United States Asiatic Fleet - World War II

World War II

By mid-1941, Admiral Thomas C. Hart was appointed the commander-in-chief of the fleet. It was based at Cavite Naval Base and Olongapo Naval Station on Luzon, with its headquarters at the Marsman Building in Manila. On 22 July 1941, the Mariveles Naval Base was completed and the Asiatic Fleet began to use it as well.

Hart had permission to withdraw to the Indian Ocean, in the event of war with Japan, at his discretion.

Hart's submarines, commanded by Commander, Submarines, Asiatic Fleet Captain John E. Wilkes with six elderly "S"-class submarines (and submarine tender Canopus) and seven Porpoises (in Submarine Squadron 5, SubRon 5), In October 1941, 12 Salmons or Sargos—in Captain Stuart "Sunshine" Murray's Submarine Division 15 {SubDiv 15} and Captain Joseph A. Connolly's SubDiv 16, as SubRon 2—accompanied by the tender Holland, were added. Walter E. "Red" Doyle was assigned as Wilkes' relief. Hart's defensive plan relied heavily on his submarines, which were believed to be "the most lethal arm of the insignificant Asiatic Fleet", to interdict the Japanese and whittle down their forces prior to a landing, and to disrupt attempts at reinforcing after the landings took place. When war began, Doyle's inexperience in Asian waters meant Wilkes remained de facto .

Problems were encountered almost from the beginning. No defensive minefields were laid. Ineffective and unrealistic peace time training, inadequate (or nonexistent) defensive plans, poor deployments, and defective torpedoes combined to make submarine operations in defense of the Philippines a foregone conclusion. No boats were placed in Lingayen Gulf, widely expected to be where the Japanese would land; in the event, several S-boats, aggressively handled, scored successes there. Nor were any boats off ports of Japanese-held Formosa, despite more than a week's warning of impending hostilities. Successes were few in the early days of the war.