Fremantle’sSubmarines

Fremantle’sSubmarinesHow Allied Submariners and Western Australians

Helped to Win the War in the Pacific

Michael SturMa

Naval Institute PressAnnapolis, Maryland

Naval Institute Press291 Wood RoadAnnapolis, MD 21402

© 2015 by Michael SturmaAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sturma, Michael, 1950- Fremantle’s submarines : how Allied submariners and Western Austra-lians helped win the war in the Pacific / Michael Sturma. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-61251-860-2 (alk. paper) 1. World War, 1939-1945—Naval operations—Submarine. 2. World War, 1939-1945—Australia—Fremantle (W.A.) 3. World War, 1939-1945—Campaigns—Pacific Ocean. 4. Fremantle (W.A.)—History, Mil-itary. I. Title. II. Title: How Allied submariners and Western Australians helped win the war in the Pacific. D780.S77 2015 940.54’516—dc23

2015014404

Print editions meet the requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).Printed in the United States of America.

23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1First printing

This book has been brought to publication with the generous assistance of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest.

v

Contents

List of Illustrations viiAcknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1. On the Edge 5

2. Like Heaven 16

3. Wilkes 20

4. Lockwood 27

5. Torpedoes and Tragedies 37

6. Christie 45

7. Traveling North 53

8. Sailors’ Women 60

9. Hunter and Hunted 65

10. Trouble in Paradise 76

11. War of Attrition 83

12. Support and Supply 93

13. Cruel Months 97

14. The British Arrive 105

15. Adjustments and Special Missions 114

16. Battle of Leyte Gulf 120

17. Transitions 126

18. Tribulations 135

19. Cooperation at Sea 141

20. War’s End 149

Epilogue 156

Notes 163Bibliography 203Index 227

vii

Illustrations

MapPacific Theater x

PhotosAmerican submarines with the USS Pelias 9

John Wilkes 21

USS Searaven 23

Charles A. Lockwood Jr. 30

John Mosby 32

Ralph W. Christie 46

USS Puffer 71

Crewmen on the USS Cabrilla 72

Anthony Miers 74

USS Harder 85

Alistair Mars 111

James Fife Jr. 129

Survivors from the Rakuyo Maru 131

USS Athedon 139

USS Cavalla 142

USS Cabrilla ship’s party 151

Ernest “Zeke” Zellmer and Babs Miller 157

FigureShips sunk by U.S. submarines based at Fremantle, 1942–45 123

ix

Acknowledgments

And so you people of the land ’ere you lay your heads to dream,

Just pass a fleeting thought for the men who serve in a submarine.

—A. B. Bristowe, “A Visit to a Submarine”

Over the years I have spared more than a fleeting thought for the men who served in submarines. In this endeavor I have accumulated a con-siderable debt, most of all to the submariners who have left oral histories and personal memoirs. I am also grateful for the assistance of numerous archivists and colleagues. Sally May, head of the Department of Maritime History, generously provided access to the recollections of Dutch, British, and American submariners held by the Western Australian Maritime Museum. Charles R. Hinman at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum at Pearl Harbor has helped guide me through the museum’s resources over several visits. I thank George Malcolmson for his help in locating relevant material at the Royal Submarine Museum in Gosport, England. Thanks to Caitlin MacNeil for her assistance at the Victorian Archives Centre (Melbourne). Bob Price assisted by going through a selection of “Boat Books” held at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut. Craig McDonald generously shared information about some World War II submarine veterans from USS Puffer. Ernest “Zeke” Zellmer not only recorded his detailed memories as a submariner but put me in touch with some of his former crewmates from USS Cavalla. Thanks to Peter Nunan for sharing ephemera from the papers of Les Cottman.

At Murdoch University, Dr. Ian Chambers has afforded valuable technical and editorial assistance. Pam Mathews and Yolie Masnada have assisted in the ordering of research materials. As in the past, my longtime friend Professor Mike Durey provided a valued sounding board. My wife, Ying, is a continuous source of support. To all of these people my heartfelt gratitude.

Pacific Theater

1

Introduction

The submarine base at Fremantle, Western Australia, evolved from unpromising circumstances. Faced with the onslaught of the Japa-nese in World War II, U.S. submariners retreated to Fremantle as

a port of last resort. While the American submarine base at Pearl Harbor was largely undamaged by the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, the base in the Philippines with the main contingent of U.S. submarines was devastated by an attack on December 10. A bomb sank USS Sealion as it underwent repairs at the Cavite Naval Yard, while the remaining twenty- eight American submarines stationed at Manila hurried out to sea in an attempt to both stem the Japanese invasion and avoid destruction.

With their base lost in the Philippines, the American submariners moved to the Netherlands East Indies, where for nearly two months Allied patrols were made from Surabaya and Tjilatjap on the island of Java. Soon, however, those bases too were overrun by the Japanese. Dar-win, on the northern coast of Australia, was briefly considered as an alternative base, but, apart from the physical limitations of its harbor, any base there would be within striking distance of Japanese aircraft operating from recently captured islands to the north. From March 1942 on, Fremantle became America’s main submarine base in the Southwest Pacific through default. The port had the advantages of a good harbor and of being outside the range of land-based Japanese aircraft, but it also had disadvantages; it was far away from the areas where submarines car-ried out their patrols, and it was difficult to reinforce should the enemy launch a naval assault.

Despite the port’s shortcomings, Fremantle became the most signifi-cant Allied submarine base in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor. During the war 127 American submarines made 353 war patrols from Fremantle, roughly a quarter of all U.S. patrols in the Pacific. Early in the war a small number of Dutch submarines were sent to Western Australia, and a total of ten Dutch boats made patrols from Fremantle. From August 1944 Royal Navy submarines established a substantial presence there, and thirty-one made patrols from Fremantle. Taken together, Fremantle

2 INTRODUCTION

submarines made a total of 416 war patrols and took a huge toll on enemy shipping.1

In relating the story of Fremantle submarines during the Second World War, three major themes emerge: courage, cooperation, and com-munity. Submariners certainly had no monopoly on courage during the war, but as naval historian Malcolm Murfett observes, “Even so, it is difficult not to see submariners as a special breed of seamen.”2 Shared danger and shared responsibility for the group’s survival was a key factor that contributed to the special status of submariners. Comradeship and loyalty to the group helps explain the willingness of men to face the haz-ards of submarine patrols again and again. Some of the most spectacular submarine patrols of the war were made from Fremantle under the com-mand of such legends as Reuben Whitaker, Walt Griffith, and Sam Dea-ley. Allied submariners took enormous risks not only sinking enemy ships but conducting covert operations and rescuing beleaguered comrades from behind enemy lines. Eight U.S. submarines (Barbel, Bullhead, Flier, Grayling, Grenadier, Growler, Harder, and Robalo) were lost on patrols from Fremantle, remaining on “eternal patrol,” as the sailors phrased it. Another ten American submarines previously based at Fremantle (Bone-fish, Grampus, Grayback, Gudgeon, Pickerel, S-39, Seawolf, Sculpin, Swordfish, and Trout) subsequently perished on patrols from other bases. The Dutch submarine O-19 was also lost on patrol from Western Austra-lia, and HMS Porpoise, which carried out missions from Fremantle and was lost with all hands on a patrol from Trincomalee, became the last British submarine of the war lost to enemy action.

The courage of submariners may appear self-evident, but the degree of cooperation between allies is not always so clear. In an early effort at combined operations, the British general Sir Archibald Wavell was appointed head of the American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) com-mand on January 15, 1942. The combined naval forces included a total of forty submarines: twenty-eight U.S., three British, and nine Dutch.3 British submarine commander William King, however, believed that the grand name ABDA “amounted to damn-all” since in practice elements of the fleet mainly operated independently.4 The first joint action by ABDA confirmed King’s skepticism, when the Battle of the Java Sea, fought on February 27, 1942, resulted in the loss of the Dutch cruisers De Ruyter and Java. Without adequate air cover, common training, shared methods of fire control, or common codes or flag signals, the Allies were hopelessly disadvantaged. Given the Dutch-English language barrier, one captain of an American destroyer described the communications as “farcical.”5 The

Introduction 3

Japanese Fifth Cruiser Squadron, on the other hand, had trained together for years.

The light cruiser HMAS Perth and heavy cruiser USS Houston sur-vived the Battle of the Java Sea, but after encountering an enemy landing force in Sunda Strait a few days later, they again found themselves out-numbered and outgunned by the Japanese. At the Battle of Sunda Strait Perth was sunk shortly after midnight on March 1, 1942, a particularly bad omen for Western Australians not only because the ship was named after their capital city but because many on board had been purposely recruited from the state. Of the 681 men on Perth, only 218 would survive the war to return to Australia. USS Houston went down forty minutes later; less than a third of its crew survived. The British cruiser Exeter was also lost in the battle when an enemy shell exploded in its boiler room. The same day, March 1, the ABDA fleet was dissolved; the combined command established on January 15 had lasted a mere six weeks.6

Despite such spectacular early failures and disappointment with the ABDA command, the success of the Fremantle base depended largely on cooperation between allies at many levels. At the national level, col-laboration between America and Australia was paramount. Dwight D. Eisenhower, at the time newly appointed to the War Plans Division of General George Marshall’s staff, initially recommended the primacy of Australia as a base in the Pacific.7 Once Gen. Douglas MacArthur was appointed supreme commander in the Southwest Pacific, he developed a strong personal and working relationship with Australia’s prime minister, John Curtin. More locally, the Australians, with no submarines of their own, supported the base at Fremantle largely through the mobilization of workers and resources. Militarily, Australian commandos who traveled on U.S. submarines to be inserted behind enemy lines and later routinely accompanied war patrols epitomized the trust that developed between allies at an individual level. Australia’s minister for external affairs, H. V. Evatt, concluded in 1945 that “seldom, if ever, has history evi-denced a better example of military cooperation between a greater power and a lesser power.”8

Cooperation at Fremantle also extended from early in the war to a small number of Dutch submarines that made patrols under American operational control. The degree of cross-national support became much more evident once British submarines began making patrols from Freman-tle in August 1944. Despite a suspicion of Royal Navy participation in the Pacific by some senior U.S. naval staff, most notably Adm. Ernest King, it is clear that American and British submariners worked well together. Sig-nificantly, Anglo-American cooperation between submariners predated

4 INTRODUCTION

agreement by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt at the Octagon summit in September 1944 over participation of the British Pacific Fleet in the war against Japan.9 While not without friction, the Allies developed a reciprocity that far outstripped the Axis powers.

Still within the realm of cooperation, the most striking feature that emerges from the story of Fremantle submarines is the close bonds of com-munity that developed between Western Australian civilians and Allied submariners. The submariners initially stationed in Western Australia had every reason to feel demoralized; continually on the retreat, they had achieved few successes against the enemy. Quickly, however, Fremantle gained an enviable reputation as a port of leave for submariners. The hos-pitality and sense of belonging offered to visiting submariners by Western Australians far exceeded anything in their previous experience. Among those submariners assigned to Fremantle during the Second World War, there was virtual unanimity that the port, along with the nearby city of Perth, was the best leave center in the Pacific. From the standpoint of morale, the submarine base at Fremantle was arguably the most successful military outpost of World War II.