Posts Tagged ‘Fremantle’

The Coastwatchers

Where was Flier 66 years ago today? | Posted by Rebekah
Aug 26 2010

Al and the Fliers were now on the slopes of Addison Peak, waiting for pickup.  The moment Captain Crowley knew he had the ability to send  a message to Brisbane Australia (the Coastwatchers, being an Army unit, not a Navy unit, had the clearances, frequencies, ect. to contact McArthur’s headquarters, not Admiral Christie’s, but of course, were willing to forward it to Fremantle) he sent a message saying Flier was lost with some survivors, and that they likely hit a mine in Balabac Strait, and needed pick up.  Up until this point, it was suspected/assumed that Balabac was mined because it was such a used strait with such limited paths through making it nearly ideal for mining.  But now, Crowley was convinced it was, and despite the convenience,  should be avoided at all costs.

The message was embedded in the usual weather report (the Japanese could always be listening in, but since what the Coastwatchers sent was, more often that not, weather reports, it wasn’t too likely they’d listen closely), sent to Brisbane and quickly forwarded to Fremantle.

Fremantle, to put it lightly, wasn’t happy.  Not. At. All.

The next night, they sent a blistering scolding to the Coastwatchers, who weren’t even their men, telling them that they were highly disappointed in the quality of the men’s observations and that they were supposed to be watching the straits for things like mines, and they expected much better in the future.

For the commander of the group, Armando Corpus, who had suffered from depression before during this mission, it might have been the last straw.  If he followed the pattern established earlier in this mission, he likely withdrew from the other men and talked openly about how he was useless to do anything.  The other men, lead by Palacido who was the de facto leader of the group, tried to tell him it wasn’t their fault, certainly not Corpus’s alone, and that he was a valuable leader of their band.

From what I have seen, the Fliers certainly never held the Coastwatchers responsible for what happened to their boat, it was the fortunes of war.  Moreover, the Straits had been mined before the Coastwatchers got there.  Personally, I think the accusation a bit unfair, but a lot of these facts came out after the war, and 1944 wasn’t exactly a relaxing time for anyone in the Submarine Force.  Fresh off the realization that Robalo isn’t answering her repeated calls, nor calling in to report when she’d be in port, and is therefore, likely lost, to hear Flier was certainly lost in the same general area, had to be a devastating blow.  To add to that, submarine Hake reported that her hunting partner, submarine Harder, had taken a severe depth charging from the escorts of their last targets, and wasn’t answering Hake’s calls.  Hake suspected Harder was  lost with all hands, including legendary skipper Sam Dealey.  So news of all three submarines lost with their crews was hitting Christie’s office at once.  It might have been too much to take for whoever composed the scathing message.

The Fliers meanwhile were sitting back and relaxing for the first time.  As their feet healed, they started to participate in the activities of the mountain encampment and meet the people around here, including trapped missionaries, survivors of the Bataan Death March, and salvage divers.

But more on that tomorrow.

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Exmouth Gulf

Where was Flier 66 years ago today? | Posted by Rebekah
Aug 04 2010

Flier pulled into and out of Exmouth Gulf for the traditional top off of the fuel tanks sixty-six years ago yesterday and today.

Exmouth Gulf is a city on the western coast of Australia.  With the destruction of Pearl Harbor and Manila in December 1941, the Navy’s remaining fleet, including most of her submarines had to scatter and fleet to stay ahead of the Japanese.  (It was here that submarines proved their worth, being able to sneak into Manila and deliver supplies and remove important people, papers and even several tons of gold.)

Pearl Harbor would remain a submarine base, but she was so far away from the front and important enemy shipping lanes, especially those in the south west Pacific, that the Navy realized they would need another one or two bases.  At first they tried to establish bases in Java.  But Java was soon taken as well, and the fleet kept moving south. looking for a place to establish their new base, most likely in Australia.

There were three main candidates on Australia’s western coast: Darwin, Exmouth Gulf, and Freemantle.  Darwin was an attractive post, but it was soon bombed by the Japanese.  As one of the most northern cities in Australia, it was most at risk for invasion.  In addition, the waters were open, easily minable, and worst of all, were subject to huge tide changes.  It could work well for an emergency, but all things considered, they had to go south.

Exmouth Gulf was next, but an idea for a base there was quickly abandoned.  When the tender Pelias docked there, rough seas prevented the subs from tying up next to her.   Exmouth Gulf lacked the towns, hotels and other infrastructure to handle more than a couple of submarines at a time.  Even today, less than 2,000 people permanently live at Exmouth Gulf.

Fremantle, despite her distance from the front (about five days travel) had everything that the Submarine Force was looking for in a new home: a deep, protected harbor (or mouth of a river in this case) a town already equipped with hotels, restaurants, workmen, warehouses, and defensible places in case the worst came.  It even had drydocks for those damaged ships who couldn’t make it back to Pearl or the States.

But being so far from the front, the Navy decided to create a refueling station at Exmouth so submarines could top off before heading to patrol and, if necessary, get more fuel to make it back.

Flier pulled into Exmouth Gulf the evening of August 3, and spent the night refueling.  No one outside of Captain knew where they were going still, and the rumors were probably rampant.

After leaving the next day, Jacobson and the fire crew, Chief Gunnery Officer Lt. John Edward Casey, Chief Gunner’s Mate Charles Pope, Gunner’ s Mate Joseph Galinac, and Fire Controlman Donald Tremaine, initiated a deck gun targeting practice using an old wreck grounded near Exmouth Gulf.  According to Jacobson’s memoirs, “This ship had the distinction of being shot at by more submarines than any other ship in the world.  Every sub that passed would fire at it.”

In the days before I knew about Google Earth, it took me a LONG time to find the identity of this vessel, but I think I found her.

As seen from Google Earth, you can see the hulk of the Mildura, most of which now lies below the surface.

It’s the SS Mildura. Wrecked on a reef during a cyclone in 1907.  Her crew made it to shore, but the Mildura stayed stranded on the reef.  Several war diaries from WWI and WWII record using her for targeting practice.  In addition to submarines, larger surface vessels used it for target practice, as did planes for bombing practice.  In addition, timbers from her frame and decking as well as some of her iron fixtures were removed (shortly after she wrecked, long before bombing practice!)  for rennovations at Yardie Homestead.

All things considered, over one hundred years later, it’s amazing that ANY of this wreck still exists!

A photo of the wreck from the beach taken in 2007. From Google Earth's Panoramio photos.

After she finished, Flier turned north, ready for business.

The wreck of Mildura can be visited today, at the end of the Mildura Wreck Road.

Website about the three Milduras.  A photo of the SS Mildura prior to her wrecking is located in the library of New South Wales, but has never been posted online.

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USS Flier away

Where was Flier 66 years ago today? | Posted by Rebekah
Aug 02 2010

I don’t want to take from the Grunion (see below) but I also need to post that today, was the day Flier left Fremantle for the last time.

After the successful sound testing on July 30, she trained during the 31 with the Muskallunge, then after Muskallunge left on the first of August, did a night training mission from 1-2 August, pulling in for final refueling and stores the morning of the second with orders to depart by that afternoon.

Al was the commissary officer and it was his job, along with Flier’s cooking crew, to provision the boat with as much food and creature comforts as they could.  Flier had an ice cream machine, a HUGE coffee maker, carried coke syrups to make sodas with (or pop, as we say in Michigan), and a cold room and refrigerated room so they could carry fresh produce and meats and dairy.

Despite that, Flier would have been absolutely swamped with the dry and canned goods everywhere.  They would be stashed under the tables, behind control panels, wedged between pipes, stashed under bunks.  It says a lot that the Dace, when carrying the full crew of the Darter onboard, found a bag of flour stashed behind one of Dace’s engines when they were desperate for food.  It had been sitting there for no one knew how long!  (The crew didn’t care, using the flour and some lard, they made donuts and ate those for their last 24 hours at sea!)  Storage of food and items like that, I’m told, was one of the more “creative” jobs on the last day leaving harbor.

They also updated their means of entertainment.  Submarines were allowed to carry a small library of books (up to 200 volumes) provided by the Navy and exchangeable between patrols, as well as a record player and records.  I’m also going to point out that earlier that during Flier’s first victory banquet, I said that, according to the menu that night, the men listened to the strains of Victor Herbert and I didn’t know who he was, but he wasn’t on the second patrol.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  Thanks to a reader named “Maria’, she told me Victor Herbert was a composer, and so that was the music the men listened to.  Gives us a touch of insight as to their musical tastes (or maybe just the kitchen staff or commander Crowley).  So he might have been on the second patrol.

After their last stores were brought on board, Flier pulled up her anchor and left Fremantle.  Only Commander Crowley knew where they were headed and whether they were supposed to return.

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It’s time to Return

Where was Flier 66 years ago today? | Posted by Rebekah
Jul 07 2010

Thanks to all of you who e-mailed me and condoled me on the loss of my Kairey Girl.  She was one special dog.  But then again, I think everyone says that about their dog, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

I do want to make one correction to that post.  My husband talked to the firemen who hit Kairey (they were nice enough to come back so we at least knew what happened to her) and told him why they couldn’t stop when it happened.  They were the ones who told him about the little girl.  When I asked him if the girl survived, he apparently said “I don’t know,” but between his sobs and mine, I heard “No”.

The girl may have survived.  I dearly dearly hope so. I have not seen any obits for anyone that young, nor any articles in the local paper.

If Kairey had to go, at least another life might have been spared.

Taken last fall by my brother, this was my Kairey dog. She loved to run, fetch, play, give kisses and nap. She could fit into two square inches of space and nap, especially if it was against a warm body or in the sun.

I thought I would post a photo of Kairey dog.  Though purebred, she had too much white on her chest to really qualify as a show animal (which was fine by us, we wanted a hunting dog and family pet and had no interest in breeding,) but the white patch on her chest was in the shape of a nearly-perfect five-pointed star.  I’m not kidding.

The star on Kairey's chest was one of the first things we noticed about her. That, and the fact that she kept trying to chew our shoes apart. Though technically considered a "disfiguring" mark, we thought it was great. She narrowly avoided being named "Star", but apparently "S" names don't work well in the hunting field. Some of her full-blooded brothers and sisters are in breeding programs all over the country, so maybe someday, several years from now, we'll adopt a great-great nephew or niece. I'd even take one of those sisters or brothers if they need a home after being retired from breeding.

Thanks for your patience and understanding during this difficult time for me and my husband.

Now back to our (semi) regularly scheduled program…

Flier arrived in Fremantle on July 5, 1944 to a welcoming committee.  Having claimed to sink four boats on patrol and damaging another two, she was one of the stars of Fremantle at that time.  Captain Crowley would win a Navy Cross for this patrol, and Flier and her crew would earn a battle star for that patrol.

The Flier was in decent condition.  Unlike the Robalo, who had six pages of defects to check and fix, Flier had only three items that needed attention:  The high pressure air compressor motors needed to be looked at since both had been flooded during a routine dive, and had been disassembled and dried before being reassembled.  The electrical panels controlling the low-pressure blowers seemed to be troublesome too, and needed to be looked at.  The worst trouble, however, was the Flier lost control of her stern planes three times during critical moments during an attack.  It turned out that the motor operating those planes had three settings: slow, medium and fast, in terms of how quickly it would change the tilt angle of the planes.  When on slow or medium, there was an electrical problem, that caused the planes to fail completely, so Flier kept them on “full” for the rest of the patrol.  They wanted all of that looked at and fixed in addition to the usual  tinkering, polishing, deep cleaning, airing out, and other usual things.

The men were now free to spend the next two weeks any way they wanted.  They had four hotels to pick from and the Navy would pick up the tab, in addition to the family homes of any friends they might have in Fremantle (at least Earl Baumgart had such a friend).  There was swimming, fishing, dancing, sports, almost anything one could think of to do.  Some men, according to Michael Sturma’s “USS Flier: Death and Survival on a WWII Submarine” borrowed Flier’s small arms and ammo to go kangaroo and rabbit hunting in the Outback.

Redfin, meanwhile, pulled into Darwin, sixty-six years ago today.  Pluta was taken off the sub and transported to the hospital in Darwin, and since Redfin had already been out for over a month, she was told to proceed to Fremantle and terminate her patrol there.

Robalo, on the other hand is a mystery.  She may have been sunk by now, or severely damaged.  On the other hand, she might be just fine, stalking the west coast of Palawan or on her way to Indo-China.  I have to go through my research and organize my thoughts before I can delve really deeply into this.

Today, I also want to take time to remember the USS S-28, for two reasons.  One, because it sank sixty-six years ago on the Fourth, and two, she was Captain Crowley’s command before he was awarded Flier.

S-28 was a very old boat, who completed seven patrols in Alaska, the first four of which were under Crowley’s command.  After the seventh patrol, the S-28 was transferred to Pearl Harbor to be a training boat.  On July 3, 1944, S-28 left Pearl with a crew of fifty to train with the US Coast Guard Cutter (though the Coast Guard vessels had been taken over by the Navy by this point, ) Reliance. On the Fourth of July, they went into the last exercise, but Reliance had problems contacting S-28. It was as if S-28′s radio was having problems or was broken. An hour after they dove, Reliance heard one brief radio call, then nothing.  Alarmed, Reliance called Pearl Harbor, who sent out several more ships.  Two days later, on the 6th of June, they discovered an oil slick in the vicinity that S-28 was last spotted.  It was quickly discovered that S-28 was far too deep to recover using the best technology of the time, and so she was left in peace, along with her crew.  She has remained undiscovered.

The S-28 taken after her refit in 1943.

Since S-28 sank during a practice patrol, the Navy did not wait to announce her loss.  Captain Crowley likely heard about her loss the day they came in from patrol, if not shortly afterwards.

What effect this might have had on him is not known.  I’m sure he grieved the loss of his old boat, and her crew, though more than likely, all the men he had known had been transferred off over the course of the last year and a half.  It was becoming disturbingly commonplace to hear of lost boats every time a submarine came to port, but it must have been a touch of a shock to hear of the loss of a boat he had previously commanded.  It wasn’t going to get better…

Memorial Page for USS S-28′s lost crew

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Homeward Bound

Where was Flier 66 years ago today? | Posted by Rebekah
Jun 27 2010

Flier is on her way home, via Sibutu Passage, Molukka Passage, and Lombok Strait.  With only four torpedoes left, I’m sure they were anxious to get back to home port.

The night that Flier received permission to go home, They threw a victory party with an extensive menu to celebrate their successful patrol.

Thanks to the families of Al Jacobson and James Liddell, we have those menus AND the only known (that I know of at least) drawing of the Flier insignia.  This bears the initials “RM” or so it appears.  That does not match any names in the roster of those that went down.  It makes me wonder who did it.

I think it’s funny that despite the fact that “Flier” is named for a common type of sunfish found all over America, the men designed a sailor-hat wearing fly to be their insignia.

The menu is AMAZING.  Just look at the amount and variety of food.  And this, mind you, is after 40 days at sea.  That menu is made from the LEFTOVER food in their stocks.  Little wonder that the kitchen staff on a submarine were coveted and highly regarded by their crewmates.

Just take a gander at all this food! Chicken a la King, Shrimp Cocktail, Beef Broth, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Buttered Corn, Beef Steak, Roasted Pork, Chocolate Cake, Cold Chocolate (I wonder if that was as opposed to Hot Chocolate?) I'm getting hungry just typing this! I do wonder about the music selection and what that means...

The two men named on the menu for their musical selection are being transferred off Flier when they get to port, they just don’t know it yet.

The Flier is heading for Fremantle, the most popular destination for submarines.  Pearl Harbor was nice, but, from what I’ve read, most of the women there were already married, engaged or in a steady relationship.  Most of the eligible Australian men, however, had volunteered for the military and been shipped off to the European and African theaters years before, leaving the girls behind.  Most of the veterans I’ve interviewed said Fremantle and her sister city of Perth were open and welcoming to the American military men, and especially submariners, since they had top secret missions and faced danger on their patrols.  There are many fond memories of these Australian cities I’ve heard, and several stories that stopped abruptly when the veterans realized, in their reminiscing, that their wives and/or children were listening intently. ( “I went to this party at the Swan Hotel and saw this gorgeous brunette across the room and…and…she stayed across the room.  That’s all.”)

The book is progressing.  I’m being picky and paranoid about the editing process now, trying to catch every grammatical and content error I can.  I don’t know if it’ll be perfect, but I’m sure trying.

As soon as that’s done, I have to get to work on the information for the temporary exhibit and the memorial book.  And here I thought I was going to have a relaxing summer.  Oh well.  It’s not often one gets to do something like this, help define and tell history on such a personal and close level.  I’m also going to try to update this website soon with information about the temp exhibit and the Memorial service.  Keep watching!

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Location Location…

Where was Flier 66 years ago today? | Posted by Rebekah
May 27 2010

They’re all on the move today.

Flier is back on the map again (remember she didn’t exist yesterday?) and in the middle of nowhere making for the southern tip of the island of Formosa (now known as Taiwan) where she’ll curve south and patrol along the western shores of Luzon Island in the Philippines (the Philippines looks a bit like a sitting wolf howling at Taiwan.  Luzon would be the wolf’s head, and Palawan would be the foreleg with the Balabac Straits just below the paw.)  Nothing else happened today.  The most interesting thing that happened, according to  both the war patrol report and the deck log, was the daily battery charge.

Robalo is returning from her most recent patrol, her crew looking forward to a well deserved break, and their ship needing a lot of repairs still.  She’s going to pass Exmouth Gulf since she doesn’t need the extra fuel to get all the way back to Fremantle.   She’d been out for 51 days and, despite dealing with major handicaps in terms of broken systems needing constant repairs, she’d managed to do her duty, stalk several convoys, fire twenty of her twenty-four torpedoes and claimed the destruction of one tanker.  (Sadly, this was not awarded to her by JANAC (Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee ) after the war, so officially, Robalo has no kills to her record.)  Once in Fremantle though, she had  a six-page laundry list of major repairs that needed to be done.  Just the major repairs, never mind a few little tweaks here and there.

Redfin, accompanied by the Harder, has left Fremantle and they are bound for Exmouth Gulf, training with each other in different tactics all the way.  They were escorted by the HMAS Adelaide.

What’s really interesting is all the surrounding boats coming and going out for Fremantle which give a glimpse at just how busy a port she was.

As usual, Redfin is the yellow and Robalo is the green. I decided all other submarines will be white for the purposes of these maps, though Harder will appear again in the story, if only obliquely.

From the War Patrol Reports alone of the Redfin and Robalo, we know the positions of Harder, Crevalle, Flasher and Angler, all of which were either coming to or leaving from Fremantle.  Strangely enough, though Redfin and Robalo are on track to pass each other and probably did on the 28th or 29th, they either didn’t see each other or didn’t record seeing each other.  (Redfin would make note of seeing Bonefish and Lapon over the next two days though, which adds another two submarines so the tally of boats in this general area at this time)

When you consider that Fremantle was one of two American Submarine Bases in Australia, and that Freo also served as base for British and Dutch submarines as well as a variety of battle and supply ships for those three countries, the sheer speed and insanity of that port must have been almost unbelievable.

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Redfin Underway

Where was Flier 66 years ago today? | Posted by Rebekah
May 26 2010

Leaving Flier for the moment, since she literally does not exist today, we’ll go to the Redfin, who does exist, and is leaving on her third patrol.

She is carrying eight temporary semi-crewmembers.  Actually, they were not even Navy, they  were Army, so I’m not sure what their status was aboard the Redfin. Likely, like any civilian that might have been carried about a submarine, they would be restricted to a certain portion of the boat, with their meals either delivered to them, or they would be escorted to the Mess, as well as escorted to the Head to keep them out of the way in the case of an emergency.

These eight men, however, were the first stop for the Redfin, and she was taking them to Ramos Island, a rather large island just north of Balabac Island.

They were a small division of the 978th Signal Service Company of the US Army.  This Company was created “to handle the communication networks of the Philippine Guerilla movement, and to go on secret missions into the islands for the Commander-in-Chief himself.”

Their mission was three-fold: To operate as a message center for the various Filippino Guerilla groups around the Philippine Islands, to be a radio station to handle all the secret Philippine Radio Traffic, and to train secret agents to send out on missions around the islands.  They often operated with great independence, and indeed, their headquarters were often only vaguely aware of what they were doing.  Loaded down with vast stores of food, equipment and money, they were left to their own judgement and devices to accomplish their missions.

At the beginning of 1944, the Allies only had six contacts inside the Philippines, and with the military pushing deeper and deeper into Japanese held territory, and a re-invasion of the Philippines coming within the year, more intelligence was needed about the strength, locations, and movements of Japanese forces.    Those that were being sent behind lines were trained in Australia in radio equipment, maintenance, and transmissions, encryptions, and survival techniques.

Eight of these men were now aboard the Redfin, bound for the Palawan Island group with instructions to monitor and report movements in Balabac Straits, and to work with the guerillas there.  Their names were Sgt. Armando Corpus, commander of the group; Sgt. Carlos Palacido of Laguna Beach, CA; Sgt. R.F. Cortez of California; Sgt. J. Reynoso of Iowa (apparently nicknamed “Slug”); Cpl. T.J. Rallojay of Los Angeles; and T/5 Ritchie Daquel from Ramona CA.  Every man was a volunteer for the job.

They were transported from their training camp in the inner wilderness of Australia to Fremantle, where they changed into Navy uniforms before going to the Submarine Base and getting aboard the Redfin, and were under strict instructions to not tell anyone they were Army until they were inside the submarine.

And now they were en route to their destination.  If submarines were dangerous, this would end up being far more so.  Every radio transmission, even encrypted, could be triangulated back to the base.  They were supposed to make contacts with the local Filippinos, but some preferred Japanese rule to American promises of freedom from colonialization and sovriegnty.   As 1944 wore on, the danger of getting caught grew, and the penalties for being captured grew ever more severe.

Al Jacobson called them Coastwatchers, when he met them.  Coastwatchers are properly another group, generally of Australian military, but the missions were very similar.

Oh, and why does the Flier not exist today?  Late on May 25, she crossed the International Date Line traveling from east to west.  When you do that, you skip over a day in the calendar.  So on Flier War Patrol Report for May 25, she says: 1859 [hours]:  Crossed International Date Line, and omitted May 26 from the calendar”.

So today, Flier does not exist.  She vanished in a puff of logic.  She’ll be back tomorrow.

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Flier at Sea:

Where was Flier 66 years ago today? | Posted by Rebekah
May 22 2010

Today, Flier is still heading south-southwest, heading for her re-fueling point on Johnston Atoll.

Submarines didn’t go X miles per gallon.  They burned X gallons of fuel per mile.  Keep in mind that these boats are running the equivalent of four locomotive engines, sometimes at the same time, but they still chewed through their diesel.  Approximately 9.7 gallons per nautical mile, as a matter of fact.

So most submarines had a refueling point where they had relatively safe waters to fuel up and give them  that much more reach into their patrol areas.  They were not supposed to re-fuel on their way back to their home port, but if necessary, the option was there.  A submarine leaving Pearl had Midway and Johnston Atolls, depending if they were patrolling more northern or southern routes.  From Fremantle, there was Darwin Australia.

So sixty six years ago today, that’s where Flier was.  There’s a rather interesting note in tomorrow’s deck log.  A tantalizing clue, I just wish I could find out more.  Maybe the families of those involved might though.

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Redfin on Patrol

Where was Flier 66 years ago today? | Posted by Rebekah
Mar 19 2010

Sixty six years ago today, the USS Redfin departed Fremantle for her second patrol.  Only CO Austin would know where they were supposed to go, and who they were supposed to hunt.  While all submarines were given the standard order to sink any and all enemy ships they came across, especially the freighters, some submarines were given additional orders to seek out specific convoys or submarines or to do something in preparation for a future Naval attack.

A photo alledgedly taken aboard the USS Redfin,of the crew retrieving a torpedo while training. Torpedos were too expensive to waste on training, so they would retrieve any they fired in training to bring back. From http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/img/SS/SS-272_Redfin-Torprecovery.gif

The submarines had a unique position in the Navy.  While the surface fleet concentrated on taking down the Imperial Navy’s ships in massive battles on the open sea, the submarine fleet was slowly choking Japan’s economy and military from the factory floor.

Japan did not have enough natural materials to maintain or expand her military on her home islands.  This was part of the reason why they conquered parts of China, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Indo-China Peninsula, Malaysia and sought to keep expanding.  By holding these territories, they had access to the oil, rubber, steel, copper, coal, and any other raw materials needed to keep building and launching ships, submarines, airplanes, and repair the ones damaged in battle.

So the submarine force had an overarching command:  SINK THE FREIGHTERS.  Every freighter bound for Japan held the means to make more war machines and repair the ones coming back to dock.  Every ship of steel sent to the bottom, one less aircraft carrier or battleship.  A tanker of oil gone:  fewer ships, subs or airplanes could fuel up and go out on patrol.  By 1944, Japan’s war factories were having trouble getting materials needed on schedule, and sometimes, they had to make do with less repairs or fewer new items being completed.

These freighters started to become so important, they traveled only in convoys heavily guarded by armed escorts.  That didn’t matter at times, the submarines still attacked, and their mandates were so strong they were ordered to shoot the freighters rather than the escorts if able to do so.  It was better to have several escorts bringing a few or no freighters to Japan than take out the escorts and hope that someone else found the unguarded convoy and took out the freighters.

It was dangerous.  Each escort was armed with depth charges and deck guns.  If a submarine was suspected or detected, the escorts did not hesitate to drop dozens of depth charges in an area to get a submarine.  And in 1944, the depth charges were more effective than they had ever been, thanks to a congressman named Andrew May.

Congressman Andrew May, who, in effort to comfort and reassure the American people, put the submarine force in grave danger. From his wikipeida page.

Andrew May (D-Ky) was the chair for the House Military Affairs Committee.  During a press conference in May 1943, May revealed that the Japanese had been setting their depth charges too shallowly, so submarines were simply diving to their greatest depths and rode out the attacks in safety.  The press published this fact, and soon, the Japanese quickly adjusted their aim.  By some accounts, the Navy believed that nearly 10 submarines and 800 additional men may have been lost due to this blunder.

As usual, the men didn’t dwell on this fact.  It was their job to go out there and sweep the seas clean and come home with more brag rags to fly.  Like the Musketeers, it was all for one and one for all, whatever they were asked to do.

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INVASION

Where was Flier 66 years ago today? | Posted by Rebekah
Mar 08 2010

Sixty-six years ago today, Fremantle faced one of her darkest hours.

In 1942, the Imperial Navy of Japan spent 11 days raiding in the Indian Ocean, before thought to be secure under British Naval and Air Force command.  They were wrong.

The Japanese, at the cost of 20 of their airplanes, sank a British aircraft carrier, two cruisers, two destroyers, a sloop, 23 merchant ships, and more than 40 airplanes.  The Allies were never secure in their part of the ocean again.

In March 1944, the Japanese again tried to raid into the Indian Ocean.  This time they were not so lucky, but the standing orders were to kill any merchant sailors they came across except those (and the orders were specific who) who could be interrogated for useful information.

On March 6, an American Submarine (and the records don’t say who, and I don’t have the right resources to discover it right now) detected at least two very large Japanese ships coming through Lombok heading for the Indian Ocean.  What Fremantle didn’t know what these ships, the Kinu and the Oi, were on their way to keep nearby Sundra Strait free and clear for the return of the raiders who were ALREADY hundreds of miles deep in the Indian Ocean.

Fremantle did some quick calculations and realized that it would take at least three days to get to Fremantle, but more likely the attack, if it did come, would come on March 11, the night of the full moon, which would give the best light to night-attacks.

The submarines were the best line of defense.  Each crew, including the Redfin and Robalo, was quickly assembled, provisioned and all but thrown out of harbor to protect everyone.  The Submarine Tenders, the moment all of their charges were in the open ocean, weighed anchor and fled for Albany, 200 miles south.  The merchant ships in port were quickly scrambled and sent to weigh anchor in the sea lanes just outside of Fremantle.  If this was a real attack, warning would hopefully come quickly enough that these ships could flee south or west, and if it never came, they were nearby.  The British battleships and destroyers were also anchored in these same sea lanes.  The harbor was closed, and, some say, rigged with explosives so if all defenses failed, the Japanese would at least not find a viable harbor to start their own base.

For days, while the submarines ranged far and wide searching for the enemy, everyone in Fremantle was on pins and needles.

Meanwhile, the raiders, consisting of three heavy cruisers, who WERE in the Indian Ocean, had found a British merchant vessel, the Behar, approximately halfway between Fremantle and Sri Lanka.  She was carrying a cargo of zinc.  The cruisers fired three shots, sinking the Behar, but not before she managed to get off a distress call.

Fearing that Fremantle might hear the call and rally some troops, the raiders turned and fled back home.

Most of the Behar’s crew, initially picked up by the cruiser Tone, were eventually murdered.  Only 15 people survived, including the two women onboard.  They had been dropped off near Jakarta Indonesia, the night before the rest were killed.

Fremantle didn’t hear the call, only one Fremantle-bound freighter did, but as days passed with no enemy in sight, panic slowly subsided and people started to resume normal life, though with a greater degree of passion to help the war effort than had been seen in months.  By March 16, traffic had resumed in Fremantle’s harbor.

On March 17, the freighter who had heard Behar’s call, dropped anchor, but by then, no one was worried about raiders sneaking up on them, though security protocols were drastically tightened.

Redfin’s crew must have viewed this interlude as an interesting training run.  I don’t know what Robalo’s crew may have thought about it, but being interrupted after only two days vacation, I’m sure they weren’t thrilled, though they did their duty.  At least it didn’t count against their R&R!

For more information see:

Japanese Indian Ocean Raid 1944

E-Book “Australia in the War of 1939-1945: Chapter 13–Pacific Drive, Indian Ocean Interlude” You’ll need to scroll down to page 388 for the best account of this little-known emergency.

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