Fremantle S Submarines

Contrary to what many Australians believe, during 1942 Japanese submarines were active in Australian waters and Japanese spy planes made surveillance flights over our major cities. With enemy submarines patrolling off the Western Australian coast, Fremantle became an important international submarine base, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. During the war Fremantle played host to over 170 Allied submarines, with submarines of the United States, British and Dutch navies making a total of 416 war patrols out of the port between March 1942 and August 1945. The secrecy surrounding the operation of the Fremantle submarine base meant that its existence was little known at the time and, until now, has been largely forgotten by history.

From unpromising beginnings in March 1942, the Allied submarine base at Fremantle on the west coast of Australia became a vital part of the Allied offensive against Japan. Pushed back from the Philippines and the Netherlands’ East Indies, American submariners, accompanied by a small group of Dutch forces, retreated to Fremantle as a last resort. The location was chosen for its good harbor and the fact that it was outside the range of land-based Japanese aircraft. Unfortunately the base was also far from their patrol areas and supply lines, and it was difficult to reinforce should the enemy attack. Thanks largely to a welcoming civilian population, morale quickly improved. The hospitality and sense of belonging fostered by Western Australians became legendary among Allied submariners and remains central to their wartime memories. Perhaps as a result of such a positive experience, the Allied forces became much more successful in combat. Intertwining social and military history, Fremantle’s Submarines relates how courage, cooperation, and community made Fremantle arguably the most successful military outpost of World War II from the standpoint of troop morale.

Contrary to what many Australians believe, during 1942 Japanese submarines were active in Australian waters and Japanese spy planes made surveillance flights over our major cities. With enemy submarines patrolling off the Western Australian coast, Fremantle became an important international submarine base, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. During the war Fremantle played host to over 170 Allied submarines, with submarines of the United States, British and Dutch navies making a total of 416 war patrols out of the port between March 1942 and August 1945. The secrecy surrounding the operation of the Fremantle submarine base meant that its existence was little known at the time and, until now, has been largely forgotten by history.

TORPEDOES AWAY, SIR! is the story of our submarine navy in the Pacific during the first eighteen months of the Japanese war. Anecdotes are told about real men and real submarines. Besides painting a vivid picture of the exciting underwater warfare and of the heroism of our submariners, TORPEDOES AWAY, SIR! gives an accurate, clear description of an actual submarine. The illustrations include about thirty official U.S. Navy photographs, some of them pictures of the very submarine described, and a map with the places mentioned clearly marked. Maxwell Hawkins, the author, gathered the material for this interesting book by doing extensive research in the archives of the Navy Department and also by questioning the submariners themselves about their experiences in the Pacific. Being a newspaperman who knows that profession from reporter to newsstand, Mr. Hawkins is well qualified to give an accurate account of the exciting adventures of our men in the submarine service.

The submarine emerged as a serious weapons system during the First World War (1914 - 1918). During that conflict Germany with its unrestricted submarine warfare campaign of 1917 nearly drove Great Britain to the negotiating table. Its U-boats sank 6,196 ships of 13,438,632 gross register tons. Despite post-war attempts to ban the submarine from warfare, it survived. Both Italy and Germany used submarines, covertly, during the Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939). This book, Part Two of a series, discusses the use of submarines during World War Two (1939 - 1945) and their effectiveness. It focuses principally on two strategic submarine campaigns. The first is about German U-boats against British and neutral commerce. That campaign finally failed during the Battle of The Atlantic in 1943. The second deals with American submarines against Japanese shipping from Southeast Asia to the home islands, a campaign that successfully isolated Japan from its sources of raw materials and foodstuffs during 1944 and effectively defeated Japan.