The End of Japanese Submarine I-71-- Part 6

"The bow of the submarine was flung out of the sea.  We saw almost half of the craft.  Then it fell back but only to be caught by a second series of depth charges and again the bow was thrown up.

This time the stern was submerged and the bow stayed up.  The submarine was caught there, at an angle of sixty or seventy degrees just for an instant.  Then she slid down into the sea."

Between the 10th, at least one submarine was sunk at sea and the I-70 was the only one not to return.  This must be the sunken submarine.

Also, one has to wonder that if it was assigned to watch south of Oahu, why was it north of it and on the surface?

A Mystery Answered?  --GreGen

The End of Japanese Submarine I-70-- Part 5

Continued from the Combined Fleet.com site, which gave a day by day account to the I-70.  This is continued from March and April 2013 blog entries.  Just hit the I-70 label for the rest of it.

Japanese submarines regularly surfaced at night and maintained periscope depth during the day.  During the attack on pearl harbor, these subs  were under orders to retrieve midget submarines and pilots, but none did.

If Dickinson had not destroyed the I-70, he was watching from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise the next day as a destroyer depth charged a submarine that appeared suddenly in the carrier's wake.

He wrote:  "The two vessels were practically touching as they passed; and that was when the destroyer's depth charges were going over into the water; not one at a time and spaced, but six or more closely grouped.  We could feel shocks.  We saw that water rise as if right below there was an active volcano."

--GreGen

Wilmington Aviators Helped Win Battle of Midway-- Part 4

Clarence Dickinson's parents lived at Wrightsville Beach and he was a 1934 graduate of the USNA,  he wrote the book "The Flying Guns: Cockpit Record of a Naval Pilot from Pearl Harbor Through Midway."

Ensign Peiffer was a 1940 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill graduate.  In 1944-1945, the new destroyer USS Peiffer was named for him.  Peiffer Avenue in Wilmington is named for him.

--GreGen

Wilmington Aviators Helped Win Battle of Midway-- Part 3

Ensign Carl Peiffer's bomb hits were never verified and he disappeared on his way back to the ship and was never found.

Army Air Force Lt. Col. Brooke Empie Allen flew four missions from Midway Island over two days, but was too high and struck nothing, but he did scatter the Japanese formation to the advantage of the naval planes.

Peiffer posthumously received the Navy Cross.  Dickinson earned a Navy Cross on December 7, 1941, and then again on December 10th when he was credited with sinking the first enemy surface ship in the war.  He also received an Air Medal in February for sinking a Japanese transport at Kwajalein.

--GreGen

Wilmington Aviators Helped Win Battle of Midway-- Part 2

All of these aviators were graduates of New Hanover High School.  (Wilbur Jones' wife Carol's father served on the cruiser USS Astoria at the battle which became the flagship of the fleet after the sinking of the USS Yorktown on June 7th.)

At about 10 a.m., three waves of torpedo planes from the carriers Yorktown, Hornet and Enterprise were obliterated by the Japanese.  Right after that, Dickinson's and Peiffer's group attacked the Kaga.  Dickinson used the rising sun painted on the carrier's deck as his target and scored a direct hit.

He ran out of fuel on the way back and was forced to ditch into the sea and was rescued by a destroyer.

--GreGen

Wilmington Aviators Helped Win the Battle of Midway-- Part 1

From the June 3, 2012, Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News by Wilbur D. Jones, Jr..

Five weeks after the Battle of Midway in 1942, Lt. Clarence Earle Dickinson, Jr., a pilot on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, spoke at his hometown of Wilmington's Rotary Club after he had won his third Navy Cross in six months.

At the battle, in just ten minutes, at about 10:20 a.m. on June 4, 1942, U.S, planes destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers of a Japanese attack force, turning the tide in the war with Japan in the Pacific.  The remarkable success came from a combination by fusing intelligence, analysis, leadership, initiative, daring, bravery, enemy miscalculation, timing and good fortune.  That pretty well sums it up.

Besides Dickinson, Wilmington's Ensign Carl David Peiffer flew a Dauntless Dive Bomber with the Enterprise's Scouting Squadron Six.

Also flying that day was Army Air Force Lt.Col. Brooke Empie Allen, commanding the 42nd Bombardment Squadron of Flying Fortresses based on the island of Midway.

However, only the carrier-based aircraft succeeded in their mission.

--GreGen

The Japanese Submarine I-70-- Part 3

9 Dec. 1941--  4 miles southwest of Diamond Head, Oahu.  At 1:30 AM reports the arrival of the USS Enterprise at Pearl Harbor.  This is the last signal received from the I-70.

10 Dec 1941--  The I-6 reported a Lexington-Class aircraft carrier and cruiser heading northeast.  SunRon1 and other boats ordered  to pursue and sink the carrier.  So, the ship is still operating at this time.

One hundred and twenty-one miles NE of Cape Halawa, Molokai, Hawaiian Islands.  After 0600, Ensign Perry L. Teaff's Douglas SBD-2 Dauntless dive bomber of VS-6 from the USS Enterprise sighted a surfaced submarine, the I-70, and attacks.  Has a near-miss with a 1,000 pound bomb that damages it and prevents it from submerging.

In the afternoon, another SBD-2 of VS-6 from the Enterprise, flown by Lt. (jg) Clarence E. Dickinson, back aboard his ship after being shot down at Pearl Harbor during the Dec. 7th attack,  sighted a surfaced submarine in the same area.  (He is the reason I am writing about the I-70 now.  See March blog) 

He climbs to 5,000 feet for a diving attack.  The I-70 spots him and commences a slow-turn to the starboard, opening fire from its 13 mm machine gun.  The bomb lands right beside the I-70, amidships.  The explosion throws several gunners overboard.  The submarine stops and starts to settle on an even keel, disappearing about 45 seconds later.

More to Come.  --GreGen

Some More Lt. Dickinson and Submarine I-70 Information

Eighteen SBD planes arrived from the USS Enterprise during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and six, including Lt. Dickinson's plane were shot down.

As if in a postscript to Pearl Harbor, three days later, Dickinson, flying another SBD from the USS Enterprise, sank the Japanese submarine I-70 at 23 degrees 45' North, 155 degrees35' West.

GreGen

Clarence Earle Dickinson Jr: Won Three Navy Crosses-- Part 2

SECOND NAVY CROSS

After Pearl Harbor, Dickinson moved back to the USS Enterprise.  Just three days later, December 10, 1941, while searching for enemy submarines and ships, he sighted a submarine on the surface and dove through anti-aircraft fire and dropped a bomb.  The submarine "went down in a manner that indicated it had been damaged, or possibly destroyed..  There was no evidence of a dive, such as propeller wake, while a large bubble of oil and air came to the surface."


THIRD NAVY CROSS

This one Dickinson received at the Battle of Midway June 4-6, 1942.


AIR MEDAL

He also received an Air Medal for his actions February 1, 1942 at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Quite the Air Hero.  --GreGen

Clarence Earle Dickinson Jr: Won Three Navy Crosses-- Part 1

From the Military Times Hall of Valor.

This is a follow up to the March 12th blog entry.

Clarence Earle Dickinson Jr was born December 1, 1912 in Jacksonville, Florida and died October 4, 1984.  His home of record was in Raleigh, North Carolina.

He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1934 and became the first person in history to receive three Navy Crosses, something he did at the same time as fellow pilot Lt. Noel A.M. Gayler.

FIRST NAVY CROSS

He returned to Pearl Harbor in a Scouting Plane from the carrier USS Enterprise.  he and his gunner engaged Japanese planes.  His gunner was killed and Dickinson was shot down in flames and parachuted near Ewa Airfield and proceeded to Ford Island where he was assigned to a post-attack 175 mile aerial search operation for the Japanese fleet.

And, That Was Just the First One.  --GreGen