(hello and welcome to episode 436 of the unauthorized history of the Pacific War podcast my name is Seth peran historian and deputy director of the Mississippi Armed Forces museum with me as always is my esteem co-host retired Navy Captain Bill toy former Skipper of the fast attack submarine USS Indianapolis commodor submarine Squadron 3 and pro Harbor and many others how are you on this February the 7th Bill I’m I’m doing good Seth you know the funny thing is the week as we’re recording it this week

the Lockwood episode aired yes my wife Karen said that I was more animated than normal during that episode so we’re going to do another submarine episode today I’m wondering should I dial it down a bit no no okay no dial it up to 11 as they say in spinal tap right bring up to goes up to 11 that’s right we’re both thinking of the same movie there Seth and but and by the way we just came back from a trip to San Diego on the Midway where we saw a few of our uh um our viewers and listeners and boy did I enjoy that Seth that was

awesome yeah I agree uh John’s obviously is not here with us today but he was there with us on that trip and uh it was fantastic it was ABS we saw a lot more than a few of our listeners and and Watchers there were a lot of guys there and and ladies too and uh it was great it was great meeting everybody that uh came out there to to the conference I’m not arrogant enough to say they came out to see us but uh well that’s what they said that’s what they said but you know one couple flew all the way from Tampa to San Diego they got the award so

somebody one of our friends flew from Canada but he’s a friend so yeah he’s A’s he’s a dude yeah but uh no it was great I love s any excuse for me to go to San Diego is a good excuse I love that town always have it’s one of my f it is my favorite city in the country and um getting to get up there on on the stage as it were with with you and John and talk you know Navy history or Pacific history uh to a bunch of our listeners and viewers was just a lot of fun uh getting a hang out with those guys and gals um as all guys on Saturday

night especially Sunday night that was just a great time um and the the appreciation that was showed to us bill would it it kind of took me AB back you know because I’ve always said that we’re just we’re just dudes you know I mean we’re just regular guys and the appreciation and the love frankly that was shown to us just was uh very gratifying and we deeply deeply deeply appreciate it really do yeah you know what we don’t deserve it so I’m sorry well but it was um it was very I guess it’s a good thing for us to

understand that the stories that we tell not us but the stories that we tell are affecting people greatly and and thank you for for for communicating that to us yes I get so many emails and I know you do as well as said and I feel guilty about not being able to answer them all uh some of them are very personal yes um I just you know we I apologize for that but it’s thank you for for for sending them and communicating to us it just keeps us going really cuz we would have given this up a long time ago if it was

for that 100% agree 100% agree and there’s there’s a lot more stories to tell sorry my coffee is giving me reflux this morning I do apologize but uh yeah there’s a lot more stories to tell and we’re you know we’re nearing the end of season 4 it’s obvious um and when we get to this episode here in just a second it’s going to be you know we’re kind of jumping around but but we’re going to wrap up season 4 in the next I don’t know three four five weeks and take a little bit of a break in and start on season 5 there’s a lot more to tell and

talk about so so stay tuned everybody we’re going to get there there’s a lot of really cool cool material we got lined up um so anyway bill you ready to go let’s let’s do this one I know you’re excited about this one this is going to be a good one yeah all right here we go so in our Mind’s Eye we usually see American submarines in the Pacific plowing through the Placid dark Waters of the Empire at night slaying Japanese shipping by The Bushel and for the most part our mind’s eyes are portraying an accurate representation of the exact

role of US pigboats during World War II Convoy destruction warship sinking the strangulation of the Japanese empire Aviator rescue and Lifeline all of these are true all of these are accurate to the overall story of American submarines in the Pacific but one story is often left out of that overall narrative Special Operations covert Ops as it were sliding along silent and deadly unseen unheard unknown if there ever was a vehicle that was perfect for Special Operations in the Pacific Theater the United States Navy submarine was that

vehicle some of the most exhilarating if not war changing stories of the pigboats of the Pacific were were stories that for the crews were just a blip on the SG radar of their wartime careers however many however many of these missions had far-reaching effects effects that sometimes tip the scales if not of the entire campaign at least for those who were there doing the Tipping at the time delivery of material explosives orders operatives and the like played an enormous part in the war in the Philippines keeping our Filipino allies

in the war was often executed by lone American submarines evacuation of operatives key civilians and sometimes simply families played an important part in their War all of these and much more are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to submarine Special Operations in the Pacific now bill this has been an idea for a topic that I’ve wanted to do really since like season two but just pushed it off because we were on a mission to you know get through the war now that we’re almost through the War I figured this was a good time to bring it

out and I know this one’s tickling your fancy for sure yeah it does Seth not the least of which is I’ve got several award citations awarded to me personally that talk about um this award is conduct is is being given for conducting a special operation of great importance to the defense of the United States so you can let your mind wander as to whether or not submarine still do these kinds of missions but you know I can neither confirm nor deny Seth that we still do this kind of thing that we’re GNA talk about today I think everybody knows that

answer bill but anyway it’s it’s it’s really cool I mean it really is you know and it’s a story that and and we’ll get to the reasons why you don’t hear a lot about this it’s not like you know it was hidden from view or anything like that it’s just that most sub Skippers didn’t really like doing this and it was just just literally it was just a blip on their radar because it was something it was a stopover on a way to do something else and and but still it’s very very intriguing and it’s really cool and I think you guys are going to dig this so

almost as soon as the Pacific War Began American submarines became involved in covert Ops unfortunately in the dark days of 1941 and 42 early 42 most of these covert Ops were evacuations and escapes and you know where I’m talking about here nonetheless they were important and many of them took place in the Philippines amidst the chaos of the fall of Douglas MacArthur’s beloved archipelago one of the subs that immediately got herself into the war was when you don’t hear about often you always talk about you know Wahoo and

tang and drum and silver sides but this one was important for many reasons not the least of which is she carried out the very first submarine special operation of World War II in the Pacific and her name was USS Seawolf Bill tell us about sea wolf yeah so it’s a sargo class submarine laid down in 1938 Seawolf had found herself in the thick of it and began her first war Patrol on December 8th 1941 that’s what the day after Pearl Harbor by January 42 Seawolf sailing out of Manila had already made three War patrols that’s

December to January under the command of Lieutenant Commander Frederick Fearless Freddy wer now Seth one of my first chief of the boat when I was I think I was engineered during this tour where I had had a chief of the boat who who was made earned his Dolphins the year I was born so that cob his name was Fearless Freddy Foo what a great name for a Submariner we’re talking about here Fearless Freddy wer wer had commanded Seawolf for several months before the war and would command her for over three years how he got his nickname is open

for dispute some say that Fearless Freddy earned his nickname from his attacks on Japanese Cruisers in the Philippine area closing to within spitball range to ensure hits a lot of those guys did close inside 800 yards Seth almost the range was so short you were worried that the that the torpedo wouldn’t have time to arm before it hit the target so that this is this guy used to do this kind of thing because he did not want to miss Seth no he didn’t and and you know I tried to track down you know if he really did hit any and he did

or at least theoretically he did hit he didn’t sink any Cruisers but he did do some damage in an early part of the war but as I put into notes I personally prefer the story of how he got his nickname Fearless Freddy by going toe-to-toe with none other than Admiral Thomas Hart which was the Asiatic fleet’s commanding officer he was the nimit of the Asiatic Fleet uh Hart had um he he went to toe-to-toe with Hart because his crew like most of the crew was imprisoned they were in the brig theoretically for starting a barroom

brawl not the barro brawl but a barroom brawl somewhere in Manila they threw the whole dang crew or most of it in the clink and wer went to fight to get them out and succeeded in doing that and uh he went to bat for his entire crew to none other than Admiral Thomas Hart and got his people out of the brig and I tried to find out if like there were any like hanging charges or anything like that and I don’t mean hanging but I mean like charges that were floating over the crew or anybody and I couldn’t I wasn’t

able to locate anything but the sheer fact that this guy had the guts to go up against the commanding officer of the Asiatic Fleet and go to bat for his crew is a big deal to me I mean that’s that’s a leader that’s a leader of men standing up for his crew um you know he was known for his salty language which is obviously if you hung out with us on Saturday or Sunday night in San Diego you know that I used that quite often and his devil mayare attitude kind of a precursor to Mush Morton if you will and for these reasons and more his crew

absolutely worshiped him as manila’s fall became obvious and US Asiatic Fleet submarine Ops out of the Philippines became more and more difficult the task of pulling out and moving to Australia became order number one uh throughout her early War Patrol Seawolf had fed ammunition to the forces in and around Manila and corgador for instance uh she had departed Manila on 31 December 1941 for Australia and arrived at Darwin on the 9th of January 42 she loaded between 30 and 40 tons of 50 caliber ammunition for use by American forces on corgador

and sail from Manila Bay on the on the 16th of January she had performed special ops in the past to some degree Bill yes she had and by the way Seth I wouldn’t have been surprised if his crew really did um start that barroom brawl but anyway back and it’s so good that he um stood up for them regardless in January 42 Seawolf had brought more supplies to kodor following the completion of her War Patrol number three the submarine broke the calm Waters off the besieged island of corgador sailing cautiously toward south

dock hoping to avoid aerial detection by roving Japanese fighter patrols when Seawolf was securely moed the crew began transfering transferring her cargo 36 tons of anti-aircraft shells destined for the Island’s desperate Garrison unloaded now wer knew that his Patrol he was about to embark on would be the last from Manila Bay now Admiral John wils submarine Commander Asiatic Fleet knew that he had to order the evacuation of what remained of his Force out of the Philippines he ordered the majority of of his boats to leave Manila

and head to cabaya and then to Australia fully aware that several hundred submariners were landlocked in the Philippines mostly codor wils made the painful decision of exactly who would be evacuated and who would be left behind so this is really tough what does he do Seth that is one of the that’s got to be ar- wrenching for the guy because I mean again you know as you’ve said a million times of Marine force is a teeny tiny portion of the United States Navy so if you don’t think that wils knew 95% of those guys are crazy and he knew that he

was leaving those guys behind to a very probably brutal if not fatal fate so Freddy Warder Seawolf would be one of the boats to Ferry these evacuated guys out of cor or off of corgador as it were but the guys that he was going to bring were not even Navy men his passengers would be Army Pilots deemed too important to leave behind and this is why these guys are too important and this is huge if you think about it these precious few aviators were among the only ones in the entire United States Army Air Forces that had any combat

experience against the Japanese they could and would provide invaluable lessons to those who would follow behind them in the coming years water was apparently infuriated with the order as was typical he voiced his displeasure loudly and often but in the end obviously complied W Seawolf carried 25 passengers and his trip as he called it the bus trip would be the very first of nearly 300 missions identified by the United States Navy as submarine Special Operations wers displeasure at the bus Mission as he called it was duly noted

by Admiral Hart W’s onetime sparring partner who also voiced his displeasure Hart did dis voiced his displeasure at his offensive boats being used in a different manner as he said and he said and I quote this command has been continuously attempting to satisfy numerous demands for use of submarines for various evacuation and fing trips those trips included included transporting high ranking officials more pilots members of a top secret radio intelligence unit and 20 tons of gold and silver from the Philippine treasury

we’re going to get to that in a second they also carried in as much ammunition and food stuffs as the boats could fit Hart noted that these special missions detracted from offensive operations but Washington no surprise here seemed to pay no heed the last trip to corgador was made on May 3rd by USS Spearfish redirected from a war Patrol off the lingayan Gulf to pick up 27 passengers 12 were Army nurses two were unauthorized stowaways the island Fortress fell to the Japanese just three days later but going back to what we

were talking about here just a minute ago or just a second ago bill you know he B didn’t like doing these kind of things anyway neither of most sub Skippers for that matter but he was really IR rate when he found out he was hauling army guys off of kodor but the fact that these guys were combat veterans amongst the teeny tiny few that had experienced any wor area Warfare against the Japanese this plays a huge role or will play a huge role in America’s Futures in the Pacific because he got these guys out so they can impart their lessons

learned the hard way on the guys that are coming with him I mean that’s a huge thing it is yes but having to leave those Su runers behind you had to be incredibly heartbreaking of course you know you’d want to get them get the army guys out hopefully get back uh to pick up other people before they were overrun but that’s not the way it worked out so you know people say well where do these submarines put this stuff because there’s no storage rooms really on submarines are pretty full and let me tell you that even in modern days when

we would load out for a 90-day run we would put food on in crates on the floor and you would walk on it on the deck and you would walk on it so a lot of times when you hear them loading out a whole bunch of stuff like this they’re putting it on the deck and and the saors having to duck down passageways because they raised the level of deck for all this stuff that they’re loading in the submarine and to because that’s the only place you really have to to load some of this stuff there’s there’s no other storage uh available so supplies and

passengers were not not the only thing that us submarines brought in or out of the Philippines in 42 USS trout it’s SS 202 was one of the first Pearl Harbor based boats to see action in the war on the night of December 7 1941 trout lay on the surface 10 mies from Midway Island and noted gun flashes in the distance hearing midway’s call that two Japanese destroyers were shelling the island trout under the commander Lieutenant Commander n Mike feno raced at full speed but could not catch the Speedy Japanese destroyers now

a war Patrol Trout’s first run ended with no sightings and no sinkings returning to Pearl she stood out of the harbor on January 12th 1942 for her second war Patrol loaded down with some here we go 3,800 rounds of 3-in AAA ammunition for crador again you’re going to lay this stuff on the decks and you’re going to walk on and so you know the ammunition is laying horizontally feno an aggressive and hard driving Skipper did not like this assignment you can understand why as the extra weight left his boat short on

Torpedoes oh I’m going to talk about variable balance later because this really gets to the heart of how much stuff can you really load and it’s restricted by weight folks however like the water before he complied on February 3rd CH rev vued with with pt34 and was escorted through the minefields to corridor’s South dock there after unloading his ammunition feno proceeded to acquire more Torpedoes now bereft of the weight of the 3-in ammunition before he could gather more fish however he was told that his boat

would be carrying more ballast before he could go out hunting near midnight it developed that Commander fenel would need more weight on board for ballast to help make up for the tons of heavy projectiles removed he requested 25 tons of ballast in the form of sandbags or crushed rock but none could be spared no crushed rock could be spared on the rock that is codor bags of sand and crushed rock were far too valuable on kodor you know they’re trying to build up barriers sandbags yeah you sandbags Lieutenant Commander TC Parker

Naval Aid to the High Commissioner woke up Philippine vice president Sergio Asa and M members of The High Commissioner staff and said something that’s really incredible I’m going to hand it over to you Seth to talk about what that something is yes so as you said finno or trout needed needed ballast he needed to put some ballast in the submarine because now he’s you know he’s lose he lost weight that ballast that they suggested that they put into trout was gold gold bully gold and silver but mostly gold uh trout would receive her ballast

and a gentleman named commissioner SE would be rid of the gold that was on the Philippines now why do you want to get rid of the gold that’s on the Philippines in the Philippines because they don’t want the Japanese to get it and gold is a very valuable commodity obviously duh I’m not saying something that people don’t know but the gold bullion the Securities and some silver were going to be put on trout for ballast with ultimate delivery to Pearl Harbor for eventual transfer to the United States for the duration of the

war we didn’t want the Japanese to get this gold I mean money is what makes the war run or not run as the case may be and we didn’t want the Japanese to get any of it that we could handle commissioner se’s financial adviser a guy named Woodward Willoughby was in charge of the delivery of the treasure from the vaults in and around Manila and after clearance was told by Commander Parker to have 20 tons of gold Securities and silver ready for loading on trout Willoughby made arrangements with acting Secretary of Finance for the

Philippines Commonwealth Jose Abad Santos for members of his staff to proceed immediately to the treasury Reserve vaults and to be prepared to supervise loading of all Commonwealth gold and as much silver as Parker could take there was no time for receipts or an itemise check a certain degree of security was provided by the fact that Commonwealth officials observed every part of the transfer of the valuables From the Vault to the 5-ton flatbed army trucks that made the delivery to the South dock now bill when

I was going through through these notes and right in this this particular part the thing that kept coming to my mind was the movie Kelly’s Heroes yep it’s just over and over and over I see Telly savales and Clint Eastwood and Oddball loading gold into the inside of those tanks that’s all I could think about the entire time yeah tanks don’t need the ballast though no know interesting thing so folks let me do a primer on on this ballast issue just so you understand why this is so important if this was a surfer ship we wouldn’t be having this

conversation but submarines need to be neutrally buoyant okay and what that means is you know the weight and the Bucy have to be exactly offset if you have too much weight you sink if you don’t have enough weight you Bob to the surface and you got and you get killed okay so ballast tanks it’s they’re by stable they’re either completely full or completely empty all right so you can’t die up dial down ballast if from the ballast tank standpoint you have these other things called variable ballast tanks which are

tanks you can fill up with water or pump them out but there’s a limit to how much weight in the variable ballast tanks you could bring on so that that’s there you know you’ve got to offset it with other things Torpedoes are weight if you are putting weight of other forms and you can’t take ballast out of the variable Ballance tank you have to offset it by not bringing as many Torpedoes as you might otherwise the way you fix this in a quas permanent fashion if you’re going to be operating for a long time is you the submarines

have lead ballast in both the free flood areas that you can gain access to through the turtleback superstructure or the ballast tanks themselves inside the bance tanks but once you take that lead out you can’t just dial it back in right put it back in so all of these things we do pretty sophisticated calculations of how to achieve neutral buoyancy each every time before you get underway to go to see and so they’re they knew that they couldn’t submerge after they offloaded all this ammunition so because they had offloaded some some

fixed ballast some some of this lead ballast so that to bring other ballast on board and in this case it’s in the form of gold incredible I never used gold as ballast in any one one of my submarines Seth and and not just you know small amounts of gold a lot of fraking gold here so after a I mean I’m talking a lot of gold so after a few hurried phone calls the Ballas began arriving on the pier the gold of course small bars of metal with numbers imprinted on the sides each weighed almost 40 PBS as the Bars were passed one by one

down into the illuminated interior of the submarine the working party saw that the metal bars reflected a soft burnished yellow color soon the ballasting was finished and trout was off seeking refuge on the bottom of Manila Bay she’s not going to roll out in the middle of the daytime here to the men of trout each bar represented 40 lbs of badly needed ballast to a banker each bar would have represented almost $23,000 worth of gold and this is a 1941 guys that’s right this is a lot of cash during the withdrawal to the Rock vast

amounts of Gold Silver and securities were sent to corgador for safekeeping this transfer was accomplished through the efforts of the High Commissioner of the Philippines the the gentleman we talked about earlier Fred Francis Bayer and his assistant the advance of the Japanese to Manila proper was inevitable we knew that we were going to lose Manila Provisions were taken to keep American and Philippine portable wealth out of the hands of the Japanese the wealth consisted of paper currency of both countries silver pesos valued at

about $1 half each of the Manila Banks gold bullion from City vaults and Mining concerns and valuable possessions of individuals on the mainland and of military personnel on corgador so again we didn’t want the Japanese to get the gold and you’re going to ask what did they do with the cash you know what they did with the cash they burned it they burned it they didn’t burn all of it but they burned a vast majority of it but Bill $23,000 per bar of gold that is a chunk of change then and that is a hell of a lot of money now it is yeah so I will

report that none of my special operations involved carrying gold out of any country so I would have signed up for that one but but that never happened to in any one of my summaries the job of collecting and transferring this wealth was accomplished under extremely difficult conditions small vessels carrying supplies and Personnel to the Rock were pressed into service the transfer of the valuables to the Commonwealth vaults on kodor had to be done under the cover of darkness and complete blackout because the gold was the most

indestructible it was important to get it out of the Philippines as the opportunity for this seemed unlikely it appeared inevitable that the gold would soon have to be s in the bay and risk recovery by the Japanese now it could be recovered right and it’s not going to corrode gold that’s one of the incredible properties of gold so so they were really seriously considering this figuring they they would go down and get it somehow later president keson and his High Commissioner were greatly concerned with the problem if it could not be destroyed

or safely sunk in the bay there was but one answer remaining evacuated by submarine and that’s what they end up doing by 0250 hours the treasury was aboard the boat at 0300 hours trout again got underway 3 mil off corgador she dove in a predetermined spot there in 140 ft of water she lay seeking protection from the enemy submerged she waited until Nightfall for one of the one final load of Securities after working for two nights in a day Trout’s crew was given a day’s rest there was to be a Rendevous that evening with a small Patrol craft which

would deliver the remaining Securities and some additional diplomatic mail that evening the final transfer was made and 50 minutes after surfacing trout was on her way to the East China Sea with probably the richest ballast ever carried in a US warship I would say that probably some Spanish gallion carried something worth more than this Seth but this gold and silver would be worth nearly $10 million in $1 1941 that is a lot of money in 20 a chunk of change yeah that is a chunk of change dude man I mean again Kelly’s

Heroes that’s all I can think about as Kelly’s Heroes so finno Lieutenant Commander finno now had as valuable a cargo to carry home to Pearl as he had brought to corgador and I mean it’s you know I’m being dead serious obviously he’s bringing a well a boatload of money to the Phil to Pearl Harbor but he had brought 3-inch ammunition out the corgador and those guys that were on the Rock needed that ammunition incredibly bad even in time of of global war negotiable Securities and precious metals have high high value especially in time of War

frankly but the monetary value had no disturbing effect on the performance of Trout’s officers and crew the presence of treasure did not change his orders in any way whatsoever to carry out his War Patrol and accordingly he set Coast or set course for the East China Sea the remainder of his War Patrol was conducted as usual and he received little in little little in terms of results in other words he didn’t really s anything at all after sing one small Patrol vessel Fino brought his boat and its ballast back to Pearl two days out

of Pearl Harbor trout rued with USS Lichfield on the afternoon of 3 March trout mored Portside of USS Detroit which was an ancient Cruiser at the fleet base Fleet Airbase in Pearl Harbor the cargo of Gold Silver and securities was turned over to USS Detroit and subsequently two treasury officials at last everything seemed to be accounted for however a few days later a single 40lb gold bar was found in one of the forward compartments of trout I wonder how that got there it’s a conundrum Seth it’s a conundrum yeah it was yeah it just it

kind of dropped you know just yeah I’m sure sure sure perfectly innocent sure it did for for several days Commander fno had 40 pounds of gold which no one was willing to take the responsibility I bet they weren’t later a treasury official receded for it in The Last Remnant of Trout’s gold ballast was finally an official custody surely Trout’s cargo had to be one of the most obscure if not the most valuable caros of the entire War bill that is a ton of money ton of money we you go back to our MacArthur episode and talk about how

much that ended up in MacArthur’s bank account but we’re not going to go there today all right so while there were many types of Special Operations executed by us submarines arguably the most important of them all in terms of mission were the gorilla operations in the Philippines it was widely known in Allied circles that a gorilla network of Filipinos and abandoned or escaped American prisoners of War were operating in the Philippine archipelago these men and women but mostly men began operating against the Japanese almost as soon as

the Japanese occupied Filipino Filipino land trickles of information reached Australia V escapes and evacuees that had been taken out of the Philippines via submarine throughout the remainder of 1942 known within the Allied Pacific circles the resupply support and potential evacuation of these gorillas was of utmost priority to the Allies especially MacArthur however with Allied fortunes being poorly throughout the first half of 42 and the latter half dominated by guad Canal there wasn’t much the Navy could do to help the

gorillas in the Philippines until early 1943 and at that end the only vessels suitable for any type of gorilla Mission were again submarines the first attempt was made on 14 January 43 when the USS gudon landed six men and 2,000 lbs of equipment and supplies on the island of Negros code named Planet party great code name planet party there it is the group was led by captain Jesus Vore a much decorated Filipino pilot and War here the unit’s task was to set up a Communications Network that could radio intelligence back to General Douglas

MacArthur’s Southwest pa Pacific area headquarters in Brisbane Australia Vore discovered a flourishing gorilla organization in desperate need of arms ammunition and more that news reached an excit GHQ General H headquarters which made arrangements in February for USS Tambour to to deliver 70,000 rounds and of ammunition and $110,000 in cash to the Rebels on the southern island of mindo while in route to her patrol area now remember there was no CIA back in this day to distribute this kind of stuff like the CIA does today so

this was being done by gorillas and uniform military folks that were operating undercover out of uniform which means they were spies which means they weren’t protected uh you know they were subject to execution this is a highrisk game even as she was sailing North commanders in Brisbane were discussing the Fe feasibility of establishing a regular submarine Transport Service like a bus service with rounds to the Philippines it is suggested quote it is suggested that every effort be made to provide the Philippine subsection with un sea boats

they didn’t use the German expression they did say undersea boats close quote WOTE Lieutenant Colonel Allison W in Deputy controller of the Allied intelligence Bureau precursor to the CIA on February 25th 1943 Seth yeah and you know people are going to ask why did we bring 10,000 worth of cash well you know people can be bought people can be bought exactly and I’m not saying that the that the gorillas were the ones that were being bought although I’m sure to some extent some of them were this is for information this is for bribing people

for information including Japanese by the way who would be more than willing to take cash for a bribe not all of them were committed to the emperor so th this was followed by the Tambour what bill just described was followed by the Tambour Landing a small party with about two tons of supplies at lambangan mindal on 5 March 1943 thereafter at about four to 5 week intervals small parties of personnel with about two tons of stores each were landed at various points in the central and southern Philippines by special

submarine missions carried out during their reg regular War patrols now at this stage and this is important to note we kind of hinted at this earlier is that these boats were running these supplies back and forth as part of their regular War patrols it was like a you know stopping to get gas kind of a thing when you’re going on the road trip with the family you got to stop and just do this dump this material or even on the way back stop and pick up this material before you head back to Australia um so it was

you can understand why a lot of these sub Skippers were not huge fans of these types of operations because they wanted to get the hell out of there and get to where they needed to be I.E their patrol area and kill Japanese shipping that’s what they were there to do so you can understand why some these things were not exactly smiled upon when they were given to their Skippers now this is huge and we and we’re going to do an an operation we’re going to do an episode next season on Filipino gorilla operations because that is some

fascinating stuff right there but just bear with us as we go through this the cooperation of the natives in the southern part of the Philippines specifically was extremely good and under the direction of General headquarters Southwest Pacific an organization of Guerilla forces was set up along recogniz ized military lines now before um we instituted this actual Guerilla unit organization most of these units did operate in a military fashion a lot of the guys not all of them but a lot of the guys that were leading these

individual Guerilla units were escaped Filipino soldiers who who’ gotten out of the area or hid as the Japanese were advancing so they knew the military structure they knew how to operate the military and they ran these Guerilla units like a military unit not all Guerilla units operated like that a lot of them were straight up Pirates but uh for the most part most of them did operate as military units so efficient functioning of this organization was dependent to a great extent on the possibility of keeping it in Supply with

tons of arms and ammunition medical supplies and obviously the cash that we mentioned before where the requirements of the Supply Plus the expansion of the coastwatcher and Communications net mounted to figures which could not be handled by submarines on a world Patrol a special supply unit was organized in 194 October 1943 so in other words now we’re building this Guerilla Network and it’s growing you know rapidly uh because these Filipinos have no desire to have these Japanese here we’ve said this a million times they

wanted them out hell of a lot better hell of a lot more than we did um they’re doing anything they can to Aid the ejection of these people and the gorilla networks on these islands that are dotting through the archipelago is sprouting you know like an anthill overnight they’re just getting bigger and bigger and we have to keep running stuff in there and to the degree that the submarines that are stopping off to drop off the ammunition on their gas run as they’re going out to the patrol can’t handle this anymore so now Bill we’re

going to bring in the big boats we are yes so submarines narwhal Nautilus Seawolf and Stingray were assigned the primary duty of carrying out Supply and evacuation missions in the Philippines area we’re still bringing people in and we’re still bringing people out that these efforts were highly successful was proved by the rapid growth of of an efficient net of Coast Watchers weather observers and aircraft spotters at the time of our initial Landings in late these completely covered the central and southern Philippines with the addition

additional but incomplete coverage of lison and we really this story has been underreported with respect to our success in latay and how much these guys really contributed to understanding what’s called what we call these days intelligence preparation of the battlefield right where you understand the layout of of the battlefield before you go in and these folks that were brought in by submarines were enormously essential to that effort the intelligence net employed a total of 120 small radio stations while the Navy

manned and operated two control stations in mindo to screen this gorilla traffic and pass on to seven Fleet units the items of operational importance the military supplies brought in by the submarines played no small part in the organization of the natives into effective combat and reconnaissance units until at the time of the blue Landings on late there were an estimated what 65,000 organized gorilla troops in in the Philippines set yes sir 65,000 65,000 organized I think is the key word that you just said there organized

Guerrilla units there were other Guerilla units that were not technically part of this organization as I said they were kind of pirates out there doing their own thing still killing Japanese by the Bushell but they weren’t necessarily associated with this so I mean there’s you know probably a good another 20 30,000 more at least on top of the 65,000 that were organized and recognized by the United States military as I don’t want to say official but official Guerilla units I mean these guys provided incredible amounts of

intelligence if you go back and listen to our episode when we did the cabanatan raid when we talked about the cabanatan raid 99% of the Intel that was gathered for that raid came out of Filipino gorillas that were operating in that area and this and the intel was like as you always say eyew wateringly good I mean was incredibly accurate that’s 65,000 troops that’s several divisions worth of troop my goodness yeah yes it is yeah so as noted earlier the submarine Tambour which was ss198 ran resupply missions to the Philippines

often bringing gear ammunition cash medical supplies all that kind of stuff American combatants and Filipino fighters on February 18th February 18th 1943 Tor set out from freem Manel with 10 grand two tons of supplies and a party of gorillas under the under the direction of a Navy Lieutenant Commander with the nickname of chick Charles Thomas chick Parsons had been in the Philippines this guy is fascinating I was going down when I was writing these notes Bel I gotta I’m not gonna lie to you I almost went down the

rabbit hole this almost became an episode on chick Parsons this guy is incredible we ought to do an episode on chick Parsons so this cat had been in the Philippines since 1921 since his arrival in the 1920s Parsons had worked as a executive for the lon stor company in Manila among many others a member of Manila Society throughout the 1930s and into 1941 where he rubbed elbows with none other than Douglas MacArthur Parsons had connections all over Luzon and the archipelago proper his travels with the stevor company and later the Meer muzzle

company which was a lumber export company provided him valuable knowledge of every of nearly every Inlet Port Harbor and pond in the Philippines par met and married his wife in the Philippines and not unlike Douglas MacArthur considered the Philippines more as his home than the United States B this guy’s incredibly cool yeah he sure is Seth you know there’s you know throughout the mid to late 30s Parson spread out in terms of business working at everything from sugar refining and tobacco in the form of a cigarette company to a Japanese

Mining Company Japanese Mining Company prior of his involvement with the Japanese Mining Company Parsons decided he would join the US Navy as a Reserve officer in 1932 why he would do that I no idea but he did by the time the Japanese invaded Parsons was on the cusp of retirement at age 39 and was more interested in playing a game of the Uber Rich of the era Polo still an executive at the stor company Parsons was brought into active duty in the Navy on December 8th 1941 now why would they have done that on December

8th with war now thrust upon Him Parson stayed behind a Manila on active duty in the Navy keep that in just just let that settle with you of course the the December 8th is is about when the uh Philippines was being attacked by the Japanese as well so he’s activated and to supervise the destruction of what remained of the damaged ships of the Asiatic Fleet in the harbor before he left for his house on manila’s affluent Dewey Boulevard once there he burned any and all evidence that he was a US Navy officer and here’s why you are so you know kind

of energized about this guy he took the disguise of a Panamanian Diplomat he was yeah he was fluent in Spanish and let me let me pick an obscure country that the Japanese can’t really challenge Panama in the news today isn’t it Seth because experience in shipping and Port operations Panama’s foreign minister had named him the country’s honorary Consul General to the Philippines while the O occupation authorities ordered that the 4,000 Americans in Manila be detained at the University of Santo Thomas we did an

episode on that they left Parsons and his wife and their three children alone believing he was a diplomat from Panama a neutral country that doesn’t last very long though does it sou it does not so for for the next four months Parsons walked freely around Manila speaking only Spanish in public and flashing his diplomatic credentials whenever necessary he collected strategic information including Japanese troops trains and the names and locations of American prisoners of War he also began to organize friends in Manila of which

he had literally hundreds and beyond for an eventual underground intelligence Network that would range through all of lazon the largest and most populous Filipino island in April 1942 Japanese started to sniff that something was something was foul Japanese Kai arrested all white men on lazon throwing Parsons in Fort Santiago with other prisoners Diplomat status be damned despite being tortured and he was numerous times Parsons admitted nothing sticking to his Diplomat story before he was finally released and allowed to

leave the Philippines with his entire family by the time Parson’s family by the time Parson family reached New York on August 27th the Navy had actually lost track of him they believed he was dead he was listed as missing in action which in those days meant dead but he reported for Duty within days of Landing in New York and settled in a war depart in the war department in Washington DC to write a review of his six months in occupied territory late that fall MacArthur began receiving intermittent radio messages

from the gorillas in the Philippines declaring that they were ready to fight he had no way of assessing the communications or even guaranteeing guaranteeing that it wasn’t Japanese disinformation then the general received word from the Philippine government in Exile that his old friend uh Parsons wasn’t missing an action of course Doug has no earthly clue Doug is not getting any word that Parsons is back in the war department in Washington DC he cabled MacArthur cables Washington when he finds out that Parsons is alive and he just sends the

message send Parsons immediately so Bill in January 1943 after Doug sends his message send Barson immediately they are re reunited and and again remember these guys knew one another they socially rubbed elbows in Manila long before World War II so tell us about what happens after they get together again yeah so Mack promptly asks if if Parsons would go back to the Philippines and help establish and run the gorilla and spy Network the Allies were attempting to start Parsons of course being par accepted once ashore from Tambour he

began an Island by Island investigation of the situation talking to Rebel leaders observing da daily life forming opinions on the state of the country he would become in a very real way MacArthur’s eyes and ears in the Philippines I suspect besides Spanish he spoke spoke to galok uh you know he just one of those things where all of those years in country served him well paid off off Southwest Pacific area continued to send men and Supplies North but in ad hoc dribs and drabs in April gudjon went back in with four men and three tons of

supplies for Pan Island and in July trout put ashore another reconnaissance party on menau evacuated four Escape PS and after four months in country they evacuated chick Parsons on August 20th 1943 Parson submitted a lengthy report to MacArthur on the state of the Philippines there were sections on political and E economic conditions on Military and civilian interes and on the morale of the nation under Japanese Occupation Parsons then offered up some thoughts on how the United States might Aid the resistance

movement among them he recommended submarines be employed to supply the guilla districts this idea had been kicking around GHQ for months but it took another old Philippine hand Colonel Courtney Whitney a close friend of MacArthur’s and before the war a very sharp Manila lawyer to get the ball rolling another incredible story Seth that I don’t know how the heck this didn’t become a movie I swear take over I swear yeah and Courtney Whitney by the way if that name is familiar and you’ve watched a lot of our shows he was one of

the guys that provided the probably the most concrete Intel during or for the cabanatuan raid until then the Navy had been reluctant to commit a boat fulltime to the Philippine Guerilla campaign for obvious reasons Courtney Whitney frustrated by the lack of cooperation from the Navy persuaded the general of course this is MacArthur to threaten to take the issue to FDR now you know how far that would go God knows it still took six more weeks to convince the commander of seventh fleet vice admiral Arthur Carpenter that that the Navy’s

assistance and inserting intelligence teams would produce quote information of direct benefit to the Navy’s operations against the enemy unquote through the establishment of a network of Coast Watchers reporting Japanese ship movements valuable information that would be of Paramount interest to patrolling submarines Carpenter then went to his boss none other than Admiral Ernest J King commander and chief United States Fleet with a recommendation that a nautilus class submarine be made available to S swpa to make two trips to

into the Islands towards the end of that year the plan was immediately approved by King because of his experience and expertise Commander chick Parsons yet again was handed the job of organizing the subs Supply system under the ages of both Courtney Whitney and the seventh fleet’s director of Naval intelligence Captain Arthur H McCullum in time the unit came to be called the Spy Squadron or spyron from an office in Brisbane chick coordinated the material material requisitions from Rebel Commanders once the freight was assembled it was

forwarded to Darwin on Australia’s northern coast for loading aboard these submarines and we we said the Navy’s bringing in the big boats for this bill this is where the big boats come into play the job of hauling all this stuff to the Philippines is going to the old and massive and massive by World War II standards submarine narwhal Bill tell us about this yeah so remember a destroyer Squad Squadron shorthand is a desron a submarine Squadron shorthand is a subon I was commander of subon 3 and this is spy Squadron or spyon for the

short so the Narwhal was SS 167 it was the lead ship of her class and a submarine she was big 371 ft long for comparison my Los Angeles class submarine was around 360 ft long so this is longer than a Los Angeles class submarine not as heavy displacement of course the boat was commissioned in 1930 was also old by 1943 she had made six War patrols and was due for refit several of her to torpedo racks were removed so that supplies could be carried as well as additional men on her first run to the Philippines the boat

carried some 83 tons of supplies ammunition medical supplies as well as Landing part of 10 men including chick Parsons the supplies ran the gamut from rifles pistols machine guns ammunition grenades radio sets medicine the most critical supply of all cigarettes lubricating oil uniforms uniforms and typewriter ribbons and carbon paper the rebels had their well organized bureaucracy look if you got to bring in typ brother ribons car carbon paper you need Elon Musk to thin out that bureaucracy the communion they even

brought communion Wafers most of the Filipinos were catholic cath propaganda and chocolate bars wrapped in labels and blazoned with I shall return sign MacArthur that’s my favorite thing that they’re BR if you don’t think Doug was like put these on that submarine you’re crazy you’re nuts you know so people think that he came up with this spontaneous as he walked to you know he he’s he been blazing I shall return since the moment he left the Philippines anyway go ahead Seth he put it on a chocolate bar for Crown out so so I’m sorry I got to say

this I went to the White House to receive an award I got a box of ban M&M’s so this is Douglas McArthur chocolate go ahead hold on you caught me off guard on that one it’s true true I I believe you 100% but that one come out of left field I wasn’t expecting that so so narwal n narwhal reached the palan coast palan Bay on the northwest coast of Muro where half the cargo was unloaded along with one of the army teams she then sailed down to Net napit in Northern menow while maneuvering into the tiny Port she actually ran a ground on a sh uh though

it took less than an hour to back her free those were tense moments for the crew and Waters absolutely crawling with Japanese patrols when the boat finally reached the dock an enthusiastic Filipino ban res spended and neatly pressed uniform struck up a warm welcome with a rousing rendition of anchors away again ought to be in a dang movie it took just a few hours what’s that no absolutely I’m thinking of one of these kind of go really bad uh bands in Italy in the movie Godfather that kind of thing right just kind of Out Of Tune

kind of band but doing their best by God by the way say I got to correct something I went to the White House to give a brief not to receive an award the award came later go ahead gotcha it took just a few hours to get the remaining supplies ashore that accomplished 32 evacuees boarded the boat for the trip back to Australia chick Parsons of course stayed behind with the gorillas narwhal arrived at Darwin on November 22nd 1943 did a three-day Turn and Burn and headed back to the Philippines with another 90 tons

of material and 11 men thus Max spyron was off to a very good start from then on resupply were on a four to 5 we rotation that’s pretty dang good and and they’re bringing in t literally quite literally tons of stuff tons of stuff every single time they’re coming in and they’re bringing people out every time they leave aside from narwhal the other big boat in the US Navy at that time of course was USS Nautilus ss1 168 she was also part of the spyon kept the she aided in keeping the supplies coming aided by Seawolf and Stingray the spyron

fleet operated regularly until till October 1944 for obvious reasons spyron played an integral part in MacArthur’s return to the Philippines the Filipino gorillas provided incredibly accurate and invaluable information throughout locations of Japanese units airfields Intel and the like another important aspect of the Spy ring run by American submarines and this is important and we always hit on this but it’s incredibly important was boosting was the boosting of sagging Filipino morale though through the consist

instant insertion of and extraction of guerillas civilians and former prisoners of war the Filipinos knew that the Americans would eventually returned to free their islands of the Japanese chick Parson’s spy run unit delivered 1,325 tons of supplies and 331 personnel and evacuated 472 most of them civilians many of these women and children Parsons himself made eight round trips to the Philippines a 1948 swpa assessment of spyron said and I quote the Practical importance of this efficient Supply service by cargo

submarine can scarcely be overestimated it became the lifeline of the Guerilla resistance movement unquote narwall was withdrawn from service in January 1945 having made nine cargo runs Nautilus was sent home in April with six under her belt spyron had one tragic loss unfortunately the Seawolf that we talked about earlier fr order was not on her at that time went down with all hands during October 1944 Mission very likely sunk unfortunately by an American warship yeah one of the several blue onblue losses during the war so one

Mission executed by seven Fleet submarines was also classified as a special operation USS Cali SS 291 was on her third war Patrol assigned to the South China Sea after attacking and sinking two ships she was ordered to head towards the Philippines and specifically negr Island for an urgent special assignment Kali had executed special missions before on her second war Patrol she had been ordered to the waters off Saigon and laid mines the hair raising operation was successful so she was not new to the Special

Operations World kali’s assignment was to head to Negros and pick up civilian and Escape PS and return them to freem oh and while she was in the area she would also retrieve documents and bring those to freem metal as well there was no information as to what the documents were or their importance Koga minichi had of course taken over a sink combined Fleet following the demise of Admiral y Yamamoto in April 1943 we did an episode on that as he witnessed the growth of the Pacific Fleet he played his cards more conservatively husbanding

his forces removing his warships from from raal and re relocating them to the Pala or the home islands all the while preparing for the almighty decisive battle that we’ve talked about a thousand times during this podcasted that he hoped would reverse the fortunes of the war so something really odd happens to Koga doesn’t it Seth it does it does he realized that the tide of War had obviously turned he was no fool and if the United States was to be defeated or at the very least brought to the bargaining table the Imperial Navy would

have to absolutely destroy the Pacific fleet’s aircraft carriers he formulated a plan you’re sitting there going wait we’re talking about submarine Special Operations why the hell are you going here just bear with me Koga formulated a plan that would involve both carrier-based aircraft and landbased aircraft the overall strength and superiority of the Pacific Fleet was not lost on Koga he was keenly aware he knew that he would have to use all of the forces at his disposal to Def to defeat the Pacific Fleet koga’s Chief of Staff

Admiral fakude said and I quote from the very beginning he insisted on the one decisive action first with ships and later with Shore based planes unquote Koga also knew as did all of the Japanese military hierarchy that the loss of the plow Mariana’s area was Unthinkable obviously we’re talking about 1944 but the loss of either but especially both of those valuable sea Lanes would Doom Japan for the remainder of the War koga’s battle plan code named z Plan called for a heavy Japanese Naval response at the United States was to

advance into the Philippine Sea by way of either the Mariana’s palao or newy if such an action occurred the combined Fleet would finally sail to meet the Pacific Fleet for battle what this happens here this is the Battle of the Philippines see stay with me on March 31st Koga and his staff boarded two kawanishi IM flying boats and prepared for the three-hour flight from cor to menau in route koga’s flight of two aircraft ran into a terrible storm and his plane straight up disappeared Bill he did so but his chief of staff fot and

his accompanying staff followed and in fuko’s Airplane sat a large wooden box the contents of which were was a bound copy of the Japanese Z plan fuko’s pilot managed to SKT the storm for hours and finally at 0230 decided to attempt an emergency landing in the ensuing Landing attempt the big kawanishi smacked into a wave and crashed as the plane started sinking for kot with an injured leg freed himself from the wreckage he grabbed a seat cushion as a float and tried to get as far away as he could from the plane from the flames and fuel

on the surface not bothering to look for the portfolio with the Z plan documents as the plane sank fuk May believe the Z plan’s documents must have gone down with the plane his immediate concern was his own personal survival at daylight fot saw a familiar Landmark on Shore and felt it was fairly safe territory only about 6 miles south of the Japanese headquarters for the central Philippines at seu City despite the presence of gorillas operating in the area he believed he would be safe if he could reach Shore

upon reaching Shore buuk was quickly seized by five or six Filipinos and herded toward the mountains the Japanese launched a massive air search for koga’s plane and survivors from the PUK aircraft as well as important documents that may have drifted ashore they indeed had reason for concern for the do documents did not sink with the plane but survived nicely in this wonderful wooden box that contained them now bobbing in the waters off of SEO Seth yeah and this this is this is a a whole another episode that we’re going to have to do it with crali

and this cuz this story again we’re giving you the cliff notes version here this story is fascinating absolutely fascinating so look for that episode coming in the near future 10 years worth of episodes it keep batting these episode set hey lot of stuff to talk about yeah on the morning of April 3 a shopkeeper in paralos a village farther down the beach from Barrio I can’t pronounce this m mtil saw an object floating in the water just offshore he had a neighbor take his boat out and get it the gentleman’s the neighbor’s name was

ooy waer waer opened the slimy oil covered box and discovered a red leather portfolio he believed its contents must be important and oh boy were they he was correct uh the the gentleman who actually saw the Box Flo floating off the shore I cannot even begin to pronounce his last name but his first name was Pedro I think it’s Pedro gantan goo gantan goo thank you Bill he told waer to leave the box in the boat and keep the boat anchored about two dozen yards off the beach then wait until dark to retrieve the box and

hide it at his home at noon that very same day Japanese soldiers appeared along the beach looking for the survivors and anything that may have washed ashore the boat in which held the documents went unsearched that night the two Filipinos retrieved and inspected the Box inside the portfolio they saw half dozen packets of wet papers some quite thick they laid the documents on the split bamboo floor to dry they kept a pouch containing small nuggets of gold as The Spoils of War the next day April 4th they took the documents to another

house where the documents were allowed to dry for another day that evening they put the documents back in the box and buried it at the same time the survivors of the crash and their Filipino captors which includes fot climbed deep into the hills above San Fernando heading nearly due north towards bario T taban the headquarters of the Sabu area command remember we talked about all these high organized gorilla units well this is one of them that gorilla organization composed of several thousand American and philipinos in command of this

organization was the United States Army Lieutenant Colonel James Cushing who had been a mining engineer in the Philippines before the war again this stuff is like a James Bond movie The amount of spy stuff but it’s and you think when you think of spies in World War II you think of Europe and you French underground and all this other stuff uhuh Philippines man this is where it was going down bill yeah this this you know this is Green Beret stuff it’s it’s called the technical name for it is forn internal defense or FID when you

send normally green Brays in to work with the insurgents you know and then that’s what’s going on here so in Tokyo the Japanese High command was becoming greatly concerned about Admiral Koga and the documents it sent out a message stating that kogan’s staff were missing and that the Navy was invest tigating the situation but the addresses were told to kep the to keep the affair secret and minimize the number of people who knew about it future messages would refer to the affair as the otu incident Americans intercepted and decoded the

Japanese messages concerning koga’s loss within hours it was at the far East desk of Naval intelligence in Washington DC however it would take a while for the information to find its way back to General Douglas MacArthur’s Southwest P Pacific area headquarters in Brisbane Australia the story of Cushing and his captives is fascinating and we’ve already spent a lot of time on it but it’s too long for this episode he going to cover it later kushin turned his attention to the recovered documents including the Z plan

which had been delivered to him by the gorillas on 9 or 10 April the plans of appearance the red leather portfolio embossed with elaborate emblem and documents stamped with seals LED Cushing to believe they were important I don’t think he read Japanese but he knew from the way they were outlined that this is this is critical Intel he had them rolled tightly and placed inside two empty mortar shell to protect them from the elements he sent a message to S WPA on 13 April about these documents and others in his possessions on May the

Japanese publicly announced koga’s death and the appointment of suu Toyota as combined fleet commander the announcement indicated that Koga had been killed in action in March while directing Naval operations from a plane not exactly true but not the first or last lie the Japanese folks would be telling to their own people s swpa Intel began connecting the dots between the public announcement of koga’s loss King’s past messages and the intercepts regarding the otu incident the documents and the high reward for the documents he

immediately wrote dick souland urging that the documents may be of such great importance that there should be a special pickup Southerland agreed and the Navy informed s swpa that USS CR crali patrolling off the coast of Southern Borneo long way away was the nearest submarine on 7 may it received top secret orders to proceed North to the eastern part of Sulu SE and to be prepared for a special mission on 11 May Seth so how does this play out it’s it’s freaking fascinating again another episode in the future but someone and no

one knows exactly who suggested that using the evacuation of American American refugees would be a good cover for the submarine’s real Mission later on the afternoon of May 8th instructions were radioed to the Cali to proceed to a position just north of Basque Negros and at sunset on May 11th after observing security signals surface and receive from native sailboats about 25 passengers and important documents at about 16:30 on May 11th the Cale was in position for the pickup through its Periscope the captain Lieutenant

Commander Francis David Walker Jr saw boats and people on the beach and at 17700 he saw two large boats and some small Outriggers heading to the pickup Point uh people came aboard at 1800 and the captain Walker told uh was initially told that there weren’t 25 people he was picking up they’re now 41 people and they were all American citizens including 21 children and eight women to pick up not the 25 that he was initially told so you can imagine he rolled his eyes heavily at that stage uh he was asked if he could take that many and he

replied in the affirmative suggesting that they be hurried aboard in other words move it because I want to get out of here um Walker was given a small box and told and was told that it contained extremely important documents captured from the Japanese on Sabu and that MacArthur was most anxious to see them at 1830 the submarine got underway by the end of the month the plans the Japanese Z plans had been translated and were in Chester nimitz’s hands again this is a very very long and exciting story that we’re cutting extremely short

but again United States Navy submarine outdoing a war Patrol is hauled into this special mission to carry the Japanese top secret defensive plans in the in case in the case of an American invasion of the Marianas Pala New Guinea this of course results in the battle of the Philippine Sea the great marana’s turkey shoot the mission Beyond Darkness all this Jazz occurs because of this not only because the Filipinos had the wherewithal to retrieve said box and get it to the proper authorities that being Cushing but Cushing having in the

wherewithal to get it where it needed to go and there being a United States Navy submarine to carry out this important Special Operation so it it’s it’s an absolutely fascinating topic and there’s many many many many many many other submarine special ops but these in my opinion were some of the cream of the crop here bill this is some fascinating stuff it sure is dozens of American submarines executed special missions throughout the war whether you consider them to be slinking up a coast to deliver Goods or rescuing down Airmen or Landing Marines

on Mak Island we covered that in another episode Subs played an important role and in fact the only role player in many if not most of the missions that occurred in the Pacific Theater that could that would be classified as special Miss or covert Ops in today’s Parliament by the way difference between covert and clandestine covert means you do it in a manner that where you can’t be seen clandestine means you do it in a way not only can’t you be seen but that will deny that we were behind it we’re going to lie about it if you’re caught those

are the differences as technical War fighting 101 I guess the final lesson Seth but you know I mean hauling Filipinos in and out of the Filipino islands via submarine while it doesn’t sound like it’s important to the overall aspect of the war it’s incredibly important and again I refer you back to our episodes on the Philippines specifically cabanatan where the ey the the the intelligence was so incredibly clear precise and a lot of that yes had to do with the Alamo Scouts who were on that mission but before the

Alamo Scouts ever got there they were informed by Filipino gorillas and and you know obviously the Filipino gorillas played a huge part in the actual extraction of the PS from cabanatan but and that’s not the only case either anytime American boots were on the ground in the Philippines at some point or another they were aided by Filipino gorillas and most of those if not all of those Filipino gorillas were kept in Supply by United States Navy submarines so the fact that the Filipinos could provide and and the anti-American

gorillas that were there too obviously could provide you know accurate laser focused intelligence saved thousands of American lives as we plotted our way through the Philippines in 1944 and 1945 it’s huge it’s absolutely huge and the Z plan that we just covered here just a second ago this recovery of these operations obviously did not result in the battle of the Philippine Sea but gave us a hell of an idea that the Japanese were going to come and it allowed us to act in the way that we did act as the battle unfolded so yeah huge

huge Seth I’ve been fairly provocative about my opinion that you know a lot of resources were spent on liberation of the Philippines and I’ve said previously that if if it was there if there was a way to bypass the Philippines in a way that would expedite the end of the war a different way to leas those American citizens more quickly than duing it out in the Philippines it might be worth considering and so one might think that I um would not think these efforts were valuable but but they were I mean a simple case of keeping your options open

and understanding what’s going on in the Philippines to know more thoroughly what the options are vvv you know strategic plan and and how concentrated the Japanese how Central the Philippine effort was to the Japanese war effort all of those things really argue strenuously for the kind of activities that we’re talking about today that the the special operations in the Philippines were critical to giving us a clearer picture of how the war would evolve in the future and it was 100% worth the effort um it was high risk but in many cases it

was high reward we lost one submarine doing these things but um but it was I think overall worth it yeah I mean there and there’s no way there’s no way that the Filipino Guerilla um operation as it were all through the archipelago could have been I’m not saying it wouldn’t have happened because they would have certainly fought I think because they were before we ever got in there but it could not have been as effective without the arms the material the medical supply what have you that were delivered by United States Navy submarines on these

Special Operations so I mean it’s it’s it’s a really cool topic that needs and deserves more uh dissection and we will do that in the future but I you know like I said at the beginning of this episode this is one of those things that’s been on my mind for a long time and and I know Bill when I sent you the note you were like oh boy cuz this is cool man this is just cool stuff it is yeah well is there anything else you want to add to this one bill as we wrap it up no I think it’s a wonderful topic and was fun doing it it was this was

definitely a fun one we’ve done some some nightmare fuel in the past this this is not one of those this one was straight up cool so with that we want to thank you very much for listening and or watching in on our conversation please subscribe to the unauthorized Pacific please subscribe to the unauthorized history of the Pacific War podcast I forgot the name of our show wherever you receive your podcast to give us a rating and review we do appreciate it if you got if you want to see the video version of this if you’re not already looking at

it look at our YouTube channel uh if you have a question or a comment send us an email at unauthorized Pacific podcast gmail.com so once again I am Seth Paran I want to thank you all very much for listening and or watching this week and thank you very much for coming out and hanging out with us in San Diego it was great fun uh we’ll maybe we’ll do something like that again here in the future God knows who knows but uh Bill bring us home and we’re as we’re closing on our 200th episode we’re getting close to that I think um we’ll see you again

next week [Music]