World War II Database

Contributor: David Stubblebine

ww2dbaseUnited States submarine USS Narwhal was originally planned, built, and commissioned as Submarine V-5. The V-boats were nine successive post-World War One submarines where the design was adjusted from each boat to the next so no two were truly identical. The middle three V-boats, Argonaut, Narwhal, and Nautilus, marked a significant shift from the smaller World War One-era attack boats; these were larger “cruiser” type boats with design features similar to the earlier German “U-cruisers.” The three cruiser V-boats were the largest of all the V-boats in terms of tonnage. The largest submarines of World War II from any nation were the Japanese I-400-class that came near the end of the war and the I-400s were the only wartime submarines that outsized Narwhal or Nautilus.

ww2dbaseIn keeping with V-5’s cruiser influences, she rode high in the water with a profile resembling a small destroyer in some ways. She was armed with not one, but two deck guns and each were the 6-inch/53 caliber guns originally designed to be a cruiser’s main battery. These guns sat on a slightly raised gun deck with the coning tower rising from between them. The V-boats generally, and V-5 in particular, were designed for endurance and long range rather than speed or agility; Narwhal’s characteristics were described in many ways but “nimble” was never on the list. Beyond these intentional design features, Narwhal’s machinery, in time, would become thought of as cursed.

ww2dbaseSubmarine V-5 was laid down on 10 May 1927 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. She was launched 17 Dec 1928 in a driving snow storm with Mrs. Frances Adams as sponsor, wife of the Secretary of the Navy Charles Adams. USS V-5 was commissioned on 15 May 1930, the largest submarine in the world at the time. Lieutenant Commander John “Babe” Brown was in command, a 1914 graduate of the United States Naval Academy who would retire with the rank of Vice-Admiral. By the time he took command of V-5, “Babe” Brown was already a solid fixture in Navy lore for having kicked two field goals in the 1913 Army-Navy game that allowed Navy to beat Army 6-0.

ww2dbaseV-5’s shakedown cruise was to the Caribbean Sea and the Panama Canal Zone. On 31 Jan 1931, V-5 departed the east coast of the United States bound for the Panama Canal and the Pacific. While en route, her name was formally changed to USS Narwhal. Shortly after her arrival in San Diego, California, her hull number was also formally changed to SS-167. Narwhal patrolled the west coast as far north as Juneau, Alaska and took part in the 1932 fleet exercises around Hawaiʻi. In Oct 1941, with tensions rising in the Pacific, Narwhal and fellow V-boat USS Dolphin, took stations around Wake Island on a simulated war patrol.

ww2dbaseFollowing her Wake Island patrol, Narwhal returned to Hawai'i where she began a refit at the Pearl Harbor submarine base. She was there, tied to a pier, on the morning of 7 Dec 1941 when the harbor came under Japanese air attack. Narwhal’s gunners were able to get the boat’s guns into action as the Japanese torpedo bombers were still attacking Battleship Row. Narwhal shot at two airplanes that were seen to crash, but Narwhal’s action report conceded that several other vessels were also shooting at the same planes. More significantly, Narwhal was not damaged in the attack.

ww2dbaseAfter completing her refit, Narwhal departed Pearl Harbor on 2 Feb 1942 on her first war patrol. She returned to Wake Island, which by then had fallen to the Japanese. She spent one day making a reconnaissance survey of Wake before departing for the waters south of Japan. Narwhal fired her first torpedoes of the war on 28 Feb 1942 when she fired two at the 7,000-ton Japanese tanker Manju Maru 400 miles south of Tokyo, damaging the ship. On her arrival at Pearl Harbor, Narwhal began another refit lasting two months that included a complete overhaul of her main engines.

ww2dbaseNarwhal and her engines were rushed back into service so Narwhal could leave port on 28 May 1942 in advance of the developing Battle of Midway. Narwhal was part of a group of 18 submarines assigned to form a picket line between Midway and the Hawaiian Islands, a last line of defense against the Japanese fleet. However, none of these submarines saw any action and Narwhal returned to Pearl Harbor on 12 Jun 1942.

ww2dbaseOn her next war patrol to the Kurile Islands north of Japan, Narwhal had her first experience with the frustrations of the Mark 14 torpedo with one dud hit and one torpedo running too deep in the same spread. This patrol ended two days ahead schedule because of engine casualties and consuming more fuel than anticipated. A six-month overhaul at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California followed immediately where Narwhal’s main engines and several other major components were replaced.

ww2dbaseAfter her overhaul, Narwhal sailed to San Diego where her torpedo racks and spare torpedoes were removed to make room for 120 bunks that were installed in their place. Narwhal then took aboard men of the US Army’s 7th Scout Company and sailed for Dutch Harbor, Alaska. From there, Narwhal and Nautilus, which had been similarly outfitted, sailed for Attu Island where they landed the Army scouts as the first elements of the assault to retake that island.

ww2dbaseNarwhal then shifted to Pearl Harbor before returning to the Kurile Islands. On 15 Jul 1943, Narwhal used her 6-inch guns to bombard the Japanese airfield on Matsuwa Island as a diversionary attack meant to help three other submarines exit the Sea of Okhotsk.

ww2dbaseNarwhal’s next patrol took her to the atolls of the Marshall Islands to make reconnaissance surveys. An unexpected secret dispatch sent Narwhal rather suddenly to Nauru Island where she torpedoed and sank the 5,000-ton transport Hokusho Maru. She then returned to the Marshalls and resumed her reconnaissance work. On 15 Sep 1943 while tracking two Japanese light cruisers, Narwhal had to evade approaching torpedoes with a quick dive; but Narwhal’s diving controls froze. Quick action restored control but not before Narwhal reached a depth of 390 feet, almost 100 feet deeper than her maximum test depth.

ww2dbaseNarwhal ended this patrol at Brisbane, Australia where she underwent a refit alongside submarine tender USS Fulton. This refit included refurbishing the extra bunks and other spaces in both torpedo rooms. With 83 tons of extra stores and ten members of the Philippine Army as passengers, Narwhal departed Australia bound for the Philippines. On 13 Nov 1943, she made a clandestine landing on the northern coast of the island of Mindoro where the ten passengers were put ashore along with 37 tons of ammunition and supplies. Two nights later, Narwhal landed the remaining 46 tons at Nasipit harbor on Mindoro and took aboard 32 Filipino evacuees including eight women, two children, and one baby. Narwhal then returned to Australia.

ww2dbaseThese types of patrols where men and stores were landed in the Philippines behind enemy lines were designated as Special Missions and counted as “successful patrols” whether or not they damaged enemy shipping. Eighteen other submarines, including Narwhal’s closest sister Nautilus, sailed on similar Special Missions. While this type of mission was not part of the 1920s concept for the cruiser V-boats, Narwhal’s ample size and stowage capacity made her much better suited for the task than most. From Nov 1943 onward, all of Narwhal’s combat sorties would be on Special Missions supporting the Philippine resistance fighters. These voyages took Narwhal to the Philippine islands of Mindoro, Panay, Negros, Mindanao, Mantabuan, Tawi Tawi, Samar, and Luzon. Over the course of all nine of Narwhal’s Special Missions (plus Attu), she landed over 500 tons of ammunition, stores, and cargo, over 250 troops, and brought back 226 evacuees, many of whom were women and children (including one woman who was 7-months pregnant). Among Narwhal’s evacuees were the only Allied survivors of the torpedoed “hell ship” Shinyo Maru.

ww2dbaseAs Narwhal plied these missions, she had to avoid Japanese shipping more often than she could attack, although her crew very much wanted to leave their mark on the enemy. On her tenth war patrol, during her withdrawal from landing supplies on Mindanao, Narwhal torpedoed and damaged the gunboat Karatsu before suffering a jarring depth charge response. Two days later when she was beached at Tawi Tawi, Narwhal was surprised by three Japanese patrol craft closing in. After a quick departure and a dive, Narwhal found two members of the Filipino loading party still on board. They, along with everyone else in Narwhal, then endured a four-hour depth charge attack.

ww2dbaseEarly in her next patrol, with 62 tons of extra cargo and 38 troops aboard, Narwhal made a torpedo attack on a small convoy and at least one ship was damaged. Narwhal began her next patrol making a reconnaissance survey of the harbor at Bula on Ceram Island in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Particular attention was paid to the oil storage tanks on the hills above the town. At dusk the same day, 13 Jun 1944, Narwhal surfaced and used her cruiser guns to shell those fuel tanks. Japanese shore batteries returned fire but by the time Narwhal withdrew, several of the oil tanks were burning furiously. A week later as Narwhal was attempting to land her men and cargo on the beach at Lipata on Panay, the Filipino boatmen were so uncooperative that what could have taken one or two hours, stretched to nine hours. With daylight approaching, Commander Titus aboard Narwhal gave the order to push the remaining stores over the side where shore personnel could float them ashore. He also ordered the Filipino deck party pushed over the side for them to swim to the beach and Narwhal withdrew to open water. As the submarine withdrew, she encountered a small Japanese patrol craft. To keep the attention of the Japanese away from the activities on the beach, Narwhal engaged the craft with gunfire causing unknown damage. The next day as Narwhal was making her return voyage toward Australia, she fired four torpedoes at the fully loaded Japanese tanker Itsukushima Maru with one hit that badly damaged the tanker.

ww2dbaseDuring Narwhal’s fourteenth war patrol, she landed 60 tons of cargo and 41 men at two locations on Mindanao before arriving at Siari Bay on western Mindanao. At Siari, Narwhal took aboard one doctor and 81 survivors who had been Allied POWs aboard the “hell ship” Shinyo Maru when that ship was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Paddle three weeks earlier. Four of the survivors could not walk and had to be carried by stretchers. The next day as Narwhal was crossing the Sulu Sea, she had to make a quick dive to avoid an approaching patrol plane. Again, Narwhal’s diving controls suddenly froze and Narwhal was stuck in a hard dive. An emergency blow of all ballast tanks stopped the dive at 170 feet but the maneuver also quickly returned the submarine to the surface. Narwhal’s commanding officer believed that he and the Japanese pilot flying overhead were equally surprised as the submarine’s stern shot through the surface. Narwhal’s diving control was sufficiently restored to make a dive to 90 feet before the patrol aircraft could respond with an attack. Records do not reflect how badly shaken the former POWs were after this wild ride, but Narwhal was redirected to Mios Woendi in Dutch New Guinea (now Papua, Indonesia) so the evacuees could benefit from the hospital facilities there.

ww2dbaseDuring Narwhal’s last war patrol on 19 Oct 1944, she landed 60 tons of cargo and 37 passengers off Colipapa on the island of Negros. She then took aboard fourteen children, one steward's mate left behind by Nautilus on her previous visit, and five Filipino men who said they wished to become steward's mates in the United States Navy. Narwhal then withdrew to Brisbane, Australia, arriving on 2 Nov 1944.

ww2dbaseBy this stage of the war, the need for submarines to supply Philippine soldiers was waning. General Douglas MacArthur and his forces had landed on Leyte and the more traditional Allied supply train had caught up with the Philippines. This, along with Narwhal’s old and tired engines, her exceedingly noisy moving parts (all of them), and her sticky diving gear that nearly sank the submarine twice all led quite easily to the decision to retire the boat. She sailed from Brisbane to the Panama Canal and then to the Philadelphia Navy Yard. USS Narwhal was taken out of commission on 23 Apr 1945 at Philadelphia, almost four months before the War in the Pacific ended. Her 6-inch deck guns were preserved and later mounted outside Morton Hall at the Submarine Base in New London, Connecticut. The end came when Narwhal was sold for scrap.

ww2dbaseUSS Narwhal completed fifteen war patrols and is credited with fifteen battle stars in World War II. This tied her with USS Thresher for the American submarine with the most battle stars and places Narwhal among the most decorated United States ships of World War II.

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