Final Patrol
Page 26
The original plan was to continue the journey another eight hundred feet, across Lake Shore Drive, to the main museum building. That was the most daunting part of the entire trek. Using a series of rails, the sub crossed the busy street in one night. It took them another week to move the submarine from the side of the road to the museum.
On September 25, 1954, the U-505 was dedicated to the memory of war victims everywhere and became a permanent exhibit at the museum. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
After the boat was exposed to Chicago weather for half a decade, the museum decided to let her make one more move—inside to a climate-controlled environment. The team used original construction drawings and old photos to restore much of the boat to her original color and condition prior to the move. All the while, the museum management was trying to figure out the best way to accomplish and pay for this enormous and daunting task.
After about two years of planning and work, and at a cost of about $35 million, the U-505 was rolled along on massive dollies a distance of one thousand feet. Then she was lowered, using monstrous jacks, to a position that was four stories below street level. Special viewing platforms were set up so museum visitors could watch the amazing engineering feat as it played out.
Thousands of miles from the nearest ocean, the old submersible vessel had once again gone deep—into the earth of America’s heartland.
The U-505 and her exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry have become one of the most visited submarine museum sites in the country and a very popular Chicago tourist attraction. As many as thirty million visitors have toured her compartments and examined the various equipment and artifacts that are on display nearby.
The museum features a number of other exhibits as well as an Omni-Max theater.
EPILOGUE
Courtesy of the U.S. Navy
There were officially 1,682 submarine war patrols during World War II. A total of 465 different skippers commanded at least one of those patrols. Sixty of those who commanded a sub would eventually become rear admirals. Twelve advanced to the rank of vice admiral. Three others became full admirals. Two of them eventually served terms in the U.S. Congress.
One of those former skippers, Tom Dykers (USS Jack, SS-259), became a television producer, and in 1957 and 1958 developed the series The Silent Service, which told the true stories of many of the submarines that took part in World War II and the Korean War, including some of those covered in this book. Dykers also hosted and narrated the series.
Three former World War II submarine skippers committed suicide. Another, upon his natural death, had his final wishes honored when he was cremated and his ashes were launched from a submarine’s torpedo tube off Key West, Florida.
The first submarine force casualty suffered in World War II was G. A. Myers, Seaman Second Class, who was shot through the right lung when the USS Cachalot (SS-170) was strafed during the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. The sailor survived and the Cachalot left on her first war patrol five days after the attack . . . without Seaman Myers.
The Imperial Japanese vessel I-176 was the only Japanese sub to sink an American submarine during the war. The USS Corvina (SS-226) was lost with eighty-two men on November 16, 1943.
During 1944, Japan lost fifty-six of its submarines. Seven of those were to U.S. submarines. Of the seven, three were sunk by the USS Batfish (SS-310) during a period of just over three days in February 1945.
There were so many submarine attacks on the Singapore-to-Japan shipping routes in 1944 that one Japanese commander told his men, “You could walk from Singapore to Tokyo on American periscopes.”
After the war, Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, who commanded all warships in the Pacific, acknowledged the contributions of the subs and their crews by saying, in his usual understated way, “We shall never forget that it was our submarines that held the lines against the enemy while our fleets replaced losses and repaired wounds.”
Vice Admiral Charles Lockwood, who commanded the submarine fleet, was a bit more colorful in his praise: “I can assure you that they went down fighting and that their brothers who survived them took a grim toll of our savage enemy to avenge their deaths.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I am indebted to the World War II submarine veterans, as well as those who served on these wonderful old boats after the war. They were kind enough to respond to my call for help when I began researching the stories of their gallant old ladies. As I told them, I wanted to tell human stories, tales of the men who went off to war on the plunging boats.
Many of them provided details and fact verification along with far more sea stories than I could ever fit into a book such as this. As you might expect, they are proud of their service and of their submarines. Too many of them are gone—boats and sailors alike—and their stories are dying with them. These veterans are anxious, even desperate, to have their contribution documented and remembered. That is why they work so hard to save as many of the World War II vessels as they can.
I also salute those who work so hard to build the myriad Web sites devoted to these vessels. Their preservation of stories, patrol logs, photos, and the like made my research much easier than it might have been. A simple Web search by vessel name or hull number will generate a listing of many of these sites, which are often produced and maintained by volunteers.
Thanks to Jim Flanders, one of the leaders of the Submarine Veterans Amateur Radio Association, who steered me in the right direction on several occasions. And to Mac Borg, Chairman of the Board of the North Jersey Media Group, both for taking time to talk with me about the USS Ling and for not making a big deal of the fact that the New Jersey Naval Museum has apparently not paid his company the one dollar a year rent they agreed upon. Thanks, too, to John Fisher, who took time from dinner one evening to tell me about his view of the capture of the U-505, even if we did spend too much time talking about our mutual hobby of ham radio (he’s K2JF and I’m N4KC).
The experiences of Kiyoshi Uehara during the sinking of the Tsushima Maru by the Bowfin and his subsequent rescue were taken from several sources, including an interview conducted in 2003 by Yuko Tamashiro that has been reproduced in many places on the Internet. Uehara had taken his admonitions to not discuss the tragedy seriously and did not talk about it for over sixty years, until that interview. Some accounts suggest he now plans to write his autobiography. I hope he does. The story deserves its own book.
A number of detailed books have been written about many of the submarines covered in this book and they were useful to me in confirming historical and anecdotal accounts of the stories I have chosen to include here. One source was a compilation of all wartime skippers put together by Jon D. Jacques titled Submarine Skippers of World War II: A Data Study. By far the best source of detailed and complete history of the action seen by the submarine service in World War II is the late Clay Blair Jr.’s exhaustive book, Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan.
I also salute the NavSource Naval History project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making photographs of naval vessels easily available to those who want them. They have pulled together over forty thousand images, many of them from official U.S. Navy sources and in the public domain, and put them into a searchable database on the Internet. That Web site can be accessed at www.navsource.org.
The Historic Naval Ships Association is a group made up of those who operate the various naval museums and memorials. They, too, are an excellent source of information about all vessels that have been set up as museums around the United States and in some foreign countries. Their Web site is www.hnsa.org. The information in the appendix that lists maritime museums and memorials was compiled in part from their Web site.
In a foreword on the site, William S. Dudley, former Director of Naval History for the U.S. Navy, says, “It is important that we support the dedicated efforts of the many volunteers whose work enables us to visit these ships. Naval veterans would want us t
o maintain and interpret these vessels, as a source of patriotism and inspiration for the naval service, as well as a potential source of recruitment. It is often said about naval vessels that they are more than floating structures of wood, hemp, and canvas; more than riveted iron or welded steel brought into being so that they can be fought against the enemy. They take on the spirit of the men and women who serve in them, and the ships’ names become a source of motivation and strength for their sailors.”
And, by the way, a source of motivation and strength for all of us who appreciate their bravery and the sacrifices they made on our behalf.
APPENDIX
Museums/Memorials with a Naval or Maritime Theme
This is a list of naval or maritime museums and/or memorials in the United States and Canada that are members of the Historical Naval Ships Association. They are arranged by type of vessel. Some museums may be listed under more than one vessel type. Note that many museums observe seasonal hours and closings.
Aircraft Carriers
Aircraft Carrier Hornet Museum
P.O. Box 460
Pier 3, Alameda Point
Alameda, CA 94501
(510) 521-8448
Fax: (510) 521-8327
E-mail: info@uss-hornet.org
www.uss-hornet.org
Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum
Pier 86
West 46th Street & 12th Avenue
New York, NY 10036-4103
(212) 245-0072
Fax: (212) 245-7289
www.intrepidmuseum.org
Lady Lex Museum on the Bay
2914 North Shoreline Boulevard
Corpus Christi, TX 78403
(361) 888-4873
Fax: (362) 883-8361
E-mail: ladylex@intcomm.net
www.usslexington.com/
San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum
910 North Harbor Drive
San Diego, CA 92101-3321
(619) 544-9600
Fax: (619) 544-9188
E-mail: sdacm@aol.com
www.midway.org
Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum
40 Patriots Point Road
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
(843) 884-2727
Fax: (843) 881-4232
E-mail: wwhills@infoave.net
www.state.sc.us/patpt/
www.ussyorktown.com/yorktown/
Battleships
USS Alabama Battleship Commission
Battleship Memorial Park
2703 Battleship Parkway, P.O. Box 65
Mobile, AL 36601-0065
(800) GANGWAY/(800) 426-4929
Fax: (251) 433-2777
E-mail: ussalbb60@aol.com
www.ussalabama.com
USS Arizona Memorial
National Park Service
1 Arizona Memorial Place
Honolulu, HI 96818-3145
(808) 422-2771
Fax: (808) 483-8608
www.nps.gov/usar/
www.arizonamemorial.org
www.pearlharbormemorial.com
Battleship Cove
5 Water Street, P.O. Box 111
Fall River, MA 02722-0111
(508) 678-1100
Fax: (508) 674-5597
E-mail: battleship@battleshipcove.org
www.battleshipcove.org
USS Missouri Memorial Association
P.O. Box 879
Aiea, HI 96818-4572
(808) 423-2263
Toll-free: (888) 877-6477
Fax: (808) 423-0700
E-mail: webmaster@ussmissouri.com
www.ussmissouri.com
USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial
Box 480
Wilmington, NC 28402
(910) 251-5797
Fax: (910) 251-5807
E-mail: ncbb55@battleshipnc.com
www.battleshipnc.com/index.htm
Battleship New Jersey Museum
62 Battleship Place
Camden, NJ 08103-3302
(856) 966-1652
Fax: (856) 966-3131
E-mail: homeportalliance@aol.com
www.battleshipnewjersey.org
San Jacinto State Historical Park
3523 Highway 134
LaPorte, TX 77571
(281) 479-2431
Fax: (281) 479-4197
E-mail: barry.ward@tpwd.state.tx.us
www.usstexasbb35.com
USS Arizona Memorial
National Park Service
1 Arizona Memorial Place
Honolulu, HI 96818-3145
(808) 422-2771
Fax: (808) 483-8608
E-mail: wmhughes@attbi.com
www.ussutah.org
Battleship Wisconsin
c/o Hampton Roads Naval Museum
1 Waterside Drive, Suite 248
Norfolk, VA 23510-1607
(757) 322-2987
Fax: (757) 445-1867
E-mail: mmosier@nsn.cmar.navy.mil
www.hrnm.navy.mil
Coast Guard Vessels
USCGC Bramble Museum
1115 6th Street
Port Huron, MI 48060-5346
(810) 982-0891
E-mail: mtpopelka@comcast.net
www.phmuseum.org/
Baltimore Maritime Museum
802 S. Caroline St.
Baltimore, MD 21231
(410) 396-3453
Fax: (410) 396-3393
E-mail: admin@baltomaritimemuseum.org
www.baltomaritimemuseum.org
The Glacier Society
P.O. Box 1419
Bridgeport, CT 06601-1419
(866) ICE-PLAY (866-423-7529) toll-free, or (203) 375-6638
E-mail: info@glaciersociety.org
www.glaciersociety.org
Wisconsin Maritime Museum
75 Maritime Drive
Manitowoc, WI 54220-6843
(920) 684-0218
(866) 724-2356 toll-free
Fax: (920) 684-0219
E-mail: museum@wisconsinmaritime.org
www.wisconsinmaritime.org
Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum
40 Patriots Point Road
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
(843) 884-2727
Fax: (843) 881-4232
E-mail: wwhills@infoave.net
www.state.sc.us/patpt/
Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum
1346 Bluff Street
Muskegon, Michigan 49441
(231) 755-1230
Fax: (231) 755-5883
E-mail: ss236sub@aol.com
www.silversides.org
The Overfalls Maritime Museum Foundation
P.O. Box 413
Lewes, DE 19958-0413
E-mail: elainesimmerman@earthlink.net
www.overfalls.org/
Lightship Relief
Address for visiting:
Jack London Square
Oakland, California
Address for inquiries:
U.S. Lighthouse Society
244 Kearny Street—Fifth Floor
San Francisco, CA 94108-4526
(415) 362-7255
Fax: (415) 362-7464
Vancouver Maritime Museum/St. Roch
National Historic Site
1905 Ogden Ave.
Vancouver, BC V6J 1A3
(604) 257-8300
Fax: (604) 737-2621
E-mail: genvmm@vancouvermaritimemuseum.com
www.vancouvermaritimemuseum.com/
Maritime Heritage Center
1002 Valley Street
Seattle, WA 98109-4668
(206) 447-9800
Fax: (206) 447-0598
E-mail: seaport@oz.net
www.nwseaport.org
Cruisers
Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park
One Naval Park Cove
Buffalo, NY 14202
(716) 854-3200
Fax: (716) 847-6405
E-mail: info@buffalon
avalpark.org
www.buffalonavalpark.org/
Independence Seaport Museum
211 South Columbus Boulevard and Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106-3199
(215) 925-5439
Fax: (215) 925-6713
E-mail: seaport@indsm.org
www.phillyseaport.org
United States Naval Shipbuilding Museum
Massachusetts Military Research Center
739 Washington Street
Quincy, MA 02169
(617) 479-7900
Fax: (617) 479-8792
E-mail: seawitchskipper@aol.com
www.uss-salem.org
Destroyers and Escorts
USS Barry
Address for Visiting:
USS Barry
707 Riverside Drive S.E.
Pier 2
Washington Navy Yard, DC 20374-5038
(202) 433-3377
Organization Address:
Officer in Charge/N36
Naval Support Activity Washington
Building 200/3
901 M Street SE
Washington Navy Yard, DC 20374-5001
(202) 433-6111
Fax: (202) 433-2382
Boston National Historical Park
Charlestown Navy Yard
Boston, MA 02129-4543
(617) 242-5601
Fax: (617) 242-5621
www.nps.gov/bost/Cassin_Young.htm
HMCS Fraser
233 LaHavre Street
Bridgewater, NS B4V 2T6