied the tapes for me, allowing me to hear him narrate his own story. Beyond interviews I collected more than 3,000 pages of letters, journals, telegrams, personal writings, and photos. So voluminous were the records in some cases, like that of Silversides’ engineering officer John Bienia, that I had to create a chronology and bind them to keep copies organized. These personal records beautifully captured the daily rhythms of life on board, the camaraderie and friendships, the fear, the longing for the war to end, and the horror of life in prisoner of war camps.
ARCHIVES, LIBRARIES, AND MUSEUMS
American Heritage Center (AHC), University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming
Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum, North Little Rock, Arkansas
Australian War Memorial, Canberra, Australia
Battleship North Carolina Archives & Collections, Wilmington, North Carolina
Center for the Study of War Experience, Regis University, Denver, Colorado
Charleston County Public Library, Charleston, South Carolina
Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Daniel Library, The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina
Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, Independence, Missouri
Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri
Kentucky Library and Museum, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library, College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina
National Archives, Kew, United Kingdom
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), College Park, Maryland
National Museum of the Pacific War, Fredericksburg, Texas
Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, D.C.
Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC), Washington, D.C.
Naval War College Library (NWCL), Newport, Rhode Island
Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (NBMS), Falls Church, Virginia
Navy Department Library (NDL), Washington, D.C.
Nicholas Murray Butler Library, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.
Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy (USNA), Annapolis, Maryland
North Dakota State University Library, Fargo, North Dakota
Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
U.S. Military Academy Library, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York
U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland
USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, Mobile, Alabama
USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park (BSMP), Honolulu, Hawaii
USS Silversides Submarine Museum, Muskegon, Michigan (formerly Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum)
William Henry Smith Memorial Library, Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis, Indiana
Willis Library, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas
ABBREVIATIONS
AHC
American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming
Alden and McDonald
John D. Alden and Craig R. McDonald, United States and Allied Submarine Successes in the Pacific and Far East During World War II, 3rd Ed. (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2009)
BSMP
USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park, Honolulu, Hawaii
JANAC
Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee, Japanese Naval and Merchant Shipping Losses During World War II by All Causes (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1947)
LOC
Library of Congress
NARA
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland
NBMS
Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Falls Church, Virginia
NDL
Navy Department Library, Washington, D.C.
NHHC
Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C.
NWCL
Naval War College Library, Newport, Rhode Island
RG
Record Group
Senji Yuso Sendan Shi
Shinshichiro Komamiya, Senji Yuso Sendan Shi (Wartime Transportation Convoys History), part 1, trans. William G. Somerville (Tokyo: Shuppan Kyodosha, 1987)
USNA
Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland
USSBS
United States Strategic Bombing Survey
NOTES
Chapter 1. Silversides
“No one knows”: Slade Cutter letter to Esther Cutter, Feb. 9, 1942, Slade D. Cutter Papers, Navy Department Library (NDL), Washington, D.C.
at 9:51 a.m.: Silversides deck log, April 30, 1942; Silversides Report of First War Patrol, June 21, 1942.
; The thirty-seven-year-old: Creed C. Burlingame Navy Bio, Oct. 26, 1955, NDL; Anson Burlingame, Jr., “Being a Burlingame,” unpublished memoir, 2009, p. 36; “The Empire Builders,” Time, Nov. 22, 1943, pp. 65–66.
The Army belatedly ordered: “Army to Dim Shore,” New York Times, April 27, 1942, p. 1.
Two days earlier: “Great Signs Dark as Gay White Way Obeys Army Edict,” New York Times, April 30, 1942, p. 1; photoplay advertisements, New York Times, April 28, 1942, p. 25.
Draft registration: “13,000,000 Registered in 4th Draft, Including 911,630 in New York City,” New York Times, April 28, 1942, p. 1; “1,000 a Minute Sign in Draft; 588,752 Are Enrolled Here,” New York Times, April 27, 1942, p. 1.
The press predicted: “Washington Wire: A Special Report from the Wall Street Journal’s Capital Bureau on Six Months of War—and the Six Months Ahead,” Wall Street Journal, June 5, 1942, p. 1.
$100 million a day: “The Price for Civilization Must Be Paid in Hard Work and Sorrow and Blood,” Fireside Chat to the Nation, April 28, 1942, in Samuel I. Rosenman, comp., The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1942 volume, Humanity on the Defensive (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1950), pp. 227–38.
The burned-out: Homer N. Wallin, Pearl Harbor: Why, How, Fleet Salvage and Final Appraisal (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968), pp. 253–80; “Report on Infamy,” Time, Dec. 14, 1942, pp. 75–80; Robert Trumbull, “ ‘Dead’ Ships Rise at Pearl Harbor; Miracle in Salvage Cuts Loss to 3,” New York Times, May 23, 1943, p. 1.
Workers salvaged: “Salvage Pearl Harbor Greetings,” New York Times, Feb. 4, 1942, p. 5; Salvage Officer to the Commandant, Navy Yard, Pearl Harbor, Report of the Salvage of the USS West Virginia, June 15, 1942, in Wallin, Pearl Harbor, p. 349.
“Japanese forces”: Operational Order No. 46-42, April 26, 1942, Box 294, RG 38, Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Plans, Orders and Related Documents, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), College Park, Maryland.
a compound that housed: Theodore Roscoe, United States Submarine Operations in World War II (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1949), pp. 7–8.
Likewise, nearby: Chester Nimitz, “Pearl Harbor Attack,” undated observations, Naval War College Library (NWCL), Newport, Rhode Island.
twenty million square miles: Max Hastings, Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944–45 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), p. 9; Richard B. Frank, “An Overdue Pacific War Perspective,” Naval History, vol. 24, no. 2, April 2010, pp. 14–17.
The son of a receiver: Details are drawn in part from: Creed Burlingame’s Naval Academy midshipman file on microfilm in the Special Collections and Archives Department of the Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy (USNA), Annapolis, Maryland; Anson Burlingame e-mail to author, Aug. 12, 2009; John Burlingame e-mail to author, Aug. 12, 2009.
The Naval Academy rejected: M. S. Tisdale letter to Creed Burlingame, Sept. 29, 1922, USNA.
He took classes: Creed Burlingame Declaration Sheet, Examination for Admission to the United States Naval Academy, Feb. 7, 1923, USNA.
“Upon examination”: O. G. Martin to Superintendent, U.S. Naval Academy, May 26, 1926, USNA.
he graduated: Transcript of Scholastic Record of Creed Cardwell Burlingame, USNA.
preferring his coffee: Patrick Carswell interview with author, August 23, 2009; Charles Swendsen interviews with author, June 23, 2009, and June 26, 2009.
The only formality: The View from the Bridge, Oral History of RADM C. C. Burlingame, produced by Paul Knutson, 1976. Compact Disc, USS Silversides Submarine Museum, Muskegon, Michigan.
“You are not”: Ibid.
“There were people”: Thomas A. Moore oral history interviews with Jan K. Herman, March 24, 1993, March 29, 1993, and April 30, 1993, Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (NBMS), Office of Medical History, Falls Church, Virginia.
He shared a prejudice: Anson Burlingame, Jr., “Being a Burlingame,” p. 37; Henry H. Lesesne, A History of the University of South Carolina: 1940–2000, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001, p. 142.
A healthy dose: Creed Burlingame interview with Clay Blair, circa 1972, Box 96, Clay Blair, Jr., Papers, American Heritage Center (AHC), University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyo.; Robert Trumbull, Silversides (New York: Henry Holt, 1945), pp. 26, 91.
a bottle of Chanel #5: John Bienia letter to Alpha Bienia, July 16, 1943.
“I drink more”: The View from the Bridge.
Burlingame privately doubted: Anson Burlingame, Jr., “Being a Burlingame,” p. 39.
“Lord knows”: Robert Worthington letter to mother, Dec. 13, 1941.
“Press home”: General Instructions for Patrol, Operational Order No. 46-42, April 26.
These dangers: Naval History Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, United States Submarine Losses: World War II (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1963), p. 1.
“We hate those”: Slade Cutter letter to Esther Cutter, Dec. 11, 1942, Slade D. Cutter Papers, NDL.
German U-boats surrendered: Gary E. Weir, “The Search for an American Submarine Strategy and Design, 1916–1936,” Naval War College Review, vol. 44, no. 1, Sequence 333, Winter 1991, pp. 34–48; Charles A. Lockwood, Down to the Sea in Subs (New York: W. W. Norton, 1967), pp. 100–103.
Engineers wrestled: Charles Lockwood, Hell at 50 Fathoms (Philadelphia: Chilton Company, 1962), pp. 141–89.
Filled with 280,000: Jessie W. Kohl, “History of the Medical Research Department, U.S. Submarine Base, New London, 7 December 1941 to 7 December 1945,” Medical Research Department, U.S. Submarine Base, New London, Connecticut, p. 7.
Veterans challenged: Weir, “The Search for an American Submarine Strategy and Design, 1916–1936,” pp. 34–48.
Workers at Mare Island: James L. Mooney et al., eds., Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, vol. 6 (Washington, DC.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976), pp. 508–9.
$6 million: J. R. “Kacy” Ward, “Giant Sub Launched at Mare Island Yard,” Berkeley Daily Gazette, Aug. 27, 1941, p. 1.
473 days: This date is calculated from Nov. 4, 1941, when the workers laid the keel, through Feb. 20, 1942, which Robert Worthington noted in his journal as Silversides’ official completion date.
Eight watertight compartments: Detailed descriptions of modern fleet submarines are drawn in part from: The Fleet Type Submarine, NavPers 16160, June 1946, Standards and Curriculum Division, Training, Bureau of Naval Personnel, pp. 6–16, 22–38; Larry Kimmett and Margaret Regis, U.S. Submarines in World War II: An Illustrated History (Seattle: Navigator Publishing, 1996), pp. 16–21.
The heart of the submarine’s: Synopsis of Machinery and Hull Data, in Board of Inspection and Survey, Report of Official Trial of U.S.S. Silversides (SS-236), April 24, 1942, Box 2076, RG 19, Bureau of Ships General Correspondence, 1940–1945, NARA; The Fleet Type Submarine, NavPers 16160, June 1946, Standards and Curriculum Division, Training, Bureau of Naval Personnel, pp. 62–71.
Silversides could submerge: John D. Alden, The Fleet Submarine in the U.S. Navy: A Design and Construction History (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1979), p. 101.
Despite the advanced technology: Ivan F. Duff, Medical Study of the Experience of Submariners as Recorded in 1,471 Submarine Patrol Reports in World War II, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Navy Department, Washington, D.C., 1947, pp. 1–2, 21–27.
One such tragedy: Tullibee Report of Third War Patrol, Feb. 10, 1944.
An accidental discharge: Blueback Report of Third War Patrol, July 21, 1945.
Every torpedoman’s worst fear: Pollack Report of Ninth War Patrol, April 11, 1944.
Seventeen submariners: Duff, Medical Study of the Experience of Submariners as Recorded in 1,471 Submarine Patrol Reports in World War II, pp. 2, 23–25.
“bridal suite”: Tom Bowser interview with author, Dec. 9, 2009; Fred Tannenbaum e-mail to author, Jan. 11, 2013.
The ship’s desalination plant: Board of Inspection a
nd Survey, Report of Official Trial of U.S.S. Silversides (SS-236), April 24, 1942.
Sailors often bathed: Author interviews with Roland Fournier (Aug. 3, 2009), Phillip Williamson (Sept. 2, 2009), Verner Utke-Ramsing (Aug. 20, 2009), and George Schaedler (Oct. 29, 2009).
Off-duty sailors: Author interviews with Roland Fournier (Aug. 3, 2009), Alexander Galas (Sept. 1, 2009), James Eubanks (Aug. 28, 2009), Verner Utke-Ramsing (Aug. 20, 2009), and Eugene Pridonoff (Aug. 31, 2009); Silversides Report of First War Patrol, June 21, 1942.
Fresh fruits and vegetables: David Schmidt interviews with author, Aug. 11, 2009, and Aug. 14, 2009; Gerard DeRosa interview with author, Aug. 7, 2009.
Silversides boasted: Board of Inspection and Survey, Report of Official Trial of U.S.S. Silversides (SS-236), April 24, 1942.
Men stashed crates: David Schmidt interviews with author, Aug. 11, 2009, and Aug. 14, 2009.
Rather than clutter: Silversides Report of First War Patrol, June 21, 1942.
The same rationale: Roy M. Davenport, Clean Sweep (New York: Vantage, 1986), p. 26.
preserved fruits helped: Thomas Withers, “The Preparation of the Submarines Pacific for War,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, April 1950, pp. 387–92.
Veterans learned: David Schmidt interviews with author, Aug. 11, 2009, and Aug. 14, 2009; Gerard DeRosa interview with author, Aug. 7, 2009.
Burlingame’s cramped: Silversides Report of First War Patrol, June 21, 1942.
Burlingame’s youngest brother: Background on Paul Burlingame comes from: Anson Burlingame, Jr., “Being a Burlingame,” pp. 36, 48–50; United States Military Academy, Seventy-Second Annual Report of the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, June 10, 1941 (Newburgh, N.Y.: Moore Printing Company), pp. 417–18.
At 8:15 a.m.: Details of the crash that killed Paul Burlingame come from the following news reports: “11 Killed in Crash of 2 Bombers Here,” New York Times, June 18, 1940, p. 3; “Sky-Watchers Filled with Horror as Army Bombers Crash and Burn,” New York Times, June 18, 1940, p. 3; “Air Crash Burns Fatal to Woman,” New York Times, June 19, 1940, p. 19; “11 Army Fliers Killed When Two Planes Collide in Mid-Air and Fall in Flames,” St. Petersburg Times, June 18, 1940, p. 1; “Twelve U.S. Fliers Die as Army Planes Crash,” Ludington Daily News, June 17, 1940, p. 1.