Scanning the surface through a periscope, an American submarine commander searches for enemy ships in Japanese waters. The enormous toll of Japanese shipping taken by the U.S. submarine service played a crucial role in the war in the Pacific. WAR UNDER THE PACIFIC TIME ® BOOKS Other Publications: LIBRARY OF HEALTH CLASSICS OF THE OLD WEST THE EPIC OF FLIGHT THE GOOD COOK THE SEAFARERS THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COLLECTIBLES THE GREAT CITIES HOME REPAIR AND IMPROVEMENT THE WORLD’S WILD PLACES THE TIME-LIFE LIBRARY OF BOATING HUMAN BEHAVIOR THE ART OF SEWING THE OLD WEST THE EMERGENCE OF MAN. THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS THE TIME-LIFE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GARDENING LIFE LIBRARY OF PHOTOGRAPHY THIS FABULOUS CENTURY FOODS OF THE WORLD TIME-LIFE LIBRARY OF AMERICA TIME-LIFE LIBRARY OF ART GREAT AGES OF MAN LIFE SCIENCE LIBRARY THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES TIME READING PROGRAM LIFE NATURE LIBRARY LIFE WORLD LIBRARY FAMILY LIBRARY: HOW THINGS WORK IN YOUR HOME THE TIME-LIFE BOOK OF THE FAMILY CAR THE TIME-LIFE FAMILY LEGAL GUIDE THE TIME-LIFE BOOK OF FAMILY FINANCE This volume is one of a series that chronicles in full the events of the Second World War. Previous books in the series include: Preludet o War Blitzkrieg The Battle of Britain The Rising Sun The Battle of the Atlantic Russia Besieged The War in the Desert The Home Front: U.S.A. China-Burma-India Island Fighting The Italian Campaign Partisans and Guerrillas The Second Front Liberation Return to the Philippines The Air War in Europe The Resistance The Battle of the Bulge The Road to Tokyo Red Army Resurgent The Nazis Across the Rhine a WORLD WAR II - TIME-LIFE BOOKS - ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA BY KEITH WHEELER AND THE EDITORS OF TIME-LIFE BOOKS WAUNDRER THE PACIFIC Time-Life Books Inc. The Author: KEITH WHEELER was a reporter for a South is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dakota newspaper, a war correspondent for the Chi- TIME INCORPORATED cago Daily Times and a writer for Life. He has pub- lished a number of novels and nonfiction volumes, Founder: Henry R. Luce 1898-1967 among them The Pacific Is My Beat and We Are the Wounded. He is the author of five books in the Time- Editor-in-Chief: Henry Anatole Grunwald Life Books Old West series: The Railroaders, The President: J. Richard Munro Townsmen, The Chroniclers, The Alaskans and The Chairman of the Board: Ralph P. Davidson Scouts, and a volume in the World War II series, The Executive Vice President: Clifford J. Grum Road to Tokyo. Chairman, Executive Committee: James R. Shepley Editorial Director: Ralph Graves Group Vice President, Books: Joan D. Manley The Consultants: COLONEL JOHN R. ELTING, USA (Ret.), Vice Chairman: Arthur Temple is a military historian and author of The Battle of Bunker’s Hill, The Battles of Saratoga and Military TIME-LIFE BOOKS INC. History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars. He edited Managing Editor: Jerry Korn Military Uniforms in America: The Era of the Ameri- Executive Editor: David Maness can Revolution, 1755-1795 and Military Uniforms in Assistant Managing Editors: Dale M. Brown America: Years of Growth, 1796-1851, and was asso- (planning), George Constable, Martin Mann, ciate editor of The West Point Atlas of American Wars. John Paul Porter, Gerry Schremp (acting) Art Director: Tom Suzuki Chiefo f Research: David L. Harrisgn HENRY H. ADAMS is a retired Navy captain who served Director of Photography: Robert G. Mason aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Owen in the major cam- Assistant Art Director: Arnold C. Holeywell paigns of the central Pacific. A native of Ann Arbor, Assistant Chiefo f Research: Carolyn L. Sackett Michigan, he graduated from the University of Michi- Assistant Director of Photography: Dolores A. Littles gan and received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University. After his service in World War II Chairman: John D. McSweeney he was a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy in An- President: Carl G. Jaeger napolis, Maryland, and was later head of the English Executive Vice Presidents: John Steven Maxwell, Department at Illinois State University. His books in- DavidJ .W alsh clude 1942: The Year That Doomed the Axis, Years of Vice Presidents: George Artandi (comptroller); Deadly Peril, Years of Expectation, Years to Victory Stephen L. Bair (legal counsel); Peter G. Barnes; and Harry Hopkins: A Biography. Nicholas Benton (public relations); John L. Canova; Beatrice T. Dobie (personnel); Carol Flaumenhaft (consumer affairs); James L. Mercer (Europe/South GEORGE W. GRIDER served in World War II on the Pacific); Herbert Sorkin (production); Paul R. Stewart U.S. submarines Wahoo, Pollack and Hawkbill before (marketing) assuming command in 1944 of the U.S.S. Flasher, which set the record for enemy tonnage sunk. A grad- WORLD WAR II uate of the U.S. Naval Academy in 1936 and a former Editorial Staff for War under the Pacific U.S. Congressman, he is the co-author of War Fish, Editor: Gerald Simons which recounts his wartime experiences. Designer/Picture Editor: Raymond Ripper Chief Researcher: Charles S. Clark Text Editors: Bobbie Conlan, Brian McGinn, Mark M. Steele Staff Writers: Peter Kaufman, Glenn Martin McNatt, John Newton, Peter Pocock Researchers: Betty Ajemian, Kristin Baker, Mary G. Burns, Patricia A. Cassidy, Jane Freundel, Lucinda Moore, Cronin Buck Sleeper, Paula York Art Assistant: Mary L. Orr Editorial Assistant: Constance Strawbridge Special Contributors Robin Richman (pictures), Champ Clark (text) Editorial Production Production Editor: Feliciano Madrid Operations Manager: Gennaro C. Esposito, Gordon E. Buck (assistant) Quality Control: Robert L. Young (director), Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data JamesJ .C ox (assistant), Daniel J. McSweeney, Wheeler, Keith Michael G. Wight (associates) War under the Pacific Art Coordinator: Anne B. Landry Copy Staff: Susan B. Galloway (chief), Victoria Lee, (World War Il; v. 23) Bibliography: p. 200 Barbara F. Quarmby, Celia Beattie Includes index. Picture Department: Alvin L. Ferrell 1.World War, 1939-1945—Pacific Ocean. Traffic: Kimberly K. Lewis 2. World War, 1939-1945—Naval operations—Submarine. 3. Submarine boats. |. Time-Life Books. Il. Title. Ill. Series. D767.W47 940.54'51 80-13222 ISBN 0-8094-3377-X ISBN 0-8094-3376-1 (lib. bdg.) ISBN 0-8094-3375-3 (retail ed.) For information about any Time-Life book, please write: Reader Information Time-Life Books 541 North Fairbanks Court Correspondents: Elisabeth Kraemer (Bonn): Margot Chicago, Illinois 60611 VSHuiasnpacgneo nozJdoa,n a sA,lD ooirLsoiu,tc hyJy o Ts.Be apVchooiunln,ge a rdLiuess lBe(ryNu seClweo lY(eoPmrarkai)ns;) ; M(aALroninnad on); ©eNlo e c1tp9ra8or0tn icoT fi mtoehri- sL mibefeoc ohkaB noimocakasyl Ibnemc e. arneAspll,r ordiuignchtcesld u drieisnn egra vneyid n.ff oorrmma toiro nb y staonry- Natanson (Rome). Valuable assistance was also age and retrieval devices or systems, without prior written per- provided by: Ed Reingold, Bureau Chief, Tokyo. The mission from the publisher, except that brief Passages may be editors also wish to thank: Martha Mader (Bonn); quoted for reviews. Selwyn Parker (Dublin); Judy Aspinall, Pat Stimpson Third printing. Revised 1981. CY(ohLruokbn)ed;ot n,M) i;Mm iiJr oihManum r DpHuhsnyina , ((RCMohemrleibs)to;iu nraSn heo)Li;ic ehibC earrImomaaliny,n (FTNr.ae nwk MSPcouhrbolroiilss hteoadwn nd, s ilmiNbuerlawtra yn Jedeoirusstesryli.y b utiino nC anbayd aSi.l ver Burdett Company, Iwama (Tokyo). TIME-LIFE is a trademark of Time Incorporated U.S.A. CHAPTERS 1: A Force Unready for War 22 2: The Year That Turned the Tide 62 3: The Enemy Below 96 4: On Special Assignment 130 5: A Time of Slaughter 166 PICTURE ESSAYS Evolution of a Weapon 6 Building the Undersea Navy 48 Find ’em, Chase ’em, Sink’em 82 All the Emperor’s Boats 118 Ready for Any Job Any Time 144 Refit between Patrols 154 Remembered Battles 188 Bibliography 200 Picture Credits 201 Acknowledgments 201 Appendix 202 Index 206 CONTENTS D O ee — b===4e l . e= r.o L4a (a—— —s . i s n re)_ ) d l e