CHAPTER 3

ARCHIVE INDEX

"Submarine Experience, 1942-1945." Eckert explains the ARGONAUT's characteristics, then recounts her participation in Marine Colonel Evans Carlson's raid on Makin in the Gilberts in August 1942. He then was shifted to her sister vessel, the submarine NAUTILUS, and soon went out on his first war patrol. [(Note: Eckert refers the reader to the NAUTILUS' Third War Patrol report at the Naval Historical Center for these operations.] The NAUTILUS returned to Pearl on 5 November for a refit and left Hawaii for the Solomons in early December. She evacuated Western refugees from Bougainville on New Years Day, 1943, and returned to Tulagi.

Captain Brockman, being anxious to return to the Buka-Bougainville area, decided to run on the surface to make speed and only to submerge upon sighting an aircraft. Eckert recounts an incident during which he and a yeoman were caught on the bridge during a crash dive. Determined to get off the submarine, they climbed onto the deck and over the lifeline at the widest part of the vessel and jumped clear. Eckert explains what happened in the submarine when Brockman discovered that they had been left topside. With the aid of a dead reckoning tracer, Brockman steamed about two to three thousand yards, turned around, and returned to the point at which she had dived. Twenty minutes later Eckert and his companion saw the submarine coming back for them and they were rescued. Eckert points out that "no mention of this incident was ever written in the ship's log or in the Fourth War Patrol Report of the NAUTILUS. (See HEMLEY for a similar operational experience.)

Eckert recounts the NAUTILUS' subsequent operations during the Fourth War Patrol, and then tells of her adventures during her Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh War Patrols. After refit in Brisbane in February 1943, the submarine returned to Pearl where she picked up some U. S. Army Scouts and steamed for Dutch Harbor. On 11 May, they landed the Scouts at Blind Cove, Holtz Bay, Attu, at the start of the Attu-Kiska campaign which led to the recovery of the Western Aleutians from the Japanese that summer.

NAUTILUS' fifth war patrol involved another special mission under the command of CDR William D. Irvin. In September 1943, she was in the Gilberts taking photographs by periscope of Betio Island in Tarawa Atoll for JICPOA in support of the upcoming landing in November. The Sixth war patrol was a reprise of the previous operation. One day after the Tarawa landing, the NAUTILUS appeared 10 miles off Tarawa on lifeguard duty for pilots of aircraft splashed in the area. The submarine was then ordered to land Marines on Apamama Island, but she was hit on her way there, had to crash dive, and went to 300 feet before "before we could gain depth control." The vessel was severely damaged, but there was no follow-up depth charge attack despite considerable noise above. [Eckert notes that he later learned that the cruiser SANTA FE had fired eight or ten main battery salvos at the submarine.] Three hours later the submarine returned to the surface, reported that she was damaged to Pearl Harbor, but landed the Marines anyway using rubber boats.

Eckert recalls the Eighth War Patrol of the NAUTILUS, his last, in February and March 1944, about 55 days, during which she sank only one ship, the AMERICA MARU, then en route from Saipan to Japan with the help of Ultra.

In May 1944, Eckert was ordered to report to the BALAO-class submarine SEA ROBIN as XO. The first patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin was unproductive, although she sank one ship. After returning to Fremantle for rest and refit, the SEA ROBIN sailed for Surabaja where on 3 March 1945 she sank a maru. The following day, an Ultra message allowed the SEA ROBIN to intercept a three-ship enemy convoy and to sink all three of the vessels. The submarine returned to the South China Sea to deliver mail, then to Manila where Eckert and the CO went ashore on liberty.

The SEA ROBIN's second war patrol was completed in April and she returned to Pearl Harbor. Her last patrol commenced in June 1945, when she stood out of Pearl, topped off her fuel tanks at Guam, and steamed into the Iwo Jima-Tokyo area for lifeguard duty for the USAAF B-29s and P-51s that were pounding Japan from the Marianas and Iwo Jima. After recovering one pilot, the SEA ROBIN entered the Yellow Sea and sank one enemy patrol vessel. "In the middle of July 1945, the Japanese did not have many ships left," and "the remainder of this patrol was literally spent in dodging floating mines. We sighted 89 floating mines -- and we missed hitting one by three feet!"

The SEA ROBIN returned to Saipan on July 31, and the following day Eckert was detached and ordered to take command of the submarine GAR which was alongside at Saipan. Six days later the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and a few days later the Japanese surrendered. (A personal account of the attack on Pearl Harbor is provided in the last half of the assignment.)

Also in the main archive: "The Pacific War Against Japan from Three Submarines (1942-1945)." (Speech to be given at Army Historian’s Conference, Doubletree Hotel, Arlington, VA, June 14, 1994.) Eckert’s comprehensive account of 10 Pacific war patrols.

Experiences During 1943. Enclosures to item include: 1. Ernie Pyle, "The Roving Reporter" 2. Edelstein to family, V-Mail, 6 Aug 43, describes towns ashore in Sicily. 3. V-Mail letters dtd 8 July and 10 July 1943 to S. E. Edelstein, Sr. (These letters contain superb on-the-scene descriptions of the landing.) 4. Flagship ANCON newsletter, "Ancon Anchor." Article "Shapiro" tells of Salerno Landings by Allied Troops.

Impressions of peacetime Navy until 7 Dec 41. On board the LOUISVILLE (CA 28). "It seems to me that our Fleet was amazingly professional about many things. For example, we sweated long and hard over ship maneuvers, formation maneuvers, damage control drills ad nauseum..." "...Our gunnery readiness in surface action was extraordinary. Our anti-air capabilities were surely less impressive, if not downright question-mark...

"The day after Christmas, 1940, sudden orders took us to Simonstown, South Africa, where we picked up $148 million dollars of British gold and carried it to New York City for safekeeping..."

Happenings from 7 Dec 1941 to 31 Dec 1941: From Borneo and Australia via the Torres Straits, "we pulled safely into Pearl Harbor on the morning of 16 Dec 1941...After nearly a week of logistics, we sortied from the oil and grime that depressed Pearl bound for our support yard, Mare Island, California...for we already sensed that early campaigns were imminent in Jan 1942."

Following is an excellent narrative covering Esch's experiences as Gunnery Officer on board the cruiser LOUISVILLE (CA-28) during World War II including accounts of gunfire support during Marshalls campaign. "A quip of the moment held that the first sweeps [air] cleaned the islands of souveniers, but additional sweeps were required to finish the Japs. Eniwetok: "Moving to the southern lagoon, we maintained an ironic schedule of alternating movies and bombardments until the islands were a mass of devastation, making marine successes there far easier." Hollandia: 21 Apr 44 (during sweeps against Palau and Truk, then Hollandia): "We in [the] LOUISVILLE were not getting much business. But at 1000, we received word of the shooting down of one of our fighter pilots in Tanahmerah Bay." The Marianas: LOUISVILLE remained with Oldendorff's Bombardment Force while Spruance sought out the Japanese at the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Peleliu, Palau Leyte. Surigao Battle (good observations on battle). Lingayen: "LOUISVILLE came under attack by Kamikazes, one hit ship at Turret No. 2, fires contained in 10 minutes. One killed, nearly 100 seriously injured. Hit again on starboard flag bridge on 6 Jan 45; Rear Admiral Chandler killed. Returned to Mare Island, missed Iwo Jima as a result." Okinawa: (dramatic account of Kamikaze attack.)

Pearl Harbor, An Eyewitness Report. Frana was serving in the battleship TENNESSEE's Engineering Department when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, but he had been assigned to Spot Two since September 1940 owing to a shortage of officers. Frana was in his stateroom on the morning of 7 December, and he gives an account of what he expected to happen later that morning. The stateroom was on the second deck, portside.

When the alarm was sounded and the crew was ordered to Battle Stations, Frana rushed to Engine Control to prepare the engineering plant for getting underway. When he arrived, he was the only officer present, so he began to prepare the ship to get underway and reported by telephone to the bridge. The Gunnery Officer, who was in command on the bridge, told Frana that, "as soon as the WEST VIRGINIA clears, we are going out." About 0830, Frana reported to the bridge that the plant was ready to get underway, but the bridge replied that "it might be some time before we get underway." The bridge described the damage to the WEST VIRGINIA and nearby battleships.

At 0930, the Engineering Officer called from the Quarterdeck and ordered that the Damage Control Parties open the hatches for him. At 1030, when the Captain returned, he decided to move the TENNESSEE ahead from the ARIZONA about fifty feet astern, but the ship would not move because the WEST VIRGINIA, which was ablaze, had pinned her against the forward concrete pillars. Frana paints a vivid picture of the carnage he saw when he went onto the deck at around 1200.

The TENNESSEE, in company with the battleships MARYLAND and PENNSYLVANIA, formed Task Force Sixteen, and cleared Pearl Harbor with a destroyer sonar screen escort for the West Coast on 20 December.

Frana describes some interesting incidents during three convoy runs. On one occasion, a lone, neutral Irish merchantman crossed the path of the convoy and refused to answer signal light messages. Another time the BALDWIN ran across a floating mine in front of the convoy. (This is an excellent, brief description of the US-Casablanca convoys in 1943 -- a system for which the Navy was alone responsible.)