The Pearl Harbor Avenger

About this book

This is an accounting about 266 men aboard The Bowfin a special submarine and their comrades who served with them as sailors in the "silent service." Submariners were quality people who possessed the ability to get along with others high intelligence and control under pressure. These sailors lived worked and waged war within natures most abundant asset: the waters of the world. They sailed the oceans seeking the enemy they died doing their duty... ever faithful to the motto of the silent service... PRIDE RUNS DEEP. After the attack on Pearl Harbor the U.S. submarine service was called on to take the fight to imperial Japan while the rest of the Pacific fleet recovered from the nearly disastrous blow. Within days of the attack U.S. submarines were steaming toward Japan in the hunt for targets that would not only hamper Japans war effort but strike a decisive blow to its national economy. They accomplished both with astounding efficiency and bravery. Of the 21 boats (the Navys term for submarines) stationed at Pearl Harbor only 11 were considered fit for combat duty. Yet the crews went charging out against a dangerous enemy on missions that would take the lives of one of every four submariners and comprising just 2 percent of the Navys inventory submarines accounted for 30 percent of all Japanese ships sunk during the war including eight aircraft carriers one battleship and 11 cruisers and more than 60 percent of the Japanese merchant fleet. The Bowfin was one of those heroic platforms. Launched exactly one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor and nicknamed the Pearl Harbor Avenger the Bowfin sank 16 enemy vessels. So impressive were the accomplishments of the 220 men who manned the ship during its nine war patrols the ship was immortalized in the 1957 movie Hellcats of the Navy which was loosely based on the exploits of the Bowfin and the eight-sub Wolf Pack it was a part of that wreaked havoc on Japanese shipping.