Shortly after
the Armistice of World War I in 1918, the submarines R-15 to R-20 were
ordered to the Hawaiian Area, arriving early in 1919 to establish the Submarine
Base at Pearl Harbor. Previous to this, there had been other submarines
operating in the Hawaiian Area, for in 1912 four "F" class submarines
operated from the site of the old Naval Station, Pier 5, Honolulu.
Their activities, however, were concluded
when the F-4 sank off Honolulu. After this tragedy in 1915,
the remaining "F" boats were towed back to the mainland. Shortly
after these submarines left, four "K" type submarines and the Alert arrived,
staying until after World War I started.
The R-11 to R-20 were
ordered to Pearl Harbor in 1920 and the R-1 to R-10 followed
in 1923. When the "R" boats, under the Divisional Command of
Lieutenant Commander F.X. Gygax, arrived at Pearl Harbor, he found only one
finger pier at the present site of the Pearl Harbor Submarine Base, and to this
the R-18 was secured. This was the first submarine to moor at
today's most modern and most complete Pacific submarine home activity.
The area chosen in 1919 for a submarine
base was covered with cactus plants and algaroba trees, which had to be cut
down before any buildings could be erected. When the land along the waterfront
had been cleared, concrete slabs were poured into the region to support
portable structures which had been obtained by Commander Chester W. Nimitz (now
Fleet Admiral Nimitz), who was the first Commanding Officer of the Pearl Harbor
Submarine Base. These structures consisted of old aviation cantonment buildings
that had seen service in France. Meanwhile, tents had been pitched, and the
base personnel used these meager furnishings for their living and messing
needs. Two months after the arrival of the first submarine division, the base
had a temporary mess hall; administration building; machine, carpenter,
electric, gyro-compass, optical and battery overhaul shops. For general stores,
a floating barge was procured from the Navy Yard, housed over and pressed into
service.
In 1923, the first permanent building,
still in use as a battery overhaul shop, was constructed with approximately 85%
of the work being done by submarine base personnel. Living quarters for submarine
personnel were improvised by utilizing the cruiser Chicago, later
renamed the Alton, which was brought in and moored where the
present day base's largest pier, S1, now stands. A causeway was built out to
her, and the cruiser's topside was housed over to provide bunk rooms for
submarine officers, while the lower deck was given to the officers and men
attached to the base. Also, in 1920, another finger pier was constructed.
In the years that followed, peace time
years, the temporary buildings were gradually torn down and replaced by larger
and more commodious structures, some of which provided excellent usage during
World War II. In 1925, the base had approximately 25 buildings erected and the
Navy had already begun to reclaim marsh and swamp land in order that further
expansion could be possible. During the same period, two more finger piers were
built. In 1928, the largest building on the present day site, the main
"U" shaped barracks building, was spacious enough to accommodate all
submarine and base personnel and, as late as 1940, was still utilized for this
purpose, other barracks not being necessary until shortly before hostilities
began in 1941. By 1933, berths 10 to 14 on a long quay wall had been completed
and a thirty ton crane had been constructed on the outboard end of finger pier
number four. Also by this year, the submarine rescue and training tank, the
enlisted men's pool, the theater (built entirely by submarine base personnel),
and the main repair buildings had been completed.
The Administration Building, housing the
base torpedo shop in the main deck of one wing and the Supply Department on
both decks of the other wing had been completed. Above the torpedo shop, was
located the Base Commanding Officer's and Executive officer's offices. Shortly
after the completion of this building, an officer's quarters was built close to
the Administration Building. Since there was now housing and messing facilities
for both officers and enlisted men, the Alton was no longer needed.
From 1935 until the outbreak of
hostilities, many other buildings were added to the base proper, the majority
of them small in size and nature. In addition, with the planting of coconut
trees, palms and other shrubberies, the Submarine Base became not only a place
military in nature, but also pleasant in appearance.
Fortunately for America, and conversely,
unfortunately for Japan, the enemy neglected to strike at Pearl Harbor
Submarine Base on 7 December 1941. Quite possibly this could have been by
design since the Japs conceivably paid little attention to the comparatively
small submarine force the United States had operating in the Pacific, the
majority of which, incidentally, was operating in the Far East.
For whatever reason, no damage was done to
the base and for this oversight the Japs were to pay dearly since it was the
submarine force in the Pacific that, almost alone, carried the war into
the enemy's waters in the first two years of the war, a feat that would have
been improbable, if not impossible, had it not been for the excellent repair and
supply facilities afforded by the Pearl harbor Submarine Base before other
advanced bases could be established.
On 30 June 1940, there were 359 enlisted
men stationed at the Submarine Base with this number slowly increasing to 700
on 15 August 1941 and to 1,081 in July 1942. Rapid expansion of the base
reached its peak in July 1944, when there were 6,633 enlisted men serving on
the Submarine Base proper. These were the men for whom there was no glory but
who, nevertheless, worked excessive hours no matter what their job in order
that our submersibles might roam the Pacific in excellent fighting condition.
As an indication of the tremendous amount
of work accomplished by the Pearl Harbor base, four hundred submarines were
overhauled, refitted, or repaired during the period from May 1944 until July
1945. (This should not be construed as 400 individual submarines, but rather as
a certain number of subs overhauled numerous times). This meant four hundred
submarines prowling the seas, destroying Japanese shipping relentlessly through
the sole medium of repair and supply furnished by one base. Truly, the enemy
missed a military objective by blindly overlooking the Submarine Base on the
day of the "blitz".
It is not a debatable question as to which
departmental function was the most important at the Submarine Base, since
without one the other would have been negligible. To all go the credit for the
tremendous successes achieved as the result of basing submarines at
Pearl.
Under the Supply Department during a three
month period ending 1 September 1944, the Commissary Department furnished
$410,000 worth of provisions aboard roving submarines; and for the entire war,
the value of provision stowed aboard operating subs totaled the tremendous sum
of $3,680,296, a good reason as to why submarine personnel are the best fed men
in the world. The Disbursing officer paid $33,363,305.23 in salaries to
submarine personnel in the last two and a half years of the war in 1,144
individual pay days to submarine crews. Clothing and Small Stores, another
function of the Supply Department, issued $916,519 worth of clothing to
submarine personnel in the last year and a half of the war. Supply was, without
a doubt, a major issue of the war.
The Ordnance Department, from the outbreak
of war until the cessation of hostilities, overhauled 15,644 torpedoes of which
5,185 were fired by combat submarines with 1,860 torpedoes resulting in
successful hits. A remarkable record and one which can well be shared by the
shore based personnel of the Pearl Harbor Submarine Base.
The Engineering and Repair Department
consisting of technicians and specialists of every description commenced their
work on submarines days before the boat ever berthed at the Base. For as much
as a week prior to each submarine's arrival, plans were drawn up for the work
to be accomplished on the boat. On the day of arrival, the submarine furnished
the E&R department a complete list of "ailments" and on the
following day an arrival conference between Base officers and Ships' officers
was held. At this time, a detailed plan of repair action was made while, even
at that moment, work crews from the various shops were ripping apart faulty
equipment for overhaul and repair. In the short two week period that the
submarine remained at the Base, every department observed every derangement,
large or small, and made corrections and repairs as necessary or else replaced
faulty equipment. Engineering was a factor of no small importance in the
winning of the war because submarines, returning from patrol, ofttimes had
almost unrepairable damage. In the month of September 1944 alone, the Engineering
and Repair Department refitted twelve submarines and made voyage repairs to
twenty-five others, a feat not only never before performed but not even dreamed
of in the past.
The Medical Department achieved miracles in
the treatment and prevention of ills and diseases. Upon the completion of a war
patrol, each submarine crew was thoroughly examined by especially trained and
unusually competent Medical, Dental and Psychiatric Officers. Should it develop
that a man had an ailment, no matter how trivial, he was replaced, treated and,
in most cases, restored to duty on board operating submarines. Many a story has
been told of medical corpsmen on submarines who have performed such feats as
appendectomies and the diagnosis of diseases like spinal meningitis while on a
combat war patrol. Many of these men were trained and gathered experience at a
well-equipped and efficient Dispensary of the Submarine Base at Pearl Harbor.
In addition, it was the Base Medical Department's responsibility that all
medicinal supplies and drugs were furnished each submarine prior to its
departure on war patrol.
And there were other departments, the First
Lieutenant's men worked day and night loading or unloading submarines,
maintaining buildings and equipment, patrolling the base during the war's most
security conscious moments, and furnishing transportation for men and
equipment.
There was the Rest and Recuperation Annex
to the Submarine Base, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel with its 425 rooms and housing
capacity of 935 guests. When this entire space was not required by the
Submarine Force, it was made available to aviation activities, small craft
returning from advance bases, forward advance Marine units, and in some
isolated cases, to battleships and cruisers.
Then there was the Chaplain and his
assistants who offered counsel and guidance to war-weary and nerve-torn
veterans of the war patrols. There was the Ship's Service Department which
offered everything necessary to life and comfort from phonograph records to the
latest books and novelties.
The Pearl Harbor Submarine Base was not a
base erected during the heat of battle. Its permanent foundations were laid
down in 1919 and through the years of peace it became stronger and healthier.
At the outbreak of hostilities, it was incapable of accommodating the ultimate
number of submarines that were to operate in the Pacific, but never once did
this Base lag in its accomplishments of sundry duties. At times, the output of
work far exceeded that expected or thought of, but always the submarines based
temporarily at Pearl Harbor between moments of combat had their slightest needs
fulfilled.
Upon the establishment of the Submarine
Base at Pearl Harbor, Commander C.W. Nimitz was the Commanding Officer, a duty
he held until 1922. He was succeeded in command by the following officers:
Commander L.F. Welch 1922-1925
Commander F.C. Martin 1925-1928
Captain A. Bronson 1928-1929
Captain W.K. Wortman 1929-1930
In 1930, Submarine Squadron FOUR commenced
operating in the Hawaiian Area, and the two commands were united with the
following officers pursuing duties as Commander, Submarine Squadron FOUR and
Commanding Officer, U.S. Submarine Base, Pearl Harbor, T.H.:
Captain W.K. Wortman 1930-1932
Captain H.W. Osterhas 1932-1934
Captain R.A. Kock 1934-1936
Captain R.S. Culp 1936-1938
Captain F.W. Scanland 1938-1940
Captain W.R. Carter 1940-1941
Captain F.A. Daubin 1941-1942
Captain R.H. English March 1942-May 1942
Captain J.H. Brown, Jr. May 1942-January 1943
On 13 January 1943, the two commands were
separated, due to the tremendous work load required of each command by war time
operations. As a result, Captain C.D. Edmunds relieved Captain J.H. Brown, Jr.,
as Commanding Officer of the Submarine Base, with Captain Brown retaining the
command of SubRon FOUR. In turn, Captain Edmunds was relieved by Captain C.E.
Aldrich, who served in that capacity from September 1943 until October 1944,
when he was relieved by Captain E.R. Swinburne, who remained in command of the
base until after the cessation of hostilities. However, the Commanding Officer
of the Submarine Base continued to come under the Squadron Commander until, in
October 1945, with the reorganization of the submarine force, he was placed
directly under ComSubPac.
