(The following story is a copy of a term paper an associate member wrote for one of his college courses)

History records that December 7, 1941 was a disastrous day for the United States. The Japanese virtually destroyed our Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, with one exception. The Submarine Base with its supplies, facilities and submarines were (not) damaged. This oversight on the part of the Japanese was to have caused them much grief, which was not long in coming. On the afternoon of December 7, the submarine forces were sent into action with the order to execute unrestricted submarine warfare against Japan. By their attack, Japan had caused all the rulebooks to be thrown out of the window. Within a week our submarines were proceeding toward the home waters of Japan to carry out this order. They became involved in several types of activity from lone wolf tactics, to coordinated action with surface fleets. They acted as lifeguards for airmen on strikes, made reconnaissance missions, supplied guerillas on enemy-held islands, rescued evacuees, made raids on enemy held islands, all in addition to their major purpose of sweeping the seas of Japanese shipping. They faced problems, which they had to solve as they went along, such as faulty torpedo exploders and sickness at sea. All this was accomplished, but not without losses. Six submariners lost their lives for every one non-submariner who died in the naval service (exclusive of aviation). I must excuse myself in advance for the possibility of over praising the Submarine Service, but I am proud that I wore the "dolphins" for three years while serving in the Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet.

In the closing days of 1941 and the opening ones of 1942, the Japanese ran rampant over Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, and across the whole Southwest Pacific down to Borneo, Sumatra and Java. The Japanese offensive was supplied by shipping and sustained by shipping. Only by shipping, could the Japanese front be maintained and the conquered areas exploited. Only by destruction of that shipping could the offensive be halted and the front line cut off. Thus the stage was set for the all-out war of attrition against Japanese shipping by the Submarine Force. The Imperial Navy did not lose a single major unit during the Philippine invasion. But as they moved down the Malay Barrier, they began to lose merchant ships here and there. With the coming of the New Year, ships started going down off the coasts of Japan. On December 1, 1941, the USS Swordfish won credit for the first confirmed sinking of a Japanese ship by a U.S. Submarine. I underlined confirmed because on the 9th and again on the 14th, the Swordfish reported sinkings from which confirmation was lacking. On January 2, 1942, the USS Gudgeon became the first U.S. Submarine in history, to score the first confirmed sinking of an enemy warship. Identified by postwar investigation, the Gudgeon's victim proved to be ironically, a Japanese cruiser submarine, the I-173. These successes in the early days of the war were marred by one thing only. -The discovery, as the patrol reports were submitted, that our torpedoes carried a faulty exploder mechanism.

Imagine, if you can, the feelings of Lieutenant Commander J.A. Scott, Captain of the USS Tunney on the night of April 9, 1943. The Tunney had intercepted a Jap convoy and had carried out its approach in such a manner that, probably for the first time in history a submarine was presented with the opportunity of making a simultaneous bow and stern tube attack, with aircraft carriers as targets for both tube nests. Four fish were fired from the stern tubes and four explosions were heard. Six were shot in a spread from the bow tubes and three explosions were heard. One carrier received a little damage, which didn't interfere with her schedule. No other ship was damaged. The blasts heard and reported as hits by the Tunney were premature explosions caused by defective exploders. Unused torpedoes brought back from patrols were examined at Pearl Harbor.

EDITORS NOTE:

When thorough examination did not reveal any errors in adjustment, test shots were fired in an effort to determine the cause of the failure to work properly. Upon recovery and examination it was found that the firing pin did not hit the primer cap with enough force to set it off. All available talent was turned loose on the problem and they soon came up with a modified firing pin that worked properly. The correction of the contact-exploder and the inactivation of the magnetic exploder finally allowed our submarines to go to sea with a reliable torpedo almost two years after the beginning of the war.

From the beginning of the war, submarines were assigned extra tasks to perform, aside from their normal one of sinking enemy ships. These special missions were of the nature of reconnaissance, supply, evacuation or rescue, transportation of coast watchers and intelligence agents, lifeguarding, and planting mines. The special mission usually required the invasion of enemy territory, and quite often proved to be more dangerous than a normal war patrol. The first missions were the transportation of supplies to the defenders a Corregidor. The Seawolf was the first, carrying 37 tons of .50 caliber ammunition. If the ship had suffered a depth charging, she might have gone up like a giant hand-grenade. The crew's attitude on this was expressed by the remark of one. "If they hit us, they'll just blow us a little higher, that's all." Fortunately, they were not depth-charged. The USS Trout became famous because of the extraordinary ballast that it evacuated from Corregidor; two tons of gold bars and 18 tons of silver pesos, plus stocks of negotiable securities from the bank vaults of Manila. In addition, on the way back to Pearl Harbor the Trout torpedoed and sank two enemy ships. In March, 1944, the Angler was directed to pick up a group of fifty evacuees on Panay, in the Philippines Islands. When the Angler arrived, there were fifty-eight evacuees instead of the fifty reported. They were all taken aboard and safely delivered to Darwin, Australia. Someone who has never been aboard a submarine might not appreciate this. But, a submarine is a very small ship and every available inch of space is used for machinery, stores, pipe lines, etc. When fifty-eight extra people are thrown in with the normal complement of eighty men, it makes for a pretty crowded ship. Also consider that among these people were women and children, one pregnant woman, several of them sick, and one temporarily insane man who had to be watched twenty-four hours. With all this, the Angler still had to maintain a state of combat readiness. It must have been quite a trip.

Of all the special missions performed by the submarines, they are held in the highest regard for their role as lifeguards. A carrier pilot tacking off on a strike at an enemy heId island, knew that if he was shot own or ran out of gas, his chances of rescue were nil. That was before the submarine service entered the picture. Plans were made by which a submarine was stationed off the island to be attacked, in order to pick up any downed airmen. Later, when the B-29 raids began on Japan, submarines were placed along the route over which they flew, just in case. By the end of the war, 504 American airmen had been rescued by 86 submarines.

Submarine support of fleet operations involved many various activities. Preluding an attack on an enemy-held island, submarines were concentrated in the surrounding waters to cut the enemy's supply line. They made photographic reconnaissance of beachheads marked for amphibious landings and enemy military or naval installations marked for future reference. As previously mentioned, they acted as lifeguards during air strikes. Submarines performed scouting duty in target areas and off enemy bases to report enemy movements. They also intercepted and attacked enemy forces, which came out to oppose the attacking United States Forces. Submarines were stationed to intercept and attack enemy shipping trying to flee the target area. A striking example of these activities was the deployment of submarines in support of a carrier strike on Saipan on February 23, 1944. This operation was staged as a sequel to the highly successful first carrier strike on Truk, just six days earlier. To serve in this operation, the submarine Apogon, Searaven, Sunfish, and Skipjack were placed in the arc of a circle with a thirty mile radius from Mt. Tapotchau, Saipan, on bearings from that peak of 312, 291, 270, and 250 degrees. Tang was stationed as a safetyman sixty miles to the west, to act upon contact reports received from the inner circle. Sunfish was given additional duty as lifeguard during the strike. Their instructions were to destroy escaping ships.

Given the alarm by a Japanese patrol plane, which had sighted the carriers, the shipping in Tanapang Harbor, Saipan, fled to the west. Early in the morning of February 23, Sunfish sank an escaping freighter, and after daybreak, caught and sank a second. Tang, in her position to the westward, staged a shooting match from midnight on the 22nd 'til the morning of the 25th, during which she sank four fugitive ships.

Submarines performed special missions and supported the fleet, but their main task remained to search out and destroy the enemy fleet and their shipping. However it wasn't too often possible to accomplish this, without placing the submarine and its crew in a very dangerous position. The morale of the men of the Silent Service and their reactions in time of danger, were always of the highest caliber. The story of the USS Growler commanded by Commander Howard W. Gilmore illustrates this.

Growler was nearing the end of her fourth patrol in February 1943. She had already accounted for two ships sunk on this patrol. On January 30, she had attacked and damaged a freighter. The following day, Growler struck at a heavily armed gunboat, only to have her life endangered by a defective torpedo.

On the night of February 4, Growler was trailing a convoy probably heading for Rabaul. Two merchantmen escorted by two patrol craft. By estimating their speed and course, and sending the Growler on a fast end-around run, she was placed ahead of the convoy on their projected track. At 0300, February 5, Gilmore was making a surface attack under poor visibility, when the lead ship suddenly opened fire. The Growler made a quick dive and was subjected to an hour of depth charging. Sometime after 0400, a rupture in a manhole gasket in the forward main ballast tank, allowed water to flood the forward torpedo room at the rate of 1 ,000 gallons an hour. Emergency repairs stemmed the flood, but only temporarily until the submarine could surface. With a patrol boat in the vicinity, Gilmore held the submarine under and headed westward to evade. When night fell, the Growler surfaced. A new gasket was placed in the ruptured manhole, and the Growler was once more ready for action.

At 0110 on the morning of February 7, a ship was sighted off the starboard bow, on an opposite course. Gilmore turned the submarine away while readying all tubes. Then he swung about and closed for attack. The enemy sighted the submarine, reversed course, and rushed her. Radar detected the enemy gunboats course-change, but poor visibility prevented the people on the bridge from seeing it at once. Gilmore, the Officer of The Deck, the assistant O.O.D., the quartermaster, and three lookouts were on the bridge. Radar showed that the range to the gunboat was too short for the torpedoes to arm themselves. Without hesitation, Gilmore gave the order, "Left full rudder," sounded the collision alarm and prepared to ram the gunboat. The crash, at 17 knots, was terrific. The Growler heeled over, and as she righted the gunboat opened fire at point-blank range. The assistant O.O.D. and one lookout were killed. Gilmore was badly wounded. He gave the order, "take her down." They took her down leaving Commander Gilmore on deck. Commander Gilmore became the first member of the Submarine Service to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, posthumously.

Japan was already on her knees when the first Atomic Bomb was dropped. Her supply lines were out and she was unable to maintain her war machine. The problem became one of bare sustenance for the Japanese. This was brought about by submarines. They sank 1,178 merchant ships for a total tonnage of 5,053,491 tons, and 214 naval vessels with a tonnage of 577,626 tons. This means that American submarines accounted for 27% of the enemy war shipping sunk by all agencies in the Pacific war and 55% of all Japanese shipping, merchant and naval. This is really something, when you learn that it was done by a force that consisted of less than 2% of U.S. Navy personnel.