Quote:
Originally Posted by LUKNER
And how many, on average, did captains go out on combat patrols during the war?
Were there commanders who started and ended the war as a submarine commander?
In the German submarine fleet, I know there was Wolfgang Luth who from 1939 to 1943 commanded various submarines that participated in the hostilities. And who also lasted in the American submarine fleet in his position and for how long?
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Rare that Captain's went out in command of a sub. I know that Captain Richard Voge, who at start of war was the first CO of Sealion, which was sunk at Cavite in Harbor in Dec 1941 (damaged by air raid on 10 Dec) , after a stint in command of Sailfish (5 patrols) , Voge was promoted to Captain and went to Admiral Lockwood's staff in a key position. I forget which boat he took out for one patrol in lFall 1944, but recall reading he did so, sort of a keep in touch with the troops sort of thing, get him out of the office, and report back to Admiral Lockwood. Captain Charles "Weary" Wilkins took submarine USS Seahorse out in Fall 1944 for one patrol, which was deemed successful. There were a couple other instances in 1944/45, some of which were by skippers who commanded subs in 1941/1942/ 1943 and had been sent back to short duty. However, this was still rare and never for more than one patrol, to my knowledge.
When the US started sending Coordinated Attack Groups (CAG) aka Wolfpacks to sea in Fall 1943, a Captain, designated as Commander of the CAG, would go out aboard one of the subs (typically 3 subs to a pack) and have tactical command of the pack, but each sub had their own CO, usually a Lieutenant Commander, occasionally a Commander. Having a pack commander on scene avoided having HQ micromanaging (as U Boats were by Doenitz) and excess radio traffic. First wolfpack (Shad, Cero, Grayback)was in Fall 1943 under Captain "Swede" Momsen, who rode aboard the submarine Cero.
Captain John Cromwell, riding Sculpin as part of pack in Nov 1943 earned the Medal of Honor when he sacrificed himself to avoid capture and possibly revealing sensitive information to the Japanese under torture.
After several packs deployed in Fall 1943- Spring 1944, a evaluation of the patrols found pack concept would work better by just placing the senior CO present in tactical command, so most packs began deploying without a Captain aboard. One exception comes to mind is August-September 1944 when Captain Ed Swinburne went out on Barb. Of course LCDR Eugene Fluckey was in command of Barb.
US sub commanders typically were permitted five patrols before being rotated to short duty(with few exceptions), new construction stateside, training roles, etc as psychologists recommended, so no skippers commanded subs the entire war and a limited number made more than five or six patrols in command. Many were junior officers at start of the war and worked their way up as it was found younger skippers were more aggressive and adapted better to the new war time operations, as most older skippers were too cautious.