With the Battle of Halfway raging within the Pacific in June 1942, Japanese forces 2,500 miles to the north have been seizing management of the Aleutian Islands of Kiska and Attu.
Their goal was clear: Distract American forces from Halfway whereas sending a message that Japan was able to hitting extra territories belonging to the USA.
Within the months that adopted, the northern area would host a collection of fights at any time when climate permitted. U.S. submarines made their presence identified that Fourth of July, when the submarine Triton sank the destroyer Nenohi.
But it surely was the next day that noticed the fight debut of two names destined for submariner immortality: The united statesGrowler and its skipper, Cmdr. Howard Gilmore.
Howard W. Gilmore was born in Selma, Alabama, on Sept. 29, 1902. He enlisted within the Navy in November 1920 earlier than commissioning on the U.S. Naval Academy.
In 1931 Gilmore transferred to the Navy’s submarine faculty at New London, Connecticut. Climbing the ranks and incomes a status as extra aggressive persona than his peacetime counterparts, Gilmore attracted the eye of superiors and was rewarded by being named govt officer of the submarine USS Shark (SS-174).
Whereas serving aboard Shark, Gilmore’s profession — and life — have been virtually lower brief. On shore in Panama, he and a crewmate have been assaulted by thieves. Gilmore’s throat was lower within the brawl, however he survived.
In December 1941 Gilmore was given full command of Shark, however the function was brief lived. The day after the Dec. 7 assault on Pearl Harbor Gilmore was transferred to the Gato-class submarine USS Growler (SS-174).
The boat’s first conflict patrol was to the Aleutians, the place, on the morning of July 5, 1942, it noticed a tempting sight: Three Japanese destroyers off the island of Kiska.
Approaching straight, Gilmore loosed two torpedoes, dealing critical injury to Kasumi and killing 10 of its sailors. Subsequent, it blew off the bow of Shiranui, killing three seamen and forcing the destroyer to be towed to Maizuru, Japan, for repairs.
Gilmore then calmly turned towards the destroyer Arare. He fired one other two torpedoes, the second of which despatched the ship and its crew to the ocean flooring. Arare’s commanding officer and 42 survivors have been rescued by the broken Shiranui.
For these efforts Gilmore was awarded the Navy Cross — however he was simply getting began.
In a second patrol Growler sank 4 service provider ships, totaling 15,000 tons, within the East China Sea close to Formosa (now Taiwan). Gilmore was awarded a gold star in lieu of a second Navy Cross.
After an uneventful third patrol, Growler set out on what would grow to be an ominous fourth.
Departing Brisbane, Australia, on New 12 months’s Day 1943, Growler headed towards Rabaul within the western Solomons, sinking a transport on Jan. 16 and one other on the nineteenth. On Jan. 30 it broken a freighter however was pushed down by a barrage of gunfire and depth expenses.
The realm had grow to be a hornet’s nest, courtesy of Japanese evacuations from Guadalcanal.
On Feb. 4 Gilmore tailed two freighters escorted by two patrol craft towards Gazelle Channel. As he moved Growler into place for an ambush, the lead Japanese ship proved prepared and fired on the sub at 5,000 yards.
Gilmore ordered a dive, pressured to attend out an hour-long depth cost assault. One concussion ruptured a manhole gasket within the ahead essential ballast tank. Emergency repairs slowed the leak.
Simply earlier than 6 a.m., Gilmore, believing the patrol vessels to have moved on, introduced Growler to periscope depth to pursue a ship 5 miles away.
Within the early morning hours of Feb. 7 Growler’s crew noticed a goal. Gilmore ordered torpedo tubes readied and decreased the vary to 2,000 yards, however the Japanese vessel reversed course.
Growler’s radar lit up. The enemy ship was headed straight for the sub.
The nemesis was Hayasaki, a 920-ton ammunition ship transformed to an auxiliary escort. It was armed with one 3-inch and two 25mm anti-aircraft weapons, in addition to a single 13mm machine gun.
With the vary between Growler and Hayasaki too shut for the sub’s torpedoes to arm, Gilmore ordered “Left full rudder.”
Simply then the collision alarm sounded and the antagonists crashed head-on at 17 knots, throttling the sub and knocking everybody off their ft.
Growler heeled 50 levels. An 18-inch part of bow bent sideways, disabling the sub’s ahead torpedoes.
Hayasaki had been rammed amidships however its 13mm gun crew, realizing they have been holding a tiger by the tail, fired on the sub’s conning tower with the one weapon they may carry to bear.
At point-blank vary, the machine gun crew killed Ensign William Wadsworth Williams and Fireman third Class Wilbert Fletcher Kelley.
Grievously wounded, Gilmore clung to the bridge body.
Belowdecks the battered XO, Lt. Cmdr. Arnold F. Schade, was discovering his ft when he heard Gilmore’s subsequent order.
“Clear the bridge!”
Wounded personnel have been pulled down the hatch. Then got here Gilmore’s last order.
“Take her down!”
Schade hesitated, as did the crew below the conning tower, however Gilmore didn’t seem. One other 13mm burst swept the upperworks, leaving a gap that allow within the sea.
The crew closed the hatch and submerged.
Assuming command, Schade used managed flooding to stage Growler off whereas the crew scrambled to make non permanent repairs.
After about half-hour he ordered “battle floor,” however the broken Hayasaki had already withdrawn to Rabaul.
There was signal of Gilmore.
Because of its skipper’s sacrifice, Growler managed to limp again to Brisbane, the place it was restored to fight readiness.
“The efficiency of the officers and crew in effecting repairs and bringing the ship safely again to base is likely one of the excellent submarine feats of the conflict so far,” Commodore James Fife Jr., the chief of employees of Asiatic Fleet Submarines, remarked.
In New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 13, 1943, Rear Adm. Andrew C. Bennett, the commandant of the Eighth Naval District, awarded Howard Gilmore the Medal of Honor. Current to obtain it was his widow and their youngsters.
Underneath Schade’s command Growler took half in 5 extra patrols, sinking the destroyer Shikinami and the escort ship Hirado on Sept. 12, 1944.
The boat dispatched a complete of 15 ships, totaling 74,900 tons, and claimed seven extra broken.
Throughout its eleventh patrol, nonetheless, Growler, then below command of Thomas B. Oakley, vanished someplace within the South China Sea off Mindoro, probably falling sufferer to the destroyer Shigure.
Hayasaki, in the meantime, managed to outlive mines, air assaults and submarines till the top of the conflict. After two years of repatriation duties, on Oct. 3, 1947, it was ceded to the Soviet Union because the Olekma.
Howard Gilmore’s reminiscence is marked within the Howard household plot — his widow’s household — in Magnolia Cemetery, Meridian, Mississippi.
Carved in stone are his final phrases, which stay equally etched into the reminiscences of each U.S. Navy submariner.
“Take her down!”
