The Silent Service

I will probably never serve on a submarine again. I may never ride one again. The only way that I may even see the inside of one again is to pay a visit to a museum ship. I am still a submariner and look back on the three and a half years that I spent at sea fondly. That may be in part because of the natural tendency of memories to fade with time. Good memories last longer. Bad memories tend to fade faster. When you join an organisation, its history becomes your own. Today, I learned a little bit more about some of that history.

 

On the 3rd of October, the Navy confirmed that the wreck of the USS Grunion (SS-216) had been found about one mile down near the Aleutian island Kiska. Grunion had been on her first war patrol, attacking Japanese shipping around Kiska. Kiska and another island, Attu, where the only US territory ever occupied by Japanese forces. They were seized in an attempt to draw US Naval forces away from the planned attack on Midway Island. USS Grunion was harrassing and interdicting the Japanese supply ships when she last reported in and was ordered to return to port. She never arrived. She was declared lost with all hands (70 officers and crew) in mid August.

 

The sons of her commanding officer, financed the search for the wreck, and after a big break in the form of information on the internet that had been posted by the son of a Japanese Maru sailor, that told of an attack on a submarine near Kiska that had not been previously known. It is likely that Grunion was sunk by an armed merchant shortly after reporting in for the last time.

 

USS Grunion is one of 52 subamrines lost during World War II and 63 lost from all causes. Nearly all went down with all hands. The submarine service had the highest mortality rate of all branches of the military in World War II. 3505 submariners never returned from patrol, nearly 1 in 5. In the Pacific Theater, they acounted for more than half of all Japanese shipping sunk. Aa an aside, the Japanese Navy, after the war provided material claiming nearly 500 US submarines sunk.

 

In addition to those submariners lost during World War II, 371 others died due to accidents and other perils of the sea, both before and after the war. The last two, and the only nuclear submarines to be lost, were 129 on USS Thresher and 99 on USS Scorpion.

 

The sea has always been a dangerous place. All sailors have a respect for each other that goes beyond nationality. War, at least in the past, wasn't personal. Ships fought, not men. When the fighting was done, men collected the survivors. There was a degree of kindness in that, because the winners knew that they could be on the losing side just as well and in need of a helping hand out of the water. Among submariners, with time putting some distance between events, there is even respect for the Japanese and German submariners who were lost at even higher rates than ours. Germany, for example, lost between 700 and 800 uboats each with 60 to 80 men. Subamriners dont really consider them lost at sea. They are still at their stations. Still on patrol.

 

I wouldn't trade that history for anything.

 

Submarines Lost Through Enemy Action
                  Date of Loss Casualties
Sealion   (SS-195)  10 Dec 41    5 killed
Shark     (SS-174)  11 Feb 42   58 killed
Perch     (SS-176)   3 Mar 42   59 POWs, 6 later died
Grunion   (SS-216)  31 Jul 42   70 killed
Argonaut  (APS-1)   10 Jan 43  105 killed
Amberjack (SS-219)  14 Feb 43   74 killed
Grampus   (SS-207)   5 Mar 43   71 killed
Triton    (SS-201)  15 Mar 43   74 killed
Pickerel  (SS-177)   3 Apr 43   74 killed
Grenadier (SS-210)  22 Apr 43   76 POWs, 4 later died
Runner    (SS-275)  28 May 43   78 killed
Pompano   (SS-181)  29 Aug 43   76 killed
Grayling  (SS-209)   9 Sep 43   76 killed
Cisco     (SS-290)  28 Sep 43   76 killed
S 44      (SS-155)   7 Oct 43   55 killed
Wahoo     (SS-238)  11 Oct 43   80 killed
Dorado    (SS-248)  12 Oct 43   76 killed
Corvina   (SS-226)  16 Nov 43   82 killed
Sculpin   (SS-191)  19 Nov 43   12 killed, 51 POWs
Capelin   (SS-289)  23 Nov 43   78 killed
Scorpion  (SS-278)   5 Jan 44   76 killed
Grayback  (SS-208)  27 Feb 44   80 killed
Trout     (SS-202)  29 Feb 44   81 killed
Herring   (SS-233)   1 Jun 44   84 killed
Gudgeon   (SS-211)   7 Jun 44   78 killed
Golet     (SS-361)  14 Jun 44   82 killed
Robalo    (SS-273)  26 Jul 44   74 killed, 4 POWs
Flier     (SS-250)  13 Aug 44   78 killed
Harder    (SS-257)  24 Aug 44   79 killed
Escolar   (SS-294)  17 Oct 44   82 killed
Shark     (SS-314)  24 Oct 44   87 killed
Albacore  (SS-218)   7 Nov 44   86 killed
Growler   (SS-215)   8 Nov 44   85 killed
Scamp     (SS-277)  11 Nov 44   83 killed
Swordfish (SS-193)  12 Jan 45   89 killed
Barbel    (SS-316)   4 Feb 45   81 killed
Kete      (SS-369)  20 Mar 45   87 killed
Trigger   (SS-237)  28 Mar 45   89 killed
Snook     (SS-279)   9 Apr 45   84 killed
Lagarto   (SS-371)   3 May 45   85 killed
Bonefish  (SS-223)  18 Jun 45   85 killed
Bullhead  (SS-332)   6 Aug 45   84 killed

 

Submarines Lost Through Accidents and Perils of the Sea
                  Date of Loss Casualties
F 4       (SS-23)   25 Mar 15   21 died
F 1       (SS-20)   16 Dec 17   19 died
G 2       (SS-27)   30 Jul 19    3 died
H 1       (SS-28)   12 Mar 20    4 died
O 5       (SS-66)   20 Oct 23    3 died
S 51      (SS-162)  25 Sep 25   33 died
Squalus   (SS-192)  23 May 39   26 died
O-9       (SS-70)   20 Jun 41   33 died
S 36      (SS-141)  20 Jan 42    0 died
S-26      (SS-131)  24 Jan 42   46 died
S 27      (SS-132)  19 Jun 42    0 died
S 39      (SS-144)  16 Aug 42    0 died
R-12      (SS-89)   12 Jun 43   42 died
Tullibee  (SS-284)  26 Mar 44   79 died
S-28      (SS-133)   4 Jun 44   50 died
Seawolf   (SS-197)   3 Oct 44   99 died
Darter    (SS-227)  24 Oct 44    0 died
Tang      (SS-306)  24 Oct 44   78 died, 9 POWs
Cochino   (SS-345)  26 Aug 49    1 died
Thresher (SSN-593)  10 Apr 63  129 died
Scorpion (SSN-589)  27 May 68   99 died