What WWII Submariners Did.....

Since 05-19-05

What They Did

During the 1,347 days of WWII, 465 skippers took 263 boats and 16,000 men out on 1736 patrols, collectively spending 79,838 days at sea, of which 31,571 days were spent in operating areas where they attacked 4,114 merchant ships, firing 14,748 torpedoes and sinking 1,178 of them along with 214 Naval vessels. Of these 263 boats 52 and 3,617 men never returned. In this same period, the Germans lost 781 U-boats, the Japanese lost 130 and the Italians lost 85. 16,200 Japanese merchant seamen were killed and 53,400 wounded out of the total force of 122,000 by United States submarines. A force of 2% of the U.S. Navy accounted for 55% of Japan's maritime losses.

Never in the annals of military history has there been a record of achievement to equal that of the United States Submarine Service during World War Two. With 1.6 percent of all Naval personnel the Submarine Service sank over fifty-five percent of all Japanese ships sunk, including one third of all Japanese Men-of-War.

They also performed many other tasks such as carrying ammunition to Corregidor, evacuating the Philippine Government and all it's gold. Attacking enemy land positions, landing spotters and raiders on many islands. Rescuing downed US pilots, one of which was George Bush, later President of the United States.

Secret surveillance was another mission of US submarines. US submarines scouted every landing made during the war in the Pacific and on many occasions acted as 'point' for the invading forces guiding them to the invasion place.

The United States Submarine service had the Island of Japan isolated long before the end of the war. They were unable to supply their army in the field, or even sustain the economy of the home islands. It is questionable under those circumstances that the atomic bomb was really needed.

All of this was done under the strictest secrecy, most of it not revealed for more than forty years after the end of World War Two.    

What Was Said

When President Roosevelt was secretly told of the success of our submarines, he said, "I can only echo the words of Winston Churchill, "Never have so many owed so much to so few."
 

Itaki Ito, recorder for the military leaders of Japan, said in his book The Rise and Fall of the (Imperial) Japanese Navy, "The greatest mistake Japan made in the war was in not attacking the United States Submarines."

 Are We Forgotten?

From the barnacle covered hulls of 52 lost submarines and from the unmarked graves in enemy soil, comes a voice that has been gone for over 50 years. Listen..."I have been having a hard time hearing you these days, have you forgotten me?

I died suddenly inside a 300-foot steel fighting ship, along with 75 other submarine men. I am the voice of the starboard controllerman - we used to stand watches together. The boat was ripped apart by a terrific explosion of a depth charge, bomb or torpedo from an enemy ship or airplane.

Just forward of my watery grave is your shipmate, Buss. He was throttleman in the After Engine Room, and in each compartment forward, there are the bodies of your shipmates: Seaman Jones, Ship's Cook Swanson, Lieutenant Byers, and a roll call of names that in the final tally adds up to over 3,600 submariners.

You know, we had a tough and dangerous job to do, since we were taking the big war to the back door of our enemy, the Imperial Japanese Navy and all the merchant ships they were guarding. My boat was out there doing what was expected of it, but unfortunately, we were in the right place at the wrong time.

I was one of those 3,600 men who did not make it home. I missed out on all of those nice things that I wanted to do, such as finish my education, get a good job, get married, raise a family, and care for my aging parents. I gave my life along with my shipmates to make sure that you would have an opportunity to do those things.

As the eyes and spokesman for my shipmates and myself, who were 'casualties of war, overdue and presumed lost', I note that as the years have been slipping by, the number of 'Tolling of the Boats' ceremonies has decreased and there are fewer shipmates attending those events. The fervor of patriotism does not appear to continue to burn as brightly as before. Am I right?”

originally published in the American Submariner, date unknown