Memorial Day has always been a curious commemoration to me. Add new comment Your name. More information about text formats. Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically. Lines and paragraphs break automatically. Email this page: Email. Share this page: Facebook Twitter. How can we make this page better for you? Back to top. Email Address: This field is required. For example, on the night of Aug.
By then, most enemy targets were headed home, not obliged to maintain position to do battle. The subs had done as ordered and hewed to Imperial Navy doctrine, which was both visionary and constraining. The navy was ahead of its American and German counterparts, and in the s had developed the group assault tactics for use against warships that Germany would make famous with its convoy-hunting wolf packs.
Japan had even built specialized command boats to lead formations into battle. Japan had also developed a submarine-based floatplane along with a number of subs with facilities for storing, launching, and retrieving them, which enabled subs to scout remotely.
While 6th Fleet staff chief Mito was a true submariner, his boss, Vice Adm. Teruhisa Komatsu, was not. Komatsu, 54, once led a sub squadron, but the only warship he had skippered was a cruiser and he had never driven an undersea boat. Komatsu, who had also taught at the naval academy and the navy war college, was drafted into the submarine command in early when the previous 6th Fleet boss was wounded. Now Komatsu was being called upon to oversee the subs at and around Guadalcanal. On the night of Aug.
At periscope depth I could not keep up, but a zigzag put the carrier right in front of the sub. Destroyers responded, but I disappeared. The aircraft carrier Saratoga undergoing repairs at Tongatabu, Tonga Islands, in September , after being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on 31 August.
The list seen in this photo is probably deliberate, to bring the damaged part of the flattop's hull out of water after being hit on the starboard side, amidships. The temporary loss of the Saratoga sapped Allied strength and stoked concern about submarines. A key passageway — Segond Channel — was liberally seeded. In August an American destroyer had blundered into the field and been sunk; the same fate awaited the transport President Coolidge in October.
When a fleet or convoy departed, escort vessels first cleared the approaches. And Allied ships routinely went to battle stations at sunset and dawn, when the light favored subs but surface sailors might be tired after a long day or not quite ready for a new one.
The rest of the time the surface vessels generally remained at the ready. By early September the Japanese had eight subs cruising Torpedo Junction and several more off Guadalcanal. On Sept. It might have done some damage but for an alert patrol plane crew. The counterattack was fierce. Aircraft damaged I so badly that the sub had to leave Torpedo Junction on the surface, barely making Truk. So on Sept. The enemy sped away but, as in the Saratoga incident, zigzagged right to I The aircraft carrier Wasp, afire and sinking south of San Cristobal Island after being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, on 15 September , as seen from the cruiser San Francisco.
On the blockade, submarine patrol strength remained problematic. By Sept. In October, illness forced the warhorse Yamazaki to leave Truk; Mito replaced him as head of Squadron 1. In one respect the change reduced difficulties: with Yamazaki gone, Kono, the other submarine squadron commander, became the key man.
Kono still lacked sub savvy, but his deep radio expertise made him well equipped to handle the chronic radio problems that underwater crews experienced in the tropics. Meanwhile, the Japanese Combined Fleet was readying a major operation to reinforce Guadalcanal, overwhelm the Americans there, and cripple any fleet the Allies sent to save them. Subs would have a key role.
In early October, Komatsu took direct control of four I-boats to put floatplane scouts over key Allied bases. Nine other subs were undergoing upkeep at Truk and Rabaul. Only five subs were patrolling Torpedo Junction; one, I , was apparently lost on Oct.
At mid-month, when the Japanese surface fleet went on the move, the blockade force surged. Kono suddenly put 16 I-boats, divided into two forces, into Torpedo Junction waters, continually adjusting their patrol lines.
The payoff came Oct. On board the I , Lt. The carrier battle of the Santa Cruz Islands began on Oct. As Allied vessels withdrew, I-boats gave chase, with the usual detection and pursuit problems. In the melee, the battleship South Dakota and the destroyer Mahan collided, badly damaging each other. Except for the Chester , Japanese subs drew scant blood.
Even so, the running scorecard for Torpedo Junction was clear: the Imperial Navy had lost I , and other subs had suffered damage.
But thanks to the Japanese submariners the Allies had lost a carrier and a destroyer, and had a carrier, a battleship, and a heavy cruiser damaged — not counting the vessels damaged in minefield accidents and scrambles to avoid I-boats.
A significant portion of American losses was thus the work, direct or indirect, of Japanese subs. After the Battle of Santa Cruz ended on Oct. The raid was sure to be non-standard: its leader was Capt. Hankyu Sasaki, and if the Imperial Navy had a commando submariner, he was it. Sasaki, 46, had led the midget subs at Pearl Harbor, and a May midget raid on the port at Sydney, Australia.
Well-connected — he and Ugaki were naval academy classmates — Sasaki had helmed subs since , and had led Submarine Division 3 since On Oct.
The timing was ideal. November is slightly warmer and wetter, but with almost identical sunshine — optimal conditions for deploying floatplanes and scout submarines off ports. The three-vessel E Force mission seemed more practical. The second boat, I-9 , was helmed by Fujii, the lieutenant commander who had evaded American destroyers with his oil-and-air trick. A scouting maven, Fujii had launched floatplanes against Pearl Harbor and in the Aleutians. Kinashi had killed the Wasp , and E Force was after the Enterprise.
At dawn on Nov. Media Inquiries. Coastal Carolina. North Carolina. Home Close. View Inside.
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