Submarine! Read Online Free PDF Page A

and fall of 1941, was USS Seawolf (SS197). Commissioned on December 1, 1939, she had spent formative months at New London and Pearl Harbor, and finally was assigned to the Asiatic Fleet, along with her squadron mates of Submarine Squadron Two. On December 8, 1941, east longitude date, she lay anchored in Manila Bay, scheduledto enter Cavite Navy Yard to join her sisters, Sealion and Seadragon , in their first overhaul.
    That burning evening, which saw Sealion sunk by Japanese bombs as she lay helpless, unable to submerge or get under way, and Seadragon severely wounded, was Seawolf’s introduction to total warfare. From then until October 3, 1944, when the veteran warrior fell victim to a friendly destroyer which she could not counterattack and which would not listen to her frantic signals, her story is the epitome of our undersea campaign as it developed. Under four commanders, Seawolf built for herself a reputation for straight shooting and original thinking which carried through her career and won her two prized Navy Unit Commendations—the only submarine to be so honored up to this time.
    Her battle with defective torpedoes began on March 31 and April 1, 1942, when she engaged three Japanese cruisers off Christmas Island. For two days her skipper, Lieutenant Commander Frederick B. Warder, remained in the area, almost the entire time under search and attack, and delivered three deliberate, well-planned torpedo attacks upon three different Japanese cruisers. Already furious, as were all his fellows, with unexplainable torpedo “misses,” skipper Freddie made all his attacks from such short range that failure to hit was nearly as impossible as it was inexcusable. In two cases the target screws were definitely heard to stop after the torpedo explosions, and all indications were that at the very least all three must have been damaged.
    Certainly the working over Seawolf received from the numerous escorts present also appeared to be real enough, as any of the men on board will testify. Either of the first two depth charge attacks which lasted more than six hours should have been enough to convince anyone of the serious intentions of the droppers.
    Following Seawolf’s third attack, the Japanese delivered the most impressive, sustained, uncompromising beating of the whole period, as the Seawolves well knew they could expect. It is conceivable that had the Nips stuck to it a bit longer they might have finished the submarine, for her batterywas depleted, the temperature in the boat had reached extraordinary heights, and the crew—after two days and nights of virtually continuous attack and counterattack—was exhausted. Shortly before midnight of the third day, however, Seawolf managed to break away and come to the surface.
    So Warder reported sinking or damaging three cruisers. But since they had been fairly well identified, it soon became known that all three ships were still very much in action.
    A high-ranking Japanese naval officer was asked about this engagement after the war. His reply, as translated, was a classic understatement: “We realized that you were experiencing a little difficulty with your torpedoes.”
    But the failure wasn’t from lack of trying and taking fantastic risks, and it wasn’t from lack of expert technique on the part of her crew, or of daring and skill on the part of her skipper. If Warder had been as intrepid with a pen as he was with torpedoes, his report of the two days’ action would read like the wildest fiction. And when the brethren of the undersea service heard of Seawolf’s exploit, the nickname of “Fearless Freddie” was immediately bestowed upon the skipper, much to his disgust, and USS Seawolf became renowned across the broad Pacific. And Warder redoubled his efforts to make his torpedoes pay off.
    One thought was that they might be running too deep. Instructions were to set them to run beneath the hull of an enemy vessel so that