Swede Momsen<\/a> was a well-known figure in the submarine force. In 1929 he invented the submarine escape device that came to be called the Momsen Lung.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA decade later he directed the raising of the submarine Squalus <\/i>after it sank off the New Hampshire coast. At Pearl, Momsen was hard at work sorting out the nagging torpedo problems that had plagued American captains since the beginning of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was a hands-on, think-outside-the-box, let\u2019s-get-it-done kind of guy, bursting with innovative ideas and the energy to bring them to fruition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Brown and Momsen embarked on their experiment in June 1943, they chose as their laboratory the dance floor of the bachelor officer quarters at the Pearl Harbor sub base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The black-and-white-checkered floor, in a lanai at the rear of the building, was 80 feet square. They figured they had a giant game board upon which to assay wolf pack operations, with each square representing 1,000 yards, and asked the base shops to build models of submarines and Japanese ships for gaming use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They set up bamboo screens, behind which commanding officers and their firing teams \u2014 at Pearl Harbor while their subs were in for refit \u2014 could make-believe they were in their conning towers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Telephones were provided for intership communications. Other officers, experienced in antisubmarine warfare, were brought in to direct the Japanese convoys across the dance floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marine guards were stationed around the lanai to keep the curious at bay, for it must have been a strange sight to see 40 or 50 men playing with toy boats on the checkered floor in the middle of the day in the middle of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In best war game tradition, sailors pushed the enemy ships across the checkered floor at given intervals, in formations directed by their erstwhile commodore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He would order zigs and zags, speed changes, and shifts in position. The packs, varying from two to eight boats, were given brief glimpses of the model convoys, the skippers peeking around the screens for a three-second look at the developing situation to simulate the view through a periscope at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under Brown\u2019s and Momsen\u2019s watchful eyes the sub crews employed a variety of coordinated actions to track the convoy and go in for the attack, one square at a time. The two captains would assess the damage, noting the most successful tactics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The BOQ dance floor was soon dubbed \u201cConvoy College.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In mid-July 1943 Swede Momsen proposed taking the college to sea so they could experiment with a real convoy and real submarines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Aug. 29, the first three-submarine group sailed into Hawaiian waters to \u201cattack\u201d a five-ship eastbound American convoy. Over the course of the night they made five successful mock attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coordinating the submarines proved difficult, but Momsen optimistically noted in his report to Lockwood that \u201cthe convoy could not have survived such a coordinated attack.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 17-point doctrine that Brown and Momsen developed over the course of four months had some similarities with the tenets Vice Adm. Karl D\u00f6nitz put into practice in September 1940 when he formed the first German U-boat wolf pack, but it was more noteworthy for its differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The German wolf packs sometimes numbered a dozen or more U-boats and preyed on convoys of 100 or more ships. When a convoy was sighted, individual U-boats were summoned and controlled from the land-based submarine command headquarters, requiring significant radio traffic in both directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through trial and error, the creators of the American wolf pack doctrine concluded that in the vast expanse of the Pacific, a three-boat pack that departed port together had the best chance of success against Japanese convoys, which rarely exceeded 10 ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Americans\u2019 tactical group formation, intended for making successive attacks, consisted of \u201cflankers\u201d and a \u201ctrailer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The flankers would cruise parallel to a convoy\u2019s general course, sometimes racing ahead in what was known as an \u201cend around\u201d to position themselves for an attack. The trailer kept track of the convoy and informed its pack mates of course and speed, usually bringing up the rear, but sometimes trailing ahead of the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first sub to make contact with a convoy was expected to radio the enemy\u2019s position to the other boats immediately, and then devise an attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once it made the initial attack, that sub became the trailer. The flankers then went on the attack, leaving the trailer free to reload and pick off stragglers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brown and Momsen also decided that a division commander should be assigned to one of the submarines as the pack\u2019s officer in tactical command, to quickly distill the information coming in from the pack and control its movements from the immediacy of the battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSailor at work in the electric engine control room of submarine Batfish on a war patrol 1945. (National Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhen the first operational wolf pack, composed of the Cero<\/i>, Shad<\/i>, and Grayback<\/i>, departed from Midway on October 1, 1943, to patrol the East China Sea, Momsen himself was on board as its OTC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pack was four days into its patrol when Momsen received a dispatch indicating that an enemy convoy was due to pass through 28\u02da30\u2019N, 138\u02da10\u2019E \u2014 about 500 miles southeast of Yokohama \u2014 at about noon on Oct. 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sure enough, late in the afternoon of the 10th, the Grayback <\/i>sighted smoke to the north. Its captain, the impetuous Lt. Cmdr. John A. Moore, immediately went on the attack. But he failed to first notify the Cero <\/i>and Shad<\/i>, as the doctrine specified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only one of the four torpedoes he fired hit home, damaging a 6,200-ton cargo ship. And only afterward did Moore attempt to contact his mates \u2014 many times over the next 24 hours, to no avail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next night the Cero <\/i>found itself in a similar position. It had picked up the enemy on its radar, but was unable to make radio contact with the rest of the pack. The radios then in use were not suited for short-range transmission, and if a boat was underwater, it couldn\u2019t pick up any kind of signal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This problem persisted throughout the patrol, but the pack nonetheless succeeded in sinking or damaging 13 ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Momsen\u2019s final report on the mission, he took full responsibility for the failings of the attack group and the lack of coordinated operations. The inability of the submarines to communicate with one another at will was at the top of his list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was back to the game board at the BOQ to sort things out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n“Up the Hatch,” a painting by Thomas Hart Benton; C. 1944;. (Gift of Abbott Laboratories, now in the collections of U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nLockwood had meanwhile sent out a second wolf pack, which sailed toward the Marianas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although communications and coordination were once again bugaboos, the group bagged nine enemy ships over the course of five weeks: five sunk, four damaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A third mission, to the west of the Marianas, departed two weeks after the first two packs returned, but had little to show for their efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the subs were better coordinated thanks to lessons learned from the first two missions, the results were lackluster. The group made just five attacks and fired only 18 of 72 available torpedoes, sinking only one small freighter and damaging an escort carrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wolf packing then went into hibernation for the remainder of the winter. Babe Brown distilled all the patrol reports and attack results into a revised doctrine, circulated a draft among sub commanders at Pearl Harbor for their comments, and incorporated them into a further revision, which became, on Jan. 18, 1944, the official doctrine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pack operations resumed a few days after the spring equinox. But so did the problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first pack sank seven ships, but coordination remained poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second pack\u2019s patrol was a near disaster. Their total bag was a single small gunboat. And they nearly lost one of their wolves, the Perch<\/i>, to an enemy depth charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This wolf packing business didn\u2019t seem to be faring well, or getting any easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, on May 16, 1944, Blair\u2019s Blasters put to sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n“Slumber Deep,” a 1944 painting by Thomas Hart Benton. (Gift of Abbott Laboratories, now in the collections of U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe all-volunteer submarine force has always drawn men of strong and unusual character, and Capt. Leon Blair was no exception. He had joined the Navy after serving in the U.S. Army in World War I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Managing to secure an appointment to Annapolis, he graduated in 1923 with the nickname \u201cChief.\u201d He joined the submarine force after three years on surface ships, serving on board the primitive O- and S-class boats before taking command of the Stingray<\/i>, one of the first of the powerful, long-legged fleet-type submarines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, after a tour of duty at the sub base in Panama, Blair arrived at Pearl Harbor in mid-1943 to head two submarine divisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he was picked to lead the wolf pack, Chief Blair had never been on a war patrol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The three boats in his pack were of the strengthened Balao-<\/i>class boats, outbound on their first war patrols and led by first-time commanding officers: Lt. Cmdr. Bernard \u201cChick\u201d Clarey on the Pintado<\/i>, Lt. Cmdr. Robert \u201cBoney\u201d Close on the Pilotfish<\/i>, and Cmdr. Edward Blakely on the Shark<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First-timers, maybe, but between them they had 15 submarine war patrols under their belts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pack had 4,000 miles of ocean to cross before reaching its patrol area west of Saipan, in the Northern Marianas. Its mission was to intercept shipping en route to that island, which was due to be invaded by American forces on June 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before their departure Blair had given each captain a 21-page \u201cPatrol Plan\u201d that covered everything from the latest intelligence on Japanese antisubmarine techniques to specific instructions on group coordination, from daily patrol grids to radio frequency rotations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the way, Blair worked his boats hard, drilling their crews every day in group tactics and communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On May 29, the Blasters reached their patrol zone, Area 14. This rectangle of the Pacific Ocean encompassed some 90,000 square miles almost due south of Japan, and about 600 miles north of Saipan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only dry land in Area 14 was the tiny Bonin Islands, which included Iwo Jima.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCmdr. Edward Blakely, submarine Shark. (U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nBlair turned the officers\u2019 wardroom of the Pintado <\/i>into his command center. He showed up each day wearing neatly pressed khaki shorts, a regulation short-sleeve shirt, knee-length socks, and spit-polished shoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With his cigar tightly clenched in his teeth, he would pore over radio dispatches and ocean charts, while his personal mess attendant kept him well supplied with steaming hot coffee and ice cubes from the pantry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blair would drop the cubes in the cup, one at a time until the coffee was cold, before drinking it. (Thinking to save the captain some effort one morning, another steward brought the coffee out already cold. Blair\u2019s resonant excoriation of the poor sailor echoed throughout the boat.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Blair\u2019s elbow his yeoman made notes and wrote out orders, the first of which was to disperse the Blasters into a scouting line, each steaming on the same course, separated from the others by 15 miles side to side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things were quiet until the dawn of Wednesday, May 31. At 5 a.m. the Pintado <\/i>received a radio message from Lockwood saying that another American submarine in the area had spotted a Japanese convoy of three freighters and four escorts heading east toward Saipan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By early evening the Blasters were in hot pursuit. The enemy ships were making only eight knots, but their wild zigzagging made it hard for the wolf pack to get into suitable attack positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Shark <\/i>tried first, but had to break off its approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pintado <\/i>was next up and, at 4:37 a.m. on June 1, fired all six forward torpedoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To Chick Clarey\u2019s astonishment, all six hit. Five sank a large freighter, the 10,000- ton Toho Maru<\/i>, and the sixth damaged the smaller Kinshu Maru<\/i>, an auspicious kickoff to a remarkable week for Blair\u2019s Blasters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n“Hit’em Where it Hurts! Join the Submarine Service,” a World War II recruiting poster published by the Office of War Information. (National Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAs the pack continued to track the convoy, a second convoy unexpectedly joined the mix of targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Shark <\/i>was the first to pick up these new ships: three freighters and two small escorts. The sub was spotted as it tried to maneuver for an approach, dove to evade, and drew 27 depth charges \u2014 \u201cnone close,\u201d the commanding officer noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two hours later, the Shark <\/i>surfaced, and recommenced its hunt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the meantime, the Pilotfish<\/i>, which had been entirely out of the fray the night before, received a message reporting yet a third convoy. In best wolf pack practice, Boney Close sent a report to his pack mates, then began the chase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This convoy was big: seven merchantmen in three columns. Early on Friday, June 2, Blair ordered the Shark <\/i>and Pintado <\/i>to join the Pilotfish<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as the Pintado <\/i>neared the convoy, the submarine was discovered, and the escort pounded it with 48 depth charges over the next half-hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That attack proved advantageous to the Shark<\/i>, as Ed Blakely homed in on a large transport. It zigged away suddenly, revealing a still-larger ship in the second column.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Late that evening, the Shark <\/i>fired a spread of four torpedoes. About a minute later the first one hit, followed by two more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final torpedo missed the big ship, but hit another freighter. Four for four: pretty good shooting, and great pack coordination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blair\u2019s Blasters had been battling the three convoys for 72 hours when, on the afternoon of June 3, the Shark <\/i>located yet another convoy inbound for Saipan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blakely immediately sent a position report to the rest of the pack. For the second time in three days, Blair\u2019s Blasters had two convoys in sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ocean was flush with targets. Blair ordered the Shark <\/i>and the Pilotfish <\/i>to track the new arrival, and the Pintado <\/i>to stay with the third convoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The wolf pack\u2019s coordination was improving. Contact reports were swiftly dispatched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The submariners had discovered they could use their surface search radars to ping a short message. So they wouldn\u2019t be mistaken for an enemy vessel, the submarines kept one another apprised of their own positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blair responded quickly to situational changes, repositioning the boats as needed. When the Pintado <\/i>was unable to close on the third convoy, for example, Blair ordered it to join its pack mates in pursuit of the fourth. It was all falling into place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n“He Volunteered for Submarines Service,” a World War II recruiting poster circulated by the Office of War Information. (National Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe next day, June 4, Blair ordered his boats to make a \u201csimultaneous\u201d attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This tightly coordinated effort would be a first for the Brown-Momsen doctrine. The Pilotfish<\/i>, trailing ahead of the convoy, would dive and shoot at 4 p.m. Five hours later, the flankers would make their runs. When the conditions for the initial attack improved, Blair moved the Pilotfish<\/i>\u2019s attack time up two hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pilotfish <\/i>was in position as directed when the convoy inexplicably changed its general course, spoiling Boney Close\u2019s shot but driving the enemy right at the Shark<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blakely tracked the convoy until he had a good, clear shot, then fired four torpedoes at a troop transport, the Katsukawa Maru<\/i>. He didn\u2019t know it then, but the ship was carrying nearly 3,000 reinforcements for the Japanese garrison on Saipan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All four torpedoes hit, sinking the ship almost immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout that evening and into the afternoon of June 5, the Blasters stayed within range of the convoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Early that night the Shark <\/i>fired six more torpedoes. That was when it sank both the 7,000-ton Takaoka Maru <\/i>and its 3,500 troops, and the smaller Tamahime Maru<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next day, June 6, Chick Clarey nailed three ships in 10 hours with 10 torpedoes. During the counterattack on the Pintado<\/i>, a depth charge exploded so close it shook the boat from stem to stern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lockers flew open, a gyrocompass was knocked out, and a file drawer hurled onto Chief Blair\u2019s head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThus ended seven days and seven nights of continual operations against an enemy with radar equipped planes and escorts,\u201d Blair wrote in a report to Lockwood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe pack made a total of 28 end arounds, twenty-three approaches of which two were simultaneous and three were very closely coordinated. Made six attacks, fired thirty torpedoes, made thirty hits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a performance that is still unmatched in the annals of submarine warfare \u2014 even though Blair\u2019s pack mate, the Pilotfish<\/i>, never fired a single torpedo.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPhotographed through the periscope of the submarine Thresher (SS-200) in January 1944, a torpedoed Japanese merchant ship sinks in the Pacific. (National Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nA desultory and anticlimactic three weeks followed. As Blair noted in his journal, \u201cMade a cruise to China and back\u2026sank a Sampan.\u201d And then they went home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Capt. Leon Blair was later awarded the Navy Cross in recognition of his leadership. And Blair\u2019s Blasters became poster boys for the Brown-Momsen coordinated attack doctrine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They worked well together as a group. Despite the lack of reliable interboat communications, the three commanding officers and their commodore had managed to stay in close contact during those hectic days. Information on enemy ship dispositions was quickly passed along. Blair was able to coordinate his flotilla\u2019s movements and attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The success of the tactic was no longer in doubt. During the next 14 months more than 100 wolf packs would be unleashed upon Japanese shipping in the Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Detailed analysis conducted by a Navy research group in early 1945 showed that a three-boat pack could sink or damage up to 40 percent more ships than three submarines operating individually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As experience grew, lessons learned were incorporated into an always-flexible doctrine. Eventually the pack\u2019s senior captain, rather than the division commander, became the OTC. And wolf pack codes for interboat communications were developed and refined, although radio technology remained the Achilles\u2019 heel of group operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the end of spring 1945, however, the communications issue no longer mattered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The previous year had been devastating for Japan\u2019s merchant fleet. In 1944 American submarines sank some 2,430,000 tons: more than in the three prior years combined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fleet now was all but destroyed, partly due to Babe Brown and Swede Momsen\u2019s carefully crafted wolf pack doctrine, and the aggressive manner in which it was executed by the Navy\u2019s young submarine commanding officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\t
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