The Mystery of Midget D: Crew of Sunken Japanese Submarine Never Found

by Daniel F. Gilmore

Published in 1974

Thirty-three years later, a mystery still surrounds one of the five Japanese midget subs that secretly entered Pearl Harbor during the 7 December 1941 attack that thrust the U.S. into World War II.

The question: What happened to the two-man crew of Midget D, which was found 13 June 1960, by Navy student divers seventy-six feet below the surface of the entrance to Pearl Harbor?

“Her torpedoes were still in their tubes, her hatch undogged, and, although her hull was encrusted with coral she appeared to be structurally sound and a determination was made to raise her,” Lieutenant Commander A. J. Stewart wrote in the December 1974 issue of the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings.

Stewart recounted the saga of the five battery-powered subs, each eighty feet long and weighing fifty-six tons, that spearheaded the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor.

Each midget sub was launched at sea from the deck of a mother sub shortly after midnight, 6 December 1941.

At one point, Stewart recounted: “The crews of the special attack unit could watch the dancing neon signs along Waikiki beach. Rows of landing lights at Hickam Air Base and John Rodgers Airfield blazed like jewels. Haunting strains of jazz music drifted from shore radios and honky-tonks, but all were too excited and busy to notice.

“A malfunctioning gyrocompass in the midget carried by I-24 remained defective in spite of all efforts to fix it. The midget’s young skipper, Ensign Sakamaki, was asked by I-24’s commander if he still wanted to go.

“Determined to perform the mission for which all his military training had prepared him, he replied without hesitation ‘Captain, I am going ahead… on to Pearl Harbor!’ ”

Midget A, another sub apparently cruising on the surface, became the first casualty of the Pacific war an hour before the surprise Japanese air assault on Pearl. The U.S.S. Ward, an inshore patrol destroyer, sent her to the bottom with a shot from her 4-inch guns that pierced the sub’s hull.

Midget A sank in 1,000 feet of water with her two-man crew, and is still on the bottom.

A little later, Midget B launched one of her two 18-inch torpedoes at the U.S. seaplane tender Curtis, missed and hit a pier at Pearl City. The destroyer Monaghan spotted the sub, rammed it with a glancing blow and finished it off with depth charges.

Midget B later was retrieved from the harbor bottom. The two bodies within were removed and buried with military honors, and the sub became fill material for a new pier at the Pearl Harbor sub base.

Ensign Sakamaki’s ill-fated boat, Midget C, hit reefs while trying to enter the harbor. Her batteries began leaking chemicals which almost suffocated the two crewmen.

After drifting all night on the surface with dead motors, Sakamaki and Petty Officer Inagaki lit the fuse to a self-destruct bomb and abandoned ship. Inagaki drowned. Sakamaki was washed ashore unconscious on 8 December at Waimanalo Bay, fifty miles from Pearl Harbor, and became America’s first POW of the war.

The self-destruct bomb was a dud, and Midget C washed ashore to become the key attraction in a coast-to-coast U.S. War Bond drive. The submarine ended up as an exhibit at the Key West, Florida, Lighthouse Museum.

Midget E is assumed to have been a victim of one of four U.S. destroyers that dropped depth charges after they reported being under attack by an enemy submarine. The wreckage of Midget E has never been found.

Stewart described the scene when Midget D was raised. “There followed the first, dramatic entry into the sub as Captain H. A. Thompson pried open the conning tower hatch and climbed down into the sub.

“In the dark, muddy interior, bent piping, a door twisted off its hinges, her large electric motor torn from its mountings and much battered glass gave mute evidence that Midget D had suffered great damage from depth charges.

“However, no trace of documents or crew was found. No bone fragments or teeth were found. Experts agree that even if human remains had disintegrated over the two decades, the victims’ teeth would have resisted the water’s corrosive effects.

“Second, a study of the small lengths of time fuse found, along  with detonators, indicated that inasmuch as sulfur was still present in the fuse, the scuttling charge had never been activated.”

The two still-live torpedoes were cemented by corrosion into their tubes and could not be removed. So the bow section was unbolted and dumped with them into the sea.

At the request of Masayaki Harigai, Japanese Consul General in Hawaii, Midget D was returned to Japan and is now on display at the Japanese Naval Academy at Ewa Jima.

“But what of her crewmen?” Stewart asks.

“The conning tower hatch of Midget D was undogged, an action that had to be accomplished from inside the boat. Little doubt exists that her two-man crew left the sub. Whether or not they survived remains a mystery.

“If they were in the craft during the depth charge explosions, which caused extensive damage inside, they probably suffered gross injury.

If they escaped from their boat after it had settled to the bottom, it would have been possible for them to reach the surface.

“If they were able to swim the mile to shore across placid Keehi Lagoon, they could have easily melted into the local populace of Hawaii with its many Orientals.

“Had they been able to do this, their determination to avoid capture might have caused them to seek aid from those friendly to their cause, a difficult task indeed.

“Their devotion to Japanese ideology would likely have caused them to reveal to no one, either during or after the war, that they failed their mission.

“Therefore, it is a remote possibility that one or both may be alive today.”

Type A Midget Submarine Data

Displacement submerged: 46 metric tons.

Dimensions: 23.9 × 1.8 meters.

Crew: two.

Armament: two 18-inch torpedo tubes with one torpedo each.

Machinery: one electric motor, 600-horsepower.

Speed: 23 knots surfaced; 19 knots submerged (55 minutes).

Radius: 129 kilometers at 2 knots submerged.

Further Reading

For further reading, besides the issue of USNI Proceedings already cited, articles covering various aspects of the subject can be found in the August 1952, December 1961 and December 1968 issues of Proceedings.

For additional data on the submarines themselves, see:

Watts, A. J. Japanese Warships Of World War II. Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1966.

Watts, A. J., and B. G. Gordon. The Imperial Japanese Navy. Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1971.

Wartime painting in oils on silk, by an unidentified Japanese artist, depicting the four officers and five crewmen who were lost with the five Japanese midget submarines that participated in the attack. The single survivor of that effort is omitted from the painting, which features a view of the attack on Ford Island in its center.

 

7 December 1941 Chart of Pearl Harbor recovered from a Japanese midget submarine captured after the attack. The chart shows various courses around Ford Island and gives ship locations which do not necessarily correspond to actual 7 December ship positions. Since it presumably came from the midget submarine HA-19, which was unsuccessful in its attempts to enter the harbor, these details probably represent expected ship locations and intended maneuvers by the submarine.

Mounted on the after deck of the "mother" submarine I-24, mini submarine HA-19 is boarded by its crew, Kazuo Sakamaki and Kiyoshi Inagaki, in the pre-dawn hours of December 7, 1941. Painting by Tom W. Freeman, courtesy of Valor in the Pacific National Historical Park.

Japanese Type A midget submarine annotated photograph of the starboard side of the submarine's conning tower, showing periscope, net cutting wire and other features, taken after salvage by U.S. forces, December 1941. HA-19 had grounded on 7 December 1941, following unsuccessful attempts to enter Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack. Copied in 1980 from Commander Submarine Squadron Four report, Serial 0570, of 26 December 1941.

Japanese Type A midget submarine annotated photograph of the submarine's midships section, taken after salvage and disassembly by U.S. forces, December 1941. HA-19 had grounded on 7 December 1941, following unsuccessful attempts to enter Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack. Copied in 1980 from Commander Submarine Squadron Four report, Serial 0570, of 26 December 1941.

The disassembled midget submarine HA-19 at Pearl Harbor, December 1941.

Museum display model of a Type A midget submarine.

Type A midget submarine.

Map of Oahu showing Pearl Harbor and other installations and cities, operating areas of Japanese submarines assigned to the Pearl Harbor attack, and the location of Midgets A, B, C and D were found.

Early on the morning of 7 December at least one Japanese midget submarine was reconnoitering inside Pearl Harbor, having slipped past the anti-submarine net. After making a complete circuit of Ford Island the submarine, Ha-19, left the harbor and later ran aground on the beach where it was captured intact.

Japanese Type A midget submarine aground on an eastern Oahu beach, following attempts to enter Pearl Harbor during the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack. The photograph was taken on or shortly after 8 December 1941. Copied in 1980 from Commander Submarine Squadron Four report, Serial 0570, of 26 December 1941.

Japanese Type A midget submarine beached on Oahu, after it went aground following attempts to enter Pearl Harbor during the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack. The photograph was taken on or shortly after 8 December 1941.

Japanese Type A midget submarine on an eastern Oahu beach, after it went aground following attempts to enter Pearl Harbor during the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack. The photograph was taken on or shortly after 8 December 1941.

Japanese Type A midget submarine in the surf on an eastern Oahu beach, after it unsuccessfully attempted to enter Pearl Harbor during the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack. Photographed on or shortly after 8 December 1941.

Japanese Type A midget submarine beached in eastern Oahu after it grounded following attempts to enter Pearl Harbor during the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack. The photograph was taken on or shortly after 8 December 1941. Copied in 1980 from Commander Submarine Squadron Four report, Serial 0570, of 26 December 1941.

Salvaging a Japanese midget submarine, 1945.

Japanese Type A midget submarine annotated photograph of the submarine's bow, showing her two torpedo tubes (with noses of 45cm Type 97 torpedoes visible) and damaged anti-submarine net cutter, taken after salvage by U.S. forces, December 1941. HA-19 had grounded on 7 December 1941, following unsuccessful attempts to enter Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack. Copied in 1980 from Commander Submarine Squadron Four report, Serial 0570, of 26 December 1941.

Japanese Type A midget submarine annotated photograph of the submarine's control room, showing a control wheel and the gyro compass (which was non-functional during her last mission), taken after salvage by U.S. forces, December 1941. HA-19 had grounded on 7 December 1941, following unsuccessful attempts to enter Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack. Copied in 1980 from Commander Submarine Squadron Four report, Serial 0570, of 26 December 1941.

Japanese Type A midget submarine annotated photograph of the submarine's interior, showing the motor meter board, taken after salvage by U.S. forces, December 1941. HA-19 had grounded on 7 December 1941, following unsuccessful attempts to enter Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack. Copied in 1980 from Commander Submarine Squadron Four report, Serial 0570, of 26 December 1941.

Japanese Type A midget submarine partially hauled up on and eastern Oahu beach, during salvage by U.S. forces. It had grounded on 7 December 1941, following attempts to enter Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack, and was discovered the following day. Copied in 1980 from Commander Submarine Squadron Four report, Serial 0570, of 26 December 1941.

Japanese Type A midget submarine at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard in December 1941. This submarine had been sunk by USS Monaghan (DD-354) in Pearl Harbor during the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack and was subsequently recovered and buried in a landfill. The submarine's hull shows the effects of depth charges and ramming. A hole visible in the after part of the conning tower may be from a 5 shell. The upper background had been overpainted for censorship purposes.

Ha-19 on display at Mare Island, 10 September 1942.

Ha-19 at Mare Island on 10 September 1942.

Bow view of the business end of Ha-19 at Mare Island on 10 September 1942.

Bow view of the Japanese 2 man submarine Ha-19 at Mare Island on 10 September 1942.

Torpedo tubes aboard the Japanese 2 man submarine Ha-19 at Mare Island on 10 September 1942.

Interior view of Ha-19 looking forward at Mare Island on 10 September 1942.

Inscription written on the bow of the Ha-19 while being prepared for its subsequent bond drive says; "TOJO CIGARS INC. The bonds you buy will liquidate this corporation. Buy more, Buy now;" at Mare Island on 10 September 1942. The photo lab had fun adding the art work to the bow.

The original photo before the artwork and inscription was added by the photo lab.

Mare Island auctioned fragments of Ha-19 captured at Pearl Harbor as part of the yard's War Bond drive during Navy Day on 27 October 1942. Pictured from left to right are auctioneer Hadley, Burton H. Landensohn, who purchased $200 worth of War Bonds for an engraved operating rod, and Fred Lutz; whose $750 bought a $1000 War Bond and a two-foot Japanese battery box cover.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, seated in an automobile, while touring the Mare Island Navy Yard in 1942. With him are Vice Admiral John W. Greenslade, Commander 12th Naval District, and Rear Admiral Wilhelm L. Friedell, Commandant Mare Island Navy Yard. Secret Servicemen are on duty around the car. In the background is the Japanese midget submarine HA-19, which had been captured on 8 December 1941, immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor. During World War II, it was taken around the country on War Bond tours.

Japanese Type A midget submarine in Fredericksburg, Texas, birthplace of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, during a national War Bond tour, circa 1943. HA-19 was captured on 8 December 1941, after it unsuccessfully attempted to enter Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack on the previous day. The Hotel Nimitz is in the background. Note police cars, Boy Scouts and truck from the Bigge Drayage Co., Oakland, California.

Broadside view of the Japanese two-man submarine Ha-19 captured at Pearl Harbor, 1941, in Fredericksburg, Texas, during a national War Bond tour, circa 1943.

Ha-18 recovered by USS Current off of the Keehi lagoon in 1960.

Ha-18 recovered by USS Current off of the Keehi lagoon in 1960.

Japanese Type A Midget submarine. Photographed soon after its recovery near the entrance to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, circa late July 1960. It had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, but had apparently been unable to enter the harbor as its torpedoes had not been fired.

Photographed soon after its recovery near the entrance to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, circa late July 1960. It had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, but had apparently been unable to enter the harbor as its torpedoes had not been fired. Note bright red corrosion on the submarine's counter-rotating propellers.

Anthony B. Lippincott, boatswain's mate first class and member of the disposal team, lowers battle lamp into the interior of the sail. He found the interior to be rusty and muddy (quoted from the original caption). This midget submarine, which took part in the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, was recovered outside the harbor entrance in 1960. Photograph is dated 28 July 1960.

Probing into the Interior of the sub, Ensign Glenn Miller, disposal team officer (with flashlight in hand) and Lt(jg) James Connor, ordnance disposal team commander, check forward section of the vessel where the torpedoes are mounted. (quoted from the original caption). This midget submarine, which took part in the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, was recovered outside the harbor entrance in 1960. Photograph is dated 28 July 1960.

The sub's propellers are slightly damaged although part of the prop guard on the right side has disappeared. (quoted from the original caption). This midget submarine, which took part in the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, was recovered outside the harbor entrance in 1960. Photograph is dated 28 July 1960.

Multi-blade propeller of the Ha-19.

HA-19 at the National Museum of the Pacific War.

HA-8, Japanese midget submarine, Submarine Force Library & Museum, Groton, Connecticut.

The stern of HA-8 Japanese midget submarine (Type A No. 8).

 

USS Ward’s Attack on a Japanese Midget Submarine at Pearl Harbor

From Congressional Investigation into the Pearl Harbor Attack, Part 36 (Exhibits of the Joint Committee)

Testimony of: Captain Willlam W. Outerbridge, Commanding Officer, U.S.S. Ward Before the Hewitt Inquiry

Adm. Hewitt: State your name and rank.

Outerbridge: William W. Outerbridge, Captain, U. S. Navy.

Hewitt: You were the Commanding Officer of the Ward on the morning of 7 December 1941?

Outerbridge: Yes, sir.

Hewitt: And during the early hours of that morning, you had several actual contacts with submarines? Is that so?

Outerbridge: Several actual contacts?

Hewitt: Well, reported contacts.

Outerbridge: Yes, sir. We had one alert and one actual contact and then later, after the attack, we had several outside.

Hewitt: There has been reported and logged the conversation which you had with the Condor along about 0520 Honolulu time and later there is in evidence and report of your actual attack on the submarine. Will you give me your story of the events of the morning, beginning with the report from the Condor about 0400?

Outerbridge: That doesn’t appear on this record, but she signaled us by flashing light that she believed she had seen an object that looked like a submarine proceeding to the westward, and I believe she had just come out and was sweeping, magnetic sweep out in the channel, but she said, “The submarine is standing to the westward.”

Hewitt: What was her location?

Outerbridge: She was in the channel, sweeping with her magnetic sweeps.

Hewitt: The approach channel to Pearl Harbor?

Outerbridge: Outside of the actual channel, between the reefs, but on the approach channel to Pearl Harbor.

Hewitt: Swept channel?

Outerbridge: Swept channel, yes, and we went to General Quarters and proceeded to her position, as close as we could get to her without fouling her sweeping gear, and then we stood to the westward, slowed to ten knots, and searched. It was a sonar search. We couldn’t see anything.

Hewitt: About what time did you get that signal?

Outerbridge: We got that signal about 0358, visual signal about 0358, and we searched for about an hour and didn’t find anything; so I got in contact with her again and asked her for a verification. Then she said this is in the record here. We asked her first, “What was the approximate distance and course of the submarine that you sighted?” and she said, “the course was about what we were steering at the time 020 magnetic and about 1000 yards from the entrance apparently heading for the entrance.” Well, I knew then that we had been searching in the wrong direction. We went to westward, and, of course, there was still doubt as to whether she had actually seen a submarine because there hadn’t been any other conversation, except by flashing light with us, and I wondered whether they were sure or not; so I did ask them, “Do you have any additional information on the sub?” and they said, “No additional information,” and I then asked them, “When was the last time approximately that you saw the submarine?” and they said, “Approximate time 0350 and he was apparently heading for the entrance.” Then we thanked them for their information and asked them to notify us if they had any more information and then we just kept on searching in our area, in the restricted area outside of the buoys. That was the end of this incident for the first search.

Hewitt: You made no report of that to higher authority?

Outerbridge: No, sir, I didn’t make any report of it.

Hewitt: What was your evaluation of that?

Outerbridge: Well, at the time I thought perhaps it wasn’t a submarine, because they didn’t report it. This conversation was taken over another circuit entirely. This is not in either his log or mine. They didn’t report it and I thought if he didn’t report it, he must not think it is a submarine. It was his initial report and I thought it may not be. It may have been anything; it may have been a buoy. Since then, I don’t believe it was a buoy. I believe the Commanding Officer of the Condor saw a submarine. I don’t know where he is. I think he was killed, killed in action. But at that time I didn’t know whether or not it was a submarine.

Hewitt: You say you think the Commanding Officer of the Condor was killed?

Outerbridge: I believe he was killed.

Hewitt: Do you remember his name?

Outerbridge: No, sir, I don’t know, but I met some people who told me about him.

Hewitt: Well, now about the later contact.

Outerbridge: The later contact I turned in again and was sleeping in the emergency cabin, as usual, and Lieutenant Goepner had the deck. He was a j. g. He called me and said, “Captain, come on the bridge.” The helmsman was the first one to sight this object and he saw this thing moving. It looked like a buoy to him, but they watched it and after they had watched it for a while, they decided probably it was a conning tower of a submarine, although we didn’t have anything that looked like it in our Navy, and they had never seen anything like it. I came on the bridge as fast as I could and took a look at it. I don’t know where it appeared to them at first, but at that time it appeared to me to be following the Antares in. The Antares had been reported to me and at that time I thought the Antares had been heading into the harbor. She also had a tow, towing a lighter, and it appeared to me the submarine was following astern of the tow.

Hewitt: Astern of the tow?

Outerbridge: Yes, sir. It may or may not have been. I think other people can testify it was standing in to Honolulu. To me it appeared to be following the Antares in and I thought, “She is going to follow the Antares in, whatever it is.” It was going fairly fast. I thought she was making about twelve knots. It seemed to be a little fast to me. I was convinced it was a submarine. I was convinced it couldn’t be anything else. It must be a submarine and it wasn’t anything that we had and we also had a message that any submarine operating in the restricted area not operating in the submarine areas and not escorted should be attacked. We had that message; so there was no doubt at all in my mind what to do. So, we went to General Quarters again and attacked. That was 0740-0640.

Hewitt: And you attacked and you reported, I believe that…

Outerbridge: Yes, sir, we reported.

Hewitt: Will you identify those exchanges of messages? Will you identify the messages on the radio log?

Outerbridge: Yes, sir. The Executive Officer was on the bridge at the time. We made the attack and we dropped depth charges in front of the submarine. The first report was, “We have dropped depth charges upon sub operating in defensive sea area.” I thought, “Well, now, maybe I had better be more definite,” because we did fire and if we said we fired, people would know it was on the surface, because saying it was a sub and dropping depth charges, they may have said it might have been a blackfish or a whale. So I said, “We have attacked fired upon and dropped depth charges upon submarine operating in defensive sea area,” so they would feel, well, he shot at something. We sent the message at 0653, the second one.

(The radio log of the Naval Radio Station, Bishop’s Point, Oahu, containing the conversation between the Ward and Condor and the Ward’s report of attack upon a submarine, was received and marked “Exhibit 18.”)

Hewitt: What do you feel was the effect of your attack?

Outerbridge: I think we sank the submarine.

Hewitt: What do you base that on?

Outerbridge: On the gun hit, only on the gun hit.

Hewitt: There was a gun hit on it?

Outerbridge: There was a gun hit on it, and I looked these submarines over and there is no hatch between the conning tower and the tube of the submarine, where I believe it was hit, right at the waterline, the base of the conning tower.

Hewitt: And the submarine disappeared after that?

Outerbridge: Yes, sir, it disappeared.

Hewitt: That was before you made the depth charge attack?

Outerbridge: Yes, sir, we fired at the submarine before we made the depth charge attack, and as she was going under the stern, we dropped over the depth charges.

Hewitt: Your depth charges were close to her?

Outerbridge: Yes, sir.

Hewitt: Definitely?

Outerbridge: Definitely, they were there. I didn’t claim a kill.

Hewitt: Whom were those reports addressed to?

Outerbridge: I believe it was Commander Inshore Patrol. We were working for inshore patrol, but the interpretation is here.

Hewitt: You got the calls?

Outerbridge: Yes, sir, we got the calls.

Hewitt: Do you remember what they mean?

Outerbridge: No, sir.

Hewitt: Those were the only reports of that attack you made?

Outerbridge: Yes, sir, two messages on that.

Hewitt: What was your action after the completion of that attack?

Outerbridge: Well, I saw one of these large white sampans lying to out there in the defensive area.

Hewitt: Was that against regulations?

Outerbridge: That was against standing rules. They weren’t supposed to be in the defensive area, but he was in there. So, I turned around and went after him and we chased him out towards Barber’s Point. He was going pretty fast.

Hewitt: He tried to get away from you?

Outerbridge: It appeared that way to me. He could have stopped much sooner, but he appeared to be going around Barber’s Point. When we did catch up to him, he came up waving a white flag. I thought that was funny. I thought, “We will just send for the Coast Guard.” That was what we always did when we caught a sampan in the defensive area. We sent for the Coast Guard and they were very prompt. They sent a cutter out to take him in.

Hewitt: Will you identify for the record those two messages you sent about the sampan, which are on the Bishop’s Point record?

Outerbridge: “We have intercepted a sampan into Honolulu. Please have Coast Guard send cutter to relieve us of sampan.” And, “We have intercepted sampan and escorting sampan into Honolulu. Please have cutter relieve us of sampan.” We sent that. That is a little garbled, but that looks like it.

Hewitt: What was the time of it?

Outerbridge: That was 0833 and 0835.

Hewitt: Well, then, I understand that several days later you saw a midget submarine which was recovered off Bellow’s Field. Is that correct?

Outerbridge: Yes, sir, that is correct.

Hewitt: Was the appearance of the conning tower similar to the one that you saw?

Outerbridge: Yes, sir.

Hewitt: What was the condition of that submarine off Bellow’s Field? Did it have its torpedoes?

Outerbridge: Yes, sir, it was in good condition and I went inside and there was a torpedoman I believe he was a chief torpedoman working on the torpedoes, trying to get them out without exploding them, and I saw the torpedoes inside.

Hewitt: Well, I think, that is all I had planned to ask you. I am naturally interested in any information you can provide on this Pearl Harbor attack. Is there anything that you might think would be pertinent to this investigation that you can volunteer?

Outerbridge: Well, I suppose it would be a matter of opinion, which probably wouldn’t do you much good, but I was even a little surprised at the attack which followed. I mean I had no idea that the air attack was going to follow. We brought the sampan in and we got another submarine attack. We dropped four depth charges on another submarine in the area. We got depth charges that morning and at 11 o’clock we ran out. When the attack started, we were still at General Quarters. We hadn’t secured from the attack. We were still at General Quarters and we saw the planes coming in, but not until after the bombs began to fall, because the bombs were falling on Pearl Harbor, and the Exec and I were standing on the bridge. Lieutenant Commander Dowdy was the Exec and he said, “They are making a lot of noise over there this morning, Captain.” I said, “Yes, I guess they are blasting the new road from Pearl to Honolulu.” He said, “Look at those planes. They are coming straight down.” I looked at them, and he said, “Gosh, they are having an attack over there.” I said, “They certainly are,” and that was the time the attack actually began.

Hewitt: That was about 0750?

Outerbridge: 0750, yes, sir.

Hewitt: That must have been about the time, judging from this report here, that you were engaged in bringing the sampan in.

Outerbridge: Yes, sir, we were still standing in with the sampan.

Hewitt: You mentioned just then several other submarine attacks that you had the same morning.

Outerbridge: Yes, sir.

Hewitt: That was after the ones you have already discussed. What were they?

Outerbridge: They were good metallic contacts, although I was a little surprised at them at first, before things began to pop. I didn’t think we would get so many, but we did get a lot of them. We got good metallic contacts and the only thing to do was to bomb them. They gave us a good sharp echo. We bombed them until we ran out of depth charges and went in and got some more.

Hewitt: That was in the same general area?

Outerbridge: Right in that defensive area.

Hewitt: Off the entrance to the swept channel?

Outerbridge: Yes, sir. There was another thing we saw. That was a lot of explosions along the reefs. I thought that they were explosions of torpedoes fired into the reefs. I didn’t see any other submarines the whole morning. We didn’t actually see any, but we did see a lot of explosions that looked like shallow water explosions of torpedoes.

Hewitt: What would make you think they were torpedoes rather than bombs?

Outerbridge: They were right along the coast, along the reef, and I didn’t see any planes overhead. They were inside the coast in Pearl Harbor, bombing Pearl Harbor, and I didn’t think they would all miss that far. I thought they would do better than that. They did do better than that in general.

Hewitt: Do you recall approximately how many different contacts you bombed?

Outerbridge: I think we had three or four that morning, sir.

Hewitt: After the one…

Outerbridge: In the first ten days we had eighteen contacts, day and night, but we didn’t actually see any more submarines. I heard that they were there, but we didn’t actually see any more. We don’t know what the effect of the attacks were on the submarines. There was one other one, on the 2nd of January. We were with our division, making the attack, and the ship astern of us, after I got in port, told us that she saw a submarine come up under our starboard depth charge. I hadn’t, up until then, claimed any hit for it. We had a pretty good contact. It was our turn to make the run. We made the run and kept on going, and that is what the Commanding Officer of the Allen said. That was the 2nd of January. But we didn’t actually see that from the ship.

Destroyer USS Ward opening fire at 6:45 A.M. on a two-man Japanese submarine spotted just outside the entrance to Pearl Harbor. The four-inch shell, the first shot fired in the Pacific War, just misses the conning tower of the midget sub, one of five launched by the Japanese that morning as part of their surprise attack. At 6:54 A.M., the Ward succeeded in sinking the intruder.

 

A Shot for Posterity, the USS Ward's number three gun and its crew—cited for firing the first shot the day of Japan's raid on Hawaii. Operating as part of the inshore patrol early in the morning of December 7, 1941, this destroyer group spotted a submarine outside Pearl Harbor, opened fire and sank her. Crew members are R.H. Knapp - BM2c - Gun Captain, C.W. Fenton - Sea1c - Pointer, R.B. Nolde - Sea1c - Trainer, A.A. Domagall - Sea1c - No. 1 Loader, D.W. Gruening - Sea1c - No. 2 Loader, J.A. Paick - Sea1c - No. 3 Loader, H.P. Flanagan - Sea1c - No. 4 Loader, E.J. Bakret - GM3c - Gunners Mate, K.C.J. Lasch - Cox - Sightsetter. The gun is a 4"/50 type, mounted atop the ship's midships deckhouse, starboard side.

4"/50 Mount No. 3 from the Ward that is now a monument on the Capitol grounds in St. Paul, MN. This is the Mount that sank the Japanese midget sub attempting to enter Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941.

USS Chew (DD-106) and USS Ward (DD-139) at Hilo Sugar Docks, Territory of Hawaii, 22 July 1941.

Lieutenant Commander William W. Outerbridge, USN, who commanded USS Ward (DD-139) on morning of 7 December 1941. View taken circa early 1942.