Fremantle submarine base

At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 29 US submarines were based at Naval Base Manila, Philippines, as part of the United States Asiatic Fleet, which were attacked by the Japanese on 10 December 1941. One of those, the USS Sealion (SS-195), was sunk while the remainder escaped to sea. From the Philippines, some of these submarines escaped to the Dutch East Indies, from where they operated in the following two months. When the bases at Surabaya and Tjilatjap were also overrun by the Japanese, these submarines escaped further. Initially, Darwins' Naval Base Darwin was considered as a base but the facilities there were insufficient and within striking range of land-based Japanese aircraft.[7]

Consequently, Fremantle, which was well out of reach of land-based Japanese aircraft, became the main base of the US submarines,[7] with the first ten arriving by 10 March 1942.[8] Apart from the US submarines, three Dutch submarines also arrived in Fremantle at the time, while four others of the Dutch submarines had escaped to Ceylon.[9] Fremantle provided a safe, large harbour but had the disadvantage of being far away from the submarines' patrol areas and being difficult to reinforce should a Japanese attack take place.[7] Despite this remoteness, experience taught the US command to be cautious and to split the submarines in Fremantle and send five of them and a submarine tender, the USS Holland (AS-3), even further south on 15 March, now to Albany, where Holland stayed for the next four months.[10]

The establishment of the base was directly related to what was known as the Japanese Scare of March 1942, the most significant event for Western Australia being the attack on Broome.[11][12]

The base later became a major US Navy facility, with submarines based there attacking Japanese shipping throughout South East Asia. It involved mainly submarines from the US navy, but also included submarines from other forces.[7][13]

Following the retreat from the Philippines, Captain John E. Wilkes, who had supervised the retreat, became the first commander of the submarines based at Fremantle, a role he held from March to May 1942. Under Wilkes, the submarines heading out on patrol from Fremantle sank only a modest amount of tonnage, but this was largely due to the fact that the boats were utilised for special missions rather than outright patrols, specifically, supplying and rescuing troops in the Philippines.[14]

Wilkes was replaced by Captain Charles A. Lockwood on 22 May 1942, who held the position until December that year. Lockwood's first task was to raise the morale of the submariners under his command, which he perceived as being very low because of the constant retreat they had experienced until then.[15] Lockwood's other tasks were to replace the aging S-boat submarines in his command with newer models and to deal with reliability issues with the Mark 14 torpedoes used, which were found to run deeper than set in trials ordered by him, causing them to miss their targets.[16]

Altogether, 26 US submarines carried out 61 patrols from Fremantle during 1942, sinking 40 enemy ships in the process.[17]

In January 1943, Lockwood became the head of submarines in the Pacific, with Captain Allan R. McCann acting as his replacement until Rear Admiral Ralph Waldo Christie took over permanently a month later.[18]

The first half of 1943 brought only limited success for the submarines based at Fremantle. The number of patrols per month remained low, at four. With the low number of patrols, the number of sunken enemy ships was also low, at a confirmed total of 19 with a tonnage of 87,350. Worse, with the loss of USS Grenadier (SS-210) which had to be abandoned by its crew after being damaged, the base also lost its first submarine. Attempts to establish a base further north, at Exmouth, to cut the necessary travel time to the patrol areas for the boats by two days each way, also failed because of unsuitable conditions and a lack of infrastructure there.[19]

The second half of the year saw a turnaround of events for the Fremantle submariners. All up, 32 patrols were conducted during the six months, sinking 47 enemy ships with a tonnage in excess of 200,000, more than doubling the success rate of the previous six months.[20] Having previously gone twelve months without a submarine loss, the second half of 1943 saw the disappearance of USS Grayling (SS-209), only three month after Grenadier but, unlike the latter, there were no survivors of Grayling.[21]

Like in March 1942, two years later, in March 1944, Western Australia was once more beset by fears of a Japanese attack. Unlike in 1942, when a potential Japanese invasion was the main concern, this time a naval attack was feared. As a consequence, two of the submarine tenders were relocated south to Albany, submarine crews were recalled from leave and the boats send out to form a protective cordon for the port. Aircraft and ground forces were mobilised as well but the scare passed within two weeks and operations quickly returned to normal.[22]

Samuel David Dealey (left), commander of the USS Harder (SS-257), a boat successful in six patrols until sunk by the Japanese with all hands lost in August 1944

The first half of 1944 saw another increase in patrols, number of ships and tonnage sunk, despite the fact that March, because of the fears of attack, saw only tow patrols go out. The number of submarine patrols from Fremantle was increased to an average of nine and 75 enemy ships were sunk in the period, with a tonnage of almost 320,000. April 1944 saw the best monthly total so far, accounting for almost a third of the six month total.[23]

After no submarine losses from Fremantle for almost a year, July and August saw the loss of three submarines in quick succession, USS Robalo (SS-273), USS Flier (SS-250) and USS Harder (SS-257). Harder was lost without survivors while four of the crew of Robalo may have survived the initial sinking, but not captivity. Of the crew of Flier, at least thirteen survived the initial sinking but only eight of those made it ashore. Uniquely, these eight were rescued and returned to Australia without ever falling into Japanese hands, being helped by Filipino Guerilla fighters and picked up by another US submarine.[24]

The second half of 1944 saw the arrival of British submarines at Fremantle, which previously had been engaged in the Mediterranean, then moved to Ceylon and, finally, to Western Australia. The first to arrive was HMS Porpoise, on 10 August, followed by the depot ship HMS Maidstone in early September while the eleven submarines attached to the ship first carried out patrols in the Strait of Malacca before arriving at Fremantle as well. It was the first time that Royal Navy ships were based in Western Australia, with the contingent also including two Dutch submarines.[25] While the new base was very popular with the British submariners, offering superior opportunities for recreation between patrols, in comparison to Ceylon,[26] the remote location meant the submarine patrols were longer than the previous short ones from the island. With 52 days on one patrol from Fremantle, HMS Tantalus set a new record for the longest patrol of a British submarine during the war so far from October to December 1944.[27]

Commemorative plaque for HMS Porpoise and Operation Rimau in Rockingham, Western Australia

British submarines, smaller than their American counterparts, were predominantly used in shallower water, and against smaller crafts, which they attacked with their deck gun rather than torpedoes. This approach carried a number of risks, it being harder for a submarine to hide in shallow water and the gun crew being exposed to enemy defensive fire.[28]

British submarines based in Fremantle were also heavily involved in special operations. Porpoise became the first British submarine to go on patrol from Fremantle in September 1944 and was selected, because of its size, to carry Western Australia-trained members of the Z Special Unit on the unsuccessful Operation Rimau.[29]

The second half of 1944 proved to be the pinnacle of the war efforts of the US submariners based in Fremantle. In 83 patrols, the boats sank 105 enemy ships at a combined tonnage of 445,000.[30] Admiral Christie, in charge of the Fremantle submarines since 1943 and overall commander of all US submarines in Australia for a brief period in November and December 1944, was informed of his upcoming replacement soon after. Christie was most likely replaced because of his insistence of having the late Samuel David Dealey, commander of Harder, decorated with the Medal of Honor, something he did succeed in once back in the US. His replacement, Rear Admiral James Fife, took over on Christmas Day 1944.[31]

The first two month of 1945 saw a continuation of the success rates of 1944 for the Fremantle-based submarines, sinking 27 enemy ships with a total tonnage of 77,000. The following six months, until the end of the war, this dropped off however, with exactly the same number of confirmed sinkings in the final half a year of the war for submarines from Fremantle, the number of larger enemy targets sharply dropping off during the final stage of the war. This figure does however not include craft under a tonnage of 500, which the Joint Army–Navy Assessment Committee did not count in this figure.[32] Smaller crafts of that size or below were often sunk with deck guns rather than torpedoes.[33] There had been some reluctance to attack smaller crafts earlier in the war but, in May 1944, the British Admiralty, allowed the sinking of such vessels in the Far East.[34] British submarines consequently sank 300 such craft in 1944 and another 400 in 1945. The US submarines only accounted for 200 such vessels in 1944 but tripled this figure in 1945.[33]

With the reconquest of the Philippines, US submarines returned to bases there. Subic Bay was first used in February and James Fife relocated his headquarters there in May 1945. Fremantle was still used as a base while Subic Bay, with its very basic facilities, was not a popular location for British and American submariners.[35]

Dutch submarine HNLMS O 19, operating from Fremantle, was lost in July 1945, when it struck a reef while on its way to Subic Bay. The crew was able to be rescued by USS Cod (SS-224), which had to destroy O 19 to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.[36] The last of the Fremantle-based submarines to be lost during the war was the USS Bullhead (SS-332), sunk on 6 August 1945, the same day an atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima.[37] With the end of World War II, US submarines soon left Fremantle, the last one on 31 August 1945, while British submarines remained in Australia for the time being.[38]

From 1942 to 1945, submarines based at Fremantle sank 377 ships, 340 of those sunk by American boats, this figure not including small crafts. The combined tonnage of these 377 ships was 1,519,322 tons. The Japanese government and its leaders at the time ranked the destruction of the Japanese merchant navy through submarine warfare as one of the root causes for the country's defeat.[39] On the US side, 22 percent of all submariners on patrol during the war lost their lives,[40] and only eight of the 43 US submarines lost during the Pacific War had survivors.[39]

• Sturma, Michael (15 September 2015), Fremantle's Submarines – How Allied Submariners and Western Australians Helped Win the War in the Pacific, Naval Institute Press (published 2015), ISBN 978-1-61251-861-9