| On 20 June USS
GRENADIER (SS-210), participated in the search for O-9,
who failed to surface after a deep test dive, and was
present 2 days later as memorial exercises were conducted
over the spot where O-9 and her crew lay. After shakedown in
the Caribbean, GRENADIER returned to Portsmouth 5
November for refit. Less than three weeks after the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor, she sailed for the Pacific to join
the submarine fleet which was America's first line of attack
in the Pacific.
GRENADIER's first war patrol
of WWII, from 4 February to 23 March 1942, took her near the
Japanese home islands, off the coast of Honshu, and brought
her several targets but no sinkings. On 12 April GRENADIER
departed PearlHarbor for her second war patrol, along
the Shanghai-Yokohama and Nagasaki-Formosa shipping lanes.
On 8 May she torpedoed and sank one of her most important
kills of the war, transport Taiyo Maru. Post-war
examination of Japanese records showed Taiyo Maru to
be more than just the ordinary transport; she was en route
to the East Indies with a group of Japanese scientists,
economists, and industrial experts bent on expediting the
exploitation of the conquered territory. Their loss was a
notable blow to the enemy war effort.
On 25 May GRENADIER was
diverted from her patrol area to Midway, where she formed
part of the submarine patrol line as the American fleet in a
bloody but brilliant battle handed the Imperial Navy its
first defeat in some three hundred years. GRENADIER's
third war patrol was in the Truk area, heavily patrolled by
enemy ships and planes. Although she sighted some 28
Japanese ships, enemy planes effectively hampered her, and
she returned to her new base, Fremantle, Australia,
empty-handed.
The Malay Barrier was the site of GRENADIER's
fourth war patrol from 13 October to 10 December. After
laying a minefield off Haiphong, Indochina, the submarine
made an unsuccessful attack on a large freighter. During the
severe depth charging which followed, sea water seeped into
the batteries; GRENADIER's crew suffered headaches
and nausea from chlorine gas poisoning for the remainder of
the patrol. To increase the misery, on 20 November GRENADIER
spotted a Ryujo-class carrier, escorted by a cruiser and
a destroyer, heading through the Strait of Makassar too
distant to shoot. GRENADIER surfaced to radio the
carrier's location and course to Fremantle in hope that
another submarine could capitalize on it.
GRENADIER's fifth war patrol
between 1 January and 20 February 1943, brought her
considerably better fortune than earlier patrols. A 75-ton
schooner fell victim to her deck guns 10 January, and two
days later GRENADIER sighted a small tanker with a
barge in tow. Judging the target not worth a torpedo, she
slipped silently into the column behind the two Japanese
ships. At dusk she battle surfaced. With binoculars lashed
to the deck guns as sights, she raked tanker and barge
sinking them immediately. The remainder of her patrol, along
the Borneo coat through shallow and treacherous waters, was
hampered by fathometer failures. She conducted an aggressive
attack on two cargo ships 22 January but did not sink them.
The battle-tired submarine departed
Australia 20 March on her last war patrol and headed for the
Straight of Malacca, gateway between the Pacific and Indian
Oceans. Patrolling along the Malay and Thai coasts, GRENADIER
claimed a small freighter off the island of Phuket 6
April. She remained in the area and late in the night of 20
April sighted two merchantmen and closed in for the attack.
Running on the surface at dawn 21 April, GRENADIER spotted,
and was simultaneously spotted by, a Japanese plane. As the
sub crash dived, her skipper, Cdr. John A. Fitzgerald
commented "we ought to be safe now, as we are
between 120 and 130 feet." Just then, bombs rocked GRENADIER
and heeled her over 15 to 20 degrees. Power and lights
failed completely and the fatally wounded ship settled to
the bottom at 267 feet. She tried to make repairs while a
fierce fire blazed in the maneuvering room.
After 13 hours of sweating it out
on the bottom GRENADIER managed to surface after dark
to clear the boat of smoke and inspect damage. The damage to
her propulsion system was irreparable. Attempting to bring
his boat close to shore so that the crew could scuttle her
and escape into the jungle, Cdr. Fitzgerald even tried to
jury-rig a sail. But the long night's work proved futile. As
dawn broke, 22 April, GRENADIER's weary crew sighted
two Japanese ships heading for them. As the skipper "didn't
think it advisable to make a stationary dive in 280 feet of
water without power," the crew began burning
confidential documents prior to abandoning ship. A Japanese
plane attacked the stricken submarine; but GRENADIER, though
dead in the water and to all appearances helpless, blazed
away with machine guns. She hit the plane on its second
pass. As the damaged plane veered off, its torpedo landed
about 200 yards from the boat and exploded.
Reluctantly opening all vents, GRENADIER's
crew abandoned ship and watched her sink to her final
resting place. A Japanese merchantman picked up 8 officers
and 68 enlisted men and took them to Penang, Malay States,
where they were questioned, beaten, and starved before being
sent to other prison camps. They were then separated and
transferred from camp to camp along the Malay Peninsula and
finally to Japan. Throughout the war they suffered brutal,
inhuman treatment, and their refusal to reveal military
information both frustrated and angered their captors. First
word that any had survived GRENADIER reached
Australia 27 November 1943. Despite the brutal and sadistic
treatment, all but four
of GRENADIER's crew survived their 2 years in
Japanese hands to tell rescuing American forces of their
boat's last patrol and the courage and heroism of her
skipper and crew.
GRENADIER received four
battle stars for World War II service. |
