Bells toll for lost World War II submarnes, submariners

Three World War II submariners joined active-duty and retired sailors Thursday in remembering peers killed during World War II.

Robert Paul, a retired Navy electronics technician, struck a brass bell 55 times during a Tolling the Boats ceremony, once for each of the 52 submarines lost during the war, two for ill-fated Cold War subs USS Thresher and USS Scorpion, and a final time for any Navy submariners who died serving their country.

Retired machinist mate Harry Gilger read the name of each boat and the fate of its crew, followed by a gong of the bell. Most subs lost everybody, around 70 to 90 sailors. Altogether, more than 3,500 perished.

"I had tears in my eyes, I'll tell you," World War II submariner John Baker said of the tolling, for which everybody in Naval Undersea Museum stood. "It makes you think, when you hear all of those boats."

Baker, 87, served as a radio man aboard the USS Atule from 1943 to 1946. The Port Townsend man went on four war patrols. Atule sank four warships and four merchant ships, including troop transport Asama Maru on Nov. 1, 1944, in the South China Sea.

The boat had many close calls, including being shaken by depth charges, but nobody was hurt and the sub suffered little damage, Baker said.

Ed Ferris, 85, of Port Ludlow served from 1942 to 1967. He was a torpedoman during 13 war patrols aboard the USS Drum, which sank 31 ships, and was awarded a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.

Elbert Hill's sub, USS Tuna, was all over the South Pacific before finishing the war in The Philippines. The scariest moment, said the Des Moines man, was May 4, 1944. The Takima Maru, bound for Wake Island, put up a fight when taken under fire by the submarine's two 20-mm guns. In the face of return fire, Tuna opened up with its 3-inch deck gun, scored a hit on the first salvo, sinking the trawler. However, the chief of the boat was swept overboard and drowned.

"That was the sad part," he said.

The Tuna sank 13 boats, and Hill was along for a few of them.

"It was a sad, sad situation, but that was wartime," he said of all the lost boats and sailors. "It was a volunteer part of the Navy. Everyone volunteered and took our chances."

The Tolling the Boats ceremony has been held since 1977 by the U.S. Submarine Veterans of World War II, and for seven years at Keyport. The dwindling group mixed with U.S. Submarine Veterans Inc., which inducted three members into the Holland Club on Thursday for being submarine qualified for 50 years. They are Roger Bacon, a Bremerton native and former assistant chief of naval operations for undersea warfare; Robert Schuessler of Port Hadlock, who served from 1960 to 1967; and Dale Derricote of Poulsbo, who retired in 1991 as a chief warrant officer after 30 years in the Navy.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. submarines had to hold the line against the Japanese while "our fleets replaced losses and repaired wounds," said guest speaker Capt. Brian Humm, quoting Fleet Admiral C.W. Nimitz from 1945. Humm commands the USS Ohio Blue Crew.

U.S. submarines sank 214 Japanese warships and 1,178 merchant ships, and were instrumental in winning the war, but they paid a high price. They suffered nearly a 23 percent casualty rate, highest in any service.

"We remind ourselves of the price of freedom and honor those who paid the price for us with honor, courage and commitment," Humm said of the ceremony.