War Stories II Read Online Free
Author: Oliver L. North
were attacked, we would lose everything. So it would be for the best if just the two in the SPS died. That was our way of thinking. I donât think anyone expected to come back.
When they were leaving, they were dressed in the uniforms that airplane pilots wore. They took their Japanese sword and food we prepared for them.
On the night of 6 December, I was in charge of the phone connecting the [mother] ship and the SPS. I was talking about maintenance and ordinary things. On the other end, Lieutenant Commander Masaji Yokoyama, the commanding officer of the SPS, spoke, thanked us for the job well done, and things like that. Both of us were matter-of-fact. It was just an ordinary conversation. We werenât really thinking about death. We were only thinking about carrying out our duties properly.
PACIFIC OCEAN
ONE MILE SOUTH OF OAHU
SUNDAY, 7 DECEMBER 1941
0245 HOURS LOCAL
Once released from their âmother subs,â the skippers of the midget subs tried to find a way into the harbor so theyâd be in place around Ford Island when the aerial attack started.
The crews of the midget subs could see the lights of Honolulu through their periscopes and hear big-band jazz music coming from the local radio stationsâthe same ones whose signals had guided the mother subs to the release point ten miles from the harbor mouth. Getting this far had been relatively easy. Slipping undetected through the anti-submarine net into the anchorage behind or beneath one of the American ships as it entered the harbor presented a much more formidable challenge.
The commander of the five-sub Special Attack Unit, twenty-nine-year-old Lieutenant Commander Naoji Iwasa, had been a Japanese test pilot. He had trained the other nine men and emphasized the importance and seriousness of their task. He hadnât exactly said that theirs was a suicide mission, but none doubted that it was. âNo one intends for us to come back,â Iwasa had told his men. Iwasa, the skipper of the mother ship I-22, was also skipper of the SPS I-22 TOU . Iwasa was the oldest of all the crew members, and his crewman was Naokichi Sasaki, an expert kendo swordsman.
Lieutenant Commander Masaji Yokoyama, the skipper of SPS I-16 TOU , was assisted by Petty Officer Sadamu Uyeda, a quiet mountain boy.
Skipper Shigemi Furuno of SPS I-18 TOU had told his parents that he couldnât get married because he had to be ready to die at any moment. His crewman was Petty Officer Shigenori Yokoyama.
Ensign Akira Hiro-o, the skipper of SPS I-20 TOU , at twenty-two years old, was the youngest of the midget submariners. Petty Officer Yoshio Katayama, a farm boy, was his crewman and engineer.
Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki was the skipper of SPS I-24 TOU , along with crewman Chief Warrant Officer Kiyoshi Inagaki.
At 0342 hours, the minesweeper USS Condor , on patrol just outside the harbor entrance, sighted what appeared to be a submarine periscope following in the wake of the USS Antares as she steamed slowly toward the harbor, waiting for the submarine net to drop at dawn so she could enter. The crew of the Condor immediately broadcast a warning over the radio: âSIGHTED SUBMARINE ON WESTERLY COURSE SPEED FIVE KNOTS.â Alerted by the Condor , the crew of the Antares also spotted the sub and repeated the message. The calls were heard by a PBY reconnaissance aircraft overhead and by the USS Ward , an ancient four-stack destroyer manned by Navy Reservists from the upper Midwest under a brand new captain, Commander William Outerbridge.
Aboard the Ward , Fireman First Class Ken Swedberg, a fresh-faced Navy Reservist from St. Paul, Minnesota, was at his âgeneral quartersâ battle station within seconds of the alert. As he peered into the darkness, his first thought was that it had to be one of Hitlerâs submarines.
FIREMAN FIRST CLASS KEN SWEDBERG, USN
Aboard USS Ward , Pearl Harbor
7 December 1941
0630 Hours Local
I was a Fireman First Class, which
When they were leaving, they were dressed in the uniforms that airplane pilots wore. They took their Japanese sword and food we prepared for them.
On the night of 6 December, I was in charge of the phone connecting the [mother] ship and the SPS. I was talking about maintenance and ordinary things. On the other end, Lieutenant Commander Masaji Yokoyama, the commanding officer of the SPS, spoke, thanked us for the job well done, and things like that. Both of us were matter-of-fact. It was just an ordinary conversation. We werenât really thinking about death. We were only thinking about carrying out our duties properly.
PACIFIC OCEAN
ONE MILE SOUTH OF OAHU
SUNDAY, 7 DECEMBER 1941
0245 HOURS LOCAL
Once released from their âmother subs,â the skippers of the midget subs tried to find a way into the harbor so theyâd be in place around Ford Island when the aerial attack started.
The crews of the midget subs could see the lights of Honolulu through their periscopes and hear big-band jazz music coming from the local radio stationsâthe same ones whose signals had guided the mother subs to the release point ten miles from the harbor mouth. Getting this far had been relatively easy. Slipping undetected through the anti-submarine net into the anchorage behind or beneath one of the American ships as it entered the harbor presented a much more formidable challenge.
The commander of the five-sub Special Attack Unit, twenty-nine-year-old Lieutenant Commander Naoji Iwasa, had been a Japanese test pilot. He had trained the other nine men and emphasized the importance and seriousness of their task. He hadnât exactly said that theirs was a suicide mission, but none doubted that it was. âNo one intends for us to come back,â Iwasa had told his men. Iwasa, the skipper of the mother ship I-22, was also skipper of the SPS I-22 TOU . Iwasa was the oldest of all the crew members, and his crewman was Naokichi Sasaki, an expert kendo swordsman.
Lieutenant Commander Masaji Yokoyama, the skipper of SPS I-16 TOU , was assisted by Petty Officer Sadamu Uyeda, a quiet mountain boy.
Skipper Shigemi Furuno of SPS I-18 TOU had told his parents that he couldnât get married because he had to be ready to die at any moment. His crewman was Petty Officer Shigenori Yokoyama.
Ensign Akira Hiro-o, the skipper of SPS I-20 TOU , at twenty-two years old, was the youngest of the midget submariners. Petty Officer Yoshio Katayama, a farm boy, was his crewman and engineer.
Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki was the skipper of SPS I-24 TOU , along with crewman Chief Warrant Officer Kiyoshi Inagaki.
At 0342 hours, the minesweeper USS Condor , on patrol just outside the harbor entrance, sighted what appeared to be a submarine periscope following in the wake of the USS Antares as she steamed slowly toward the harbor, waiting for the submarine net to drop at dawn so she could enter. The crew of the Condor immediately broadcast a warning over the radio: âSIGHTED SUBMARINE ON WESTERLY COURSE SPEED FIVE KNOTS.â Alerted by the Condor , the crew of the Antares also spotted the sub and repeated the message. The calls were heard by a PBY reconnaissance aircraft overhead and by the USS Ward , an ancient four-stack destroyer manned by Navy Reservists from the upper Midwest under a brand new captain, Commander William Outerbridge.
Aboard the Ward , Fireman First Class Ken Swedberg, a fresh-faced Navy Reservist from St. Paul, Minnesota, was at his âgeneral quartersâ battle station within seconds of the alert. As he peered into the darkness, his first thought was that it had to be one of Hitlerâs submarines.
FIREMAN FIRST CLASS KEN SWEDBERG, USN
Aboard USS Ward , Pearl Harbor
7 December 1941
0630 Hours Local
I was a Fireman First Class, which
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