Читать книгу The USS Flier - Michael Sturma - Страница 9

A New Boat

John Crowley's reward for his perseverance with the S-28 was command of the brand-new fleet submarine the USS Flier (SS-250). After being replaced on the S-28 in March 1943, Crowley attended the Prospective Commanding Officer School at New London, Connecticut. All officers receiving their first command or a newly constructed ship were required to take a four-week course of lectures and practical training. With its focus on attack techniques and rigorous exercises at sea, the course would later be called the “Command Class in Attack Technique.”¹

Beginning in July 1943 Crowley was involved in fitting out the Flier at Groton, Connecticut. The Flier’s keel had been laid at the Electric Boat Company in Groton many months earlier, on 30 October 1942. Originally known as the Electric Storage Battery Company, Electric Boat had obtained patents in 1897 for the first submarine capable of recharging its own batteries while at sea. From that point on, Electric Boat built the lion's share of the U.S. Navy's submarines.

The U.S. submarine-building program first picked up during World War I and continued to gain momentum thereafter. Following the fall of France in May 1940, Congress approved the building of more than seventy new submarines. By July 1941 Electric Boat had eleven ways in operation for submarine construction. By March 1943 an additional ten ways were in use at a new facility called the Victory Yard. The USS Dace (SS-247) became the first submarine built at the Victory Yard, as production reached full throttle. With the motto “Keep’em sliding,” swing shifts operated twenty-four hours a day. By the time the Flier was launched in July 1943, a new submarine was being completed at Electric Boat every other week.²

The official launching of ships served a number of purposes beyond simply carrying on a naval tradition. At times, the launching of a new craft reflected the family networks so pervasive in the navy. For instance, when Slade Cutter was assigned to the newly constructed USS Requin, his wife became the sponsor and officially christened the submarine on 1 January 1945. At other times, ship launchings provided an occasion to grease the wheels of bureaucracy and consolidate government patronage. Thus, when the USS Missouri was launched, Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri was the principal speaker at the event, and Truman's daughter, Margaret, christened the ship. The ceremony would prove prophetic: when Japan surrendered, Truman was president of the United States, and it was Truman who decided that the surrender ceremony at Tokyo Bay should be carried out on the deck of the Missouri.³

With less spectacular results, the launch of the USS Flier was similarly politicized. The secretary of the navy designated Mrs. Anna Smith Pierce from Lynchburg, South Carolina, the Flier’s sponsor. Not coincidentally, she was the daughter of Ellison DuRant Smith, a member of the Senate's Naval Affairs Committee. Smith had first been elected to the Senate as a South Carolina Democrat in 1908. He gained the nickname “Cotton Ed” for his efforts on behalf of the Southern Cotton Association. Any anticipated gains from Smith's navy patronage proved short-lived, however. He died on 17 November 1944, barely a year after the Flier was commissioned.

The launch of the Flier was, as expected, organized with military precision, and press releases were distributed to the South Carolina newspapers. Mrs. Pierce, along with her sister-in-law Mrs. Farley Smith, would depart South Carolina by train on 9 July 1943. They were scheduled to arrive at Groton on Sunday, 11 July, at 3:30 P.M., with the ceremony set to commence at 4:45 P.M. The two women would begin their return trip the same evening.

Employees of Electric Boat, along with their families, were encouraged to attend the launch ceremony at the company's Victory Yard. To reduce worker absenteeism, the ceremony included a raffle in which maintenance electricians with perfect attendance records would have the chance to win a $25 war bond.⁴

Veteran skipper Glynn R. “Donc” Donaho delivered the keynote address at the Flier’s launch. Lieutenant Commander Donaho, then on leave, had been recommended by Commander Lewis Parks to give the approximately five-minute speech. Donaho had been awarded three Navy Crosses, the navy's second highest combat decoration. He had a reputation as a “spit and polish guy” who was a stickler for military protocol. Paul Schratz, who encountered Donaho at New London, described him as “humorless and a rigid perfectionist.”⁵ Donaho's notorious inflexibility had been demonstrated in 1942 as he commanded the Flying Fish on its maiden cruise from New London to Pearl Harbor. Despite spotting a Nazi U-boat on the way to Panama, he made no attempt to close with the enemy, stating that his operation orders said nothing about attacking enemy ships while in transit. As a result, all future operation orders were altered to specifically direct an attack on any enemy craft encountered. For the Flier’s launch, Donaho chose as his text, “Building Subs that Can ‘Take It’ in Battle.” Electric Boat's personnel manager, A. D. Barnes, later assured Donaho that his talk had been “one of the finest that we have had in the plant thus far” and claimed that it would inspire “increased efforts to build better submarines.”⁶

Apart from Crowley, there were a number of other submarine commanders and their wives in attendance at the Flier’s launch ceremony. Some of these men had already gained outstanding reputations, such as Reuben Whitaker and William Stovall. Also present was Admiral Freeland A. Daubin, commander of submarines in the Atlantic.⁷ (Daubin would later assume an important, if unexpected, role following the loss of the Flier in 1944.) At precisely 5:00 P.M. the Flier’s hull slid stern-first down the Victory Yard's way number five into the Thames River. For many of those present, these moments were full of pride and anticipation. Later the hull would be towed a few miles upstream to Electric Boat's fitting-out basin, and the submarine would be completed over the next three months.

As the Flier’s prospective commanding officer, Crowley's job was to serve as both observer and adviser in the final stages of construction. He had access to the blueprints (covering a quarter of an acre), as well as other machinery and equipment specifications. It was his right to suggest modifications or to complain if he found any workmanship deficient.⁸ The fitting-out period allowed the officers and some key enlisted men to begin familiarizing themselves with their new submarine. They also had the opportunity to attend special schools covering such subjects as gunnery, sonar, and mine warfare. Most important, this time allowed the men to begin bonding with one another and forging a cohesive fighting unit. On 18 October 1943 the Flier was officially commissioned under Crowley's command.

As a fleet boat, the Flier (named after a common species of sunfish) offered a stark contrast to the old S-boats. The first of the larger and more agile fleet boats had begun appearing in 1933, and about forty were in service at the start of World War II. The Flier was almost a third longer than the S-28 and could carry nearly twice the crew. With a greater periscope depth, fleet boats were less likely to be rammed by enemy ships. Whereas the old S-boats had riveted hulls, the Flier was constructed with welded seams, a method first introduced in the early 1930s. Welded hulls were stronger and could be made from lighter materials. Welded hulls were also cheaper to build, requiring less skilled labor and no plate overlap. Most important, there were no rivets to pop out in the likely event of a depth charge attack.⁹

The Flier had ten torpedo tubes, compared with only four on the S-28. Equipped with the latest in radar, the submarine could detect ships 20,000 yards away. When used in combination with the plan position indicator, the radar system provided a two-dimensional image of surface targets in relation to the submarine. At the same time, the torpedo data computer on board allowed more sophisticated attacks. On the S-boats, angles of fire had to be preset by hand, and the submarine needed to be more or less pointed in the direction of the torpedo track. On fleet boats, in contrast, the torpedo data computer automatically adjusted gyro angles on the torpedoes and offered the best submarine fire-control system in the world.¹⁰

Before departing for a forward base, all new submarines went through a shakedown period of testing. Originally the shakedown period was six weeks, but starting in July 1943 it was reduced to thirty days. The crew then underwent two more weeks of training at Pearl Harbor. With a critical need for manpower, some crew had little preparation for submarine duty. Although young officers were occasionally sent straight to new constructions, most officers attended the Submarine School at New London. There, they spent their mornings in classes and their afternoons working in an attack or diving trainer. Some of those with technical aptitude spent their time at New London studying radar exclusively. Others were given specialized training at universities, such as electrical engineering at Texas A&M. Regardless of his background, every officer would eventually be required to go before a qualification board.¹¹

Once on board a submarine, the officers and petty officers began the process of qualifying the men under their command in what was known as the “School of the Boat.” Each man had an assigned station, but all crew members were expected to have a grasp of the equipment throughout the submarine. It was an arduous process that involved both studying plans and gaining practical experience in each compartment until the men knew the function of every pipe, valve, and piece of machinery. Eventually, when the chief of the boat deemed a sailor ready, he would undergo both an oral and a practical examination given by the officers.¹²

The Flier sailed from New London for Pearl Harbor on 20 December 1943. As the submarine approached Panama in the Caribbean Sea, it was attacked by a “friendly” merchant ship. The merchantman fired off thirteen shells before the Flier managed to disappear, still on the surface, into a rain squall.

Despite designated safety zones and recognition signals, such attacks were unnervingly common. The Flier’s executive officer, Lieutenant James Liddell, had already experienced a “friendly” attack while serving on the USS Snapper. As that submarine had traversed the Indian Ocean on its way to a patrol in the Philippines, an amphibious patrol bomber had dropped two bombs nearby. Liddell later described the damage to the Snapper as “fairly limited.”¹³

Like the Flier, a number of new submarines received their baptism of fire from Allied ships and aircraft while making their way from New London to Pearl Harbor. The USS Scorpion was fired on by a merchant ship as it cruised between Panama and Hawaii. The USS Harder was strafed and bombed by an American patrol plane as it made its way through the Caribbean a week after departing New London. The USS Dorado, similarly en route to Panama, was sunk by an American aircraft only six days before the Flier was commissioned. News of the Dorado’s loss with all hands naturally upset the Flier’s green crew.¹⁴