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At 12.20 p.m. on August 28, 2002, the Pisces IV and Pisces V, two deep diving submersibles operated by the Hawai‘i Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL), found the Japanese midget submarine which was the first vessel sunk in the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 1941. HURL is one of six national laboratories comprising NOAA's National Undersea Research Program. It is located at the University of Hawai‘i's School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology. The sunken midget sub was located during the last of a series of test and training dives conducted annually in the military debris fields off Pearl Harbor. HURL is now undertaking its regular four to five month dive season of scientific and engineering dives focusing on fisheries enhancement , coral reef habitats, undersea volcanism, landslide monitoring, acoustic identification of fish and their habitats and other engineering and oceanographic studies.
This midget sub find has been described as the most significant modern marine archeological find ever in the Pacific, second only to the finding of the Titanic in the Atlantic. The Japanese midget sub was one of five attached to five I-class mother submarines and brought from Japan to be launched 5-6 hours before the aerial attack, within a few miles of Pearl Harbor. Each had a crew of two. The subs were battery powered , 78 feet long , 6 feet in diameter and weighed 46 tons. They carried two torpedoes and a scuttling charge to avoid capture. Although experimental in design, they were very advanced for the time. For short periods, they could run at 20 knots. These midget submarines were completed only months before the attack allowing little time for the crews to train. All of the five submarines comprising the advanced attack force were sunk or captured. The type A midget submarines had a series of basic design problems including trim and ballast control and problems both with battery life and battery monitoring. Later redesign, as five man midget submarines of the Koryu class, addressed but did not solve these problems. The Japanese midget submarines although believed at the time to be a potent secret weapon, in actual fact, were never highly effective. So far four of the five original midget submarines attacking Pearl Harbor have been found.
History
The discovery of the midget submarine confirms the account radioed to naval command at Pearl Harbor at 6:45 am on Dec. 7, 1941 . A Japanese submarine was shot through the conning tower and then depth charged trying to enter Pearl Harbor behind the USS Antares. The crew of the attacking USS Ward , an older style four stack destroyer, saw the midget sub lifted out of the water by depth charges after firing the fatal shot from its four inch side gun. The Ward's crew were Naval reservists from St. Paul, Minnesota. Unfortunately, Naval command in Pearl Harbor ignored the Ward's report and the aerial attack began at 8 am. At the Pearl Harbor investigation, some question was made of the accuracy of the Ward's report. The Ward is now vindicated. The Ward itself was later targeted by the Japanese and sunk in a kamikaze attack, ironically on Dec. 7, 1944, in the Philippines.
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On 20 December 1941, 25 miles west of Cape Mendocino, the Imperial Japanese Navy's I-17 shells and then fires two torpedoes at the 6, 912-ton Socony-Vacuum oil company tanker EMIDIO returning empty from Seattle to San Francisco. A patrolling PBY "Catalina" flying boat of Patrol Squadron (VP) 44 spots the EMIDIO dead in the water with people going over the sides and getting into lifeboats. The PBY also spots the I-17 on the surface and starts an attack. As depth charges are dropped, Commander Nishino Kozo dives and makes his escape. The EMIDIO, hit in the stern, does not sink. She is finally run aground off Crescent City, California, 85 miles north of where she was torpedoed. The Coast Guard Cutter SHAWNEE rescues 31 survivors.
That same day, Headquarters, Combined Fleet's Intelligence Bureau learns of the pending arrival of the battleships USS MISSISSIPPI, NEW MEXICO and the IDAHO on the West Coast. Vice Admiral Shimizu orders the I-17 along with the I-9 and the I-25 to intercept the battleships that are expected to arrive at Los Angeles on 25 December.
The July 1998 issue of World War II Magazine printed a story titled, West Coast War Zone by Donald J. Young. The following is an extract of that article dealing with this attack:
On December 20, two days after his attack on Samoa, Captain Nishino got his second chance at an American merchantman. Around 1:30 that afternoon, the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company's tanker Emidio, returning empty from Seattle to San Francisco, was about 20 miles off Cape Mendocino when a report came down to the captain that a sub had been sighted about a quarter of a mile off the stern and was closing.
Captain Clark Farrow, after first attempting to outrun the enemy raider, ordered "full speed, and dumped ballast, but...had no chance to escape. We were rapidly overtaken. The sub was making 20 knots. I tried to get behind her but [the sub] reversed course and kept after us."
Realizing the situation was hopeless, Farrow ordered his radio operator, W.S. Foote, to send an SOS, which he did, accompanied by the words, "Under attack by enemy sub." No sooner had the message been tapped out over the wireless than I-17 opened up with its deck gun, the first shot carrying away the radio antenna. Two more shots from the sub struck Emidio, one of which destroyed one of the lifeboats hanging in its davits on deck.
Farrow stopped the engines and hoisted a white flag, then ordered the crew to take to the lifeboats. "Three of the crew--R.W. Pennington, Fred Potts and Stuart McGillivray--were attempting to launch one of the boats when a shell struck it, spilling them into the water," said one of the crewmen later. "Other lifeboats were put over the side to search for the three missing men, but we couldn't find them."
With the exception of four men still on board and the three lost over the side, the remaining members of the 36-man crew quickly rowed away from the imperiled ship. About 10 minutes later, after a parting shot in the direction of the lifeboats, I-17 abruptly submerged. A couple of minutes later the reason for its sudden disappearance became apparent. "It may have been 10 or 15 minutes after the SOS when two U.S. bombers came roaring overhead from the coast," said Farrow later. "To us in the lifeboats it was a welcome sight. One of the two planes, circling where the sub had gone down, dropped a depth charge. We couldn't tell if it hit it or not."
The depth charge did not damage the sub. On board I-17, in fact, Captain Nishino had decided to risk attack from the American planes in order to take one torpedo shot at the abandoned tanker.
"We were still looking at where the sub went down," continued Farrow, "when we saw its periscope slowly push up above the surface. While still partially submerged it fired a torpedo from 200 yards. We could see the trail as it sped straight for the ship. It struck with a loud explosion."
On board Emidio, radioman Foote, who had quickly jury-rigged another antenna, was just preparing to send a second SOS when the torpedo hit. Undaunted by the blast, the dutiful wireless operator tapped out his SOS, added the words "Torpedoed in the stern," then calmly made his way to the main deck and jumped overboard.
The other men, oiler B.F. Moler, fireman Kenneth Kimes and 3rd engineer R.A. Winters--who had either ignored the order to abandon ship or were unaware of it--were still at their stations in the engine room when the torpedo struck. Astoundingly, Moler saw it penetrate the engine room bulkhead and pass so close to him that, as he told an examining medical officer the next day at the Eureka naval section base, "I could have reached out and touched it. It exploded on the other side of the engine room and killed Kimes and Winters outright." Despite three broken ribs and a punctured lung, Moler "somehow swam and climbed up to the upper deck and jumped overboard." Both Moler and Foote were picked up by the lifeboats.
"Back came the planes as the sub sank out of sight again," continued Farrow. "One of them dropped another depth charge. There was a big blast and plenty of smoke. That may have hit her, we figured, for we didn't see her again." Once again, however, the sub escaped damage. On February 23, 1942, I-17 would shell the Ellwood Oil Company refinery, 10 miles north of Santa Barbara--the first enemy shells to land on the continental United States in World War II.
Despite the torpedo hit, Emidio did not sink. Several days later, in fact, she ran aground on a pile of rocks off Crescent City, Calif., an amazing 85 miles north of where she had been torpedoed. The 31 survivors of the stricken ship rowed their lifeboats for 16 hours and 20 miles through a driving rainstorm until they were picked up by a Coast Guard lightship a few miles off Humbolt Bay.
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All schools conducted air raid drills and alerts. America was not actually attacked, but everyone had seen newsreels of Japanese bombing raids on Chimese cities (especially Shangahi) and German bombing of European cities (Warsaw, Rotterdam, London, and other English cities). If the War had lasted longer, the Germans would have also targeted American cities. At school children line-up and dutifully followed their teacher into the hallway and sat down against the wall. Often mothers volunteered to help at school as School Defense Aids (SDAs). Some parents would also pratice air raid drills at home. Families would hide underneath kitchen or diningroom tables. The Government advised each family to have an emergency supplies for possible air raids. These supplies included blankets, candles, matches, canned foods and water. After the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, there was great fear in California of a followup air raid along the west coast. The lights from east coast cities proved very iseful in silohuetting ships for German U-boats. Strict black out regulations were introduced. Children often helped their families to inspect the blackout curtains to make sure that they were properly in place each night.
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December 7, 1941 with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and its military facilities the world fabric, as we knew it came apart at the seams overnight. Barely 20 years passed since WWI came to a close. Sept. 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland and destroyed its Air Force in a few days. For two long years England’s young pilots had been flying combat against Germany’s bombers and fighters.
Upon hearing radio reports and seeing newspaper headlines thousands of men reported to Army recruiting offices to sign up. The call for experienced fliers went out but it was a call left unanswered with respect to immediate mobilization of pilots in numbers. Post-Depression America in 1939-1940 had a pitifully small and woefully under equipped Air Corps consisting of antiquated aircraft like the Stearman and Brewster Buffalo biplanes and few uniformed instructors. Airfields in use at the time were small and few USAAF facilities were initially earmarked or built for mass pilot training. Another problem became glaringly apparent after a few months of aerial combat. US pilots were up against the Axis' best trained and most experienced pilots. These deficiencies were about to change in short order.
The Western Technical Training Command was established for training of aircrew and ground mechanics to order to fly and service B-17s and other aircraft. Overnight the small towns of Phoenix, Yuma and Kingman, AZ became centers for training Allied airmen owing to excellent flying weather and interior security. Luke Field and Falcon Army Air Field in Phoenix were a mecca for US Aviation Cadets. Under Gen. Hap Arnold and Jimmy Doolittle the new Army Air Force took shape. Recognizing the need for combat skills and tight bomber organization experienced British and Canadian fliers advised and assisted the fledgling Army Air Force in getting airborne.
From Civilian to Qualified Pilot
The typical WWII pilot had limited or no experience with aircraft prior to his ETO service. Depending on the nature of being selected as Pilot [AVCAD] Bombardier, or Navigator, the service schools generally ran eight - ten weeks. Between schools, transfers and reporting for duty the normal bomber pilot evolution was approximately eight months in duration. Some cadet candidates with civil flight experience came from private colleges or universities and progressed through the system with many becoming senior officers and base unit commanders at a young age. One of the 351st BG Squadron Commanders, Col. Hatcher, was 26 yrs. old.
With the end of the war in sight, the USAAF cadet-training pipeline began filling up and then slowed to a crawl. Most flight schools and academies ceased training operations within a year with the last airmen graduating in December 1944.
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