The Round Tablette



The Round Tablette

February 2003

Volume 11 Number 6

Published by WW II History Roundtable

Edited by Jim Gerber

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Submarine Warfare - Pacific Theatre

Presented by: John Lindley - Author & Historian; Godfrey Orbeck - Pharmacist Mate, SS263, USS Paddle; Veterans of WWII Submarine Association

Welcome to the February meeting of the Dr. Harold C. Deutsch World War Two History Roundtable.  Tonight's program is on the submarine war in the Pacific Theater.  The program is presented by our Naval warfare expert John Lindley.

Congratulations

We extend our sincere congratulations to Jeff Patton, Don's son, who is an F-15 pilot with the 391st fighter squadron.  Jeff was recently awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses for his service in Afghanistan.  The Distinguished Flying Cross is awarded for "heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight."  Again, congratulations to Jeff and Don and a pecial thanks to Jeff for serving our country with skill and heroism.  Please remember all of our servicement and women in your prayers as they prepare to go into harm's way.

Submarine Warfare

On December 7, 1941, the successful Japanese attach on the US Naval Fleet at Pearl Harbor began a double revolution in naval warfare.  The loss of the battleships along battleship row at Ford Island announced that the aircraft carrier had replaced the battleship as the major offensive weapon of surface fleets.  It was not as obvious as the first US submarines slipped out of Pearl Harbor into the Pacific, that these small ships would also play a major role in the defeat of the Japanese Empire.  Before the war, the naval doctrine called for the submarines to serve in a subordinate role as scouts for the battle fleet, but the attack on Pearl Harbor and the rapid Japanese expansion forces them to become solitary commerce raiders.  Operating all over the Pacific during the next four years, they sank a major poriton of the Japanese merchant marine and much of the Imperial Navy.  The costs were high.  The United States lost 52 submarines during the war - 37 of them with all hands.  One out of five American submariners in World War II never returned.  Nevertheless, by the end of the war, US submarines had completely cut the supply line to an island nation, a feat that German U-boats failed to do in two wars.

The Fleet Submarine

The US Navy's attempt to produce a fleet submarine capable of fighting across the Pacific Ocean's vast distances led to the Gato-class design just before World War Two.  The Gato-class submarine was 312 feet long, displaced 1526 tons surfaced and could operate to a depth of 300 feet.  The boat carried provisions for up to 75 days and enough fuel to cruise 11,000 miles on the surface at an economical speed of 10 knots.

Manned by a crew of about 75 in wartime, the submarine carried 24 torpedoes and either a three inch or four inch deck gun.  On the surface, four powerful diesel engines turned generators which could drive the ship's electric motors to a speed of 20 knots.  When the boat was submerged, two very large storage batteries provided enough power to move the submarine at nine knots for an hour or for 48 hours at a much slower two knots.

The fleet submarine presented a small silhouette.  It was designed to have a low center of gravity (to keep it stable) and was normally two-thirds submerged when riding on the surface.  The superstructure deck, called the main deck, extended from the bow to just before the stern.  Limber holds in the sides allowed the sea water to enter all the hollow spaces in the superstructure and the deck when diving and to drain off when the submarine surfaced.  Amid ships, the conning tower stood above the main deck.  It included a shielded area called the bridge, as well as the periscopes, the compass loop and the radar antennas.  Lookout perches were welded onto the upper periscope shears with a hoop to prevent seamen from being tossed overboard in rough weather.

Starting at the bow, the submarine's pressure hull was divided into nine watertight sections.  First came the forward torpedo room with six loaded torpedo tubes, spare torpedoes and bunks for a quarter of the crew members.  A watertight door opened into the officer's quarters and ward room just above the forward battery space.  The lower compartment enclosed 126 battery cells - enough to supply half of the submarine's power when submerged.

The next watertight door led to the control room.  Here was the machinery for diving and surfacing the boat, as well as the switchboard and radio room.  A hatch over the control room went up into the conning tower.  This was the ship's combat center.  It contained the periscopes, torpedo data computer (TDC), radar and navigational plot.

A crewman leaving the control room passed above the after battery space and through the crew's galley and a bunk area for 36 men.  Next came the forward and after engine rooms.  Two 1600 horsepower diesel engines in each room lined the narrow walkway.  Beneath these compartments, four 1100 kilowatt generators powered the main motors and charged the batteries.

Just aft of the generators, four electric motors turned the boat's twin propellers.  Above the motor room, the maneuvering compartment's controls could change the speed of the submarine or switch from diesel power to battery power.  Last came the after torpedo room with four stern torpedo tubes.  With this formidable machine the US attacked Japan's maritime empire.

Losses

The US Navy lost 52 submarines and 3,505 submariners in WWII.  This casualty rate of approximately 22% was the highest of all the services and was six times greater than the surface navy.

Sealion was the first US submarine lost in the war a victim of Japanese bombs at Cavite Navy Yard on December 10, 1941.  A totla of seven submarines went down in 1942.  The pace of the war increased in 1943 and US submarine losses also increased.  The year 1943 ended with the loss of 17 US submarines.  All but four went down with their entire crews.  19 submarines were lost in the year 1944.

In January 1945 Swordfish, which had sunk the first confirmed Japanese ship a week after Pearl Harbor, perished off of Okinawa.  Seven more US submarines went down in the final months of the war, bringing the total of boats sunk in 1945 to eight and the total losses for the war to 52.

More Reading on tonight's topic:

Submarine by Edward L. Beach - Henry Holt Publishing, New York, New York  1952

Silent Victory: The US Submarine War Against Japan by Clay Blair - Lippincott Publishing, Philadelphia, PA  1975

Take Her Deep: A Submarine Against Japan in WWII by I. J. Galantin - Algonquin Books, Chapel Hill, NC  1987

War Beneath the Sea by Peter Padfield - John Wiley Publishing, New York, New York  1995

The Bravest Man: The Story of Richard O'Kane by William Tuohy - Sutton Publishing, Stroud, England  2001

Clear the Bridge by RAdm. Richard O'Kane - Presidio Press, Novato, CA  1977

Silent Running by James F. Calvert - John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, New York  1995

Hellions of the Deep by Robert Gannon - Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA  1996

Thunder Below by Admiral Eugene Fluckey - University of Illinois Press, Chicago, IL  1992

See You Next Month

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