by Brett Ashton
This was the only time in almost four years of war I had seen a Jap surrender without shooting at him first.
So as my sworn enemy stood in front of me, defeated and offering his sword, and me with my hand still on my forty-five, I began to feel I was missing something, something vague yet very important. I had planned and hoped for this day for some time now, and yet when the moment finally arrived, it seemed hollow.
A nebulous idea began to form in my thoughts, small at first, but growing, and very rapidly gaining energy like an avalanche, until it totally wiped out any concept of the things I had previously assumed were true. I found my mind suddenly racing backwards through time, looking at all of the events of the war that had led me to this point…
Okie
One important thing to understand about the attack on Pearl Harbor is the mindset of the United States, the navy in particular, and the world at that time. The Japanese and their friends in Europe had been stomping around, breaking things, making lots of noise, and generally creating havoc for quite some time. We in the military knew an attack was inevitable. It was going to happen and we were doing what we could to prepare for it. We just didn’t expect that attack at that time in that place, which is why it was so brilliant.
So Sunday morning, December the seventh, 1941, began very much the same as any other day for the American fleet. But it could not have ended much more catastrophically different.
Those of us on the Oklahoma had been out to sea on a weekly basis for the last several months, drilling hard for the war that we knew was bound to come. Every week, we went out for practice and drilled, then back to Pearl for the weekend and the occasional inspections.
This weekend was the USS California’s and Oklahoma’s turn, and we were doing everything in preparation for a visit from Admiral Kimmel’s inspection crew, if not the Admiral himself. We were tied up alongside the Maryland in Battleship Row. The West Virginia and Vestal were aft of us, with the Tennessee and Arizona next to them. The Nevada was berthed aft of the Arizona, and California was forward of us, around the corner, on the other side of a fleet tanker called the Neosho. It seemed like almost every ship in the Pacific fleet was there except for the aircraft carriers and a few of their escorts.
At that time, I was the assistant gun boss on the battleship Oklahoma. The “Okie” we called her or the “Old Okie” sometimes, because she was now one of the oldest battleships in the fleet. My responsibility was to make sure the main battery guns and crew were ready and trained for anything at any time. So that morning, like the many mornings before when we were in port preparing for inspection (and would rather have been on liberty), I called a meeting with my staff over breakfast in the wardroom.
I liked to keep these meetings relatively informal, but on the early side before the tropical sun made the inside of the ship heat up too much. So we would usually break bread starting at 0630, have a little fun talk, and at about 0700 get down to the business of running a battleship and training its crew. This morning was no different from the many weeks and months preceding it.
I was the last to arrive at the breakfast meeting that morning and found the other officers of my crew already assembled and eating. There seemed to be a cheerful atmosphere about them as I arrived. And I had some idea what was coming.
“Congratulations, sir,” said the young ensign down at the end of the table “I hear it’s a boy.” Ensign Flaherty was one of the newest officers on board. He was twenty-two years old and certainly the “youngster” of the group. As such, he was also the most likely to be picked on by the rest of us. “Can we expect a bunch more little lieutenant commanders to be running around the ship with us?”
“It doesn’t matter how little my kids are, ensign, as long as you remember they will always outrank you,” I replied with a smile as I handed him one of the cigars I was carrying. “Now would you please be kind enough to get my coffee for me?” The ensign’s assignment during these meetings was to keep us supplied with coffee. Not that we really needed anybody to do so. The wardroom had plenty of mess clerks to do that for us, but it was expected of the junior officer to serve the coffee at such times. The real truth about the ensign was he showed truly exceptional capability as an officer. I’ve never seen anybody learn more quickly and rise to the needs that any occasion demanded better than him.
As Flaherty got up from the table on his assigned “mission,” the rest of the officers offered their congratulations on the birth of my second son and third child, James Patrick Williams, and likewise, accepted their cigars. Born at almost midnight the preceding Thursday, I had missed his birth. The demands of the navy at the time were too much, with gunnery practice that week. Career officers like me didn’t have the luxury of taking leave any time we felt we needed to. It’s just one of the sacrifices of military life that my wife, Susan, and I had learned to put up with.
The good thing was she and the kids were living right there in Hawaii. In fact, from where the Okie was berthed, when I was in my battle station on top of the forward main mast, I could see across the harbor to the hospital where she was. So as soon as the ship had pulled in on Friday afternoon, I was given the first liberty launch and took it over to see my new son. The XO and CO, being family men themselves, did all they could to help make my visit possible.
“It’s got to be a pain to have to miss your son’s birth like that, isn’t it?” said Lieutenant Alexander. Alexander was the division officer for turret number one. Lieutenants Bernelly, Feinstein, and Lewis, the division officers for the other turrets, were there, as well as several other gunnery department lieutenants and lieutenants, junior grade.
“Yes, somewhat, but I did get my first visit with them the day before yesterday. And let me tell you, for those of you who don’t have children, you are always happy to hold them for the first time. Even if you are a day or two late,” I said, digging into my scrambled eggs.
“But you have to look at the bigger picture. We are officers on a United States battleship preparing for war. Would you rather drill and be ready to defend our country for our wives and children or die on a floundering battleship, out of not being ready?”
“Do you really think war is coming to us?” said the ensign, returning with my coffee.
“Well,” I said, “take a good look at the world and try to deny the possibility.”
“What do you mean?” asked Bernelly.
“Well, what do you mean?” I said. “You can’t be thinking that this world, as it is, is a completely happy and peaceful place, can you?”
“No sir, but the fighting is going on halfway around the world with a huge ocean between us and them on both sides. It would be nearly impossible for either the Japanese or Germans to attack and invade the United States.”
“Well that may be true,” I replied, “but you know we have interests and bases around the world. And while the president says he will not send us to fight in a European war, we are providing weapons and supplies to England. That has got to piss Hitler off pretty bad, and he is still giving the Brits a rough go at it even with our help. The Germans seem to be unstoppable these days, having taken most of Europe, and England is currently standing alone. They even got enough balls to take on Russia at the same time.”
“Well, on the positive side, the Brits seem to have repelled the Germans for the time being. Plus I’d say the Krouts are almost unstoppable, especially if you ask the crew of the Bismarck,” said Feinstein grinning. The intelligence reports of the sinking of the German battleship had been around for some time at that point.
“That’s true,” I said. “But that also shows, as an example, that battleships are sinkable. The Bismarck was new, with a well trained crew. The Brits reportedly got lucky with a torpedo and jammed the rudder, locking Bismarck into a big slow turn. And to add insult to injury, the old biplanes they used to launch the torpedoes are so slow and obsolete that the Germans couldn’t gear the anti-aircraft guns down enough to shoot back effectively. So what we have is a ship
much more modern than the one we are sitting on being crippled by a lucky shot. Then being stranded in a big turn, finished off by a gang of smaller ships.”
“All the more reason to be ready all of the time,” Lewis added. “You never know what will happen in combat.”
I was glad to hear him say that. I had been trying for some time to get them to understand as a line officer on a ship, you have to be ready for anything.
“And that’s just the war in Europe,” I said. “The Germans and Japs are working together. The situation in the East has to reach a boiling point soon. They have been involved in their war in China and Mongolia for years now.”
“What’s that got to do with us?” said Flaherty.
“Well, ensign, we were supplying them with materials and fuel, which they were supposed to be using for industry to build the economy of their country. Instead, they have been using them to build weapons to attack the Chinese. They’ve been notoriously brutal, even for war, so we cut them off. I’m guessing they will be missing the oil most of all. They won’t be able to fight or run their industry for long without it.”
“But even if they start a war with us, that wouldn’t get us to start giving oil to them again,” the Ensign persisted. “So what would that gain them?”
“I would think, young Ensign Flaherty, if you study the maps and resources of the world, it would become obvious. Can anybody here tell the young Ensign where the Japanese could get the fuel for their war machine other than from us?” I asked.
“The Russians or the Dutch East Indies,” said Alexander.
“Very good but which is most likely?” I asked.
“The Dutch East Indies,” Alexander answered.
“Why?”
“Well, there is no love lost between the Japs and the Russians because of the Japs’ alliance with Germany. The Russians have the resources to fuel the Japs. But the Japs would have to take the resources by force from the Russians. Even so, the Japs are not strong enough to win against the Russians in open combat, which leaves the Dutch, who are currently part of occupied Europe, so they are less of a challenge,” answered Lewis.
“Still, I don’t see what that has to do with us,” said Flaherty.
“Can anyone remember their eastern geography and tell the young ensign what lies between Japan and the Dutch East Indies?” I asked.
“Oh!” he said. “The Philippines!”
“Yes, not only the Philippines, but the American Territory of the Philippines,” I added. “And do you think for one minute the Samurai warlords of the Empire of Japan are going to let us operate a major base right in the middle of their war, unmolested, while we are supplying the allies of the Dutch with weapons?”
“I see your point,” he said. “So you think they will attack the Philippines?”
“That would seem to be most logical at first, but then they would have to contend with us afterwards. I can’t begin to guess how they would do that, but they have had a lot of practice actually fighting a war, whereas we haven’t. Also to our disadvantage is our lack of aircraft carriers. Our three in the Pacific and four in the Atlantic versus their eleven, which they could focus almost entirely on us.
“At this point, the larger part of our entire naval strategy is based on battleships. I wonder just how well these old ships would stand up to a full-fledged air assault. It’s a good thing a lot of new ships are being built, especially carriers. It would be very comforting to have a lot of planes in the sky to cover our exposed topside. We do have some guns to shoot back with, but I think it would be a good thing to add more anti-aircraft guns to these old battlewagons. The new five-inch guns are supposed to be very good at longer ranges, but nothing will really reach high enough to effectively protect us from air attack, except our own planes.”
I was thinking about the attack of the British against the Italian fleet at Taranto Bay in November of 1940. Several Italian ships were taken out by planes with torpedoes. The battle provided a fundamental shift of power in the Mediterranean toward the British. It was becoming increasingly obvious that ships were no longer safe from determined attackers from the sky. I decided not to bring this point into the conversation at the time because some parts of it were still classified.
“The current fleet buildup couldn’t hurt with promotions, either. War or no war, a larger navy means more room to move up. If a war broke out now, most officers with any experience would move up in ranks and out to commands of their own. Things change very rapidly in war, but I wouldn’t want a war to break out just for a few more stripes,” I added, thinking promotions and pay raises were coming a little too slow for a man with a wife and three kids.
“But a little closer to the here and now,” I said, turning to the reason for our meeting in the first place, “are all of our respective departments ready for the big inspection this afternoon?”
The four division officer lieutenants responded in turn with their reports. The projectile and powder inventories were restocked the day before after being somewhat depleted from the target practice over the preceding week. The barrels and breaches of the ship’s big fourteen-inch main guns were cleaned and lubricated per navy specifications. The hatches were open to allow the inspectors easy access to the magazines with fire-watches posted at every single one of them, just in case. Compartments were clean, and gear was stowed for combat. And all of the cursed mounds of paperwork the United States Navy required was filled out and properly filed.
I never really much liked that part of the meetings with my officers. It was a boring routine and seemingly unnecessary. But the captain, or “Old Man,” as battleship crews were so fond of calling him, required his reports, and the admirals, in turn, required them from the captain. I’m sure none of it could have been made official without a whole lot of officers sitting around drinking coffee served by ensigns, as if none of us could have really used the time any better. And I’m almost certain the Japanese or Germans would not check our paperwork to make sure all of the blanks were filled in before attacking. It was just another one of those annoying little things we had to do in the military.
After the requisite reports were reported, I brought the discussion to the part of the weekly meetings I enjoyed the most. “Now that we all have our acts together, what condition is this ship in, in terms of overall combat readiness?” The other officers were never surprised at being quizzed by me like this. In every meeting I had with them, it was the signal that I had become tired with the mundane business and wanted to push their knowledge a little further than the status quo of running a ship. I would usually challenge them about some seemingly obscure design feature or piece of history about the ship. The Okie, being fairly old, had a lot of interesting design changes over the years. In fact, looking at some of the older pictures you could barely even tell it was the same ship compared to its current configuration, a fact that the young ensign found out to his embarrassment several weeks ago.
Evidently, a little betting pool had begun some time ago between themselves about which of the ship’s systems I would discuss at these meetings. I could usually tell by reading the expressions on their faces who had won as soon as I asked the question, but this time I had apparently thrown them a curve by asking for the overall battle readiness of the ship instead of a specific system. I couldn’t participate in their game for obvious reasons, but I wasn’t about to stop it, either. After all, at least they were thinking about the ship’s systems as a result, and it had the added benefit of adding some “all in good fun” to shipboard life. With a little bit of self satisfaction at having stumped them, I decided I would eventually narrow the discussion to the counter flood systems.
“Well, the main guns are ready,” answered Alexander.
I suspected he was trying to get me to narrow it down to the guns so he could win the bet.
“Yes, I know and expect that from a group of fine officers such as yourselves, but what about the rest of the ship?” I asked again.
“Overall?” aske
d Flaherty. “Why would we in the gunnery division need to know that?”
“You are a line officer in this navy aren’t you, ensign?” I asked.
“Yes, sir.”
The other officers began to grin, knowing where this was going.
“And if there is an explosion near the bridge disabling the CO, XO and the officer of the deck, and you are the most senior officer you can find, who is in command of this ship?”
“I am,” he said.
“That’s correct. And what if the ship is listing fifteen degrees to starboard and down by the bow?”
Nothing in return came from the ensign, which told me I was beginning to make my point. “You men are all line officers and need to be as ready to take command of this vessel and fight as she and her crew are. You have to know enough to have a general idea of the current condition of the ship and her readiness. And it’s not enough to just know that; you have to know the basics of her design and what the engineers were thinking when they first drew her, as well as what they were trying to accomplish each time they modified her. All of these changes were made to enhance her performance in combat. And you need to know what she will do under stress, and what she won’t do.”
The reaction was a little flat, so I continued.
“We have a kind of symbiotic relationship with Okie,” I said. “She is just a machine, and it is us who give her life. We are the brains, and she is the brawn. When we give her orders, if everything is working well, she follows them and protects us to the best of her ability. In return, we protect her. If we are in trouble and know her well enough, maybe, just maybe, we can convince her to do something she normally wouldn’t do and exceed the expectations of the engineers who created her. And God help us if we are too stupid to know what to do.
“And you also have to consider all of the engineers’ knowledge and intentions are based on purely theoretical combat conditions. It’s how these paper-pushing desk pilots think combat will occur, rather than any practical study of modern combat conditions. None of these battleships has ever seen combat. Nobody knows exactly what they will or won’t do. And combat is unpredictably random and will test their theories to the extreme limits and expose any weakness.
