rbeville%tekig5.pen.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET (06/21/89)
From: rbeville%tekig5.pen.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET
"JAPANESE SUBMARINE SHELLS U.S. COAST, 1942"
There were a number of Japanese war efforts or campaigns that were targetted
at the US west coast. A few of these were: Incendiary balloons travelled
via the jet streams to land along the west coast and set the forests afire;
amphibian airplanes flew over west coast forests and dropped incendiary
bombs, and the one related here... jap subs shell the coast. The mission
of all these operations was to terrorize U.S. citizens, sink merchant and
Navy vessels, damage harbor facilities and most of all, to induce the
War Department to re-assign assets of the U.S. Pacific Fleet to patrols on
the eastern Pacific Ocean; as history shows, they didn't go for it.
This account is organized as follows: historical-geographical perspective,
the account itself, [FOOTNOTES], and what you can visit nowadays
First allow me to give you a historical and geographical perspective. The
north-west-most land mass of the state of Oregon is at the mouth of the
Columbia River. Nearby is Fort Clatsop, the 1805-06 winter quarters of the
Lewis & Clark expedition, and Fort Astoria, the fur trading post-village
founded by John Jacob Astor in 1811.
1863... Because of the presence of British and Confederate sea raiders
in the area, President Lincoln ordered the construction of fortifications
at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1863. On the Washigton Territory
side, there was established Fort Canby and Fort Columbia.
On the Oregon side, Fort Stevens was built at Point Adams: a five-sided
earthen fort surrounded by a moat. Armament consisted of 26 guns,
including seventeen 10-inch muzzle loading smoothbore RODMAN cannons,
which could fire a 128 pound cannonball over a mile. It required 14 men
to fire one. The rest of the arms were PARROTT RIFLES. Fort Stevens was
completed and occupied by troops in 1864. Successfully defending the
Columbia River, it is the only fort of its type on the west coast.
See note 1, [DIG]
1897...{the ENDICOTT period}
As part of a nation-wide program to improve coastal and harbor
defenses, an extensive refortification program began. Eight concrete
gun batteries were built. Rifled 10-inch disappearing cannons and 12-inch
mortars were installed. The 10-inch projectiles weighed 500 to 600 lbs.
and (the gun) could hit a 30-foot-square target at eight miles. The
12-inch mortars had 700 lb shells, range of 15,00 yards. High vertical
trajectories were to pound the lighter armored decks of the enemy ships
rather than the heavier armored hulls... The 8 Batteries were Lewis, Clark,
Mishler, Russell, Walker, Freeman, Smur, and Pratt(with two 6-inch
disappearing rifles. (Battery Pratt and Russell will be part of the
upcoming story.)
1898... A grid of bouyant submarines mines was laid out
in the river in the Spanish-American war. Later, WW2, the mines were
changed to anchored ground mines with control lines running up a conduit
to the casemate control bunker.
1918... Battery Walker's and Lewis's guns and carriages were dismantled
and re-installed in France to beef up the Allied defenses.
January 19, 1936... The German training cruiser _EMDEN_ enters the
Colombia River, docks at Tongue Point (Astoria), welcomes Fort Stevens
officers aboard for a tour; hospitality returned with a party for
German officers at the Fort... most gracious, obliging participant? Their
* zampolit *. _EMDEN_ sailed up the Columbia and tied up at the seawall
in Portland (just like the Rose Festival Naval Fleet) for 9 days.
1940... a Presidential order mobilized the 248th & 249th Coast
Artillery Corps, Oregon National Guard.
November 18-20, 1941... a fleet of Japanese submarines leaves Kure and
Yokosuka for the Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands, operating base
for the Sixth Fleet. They refuel, re-provision and depart for stations
around the Hawaiian Isles... I-26 breaks from the pack and heads for
eastern Pacific waters.
Some description and specs of the subs...
Allied intelligenge was frequently surprised at Japanese weapon ingenuity,
not hearing or seeing anything until it was deployed into action...
These subs were unique. The "I-class" type specs-features are as follows:
Dimensions: draft 5m., depth 8m. length 109m.; Displacement 2192 LT,
Speed&Power surface 24 knots/ 12,400 HP; submerged 3 knots 33hrs.
Armament: A 5.5inch gun on the deck behind the conn tower; range: 15,000
yards; 2 x 25mm machine guns, 17 torpedo capacity (53 cm tube diameter)
and *ONE AMPHIPIBIAN AIRCRAFT*. Yes, one aircraft... a housing in front
of the conn held a dismantled E14Y1 amphipibian airplane. A catapult
feature rose between the hangar and the bow to launch the plane by
compressed air... Spec of the plane(code named GLEN by Allied Intelligence)
is: 340 HP Tempu 9 cylinder engine; top speed 153MPH; range 550miles.
wing span 36ft, length 22ft, 9ft high, a machine gun. The GLEN aircraft
of I-25 was modified to carry two 170lb. incendiary bombs(another article
sometime) Launching the plane was to open the hangar doors, start engine,
taxi fuselage forward, attach wings, fold up and engage hinged flaps and
fins, etc. (Recovery was by a crane-hoist apparatus erected near hangar)
Other I-class configurations: I-26's hangar carried extra fuel( standard
range was 16,000 miles) instead of a GLEN. Another five subs "mothered"
a 2-man 41 foot long baby submarine via clamps.
7:55 A.M. December 7, 1941 Hawaii time... attack on Pearl Harbor...
8:00 A.M.... I-26 on patrol half-way between Pearl and San Jose
surfaces, fires on and sinks the _CYNTHIA_OLSON_, a merchant freighter.
... some subs are ordered to head for the states to sink shipping and
molest the harbor defences..
December 8... All Coastal Defense installations get ordered to go on
alert, and tighten up. At Fort Stevens a new policy for identification
of incoming ships is put in place, with a 75mm mortar on the spit near
the jetty, and a harbor searchlight to illuminate any ship at night.
December 16, 1941... I-7 launches its GLEN aircraft to fly over Pearl
Harbor for damage assessment observations... another GLEN from the I-19
does this again on 4 January and 23 February, 1942
December 20, 1941... 9 submarines, patrolling for carriers and other
shipping, are offshores of major harbors from Cape Flattery, Washington
to San Diego... intentions are to shell lighthouses, coastal defences,
and harbor facilities on Christmas Eve, 1941. Because of growing
anti-sub measures, Submarine Force Department issues an order for them to
retire back to Kwajalein for fuel and rest...
X
February 23, 1942... I-17, off Santa Barbara, shells an oil field derrick
at Goleta. [MONUMENT]
To get nearer our story, we join the patrol of the I-25 in June 1942...
June 20, 1942... off Cape Flattery, I-25 torpedoes the _Fort_Camosun_
but it didnt sink fast enough. I-25 surfaced and began shelling it with
the 5.5inch gun. The _Quensel_ and _Edmundston_, on anti-sub patrol near-
by, respond and begin depthcharging the area. Too much for I-25, it
heads for the Columbia River. Commander Tagami recorded the sinking of a
tanker, but _Fort_Camosun_ was a freighter-- full of PLYWOOD!! She was
towed to harbor by tugs, was repaired, saw service and hostile action again,
and was still afloat in '59.
Off Estavan Point, B.C., I-26 shelled the lighthouse with about 25 rounds;
there is no effective damage. A dud shell was retrieved from driftwood
some days later.
June 21, 1942... beginning the incident of the I-25 shelling of Fort Stevens
June 21, the longest day of the year. Twilight lasts until
about 10:30 P.M. In the Columbia River, a small fishing fleet is returning
with the days catch, and signals its identity to the harbor watch under
the searchlights, the 75mm howitzer on Clatsop Spit, and numerous machine-
gun nests along the beaches. The switches of the array of submerged ground
mines are on SAFE in the mine casemate...
Battery Pratt, the battery with two 6-inch guns, was the only battery "on
duty" that evening. Fort Canby on the Washington side had retired for the
night. Men had passes to go into Astoria, or were just bedded down in the
barracks...
I-25 followed the fishing fleet in through the mine array and before it
neared the South Jetty swung south and ran parallel to the shoreline. At
a point about opposite Battery Russell, it turned west and surfaced.
Lookouts took their stations; the gun crew manned the 5.5inch gun and began
passing ammunition. With the stern pointed at the mainland and engine
in dead-slow, with only a gentle current, firing commenced at about
11:30 P.M. Commander Tagami assumed that this was a sub base, from the
remarks on a 1935 British Chart, and ordered shelling in that direction.
The position of the sub was believed to be 13,000 yards from shore,
and as was stated, the range of the 5.5inch gun was 15,000 yards. It
is also recorded that the barrel was elevated 30 to 40 degrees. [REUNION]
At the sound of the first shot, officers and men were out of their cots
and headed for their battle stations and command posts. Some didn't
bother to dress--just went on duty in their drab skivvies... Feelings
were in two forms: "Hey, WE'RE BEING SHELLED by the Japs!" and "Hey,
Hey, Hey, now WE GET TO ENGAGE THE ENEMY and show them what-for!"
Guys turn their lights on, and then realize the camp is under black-out
orders... and switch them off.
Outposts and machine gun nests started ringing in on their EE-5 field
telephones... but a shell fragment severed a phone line from several
principal outposts. Those intact outposts turned their telescopes in
the direction of the gun flashes and reported the azimuth to the
Plotting Room. Here's where a lot of controversy enters... From the
triangulations plotted from the outpost reports the lines converged
somewhere OFF the plot table, indicating the sub was out of range. Time
went by as the officers tried to confirm and reconfirm the sightings.
At Battery Russell, the operator of the Depression Range Finder trained
it out to sea, but in the dark had nothing to sight on but the gun-
flashes. The Depression Range Finder range drum was cranked to the
end stops, indicative of a range of beyond 18,000 yards.(Battery Russell's
guns were good to 16,000 yards with armor piercing shells; more with the
lighter high-explosive shell) [ERRORS]
So far, no orders have been given to return fire... The fort is in
a state of confusion and quandry... noone hears any return fire.
On I-25, the gunnery officers and the air officer took turns firing the
gun. On shore, later, reports of the number of shells were from
a dozen to 19. The sub log, as well as personal diaries of the officers
and men (seems to have been a tradition in the Imperial Navy), records
that 17 rounds were shot.
In total, damages were as follows: severing
of the field telephone wire, one smashed baseball diamond backstop and
scoreboard near Battery Russell, and not until months later, a power
line outage was traced to a nicked clad sheath of some underground power
mains beside a shell crater....
South of the fort, on private property, a shell hit not far from a home.
The blast shook the children out of bed. The shell crater was found
beside the roadway, marked today by a granite monument. [MONUMENT]
In spite of the confusion and scrambling around, Battery Russell rallied
enough gunnery-men to prepare for firing. The commander requested
permission to fire from the senior duty officer at the fire control station.
Permission to fire was refused on the basis of the 'beyond range'
determinations from the plotting room, suspicion that the shelling was to
draw fire and precisely identify the battery locations, and that the
guns of Battery Russell couldn't be elevated over about 14 degrees. The
order was backed by the Commanding General, Coastal Defense District(S.F.)
[MORALE]
When firing was completed, I-25 got underway, heading west, then changed
course for Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and then to Yokosuka, Japan. New orders
sent I-25 back to America in August to bomb the Oregon forests... twice.
[DIG] A archaeological dig is planned this summer to explore the original
earthworks, which was leveled for one of the later batteries. On its
success, a project to reconstruct it will follow. Any volunteers or $ ?
[ERRORS] Understand that placing the crosshair of a rangefinder device
on the 'gun flashes' from a gun that is elevated to 30 or 40 degrees
would be sighting above the actual sub, as to say that the gun flash was
on the surface somewhere way out in the background. This would have been
is conflict with the outposts' azimuth reports using simple telescope
sightings and long base-leg triangulation on the gun flashes..!
[MORALE] Imagine the adrenalin flow these men had, to finally engage the
enemy... and then wait and wait for the order to turn on the searchlights,
to begin firing, etc. But still, no order came......
Morale plunged. Here was their chance. All that training and firing
practice. To no avail. As a result of the no-order to fire, about
20 men later go AWOL. Many inqueries arrived as to why no order to fire
was issued. The best judgement seemed to say since they were out of range,
don't bother, and don't reveal your gun positions- they might be back in
numbers. Some felt any return fire whatever would do a great deal for
morale.
[REUNION] Years after the war, Japanese Navy personnel organized a reunion
and correspondence with stateside interests shared the common incident.
The commander was appalled to learn of the range of the Fort Stevens guns,
for they were positive they were 13,000 yards from the shore. He had
* indeed * put his men and sub in peril. If the 13,000 yard distance is
credited, the Fort could have indeed fired on the sub, and changed the
whole complexion of the engagement...
[MONUMENT] On Delaura Beach Road, about 100 yards from the hiway to the
State Park Campground. A *bas*relief* of the I-25 submarine, with this
wording: "HISTORICAL LANDMARK On June 21, 1942 a 5.5" shell exploded here,
one of 17 fired at Columbia River Harbor Defense Installations by the
Japanese Submarine I-25. The only hostile shelling of a military base on
the U.S. mainland during World War II and the first since the War of 1812"
The monument of the Goleta shelling in February '42 says about the same
thing and neither monument acknowledges the other incident. Must be the
politics of the tourist industry, huh?
References and sources.....
THE CAPE FORTS Guardians of the Columbia
Marshall Hanft
Oregon Historical Society Press, Portland OR.
ISBN 0-87595-044-2
SILENT SIEGE II Japanese Attacks on North America in WW2
Bert Webber
Webber Research Group, Medford OR
ISBN 0-936738-26-X
"Submarine Attacks on the Pacific Coast, 1942" Clark G. Reynolds,
_Pacific_Historical_Review_, May, 1964
Newspaper accounts of the day: _The_Oregonian_, June 23, 1942
_San_Francisco_News_, June 23, 1942
_Astorian_Budget_ june 22, 23, 24, 1942
Exhibits, displays, letters, memorabilia, etc. at the Fort Stevens museum
Continueing a little historical perspective to the present day:
1944... A new battery is built, Battery 245, to bolster defenses. Two
6-inch rifles on Barbette (pedestal type) mounts are installed.
Since action was focused in the western Pacific near the end of the war,
inactivity and absencce of further incidents saw orders come down to
deactivate many installations on the West Coast. All of the guns and
carriages are dismantled and scrapped. (a 10-inch gun weighed 77,000 lbs,
the lead counterweight of the carriage 97,000 lbs.)
The 'examination battery' for inbound vessels was discontinued Sept. '45.
FORT STEVENS, today: Fort Stevens is now a state park, with a RV camp-
ground south of the Militery Reservation acreage, operated by Oregon State
Parks and Recreation Division. The Fort has a Museum in the War Games
Building, run by a non-profit volunteer association, "The Friends of Old
Fort Stevens." Most items in the displays are related to the actual
occupation of the fort: photos since 1880 or so of the construction of the
batterys, the troops, period uniforms on mannequins throughout, the
muzzle of one of the 10-inch barrels, mines, etc. A whole section is
devoted to the Japanese shelling with shell fragments found by souvenir
hunters, a model of the I-25 and GLEN airplane, correspondence and
copy of teletypes of the period, the field telephone, depression range
finder, maps and a mannequin with Japanese aviators uniform (related to
I-25's GLEN bombing of Oregon forests with incendiary bombs); a fragment
of the ricepaper incendiary balloons.
An eight minute movie shows the Battery Russell guns being swabbed, loaded
and fired. At sea, the target tow vessel is shown... The 12-inch mortars
are shown being fired.
Around the fort you can go on the walking tour, or take an escorted lecture
ride in a 2-1/2 ton ARMY TROOP TRUCK! Another escorted tour takes you
inside Battery Mishler. All batteries are intact... just empty gun pits.
With a flashlight you can follow the overhead rail track from the ammo
room (likewise powder room) to the dumb-waiter that hoists them up to
the upper deck. Most signage "AMMO ROOM", "PLOTTING ROOM", etc. in the
military typeface is still distinguishable. Other intact buildings of the
190- period still stand, and are in use.
The only guns on exhibit are a two-man Naval 3-inch AA gun, a 155mm field
gun with French stamp marks: 1918 Arsonal d' Waterviliet, outside the
museum. Battery 245's Barbette 6-inchers are replaced with the 5-inch
turrents from a destroyer(?) the solid enclosure with the barrel out the
oblique upper face( help me, somebody, I dont know the hardware).
The museum giftstore has books on the wars, forts, and weapons. Also caps,
T-shirts, sweatshirts that replicate the Coast Artillary emblemage.
The military cemetary, closer to the State Park Campground, is also cared
for by the "FOOFS". Oldest grave-marker I found is dated 1876, the most
recent is 1988, a Korea-Viet Nam vet.
That's -30- from GLOWWORM-7-9-4.
best regards, rbeville@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM
Bob Beville, Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR 97077