The decision to establish United States Navy (USN) submarine bases and support facilities in Australia during World War II followed a series of victories by the Imperial Japanese forces that resulted in domination of South East Asia and much of the South-West Pacific. These Japanese victories forced the American Asiatic Fleet submarines to evacuate their base at Cavite in the Philippines, from where they successively withdrew to Bataan, Java, Hawaii and Australia.
To support a major submarine offensive, the USN selected the ports of Fremantle, Western Australia, and Brisbane, Queensland. Both locations rapidly developed the necessary facilities and infrastructure.
Brisbane proved highly suitable, with well-established port facilities and a dry dock capable of handling most US submarines then in service. It was also out of range of Japanese aircraft based in New Guinea. Brisbane became a major submarine maintenance facility, with 89 submarines dry-docked for repairs over a three year period.
The first of eleven S-Class submarines arrived at New Farm, on the Brisbane River, in company with the tender USS Griffin, on 15 April 1942, under the command of Captain RW Christie, USN. By the end of the month, four S-boats were on active war patrols.
The S-boats were soon involved in the Solomon Islands campaign, and one of them, S-44 (Lieutenant Commander JR ‘Dinty’ Moore, USN), became the first US submarine to sink a major enemy warship when it torpedoed the Japanese cruiser Kako off Kavieng on 10 August 1942. Moore was subsequently awarded the Navy Cross for this action.
The ship's company of S-44 assembled on the submarine's casing in Brisbane.
S-44, under the command of Lieutenant Commander JR Moore, USN, became the first US submarine to sink an enemy warship during the Second World War.
As the war progressed, the new Gato-class submarines replaced the ageing S-Class boats. The Gato-class were equipped with radar, had a greater radius of action, higher speed, and a larger payload of torpedos. In addition to interrupting Japanese sea lines of communication, the US submarines supported Australian coast watchers and Special Forces operating deep behind enemy lines throughout the Pacific. They also rescued numerous Allied airmen who had been shot down, or who had ditched, over the sea.
Lieutenant Commander DW Morton, USN and Lieutenant Commander Howard Gilmore, USN both distinguished themselves in submarines based in Brisbane.
Several famous US submarines operated from Brisbane, including USS Wahoo (Lieutenant Commander DW ‘Mush’ Morton, USN) and USS Growler (Lieutenant Commander HW Gilmore, USN). Gilmore was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honour in recognition of his self-sacrifice during Growler’s fourth wartime patrol, mounted from Brisbane on 1 January 1943. During that patrol, Growler was on the surface in the early hours of 7 February preparing to attack the Japanese armed store ship Hayasaki, when the enemy ship altered course with the intent of ramming Growler. Gilmore sounded the alarm, but the two vessels collided, causing considerable damage to Growler. Following the impact, Hayasaki's heavy machine guns opened fire on Growler’s conning tower at point-blank range. Two of the submarine’s crew were killed and three wounded, including Gilmore. To expedite the submarine’s escape, Gilmore refused to be helped below, instead ordering his Executive Officer to ‘take her down’. After evading a brief depth charge attack, the submarine surfaced to find the sea empty, with no sign of the enemy or Lieutenant Commander Gilmore. The collision had bent some five and a half metres of Growler’s bow at right angles to port, and the conning tower was full of holes from machine gun fire. In spite of this damage, the crew made temporary repairs, and after a slow ten-day transit back to Australia, Growler entered Moreton Bay and underwent extensive repairs in Brisbane.
By the war’s end, patrols under Brisbane’s submarine command resulted in the sinking of 117 enemy ships, totalling 515,000 tons. This number included three heavy and two light Japanese cruisers. Seven of the Brisbane based submarines were lost.
Vice Admiral Sir John Collins, KBE, CB, RAN acknowledged the contribution of the US submarine campaign to overall victory in the Pacific when he wrote, ‘[A] big factor, at the time little known, was the US submarine campaign in the Pacific which practically annihilated the once flourishing Japanese merchant marine. Great credit is due to the American submariners for their success in a difficult task.’
Sailors in the submarine tender USS Griffin update Submarine Squadron 5’s scoreboard. (Image: USN #80-G-77065)
Further reading:
David Jones and Peter Nunan, US Subs Down Under: Brisbane 1942–1945. Annapolis, MD, US Naval Institute Press, 2005.
Michael Sturma, Fremantle’s Submarines: How Allied submariners and Western Australians helped to win the war in the Pacific. Annapolis, MD, US Naval Institute Press, 2015.