Submarine force was there when we needed them most

At 7:48 Hawaii time (12:48) Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, December 7, 1941, three hundred fifty attack aircraft (high level bombers, dive bombers and escort fighters) of the Japanese Navy Fleet Air Arm, staged a preemptive surprise attack on the U. S. Navy Pacific Fleet.

They were moored at Ford Island, Peal Harbor, Hawaii. With all of this carnage, there was a hopeful sign.

Commander-In-Chief, Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester Nimitz observed the Japanese, while scoring an incredible tactical victory made four strategic blunders.

Among them was they failed to attack and destroy the U. S. Naval Submarine Base adjacent to the Naval Shipyard.

Consequently, the only official U.S. Naval fighting forces to take the fight to the Japanese on December 8, 1941 were three U.S. carriers that were at sea supporting their battle groups and 62 submarines of the U. S. Submarine Force.

From December 8, 1941, until the end of hostilities on August 16, 1945, the U. S. Submarine Force, comprising less than two percent of the total manpower and material assets of the U. S. Navy, waged the most successful under sea warfare campaign in history.

U. S. subs sank more than 30 percent of the imperial Japanese navy, and, just as importantly, virtually destroyed the Japanese merchant marine fleet.

The submarines sank 2,400 ships, sending 4.9 million tons of critical supplies, oil and other war materials to the bottom of the sea.

The cost of this outstanding victory was high, Fifty-two boats and one out of four submarine sailors (3,507) did not return and are still honored by the submarine community as being on Eternal patrol.

Serving their Supreme Commander, it was the highest loss ration of any U. S. military unit in World War II.

When President F. D. Roosevelt was told about the success of U. S. Submarines, he said, “I can only echo the words of Winston Churchill. ‘Never have so many owed so much to so few.’”