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The Travail of the S-boats

The Alaska-based S-boats did even less well in the months after the Japanese invasion. In a total of 14 war patrols from Dutch Harbor targeted on Japanese shipping in the western Aleutians between July and September, no enemy sinkings were credited. Moreover, S-27 was lost to grounding on a reconnaissance mission to Amchitka Island, when an undetected current carried her onto the rocks while she was charging batteries on the surface during the night of 19 June. S-27’s Commanding Officer, Herbert Jukes, managed to get his entire crew ashore in rubber boats, and after being stranded for six days, they were discovered by a PBY and brought back to Dutch Harbor.

S 44

Built to a World War I design based on early submarine technology, the S-boats assigned to the Aleutians were 20 years old, largely worn out, and clearly regarded as “second-line” submarines. [See associated sidebar.] Powered by only two 600-horsepower diesel engines, they could make only 12-14 knots on the surface – perhaps 10 submerged on battery – and with a test depth of 200 feet, there was little margin for error. Moreover, their surface displacement of somewhat less than 1,000 tons and their low freeboard made operating in the stormy, northern waters of the Aleutians and the Bering Sea a grueling, daily challenge. Despite the electric heaters that had been installed for the northern climate, life below decks was dispiriting, cold, and wet, not only from seawater sloshing down through the conning tower, but also from the condensation of atmospheric moisture on all the metal surfaces inside.

A squadron of PBY Catalina flying boats over an Alaskan glacier. Designed by the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, about 4,000 Catalinas were built between 1936 and 1945 and served in every maritime theater for patrol, night bombing, and search and rescue. At the beginning of the war, ten were assigned to the Alaskan Naval Sector

Engine breakdowns, battery trouble, and electrical “shorts” were continuing problems, exacerbated by the age and condition of the machinery. S-35 was nearly lost in December 1942 to a chain of events that began when she took several massive waves over the bridge during a storm near Amchitka, sending tons of water into the control room and injuring her captain, LT Henry Monroe, who was forced to go below. Shortly thereafter, electrical fires broke out in both the control room and forward battery and began to spread, filling the boat with acrid smoke and forcing the engines to be shut down and the control room sealed off. The crew fought back with every trick they could think of, including bucket brigades to lower the water level, eventually restarting the engines under local control, and the boat retreated toward Dutch Harbor, fighting recurrent fires so serious that twice the crew was driven up to the bridge. After three days, they reached Adak, where assistance was available, and finally, on 29 December, under escort, S-35 made it back to Dutch Harbor and eventually to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, where she was completely overhauled – only to return to the Aleutians again six months later.

Alaskan Countermoves

As a first step in regaining the islands lost to the Japanese, the U.S. Army occupied Adak in late August 1942 and commenced building an airfield that could threaten Attu and Kiska more directly. Then, in January 1943, meeting no resistance, they invaded and secured Amchitka, only 70 miles from the latter. Pressure mounted on the two enemy-held islands with sporadic bombardments by both Army aircraft and Navy surface forces, and the Japanese began to fear that their loss could become the prelude to an invasion of the Kurile Islands from the northeast, perhaps with the intervention of Russia. Thus newly resolved to hold Attu and Kiska at all costs, they stepped up the reinforcement of their garrisons there, and in particular, sent a powerful convoy from Paramushiro, escorted by virtually the entire Japanese 5th Fleet, including two heavy cruisers. This move precipitated the Battle of the Komandorski Islands on 26 March, in which an outnumbered force of U.S. cruisers and destroyers fought a retiring action in which the heavy cruiser USS Salt Lake City (CA-25) was heavily damaged and went dead-in-the water, yet survived to fight another day. More significantly, the enemy supply ships broke off their mission and returned to Japan.

In preparation for the U.S. invasion of Attu in May 1943, USS Narwahl (SS-167) and USS Nautilus (SS-168) carried 215 Army Scouts to the island and inserted them behind enemy lines. Here, Nautilus (formerly V-6), with Scouts and raiding craft on deck, rehearses the mission at Dutch Harbor. Earlier, in August 1942, she had joined USS Argonaut (SS-166) in bringing Carlson’s Raiders to Makin Atoll.

On 11 May 1943, the Army landed in force on Attu. Several days prior to the main assault, USS Narwhal (SS-167) and USS Nautilus (SS-168), coming from Dutch Harbor, had clandestinely inserted 215 officers and men of the Army’s 7th Infantry Scout Company behind enemy lines. Nonetheless, Attu was fiercely contested by the Japanese, and it wasn’t until the end of the month, when over 2,300 of their number had been lost in several suicidal “banzai” attacks, that they yielded the island to the invaders.

With Attu retaken, attention shifted to Kiska, which was blockaded by a ring of destroyers and bombed regularly, weather permitting. A powerful surface bombardment force, including several old battleships, pounded the island on 22 July, and an invasion fleet was assembled for an assault in mid-August. Meanwhile, however, the Japanese had reluctantly decided to relinquish the island, and 13 large I-class transport submarines were assembled to evacuate the garrison. This plan was revealed to the U.S. high command in a series of cryptologic intercepts, and after seven of the 13 I-boats were lost or crippled in evacuating only 820 men, that approach was abandoned. Instead, on 28 July, under a heavy fog, the Japanese managed to sneak in two light cruisers and six destroyers and spirit away the remaining 5,200 personnel without being detected by the waiting Americans. When the latter came ashore after heavy bombardment on 16 August, they found Kiska entirely abandoned. The Japanese had held the western Aleutians for only 13 months

Last Operations in Northern Waters

In preparation for the retaking of Attu and Kiska, seven more S-boats (S-40, S-41, S-42, S-44, S-45, S-46, S-47) had been ordered north in the spring of 1943 and trickled into Dutch Harbor between May and December. Until August, the Dutch Harbor boats concentrated on the supply lines between Japan and the western Aleutians, but after the re-conquest of Attu and Kiska, the emphasis shifted to more general hunting expeditions in the northern Kuriles. Again, little was achieved. The 24 war patrols mounted from Dutch Harbor between May 1943 and the end of the year – generally about a month long but as much as 40 days – produced only four enemy victims totaling some 13,000 tons, all Japanese merchant ships sunk near Paramushiro. S-28, S-30, S-35, and S-41 (SS-146) were the lucky boats, but S-44 (SS-155), caught on the surface by a Japanese destroyer on 7 October during her first Alaskan patrol, was lost with all hands save two crewmembers, who survived to became prisoners of war for the duration.

U.S. Army troops land in force at Massacre Bay, Attu, on 12 May 1943. Defended with suicidal tenacity by the Japanese garrison, the island was not finally secured until the end of that month.

At the end of 1943 with the end of a credible Japanese threat to the Aleutians, COMSUBPAC RADM Charles Lockwood finally acknowledged the futility of sending the Dutch Harbor submarines into harm’s way for so little return, and he ordered the remaining S-boats withdrawn from Alaska and for the most part assigned to training duties in both the Southwest Pacific and home waters. In the very last war patrol mounted from Dutch Harbor, S-45 (SS-156) left the submarine base there on New Year’s Eve and returned to Attu at the end of January 1944, before departing for San Diego and a general overhaul. And thus ended the U.S. submarine campaign in the Aleutians.

In a quiet inlet of the Bering Sea, a YP boat gets a coat of paint and an S-boat ties up for fuel and provisions. The short Alaskan day is ending and lights may be seen in the barracks until total darkness requires a blackout.

It had to have been the worst duty in the world. The privation, hardship, and danger endured by the more than 1,000 U.S. submariners who served in the Aleutians during 1942 and 1943 – most of them in small, obsolete, and worn-out boats – were never repaid by the spectacular success later achieved by submarines in the wider Pacific conflict. Only nine confirmed kills were scored in over 80 war patrols conducted in the Alaskan theater in those years – and four of these were claimed by Pearl Harbor-based fleet boats, which accounted for only one eighth of the total sorties. On the negative side of the ledger, two S-boats – S-27 and S-44 – and one fleet boat – Grunion – were lost, two with virtually all hands. In retrospect it is an extraordinary tribute to the seamanship, dedication, and perseverance of the men who suffered and died there that an even larger toll of ships and men was not exacted by the many perils of the williwaw, the frozen and desolate islands, and those awful seas.

Additional Sources:

thesaltysailor.com
www.history.navy.mil
www.nps.gov/aleu
goatlocker.exis.net
www.ussjwweeks701.org
www.csp.navy.mil
www.sitnews.org

On this Day In history

Birthdates which occurred on December 09:
1392 Peter Prince/Regent of Portugal/writer (Virtuosa benfeitoria)
1561 Edwin Sandys, a founder of Virginia colony
1569 Martinus de Porres, Peru, saint (patron of social justice)
1594 Gustavus II Adolphus, king who made Sweden a major power (1611-32)
1608 John Milton, London, poet/puritan (Paradise Lost)
1717 Johann J Winckelmann, German archaeologist (History of Ancient Art)
1742 Carl W Scheele, Swedish pharmacist/chemist (lemon acid)
1848 Joel Chandler Harris, US journalist (created Uncle Remus stories)
1886 Clarence Birdseye, frozen vegatable king (Birdseye)
1898 Emmett Kelly (clown: Ringling Bros.: hobo, Weary Willie)
1899 Jean de Brunhoff, France, children's book author (Babar the Elephant)
1902 Margaret Hamilton, Cleveland OH, actress (Wicked Witch-Wizard of Oz)
1905 Dalton Trumbo US, writer/film director (Johnny Got His Gun)(blacklisted)
1909 Douglas Fairbanks Jr, NYC, actor (Ghost Story)
1911 Lee J. Cobb (actor: On the Waterfront, Twelve Angry Men, Death of a Salesman, Exodus, The Virginian)
1912 Tip O'Neil (Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives)
1915 Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Jarotschin Germ, soprano (Der Rosenkavalier)
1916 Kirk Douglas (Isidore Demsky/Issur Danielovitch) (actor: Young Man with a Horn, Spartacus; father of actor, Mike Douglas)
1922 Redd Foxx (John Elroy Sanford) (comedian: Sanford & Son)
1928 Dick Van Patten (actor: Eight is Enough)
1929 John Cassavetes (actor: Shadows)
1930 Buck Henry, NYC, screenwriter/comedian (SNL, Get Smart)
1933 Orville Moody (golf champion: U.S. Open [1969])
1934 [Amos] Junior Wells Memphis TN, blues singer/harp player
1934 Al Kaline Baltimore MD, baseball outfielder (Detroit Tigers)
1934 Judi Dench, York England, actress (Henry V, Wetherby)
1938 David Houston (Grammy Award-winning singer: Almost Persuaded [1966]; Mountain of Love)
1941 Beau (Lloyd III) Bridges (director, actor: The Fabulous Baker Boys; son of actor, Lloyd Bridges, brother of actor, Jeff Bridges)
1942 Dick Butkus (Pro Football Hall of Famer: Chicago Bears: NFL Defensive Player of the Year [1969, 1970])
1943 Rick Danko Canada, rocker (The Band, Stage Fright)
1949 Tom Kite (golf champion: U.S. Open [1992])
1953 John Malkovich, Christopher Ill, actor/director (Killing Fields)
1957 Donny Osmond (singer: Go Away Little Girl, Puppy Love; TV host: Donny and Marie)
2340 Worf Klingon warrior

Deaths which occurred on December 09:
1165 Malcom IV, king of Scotland (1153-65), dies at 24
1292 Sa'di, great Persian poet (Orchard, Rose Garden), dies
1565 Pius IV, [Gianangelo de' Medici], Italian Pope (1559-65), dies at 66
1641 Anthonie "Antoon" van Dyck, Flemish painter, dies at 42
1767 Benedetto Alfieri, Italian architect (San Giovanni Battista), dies
1770 Gottlieb Theophil Muffat, composer, dies at 80
1971 Ralph J Bunche, UN delegate/Nobel Prize winner, dies at 67 in NYC
1979 Fulton J Sheen, archbishop/religious broadcaster, dies in NYC at 84
1982 Leon Jaworski, special prosecutor (Watergate), dies at 77
1994 Kim II Sung President of North Korea (1945-94), dies at 82
1995 Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan (aviator), dies
1996 Mary Douglas Nichol Leakey, archaeologist/anthropologist, dies at 83

Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1967 LIRA JOSE T.
1968 FORD EDWARD---BIRMINGHAM AL.
1968 MINOR CARROLL WILLIAM---GREENVILLE SC.
1968 SHIMEK SAMUEL D.---UNIONTOWN PA
1972 ACOSTA HECTOR M.---SAN ANTONIO TX.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1972 WILLIAMS BILLIE J.---MALDEN MO.
[REMAINS RETURNED I.D. 12/20/90]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
0536 Byzantines Libya occupies Rome on Ostrogoten
0656 Battle of Kameel: Kalief Al ibn Abu Talib beats rebellion
1212 Frederik II crowns himself Roman Catholic king
1315 Swiss Woudsteden renews Eternal Covenant (Oath Society)
1425 Pope Martinus V forms University of Leuven
1570 Geuzen under Herman de Ruyter occupies Loevestein
1625 Netherlands & England sign military treaty
1640 Settler Hugh Bewitt banished from Massachusetts colony when he declares himself to be free of original sin
1658 Dutch troops occupy harbor city Quilon (Coilan) India
1688 King James II's wife & son flee England for France
1738 Jews are expelled from Breslau Silesia
1747 England & Netherlands sign military treaty
1762 British parliament accept Treaty of Paris
1783 1st execution at English Newgate-jail
1793 Noah Webster establishes New York's 1st daily newspaper, American Minerva
1805 Comet 3D/1805 V1 (Biela) approaches within 0.0366 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth
1824 Battle of Ayacucho (Candorcangui), Peru defeats Spain
1851 1st Young Men's Christian Association in North America (Montréal)
1854 Lord Tennyson's poem, "Charge of the Light Brigade" published
1861 Battle of Bird Creek, Indian Terr (High Shoal, Chusto-Talasah)
1868 1st British government of Gladstone forms
1869 Noble Order of Knights of Labor founded, Philadelphia
1878 Joseph Pulitzer buys St Louis Dispatch for $2,500
1883 New Brunswick adopts Eastern Standard Time (until 1902)
1884 Levant Richardson patents ball-bearing skate
1889 President Harrison visits opening of Chicago Auditorium
1894 Roman Catholics win Parliamentary election in Belgium
1900 Dutch President Paul Kruger & Queen Wilhelmina have a triumphant procession
1902 American League announces purchase of grounds for a stadium in New York
1903 Norwegian parliament vote unanimiously for female suffrage
1905 French Assembly National votes for separation of church & state
1905 Richard Strauss' opera "Salome" premieres in Dresden
1906 New York American reports Belgian King Leopold II bribed US Senate commission on the Congo
1907 1st Christmas Seals sold (Wilmington DE post office)
1907 Gustav Mahler departs Vienna
1909 1st US monoplane flown (Henry W Walden, Long Island NY)
1910 French troops occupy Morrocan harbor city Agadir
1913 John K Tener becomes president of baseball's National League
1913 Heavyweight Jack Johnson-Jim Johnson fight to no decision in Paris
1917 British forces under General Allenby capture Jerusalem
1918 French troops occupies Mainz
1922 Gabriel Narutowicz elected Polish President
1924 Dutch & Hungary trade treaty signed
1924 Michael Hainisch re-elected Austrian President
1925 Pro football a hit in NYC; Grange & Bears beat Giants before 73,000
1925 American League extends Ban Johnson's contract to 1935 & raise to $40,000
1926 USGA legalizes steel shaft golf clubs
1931 Spain becomes a republic
1931 Baseball cuts squad from 25 to 23 players & National League continues to prohibit uniform numbers
1931 Benn W Levy's "Springtime for Henry" premieres in New York NY
1931 Japanese army attacks Chinese province of Jehol
1933 Romania disallows fascist Iron Guard
1934 New York Giants defeat Chicago Bears 30-13 for NFL championship
1936 American League OKs night baseball for St Louis
1939 Russian air raid on Helsinki
1940 Illegal Jewish immigrants to Haifa are deported to Mauritius
1940 British assault on Banghazi Libya
1940 British troops 1st major offensive in North Africa (Libya) during WWII
1941 1st US WWII bombing mission in the Far East, Luzon, Philippines
1941 300 Montgomery, San Francisco opens as new Bank of America HQ
1941 China declares war on Japan, Germany & Italy
1941 Citizen Register reports "Hostile planes reported nearing Westchester"
1941 Hitler orders US ships torpedoed
1948 UN General Assembly unanimously approves Convention on Genocide
1949 NFL merges Cleveland Browns, San Francisco '49ers & Baltimore Colts from AAFC
1949 Dutch 2nd Chamber accept Indonesian sovereignty
1951 Voters approve merger of 3 states to form Baden-Württemberg, West Germany
1953 General Electric announces all Communist employees will be fired
1953 Montréal Canadiens (106) & Toronto Maple Leafs (98) get 204 penalty minutes
1954 Dmitri Shostakovich appointed honored guest of Swedish Royal Music Academy
1957 1st Japanese ambassador to Israel
1958 Robert H W Welch Jr & 11 other men meet in Indianapolis to form the anti-Communist John Birch Society
1960 1st broadcast of "Coronation Street" on British ITV
1961 SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann found guilty of war crimes in Israel
1961 Tanganyika gains independence from Britain takes name Tanzania
1961 Wilt Chamberlain of NBA Philadelphia Warriors scores 67 points vs New York
1962 Tanganyika becomes a republic within the British Commonwealth
1963 Frank Sinatra Jr is kidnapped
1963 Zanzibar gains independence from Britain
1965 Nikolai Podgorny replaces Anastas Mikoyan as President of Presidium
1965 "A Charlie Brown Christmas" premieres
1965 Frank Robinson is traded from Cincinnati to the Orioles
1967 Jim Morrison, arrested on stage for disturbing the peace
1967 Lyndon Johnson's daughter Lynda marries in the White House
1967 Nicolae Ceausescu becomes President (dictator) of Romania
1968 Doug Engelbart demonstrates first computer mouse at Stanford
1968 KRNE TV channel 12 in Merriman NE (PBS) begins broadcasting
1970 Dutch Antilles: Government of Petronia falls
1971 Lewis F Powell Jr appointed to the Supreme Court
1973 Bruno Sammartino beats Stan Stasiak in New York, to become WWF champion
1973 St Louis Cardinal Jim Bakken kicks 6 field goals vs Atlanta Falcons
1973 Sunningdale Agreement in Northern Ireland
1974 Johnson Grigsby freed after 66 years in jail
1974 Dow Jones index hits 570.01
1974 Jack Brisco beats Giant Baba in Tokyo, to become NWA wrestling champion
1975 President Gerald Ford signs $2.3 Billion loan-authorization for NYC
1975 Jelena Bonner receives Andrei Sacharov's Nobel Prize
1978 1st game of the Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL), Chicago Hustle vs Milwaukee Does
1978 Pioneer Venus 2 drops 5 probes into atmosphere of Venus
1979 Murle Breer/Dave Eichelberger win LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic
1980 61ºF in Boston at 1 AM
1981 Porn star John Holmes charged with Laurel Canyon murders
1983 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1984 6 day hijack of Kuwaiti jet ends
1984 59th Australian Women's Tennis: Chris Evert beats H Sukova (67 61 63)
1984 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1984 Iranian commandos end capture of Kuwaiti plane
1984 Los Angeles Ram Eric Dickerson rushes 215 yards for season record 2,003 yards
1985 Phoenix AZ, gets 3" of snow
1985 74th Australian Men's Tennis: Stefan Edberg beats Mats Wilander (64 63 63)
1985 Jerry Rice begins NFL streak of 100+ consecutive game receptions
1987 Larry Bird, ends streak of 59 consecutive free throws
1987 Palestine uprising begin in Israeli-occupied West Bank
1988 New York Yankees sign 12-year television contract with Madison Square Garden for $500 million
1989 "Les Miserables" opens at Princess Theatre, Melbourne Australia
1990 Lech Walesa wins presidential election in Poland
1990 NFL New York Giant Otis Anderson becomes 8th to rush for 10,000th yard
1990 Houston scores most points against Cleveland, Oilers 58, Browns 14
1991 2nd Billboard Music Awards
1992 Prince Charles & Princess Diana separation announced by British PM, John Major
1992 3rd Billboard Music Awards
1992 Cincinnati Red owner Marge Schott apologizes for racist remarks
1992 Operation Restore Hope - US Marines land in Somalia
1993 Ivory Coast Premier Ouattara resigns
1994 5 meter meteor 1994 XM1 passes within 100,000 km of Earth
1994 Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders resigns after masturbation comments
1995 61st Heisman Trophy Award: Eddie George, Ohio State (RB)

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Tanzania : Independence Day/Republic Day (1961)
World : Human Rights Week (Day 3)
Read A New Book Month

Religious Observances
Christian : Commemoration of the Conception of Anne, mother of Mary
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Peter Fourier, French priest

Religious History
1840 Scottish missionary explorer David Livingstone, 27, set sail on his first journey to Africa. (He had been accepted to serve under the London Missionary Society two years earlier.)
1863 Birth of G. Campbell Morgan, English congregational clergyman and Bible expositor. Morgan authored more than 60 Bible commentaries and books of sermons many still be in print.
1870 The Society of Biblical Archaeology was founded in London "for the investigation of the archaeology, history, arts, and chronology of ancient and modern...biblical lands...."
1905 An Act for the Separation of Church and State became law in France, rescinding Napoleon's Concordat of 1801. The new law guaranteed freedom of conscience, but also severed all religious groups from any further economic support by the national government.
1973 "Marshall Efron's Illustrated, Simplified and Painless Sunday School" first aired over CBS television. This religious series was broadcast on Sunday mornings until August 1977.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"Adversity does teach who your real friends are."

Question of the day...
What is the speed of dark?

Murhys Law of the day...(Dirksen's Three Laws of Politics)
1. Get elected.
2. Get re-elected.
3. Don't get mad -- get even

Astounding fact #986,873...
A seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, "therein": the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, here, ere, therein, herein.