During the Second World War, Fremantle in Western Australia was the largest submarine base in the southern hemisphere. Most of the boats based there were from the United States (US) Navy. British and Dutch submarines also operated from Fremantle. Australia had no operational submarines during the war. Fremantle-based US Navy submarines conducted less than a quarter of US submarine patrols in the Pacific. Yet, they sank more Japanese tankers than all other US Navy submarines combined.

Selection of Fremantle as a base

Darwin was intended to be an Allied submarine base, but four matters made it unsuitable: 

  1. the high tidal range in the harbour
  2. vulnerable sea approaches
  3. lack of transport infrastructure to the rest of Australia
  4. it was in range of Japanese aircraft operating from fields on Timor and Ambon.

Exmouth, between Perth and Broome, was also considered, but decided against for many of the same reasons. 

Although further from the areas of operations, Fremantle had none of the problems of Darwin or Exmouth. Its harbour, however, was shallow. 

Fremantle became the major submarine base, along with the deep-water port of Albany, 421 kilometres south. The other Allied submarine base in Australia was at Brisbane.

1942

In early 1942, Fremantle was congested with ships carrying refugees from Southeast Asia. So many ships arrived that they were sometimes berthed four abreast with others waiting in the gage roads to enter. On 20 March 1942 there were 103 merchant and naval vessels in or off Fremantle.

The first American submarine to arrive in Fremantle was USS Sargo on 3 March 1942. Two days later the US Navy announced that its Asiatic submarine fleet would move to Fremantle from the Philippines. By the end of March, there were 22 submarines in Fremantle: 19 US Navy boats and three from the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNN). Submarine tenders (ships that offered replenishment, maintenance facilities, accommodation and other services) were also berthed at Fremantle, USS Holland being the first. 

Two wheat-loading sheds on wharves 19 kilometres up the Swan River became engineering workshops. The workshops operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week and employed over 200 Australian civilians. Many were from the Western Australian Government Railways and state engineering works. The Australians worked with 32 officers and 575 sailors from the US Navy. Together their skills covered many trades.

The Fremantle Harbour Trust managed Fremantle harbour. They oversaw loading and unloading by civilian workers. A US Navy officer worked with the trust on the berthing, pilotage, tugs and cranes US Navy vessels needed. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) provided security, including:

  • control of entry
  • underwater detection
  • radar
  • a submarine net.

US fleet submarines

Most of the US submarines operating out of Fremantle were fleet submarines. They were 91 metres long, had a range of 16 000 kilometres. They had a complement of 70 and could run at 20 knots on the surface and nine knots submerged. Eight 533mm (21-inch) torpedo tubes and a 102mm or 127mm (four-inch or five-inch) deck gun gave them solid offensive capabilities. Their sophisticated radar and sonar equipment also helped. 

Compared to most other submarines, fleet boats were comfortable to work and live in. They were air-conditioned and often had ice-cream-making machines. Smaller, shorter-range ‘S’ boats operated from Fremantle at times, but were mostly based in Brisbane.

Initial operations

By July 1942, the US Navy had 20 fleet boats based in Fremantle along with two tender ships, a cruiser, three seaplane tenders and four small craft. Early operations from Fremantle included special missions in support of the US troops in Corregidor, Philippines and the evacuation of the Philippine President and senior government personnel.

The Fremantle base was a part of General Douglas MacArthur’s South West Pacific Area (SWPA) command. Its first commanding officer was Captain John Wilkes US Navy. Wilkes had spent 20 years in submarines and was the commander of the US Asiatic Fleet that had been based in Manila, Philippines. Supplies and spare parts were among Wilkes’s most pressing concerns, as much had been abandoned in the Philippines. There were also no overhaul facilities in Fremantle so boats had to go to Pearl Harbor for overhauls.

On 22 May, Rear Admiral Charles Lockwood US Navy, who had nearly 20 years’ experience in submarines, replaced Wilkes as commander submarines SWPA. Lockwood faced a number of challenges: 

  • the shortage of torpedoes
  • the depth-keeping properties and malfunctioning exploders of the available torpedoes
  • the consequences of the loss of equipment and spares in the retreat from the Philippines
  • the need to establish infrastructure in Fremantle 
  • the poor morale of sailors and officers who had retreated or been evacuated from other bases.

The Battles of the Coral Sea (4 to 8 May 1942) and Midway (4 to 7 June 1942) helped improve morale. Tests Lockwood ran showed that Mark XIV torpedoes went three metres deeper than their settings. Those findings helped explain the often-unsatisfactory performance of US submarines when engaging a target. Lockwood also set up fuelling stations at Exmouth and Darwin to extend the range of submarines.

The use of submarines to support operations at Guadalcanal in August to November of 1942 was not especially successful. Submarines were more useful in their strategic role of interdicting Japanese maritime communications.

Three submarines from the RNN arrived in Fremantle in 1942. All were small, old, battle-worn and without spare parts. K8 was in the worst condition and was cannibalised for spares for the other two. Its engines were removed and used to power slipways, and the hull was scuttled off Fremantle to serve as a breakwater. 

K9 was transferred to the RAN. Initially used for anti-submarine warfare training, K9 ended the war was an oil lighter. K12 conducted special operations in the Netherlands East Indies and was later used for training. In Fremantle, RNN submariners joined Dutch refugees from the Netherlands East Indies. The refugees were mainly women and some formed an auxiliary service to help and entertain their naval compatriots.

1943

1943 saw a focus on operations against Japanese merchant shipping. USS Bowfin had a very successful patrol. It sank two tankers, a freighter, a cargo ship and a passenger-cargo liner; making a total of 26 500 tonnes. USS Bonefish was not far behind. It sank three ships for a total of 24 200 tonnes. The largest Japanese ship sunk in 1943 by Fremantle-based boats was the 17 500-tonne Kamakura Maru, dispatched by USS Gudgeon. 

US submarines also laid mines. One of the mines sank the Fubuki-class destroyer HIJMS Amagiri, the ship that sank Lieutenant John F Kennedy’s PT 109. A complete US Navy shore-based repair unit, Navy 137, supported these operations. It arrived in early 1943, at around the time the Fremantle slipway was lengthened to accommodate fleet boats.

Successes against Japanese shipping

Good skills and technology were two reasons for US submarine successes against Japanese shipping. The Japanese also had poor trade-protection practices, inadequate intelligence and some ineffective technology. Japan rarely convoyed merchant vessels and did not give convoys escorts or air support until 1943. 

While Japanese sonar and radio direction finding was effective, shipborne radar was not. Still, the Imperial Japanese Navy was a stubborn adversary when it came to anti-submarine warfare. USS Puffer endured a 31-hour attack in the Macassar Strait. It shut down its air-conditioning to reduce noise and the temperature in the boat went up to 52 degrees Celsius. Puffer survived but four other Fremantle-based Fleet boats were sunk in 1943.

US torpedoes

While US submarines were successful, the magnetic exploders on torpedoes limited their efficacy. The exploders either failed to detonate or detonated early, which put the submarine firing the torpedo at risk. 

One of the developers of the Mark-VI magnetic exploder, Rear Admiral Ralph Christie US Navy, took over from Lockwood as commanding officer in Fremantle. Lockwood was promoted to command Pacific Areas submarines at Pearl Harbor. At Pearl Harbor Lockwood convinced the Commander-in-Chief Pacific Ocean Areas, Admiral Chester Nimitz, to order the deactivation of the unreliable magnetic exploders. Christie claimed that Fremantle was in the SWPA command area and that he did not have to comply. A few months later, however, the deactivation of magnetic exploders was ordered for US Navy torpedoes in all theatres. 

The exploders became irrelevant in late 1943 when the electric torpedo was introduced. Based on Kriegsmarine (German Navy) torpedoes, electric torpedoes:

  • left no wake 
  • had accurate depth settings (an advantage in the shallow waters of the Southeast Asian archipelago)
  • had a reliable exploder
  • were cheaper and easier to make than the Mark XIV torpedoes.

Special operations

Frequent special operations were conducted in addition to regular patrols. Fremantle-based boats supported resistance forces and coast watchers, providing stores, arms and cash. For some of these missions US Navy submarines Narwhal or Nautilus were used. These were huge boats for the time: 113 metres long with a submerged displacement of over 4000 tonnes and a range of 29 000 kilometres. They had a complement of 90 and could carry 100 tonnes of supplies and large numbers of passengers.

1944

In 1944 the focus was tankers. Only aircraft carriers and battleships had higher priority. Tanker sinking increased. This was aided by electric torpedoes and supply-and-fuel dumps in the Marshall Islands, Guam, Manus Island and Biak. 

In January 1944 Japan imported one million barrels of oil. By July oil imports were down to 300 000 barrels. USS Jack sank five oil tankers, three escorts and an aviation gasoline tanker in January 1944. Other Fremantle boats were also successful. 

USS Flasher had similar success to Jack. Crevalle sank Japan’s largest tanker (the 16 800-tonnes Nisshin Maru). Rasher sank a 20 000-tonnes aircraft carrier, a 17 500-tonnes passenger liner, a 9 800-tonnes tanker and a 540-tonnes freighter—all in one night. In the first six months of 1944, Fremantle boats sank 156 500 tonnes of Japanese shipping. 

During the Pacific war, Fremantle-based submarines did 22 per cent of US submarine patrols. Yet, they were responsible for 58 per cent of Japanese tankers sunk. 

These activities took a toll on the submarines. On 3 March 1944 the floating dock, ARD 10, arrived in Fremantle to provide further maintenance and repair facilities. The dock was 150 metres long, 22 metres wide and easily accommodated the largest submarines. A mix of Australian civilians and American servicepeople worked on it. 

Signals intelligence and Japanese operations

In March 1944 signals intelligence reported that there would soon be a Japanese raid on the Fremantle base. The port was evacuated and a piquet of submarines stood off Fremantle to help defend it. No raid took place. 

Better quality intelligence was received in April, when the sailing of a Japanese troop convoy from Shanghai to New Guinea was discovered. Fremantle-based submarines attacked, causing the loss of half the 40 000 Japanese troops aboard when their ships were sunk.

British submarines based at Fremantle

In June 1944, there were 31 US submarines based at Fremantle, mostly from US Navy squadrons 12 and 16. At the end of July, British S and T class submarines from the RN’s 8th submarine flotilla joined the US boats at Fremantle. Their primary objective was the same as that for US boats: sinking Japanese tankers. 

British submarines also undertook special missions. These were often in Japanese-controlled waters and frequently involved guerrilla-style raids. All special mission personnel were volunteers. They received special training at Cockburn Sound on Garden Island, five kilometres off the coast and about 10 kilometres south of Fremantle. By the end of 1944 there were over 50 Allied submarines based at Fremantle.

US wolf pack tactics

US submarines usually operated independently. In 1944, however, wolf packs, mirroring German U-boat tactics in the Atlantic, were trialled. This tactic was rarely used because of the distances involved in SWPA operations, and the number of submarines needed to form an effective wolf pack. The exception was when submarines transferred to or from Pearl Harbor. The first US wolf pack was successful. Three boats, US Ships Flasher, Crevalle and Angler, attacked two convoys and sank six ships.

The battle for the Philippines

In late 1944, operations supporting the re-invasion of the Philippines took Fremantle-based submarines away from regular patrols. The submarines contributed to the success of the operation by finding and communicating the position of the main Japanese force. They also sunk the operation’s flagship, HIJMS Atago. Atago’s loss compromised Japanese communications, and command and control. 

The two greatest achievements of 1944 were: 

  1. clearing the South China Sea and Thai waters of Japanese ships
  2. blocking oil supply to Japan and limiting the operations of Japanese ships, aircraft and motorised transport.

1945

On 30 December 1944, Rear Admiral James Fife US Navy succeeded Christie at Fremantle. The only problem Fife and his submariners faced was a shortage of targets—a tribute to earlier submarine successes. 

Technology on US submarines was upgraded. New sonar equipment was better able to detect mines and enabled boats to navigate through minefields. Acoustic torpedoes (nicknamed ‘Cuties’) were introduced. New SJ radar was mounted on periscopes so boats could search while submerged, and night periscopes were also fitted.

Panamanian on fire

On 17 January 1945, a fire broke out in wheat on the freighter Panamanian. Panamanian was berthed adjacent to the ammunition and explosives-laden tender, HMS Maidstone. Oil slicks on the water in the harbour caught alight and it was feared that if the fire reached the 20 submarines in port, their ordnance could explode. This could destroy the port and parts of the town. 

As the paint on Panamanian’s hull began to burn, its ammunition—it was a defensively equipped merchant vessel—began to explode. Maidstone remained tied up. It was steam-powered and firing up its engines to move the ship would take a full day. A tug was called and Maidstone was towed away. It took 24 hours to bring the fire on Panamanian under control and six days to extinguish it fully.

Base relocation

As Japanese forces were pushed back towards Japan’s main islands, the distance from Fremantle to areas of operations increased.

In February 1945, Rear Admiral Fife sent a team and the tender USS Griffin to Subic Bay, on the recently liberated island of Luzon in the Philippines. There they established a new submarine base. 

The new base at Luzon was quickly operational but unpopular because conditions were primitive: 

  • the climate was hot and muggy
  • fighting continued in parts of the island 
  • it had limited recreational opportunities. 

Japanese shipping continued to be sunk at a high rate in 1945, but the remaining Japanese vessels were mostly small. US Navy submarines sank 200 small craft in 1944 and over 600 in 1945. It was a similar story for the Royal Navy, which sank 30 small craft in 1944 and almost 400 in 1945. Most of these vessels were too small to be included in official sinking statistics.

On 15 May 1945, Fife moved his headquarters and American and British submarines to Subic Bay. Operations at the Fremantle base were scaled down, but the RN’s 4th Flotilla relocated from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to Fremantle. 

There were few targets for the 4th flotilla boats, so they often served as ‘lifeguards’ positioned under flight paths to rescue air crew who had to ditch. 

The last US Navy submarine left Fremantle on 31 August 1945. RN boats stayed a little longer, but the Dutch navy used the base until 1947 as they sought, unsuccessfully, to restore colonial rule in the Netherlands East Indies. After the war, the shore facilities purchased under the Lend-Lease scheme were mostly scrapped. Much of it was dumped at sea.

Summary of operations

In total, Fremantle-based boats sank 377 ships, amounting to over 1.5 million tonnes. US Navy submarines sank the majority. Those figures exclude the hundreds of small craft sunk in the latter stages of the war. 

  • Around 118 American, 38 British and 11 Dutch submarines were based, for a time, at Fremantle. 
  • The US Navy conducted between 278 and 353 war patrols from Fremantle between 1942 and 1945. 
  • The RN and RNN conducted 41 to 63, depending on the source, in 1944 and 1945. 

Of the 43 Fremantle-based US submarines sunk, only eight had survivors. Some 22 per cent of US submariners on war patrols lost their lives. Three Fremantle submarines were sunk in 1945. The last, USS Bullhead, on 6 August, the day of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Ships sunk by Fremantle-based US Navy Submarines

(excluding small vessels)

 

1942

1943

1944

1945*

Ships sunk

40

65

180

55

Share of Fremantle war total

12%

19%

53%

16%

* January to August only.

Royal Navy submarines at Fremantle

In December 1941, there were no RN submarines in Southeast Asia. Two boats were stationed at Colombo in Ceylon but left before the end of 1942. RN boats did not return to the region until 1944, after the end of the naval war in the Mediterranean. 

Initially based at Trincomalee, Ceylon, in September 1944 10 RN submarines, several crewed by Dutch submariners and under RNN command, transferred to Fremantle. These submarines were smaller than US Fleet boats and had shorter ranges. Good for operations in shallow waters, they operated mostly in Netherlands East Indies’ and Malayan waters.

RN submarines often did special missions such as Operation RIMAU. This involved 3.6-metre electric submersibles, many crewed by Australians, which attached limpet mines to ships in Singapore harbour. The cost of the operation was high. Twelve of the men on the submersibles were killed in action. One died in captivity and 10 were captured and executed. 

On 8 June 1945, HMS Trenchant sank the 15 000-tonne heavy cruiser HIJMS Ashigara, the largest warship sunk by a British submarine in any theatre.

British T class submarines such as Trenchant were modified for local conditions. Fitted with air-conditioning and freshwater distillers, they had an extended range of 18 000 kilometres. With a 3 200-kilometre transit to their area of operations, range was an important consideration. 

The T class submarines were an improvement on previous models. However, when compared to American fleet boats, they were, one British officer remarked, ‘slums’. On the positive side, the British submarine tender, HMS Maidstone, had beer on tap for a penny a glass—a fraction of the price charged in hotel bars. Unlike Australian hotels, Maidstone’s bar did not close at 6pm.

Royal Netherlands Navy submarines at Fremantle

The RNN’s K-class submarines have already been mentioned. The three that made it to Fremantle, along with four boats that reached Colombo, were the survivors of a flotilla of 15 that had been based in the Netherlands East Indies. Two of the Colombo K-class boats were refitted in the US and later based at Fremantle. 

In October 1944, the RNN’s Zwaardvisch (Swordfish), originally a T class RN submarine, sank the Kriegsmarine’s U-168. The U-boat was transporting new German warfare technology to Japan so was especially valuable target for attack. On the same voyage, Zwaardvisch also sank Japan’s largest minelayer, HIJMS Itsuku Shima. Two further RNN submarines, O.21 and O.24 joined the RN’s 4th submarine flotilla in Fremantle in April 1945.

The Dutch tally at the end of the war was 16 Japanese merchant ships, 13 coastal vessels and two Imperial Japanese Navy warships. While that was only one per cent of Japanese shipping sunk, the Netherlands was occupied from May 1940 and its submarines were few, old and small.

Interaction with Western Australians

The 1942 booklet, Instructions for American Servicemen in Australia, advised that Australians were ‘instantaneously sociable … breezy and very democratic’. Americans and Australians got along easily and well. Fremantle and Perth were popular with all Allied submariners and other naval personnel. Many remarked on the friendliness of Western Australians and most found the climate appealing.

The population of Western Australia in 1942 was just under half a million. Approximately half lived in Perth, the state capital, and about 18 000 in Fremantle, Perth’s port. 

Fremantle was the site of the first British settlement in Western Australia, the Swan River Colony of 1829, 21 kilometres southwest of the city. It is linked to Perth by the Swan River and, since 1881, a rail line.

In November 1941 HMAS Sydney was sunk off the Western Australian coast after an action with the German cruiser Kormoran. None of the 645 officers and sailors on Sydney survived. 

In March 1942, Broome, 2200 kilometres north of Perth, suffered an air raid. Western Australians were worried by the sinking of Sydney, the air raid on Broome and the ships sunk by the Japanese submarine I-1 around the time of the Broome raids. Those living on the coast moved or were evacuated inland. Fearing a carrier-based air raid, many Perth citizens built air raid shelters. Anti-aircraft guns and searchlights were set up and a blackout was imposed.

To accommodate submariners during rest and recreation periods, the US Navy leased four hotels, two of them on the coast. Dutch officers and men were billeted with local families. They were paid billeting expenses of £15 per month; a generous rate considering bed and board was seldom more than £6 per month.

Fremantle and Perth pubs enjoyed the patronage of Allied servicemen, as did cafés, shops, nightclubs and dance halls. Western Australians often took Allied servicemen into their homes for meals or accompanied them to the cinema, sports matches, dances, horse races, beaches or to visit inland Western Australia. The United Services Club, YMCA and an Allied Services Club provided venues for servicemen to relax and socialise. 

Most US servicemen were startled that hotels closed at 6pm. But they, like Australians, learned where to get alcohol after hours and how to smuggle bottles into dance halls and nightclubs, which were ‘dry’.

Officers seldom mixed with crews when off duty. Not only did they have separate accommodation, segregation was maintained even in shared venues. It was typical to find officers in the lounge of a hotel and sailors in the public bar. 

While Australian hospitality was warmly received, industrial action disturbed some service leaders. Rear Admiral Lockwood was frustrated at the slow pace of work and, although there were strikes in the US during the war, disconcerted that strikes took place in Australia.

Relations with the civil population and between the service personnel of different countries were generally friendly. On Tuesday 11 April 1944, however, an estimated 500 men took part in a brawl outside the National Hotel in Fremantle. They used knives and broken bottles. Many needed hospital treatment and two New Zealand soldiers died of stab wounds. Police blamed the violence on the New Zealanders who were in transit through Fremantle. 

In December 1943 another brawl—far smaller and over a taxi—led to the death of a Dutch seaman. These and one rape case were the only major incidents to mar the usually genial interactions.

The recklessness and hedonism that is typical during wartime led to high rates of venereal disease. Over 800 cases were reported in the first 10 months of 1942. Infections were seldom the result of contact with Perth’s Roe Street prostitutes. Only 8.5 per cent of cases during the war originated from that source. Local women contracted and spread the disease. 

The presence of naval personnel in Fremantle and Perth stimulated the Western Australian economy. In addition to a surge in the hospitality, entertainment and retail sectors, Australia provided the food for Allied service personnel. A beef shortage meant Americans had to eat mutton and rabbit, neither was much liked. Australians reared more pork and grew more corn grown to satisfy American tastes.

Allied navies in Western Australia hosted a range of events for locals. The children’s Christmas party run by the US Navy was very popular. Servicemen from the US, Britain and Netherlands often married Australian women. After the end of the war many young women left to join their husbands in the US and elsewhere. Many British and Dutch servicemen, however, settled in Australia with Australian wives.

Fremantle was a popular base among Allied sailors and officers. One base commander, Rear Admiral Lockwood, wrote: 

[O]ne request I learnt to expect from skippers of submarines who felt the right to ask a favour for their crews […] was to end the next patrol in Fremantle.

More importantly, American, British and Dutch submariners, along with their support personnel, made a significant contribution to the war against Japan. There are memorials to Allied submariners and to US Navy personnel on Fremantle’s Monument Hill.

Bibliography and further reading

Clay Bair, Silent Victory: The US Submarine War Against Japan. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, 1975.

Lynne Cairns, Secret Fleets: Fremantle’s World War II Submarine Base. Welshpool, WA: Western Australian Museum, 2nd ed. 2011.

David Creed, Operations of the Fremantle Submarine Base 1942-45. Garden Island, NSW: The Naval Historical Society of Australia, 2000.

Doug Hurst, The Fourth Ally: The Dutch Forces in Australia in WWII. Chapman, ACT: Doug Hurst, 2001.

Special Services Division, Services of Supply, US Army, Instructions for American Servicemen in Australia. Washington, DC: War and Navy Departments, 1942, Penguin Group Australia reprint, 2007.

Michael Sturma, Fremantle’s Submarines: How Allied Submariners and Western Australians Helped to Win the War in the Pacific. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2015.

D. H. van Velden, ‘Fremantle’s Forgotten Fleet: A Social History of the Royal Netherlands Navy in Western Australia, 1942-1945’. Doctoradnus thesis, University of Leiden, n.d.