World War II saw great advancement in U.S. submarine technology and tactics as well as impressive leadership. Unfortunately, battle success stories were often kept from the public due to the necessarily stealthy nature of the service. However, the Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee (
JANAC) and surviving WWII submariners have recognized a few top skippers and their submarines.
In "United States Submarine Operations in World War II," Theodore Roscoe credits USS Flasher (SS 249), with sinking the highest enemy tonnage (100,231) during the war. Flasher, like most submarines of its time, was named after a fish. Commissioned on Sept. 25, 1943, USS Flasher
earned three Presidential Unit Citations and six battle stars.
USS Flasher was decommissioned on March 16, 1946.
USS Wahoo (SS 238), commissioned May 15, 1942, was credited with sinking 20 enemy ships (60,038 tons) during WWII. It makes the top-ten list for ships sunk during WWII, but it is most well-known for its leadership. USS Wahoo's second skipper was Lt. Cmdr. Dudley W. "Mush" Morton, who appointed (then) Lt. Richard H. O'Kane as USS Wahoo's executive officer. WWII survivor accounts remember both men as innovative, daring, and successful. It is no coincidence they both rank in the list of top three WWII submarine skippers for number of ships sunk. According to NHHC, unlike most commanding officers of the time,
Morton was known for entrusting O?Kane (his executive officer) with manning the periscope, a job usually reserved for the commanding officer. (Then) Lt. George Grider,
explained delegating this to the executive officer "left the skipper in a better position to interpret all factors involved, do a better conning job, and make decisions more dispassionately."
Cdr. Richard O?Kane photographed shortly after being awarded the Medal of Honor around March 1946. Catalog: 80-G-702334
Morton also had the confidence of the Sailors he commanded. According to Mark Robert's "An Oral History of U.S. Navy Submarines," Radioman 1st Class William Young (Ret.), who completed three tours on Wahoo, said, "Capt. Morton would come on board the Wahoo every time before we went out and say, 'Now we're going to go in harm's way. Anyone who wants to get off can get off, no questions asked...' Not one person ever left. If he would have said, 'we're all going to go out and we're all gonna get killed,' we would have gone [anyway]. That's the kind of a guy he was. I never saw another skipper like him."
The
USS Rasher (SS 269), a diesel submarine, also makes the top-ten list. Rasher is credited with sinking 18 ships (99,901 tons), was
awarded four Presidential Unit Citations for outstanding performance in combat patrols during WWII patrols, earned seven battle stars for service during WWII, and two more for service off Vietnam. For all their success, however, WWII diesel submarines lacked basic living standards most take for granted today. Thomas Innocente, a fire controlman, who earned his submarine warfare pin aboard Rasher, said "the only way you can accurately describe a nuclear submarine is to have served on a diesel submarine" (136, Roberts). Innocente recalled USS Rasher had two one-thousand gallon distillers, but one of them was always broken. He claimed showers were nonexistent on USS Rasher, unless your mission allowed, and even then it was seawater, which left persistent salt residues that caused severe itching. Nuclear submarines came later and introduced the luxury of washing machines and a weekly freshwater shower. According to Innocente, even the air in nuclear submarines smelled better than air in diesel submarines, thanks to a new air filtering system dubbed "Amnie" (138, Roberts). The first nuclear powered submarine,
USS Nautilus IV (SSN 571), was commissioned on Sept. 30, 1954.
To learn more about historical U.S. Navy submarines visit history.navy.mil.
To access the WWII submarine patrol reports, digitized by the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association, click
here.
Further Reading:
Commander Task Force Seventeen Operation Plan 1-45
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/c/commander-task-force-seventeen-operation-plan-1-45.html?
Current Doctrine Submarines USF 25(A)
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/c/current-doctrine-submarines.html
United States Submarine Losses, World War II
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/united-states-submarine-losses.html
The U-boat Threat in the Caribbean: Opportunities Lost
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/u-boat-in-the-caribbean.html
Ultra and the Campaign Against the U-boats in World War II
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/current-doctrine-submarines-usf-25-a.html