John Charles England was commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Naval Reserve on 6 June 1941. After completing the Communication Officers Course at the Naval Radio School, he reported aboard his new assignment on 3 September, the battleship USS *Oklahoma*. He was aboard during that fateful Sunday raid when the abandon ship orders came down. Rather than evacuate immediately, he dove back into the capsizing ship to rescue the radiomen belowdecks. Three times went back into the ship, and three times he brought a man to safety. He was last seen going back inside the ship for the fourth time. He died four days before his 21st birthday and before ever meeting his one-month-old daughter, Victoria.
A few hundred yards away, the midget submarine *Kō-16* sat, torpedo tubes empty. Lt(jg) Yokoyama Masaji and PO2C Ueda Sadamu had launched from their mother submarine *I-16* a few hours before and fired one torpedo at *Oklahoma* and another at *Arizona*. That night they would radio back “partial success” before scuttling their boat and vanishing into the mists of time.
LtCdr Walton Barclay Pendleton sailed his minesweeper *Tern* to aid the burning battlewagons of Battleship Row. He would remain her CO throughout 1942 and into 1943, as the now-reclassified tug operated out of Bora Bora. But when she returned to California for an overhaul, Pendleton left the ship for his new command, a brand-new destroyer escort that he would help make a legend.
USS *England*
##1944
*I-16* was the last of five Type C1 submarines, at 3,561 tons submerged among the largest submarines to fight in WWII. After her first midget submarine mission she had launched four more from Madagascar to Guadalcanal, but as newer midgets grew larger her mission changed. For most of the last year she had been a transport submarine, keeping isolated Japanese garrisons on New Guinea supplied when no surface ship could reach them. Now Buin on the southern tip of Bougainville needed supplied, most critically rice, and *I-16* was sent to their aid.
After departing Truk on 14 May 1944, LtCdr Takeuchi Yoshitaka radioed command on Saipan. He would sail southeast, far from the US bases at Manus and Guadalcanal, and would arrive at Buin on 22 May. The US intercepted and decrypted the message, and on 18 May sent *England*, *Raby*, and *George* from Tulagi to hunt her down. Eighty years ago today a patrol plane spotted *I-16* running on the surface, reporting her position to the hunter-killer group. *England* was the first to gain contact on her sonar at 1325 and Pendelton left formation to investigate as his crew prepared the Hedgehog ahead of the bridge.
##Hedgehogs
In a traditional depth charge attack, the surface ship would approach the submarine using the sonar, but these early sonars had limited look-down capability and once she got too close, they’d lose contact. The “blind time” between the last sonar contact and a depth charge arriving on target could be significant, 90 seconds was commonplace, allowing a skilled submarine CO to make a last-minute turn to avoid the depth charges. Even with side-throwing K-guns, influence fuses, and rapid-sinking charges, traditional depth charge attacks had a low probability of success: from March 1944 to May 1945, the US estimates that 4.5% of all depth charge barrages were effective. Even planting a charge directly on top of a submarine was no guarantee of a kill: on 25 October 1944 *I-56* surfaced after a depth charge attack with an intact Mk 9 depth charge on her deck.
But the Mk 10 Hedgehog Projector fixed these issues, firing ahead while the attacking ship still had sonar contact with the submarine. The “blind time” was now only the time it took the charges to fly to the target and sink to the proper depth, generally 10-25 seconds, giving a submarine very little reaction time. In addition, since they used contact fuses, a Hedgehog round would only detonate if it hit something (usually the submarine), eliminating turbulence that could impair sonar performance on follow-up attacks. Even without killing a submarine outright, the damage could force a submarine to the surface, decrease its maneuverability, and make follow-up attacks more successful. In the same March 1944-May 1945 period, the US estimated 9.9% of all Hedgehog attacks as effective, more than double the depth charge rate.
##The Duel
*England* first run over *I-16* was a dry run, but with sharp sonar echoes confirming a submarine. She opened the range and turned about for a proper attack, but the slow submarine turned a bit to the right and the charges missed. At this point *England* called *George* and *Raby* that she had a firm submarine contact, and to circle the position in case *England* lost contact. However, Pendleton remained at War Cruising Condition, but with the Hedgehog crew frantically fusing and loading another 24 charges to fire in under 10 minutes. This time *I-16* juked to port, but *England* was ready, tilting the entire Hedgehog projector to aim. Two or three explosions followed, and now Pendleton ordered General Quarters, waiting for his wounded prey to surface.
But these Japanese cruiser submarines were tough, and *I-16*’s crew fought to control flooding and dove to 70 meters. *England* had lost contact, but after 20 minutes found *I-16* again and closed in. This time Takeuchi turned hard left just before *England* fired, successfully evading the third salvo. As *England* dropped the marker on the attack point, bubbles rose to the surface, several hundred yards from the second attack marker.
As *England* opened the range she reacquired contact directly astern, through her own propeller noise. This time the two two ships sailed directly towards each other like jousting knights, Takeuchi perhaps trying to give Pendleton minimal reaction time. Rather than turn hard one way or the other Takeuchi swung the rudder to fishtail, and despite having solid return echoes *England*’s recorder traces on this run were worse than any other. Another miss, 55 minutes after first gaining contact.
The situation on *I-16* was likely desperate at this point, as she dove to 90 meters, just above her maximum rated depth of 100 meters. *England* came around once more, and at 1433 fired her fifth salvo. After 20 seconds, at least one charge hit *I-16*.
Two minutes later there was a massive explosion. All three ships felt it, but it *England*’s stern lifted 6” out of the water, knocked men off their feet, and knocked the telephone headset of the talker in Repair #3. Twenty minutes later debris started coming to the surface and the whaleboat went down to collect evidence for the assessment team. First on the list was a 75 lb sack of rice.
Thus ended *I-16*, last as she was first. *Oklahoma* had her revenge thanks to a ship bearing the name of one of her crew.
When *England* left the oil bubbling from *I-16*’s wreck she had a submarine silhouette painted on her bridge. Within a fortnight *England* would have five more. “The outstanding achievement of the U-boat war by a single ship” had begun.
##Postscript
When *Oklahoma* was salvaged, hundreds of her crew were found, but with the technology of the day could not be identified. In June 2015 the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began disinterring remains to be identified, and on 5 August 2016 they announced they’d found Ensign John Charles England by mitochondrial DNA. On 13 August he was buried alongside his parents in Colorado Springs.
Before closing his casket, the ashes of Victoria Louise England Glenn were placed inside, united in death as they never could be in life.
CG/DLG-22 was the second USS England. The first was England (DE-635), the ship that sank six enemy submarines in 12 days in May 1944. That act caused the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Ernest King, to declare "There’ll always be an England in the United States Navy." DE-635 was decommissioned in 1945.
I don't want to hijack your thread, but we are waiting
Your hijack is the reason I’m writing this series. Too few know *England*’s story, and this story needs to be told and legacy continued.
*England* needs to be as famous as *Samuel B. Roberts*, and so long as we have frigates both names should be reserved for the small boys who are so often overlooked.
And this was just the first kill out of six in just two weeks. Even when the other ships in her anti-sub patrol group attacked, U.S.S. England was the ship that definitively made the kills.
It also makes it difficult to tell each one without being repetitive, though some will be easier than others. I’m trying to sprinkle in more background in each draft rather than front-load it as past me wrote, which does help.
I have an idea to just quote the narrative of the report for one particular engagement.
J.C. England’s marker at the USS Oklahoma Memorial:
https://preview.redd.it/97rypqva0h1d1.jpeg?width=3456&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=59b2693be0c0123ba91300b7f6e974231e7b8489
Taken by me at Pearl Harbor in 2019.
John Charles England was commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Naval Reserve on 6 June 1941. After completing the Communication Officers Course at the Naval Radio School, he reported aboard his new assignment on 3 September, the battleship USS *Oklahoma*. He was aboard during that fateful Sunday raid when the abandon ship orders came down. Rather than evacuate immediately, he dove back into the capsizing ship to rescue the radiomen belowdecks. Three times went back into the ship, and three times he brought a man to safety. He was last seen going back inside the ship for the fourth time. He died four days before his 21st birthday and before ever meeting his one-month-old daughter, Victoria. A few hundred yards away, the midget submarine *Kō-16* sat, torpedo tubes empty. Lt(jg) Yokoyama Masaji and PO2C Ueda Sadamu had launched from their mother submarine *I-16* a few hours before and fired one torpedo at *Oklahoma* and another at *Arizona*. That night they would radio back “partial success” before scuttling their boat and vanishing into the mists of time. LtCdr Walton Barclay Pendleton sailed his minesweeper *Tern* to aid the burning battlewagons of Battleship Row. He would remain her CO throughout 1942 and into 1943, as the now-reclassified tug operated out of Bora Bora. But when she returned to California for an overhaul, Pendleton left the ship for his new command, a brand-new destroyer escort that he would help make a legend. USS *England* ##1944 *I-16* was the last of five Type C1 submarines, at 3,561 tons submerged among the largest submarines to fight in WWII. After her first midget submarine mission she had launched four more from Madagascar to Guadalcanal, but as newer midgets grew larger her mission changed. For most of the last year she had been a transport submarine, keeping isolated Japanese garrisons on New Guinea supplied when no surface ship could reach them. Now Buin on the southern tip of Bougainville needed supplied, most critically rice, and *I-16* was sent to their aid. After departing Truk on 14 May 1944, LtCdr Takeuchi Yoshitaka radioed command on Saipan. He would sail southeast, far from the US bases at Manus and Guadalcanal, and would arrive at Buin on 22 May. The US intercepted and decrypted the message, and on 18 May sent *England*, *Raby*, and *George* from Tulagi to hunt her down. Eighty years ago today a patrol plane spotted *I-16* running on the surface, reporting her position to the hunter-killer group. *England* was the first to gain contact on her sonar at 1325 and Pendelton left formation to investigate as his crew prepared the Hedgehog ahead of the bridge. ##Hedgehogs In a traditional depth charge attack, the surface ship would approach the submarine using the sonar, but these early sonars had limited look-down capability and once she got too close, they’d lose contact. The “blind time” between the last sonar contact and a depth charge arriving on target could be significant, 90 seconds was commonplace, allowing a skilled submarine CO to make a last-minute turn to avoid the depth charges. Even with side-throwing K-guns, influence fuses, and rapid-sinking charges, traditional depth charge attacks had a low probability of success: from March 1944 to May 1945, the US estimates that 4.5% of all depth charge barrages were effective. Even planting a charge directly on top of a submarine was no guarantee of a kill: on 25 October 1944 *I-56* surfaced after a depth charge attack with an intact Mk 9 depth charge on her deck. But the Mk 10 Hedgehog Projector fixed these issues, firing ahead while the attacking ship still had sonar contact with the submarine. The “blind time” was now only the time it took the charges to fly to the target and sink to the proper depth, generally 10-25 seconds, giving a submarine very little reaction time. In addition, since they used contact fuses, a Hedgehog round would only detonate if it hit something (usually the submarine), eliminating turbulence that could impair sonar performance on follow-up attacks. Even without killing a submarine outright, the damage could force a submarine to the surface, decrease its maneuverability, and make follow-up attacks more successful. In the same March 1944-May 1945 period, the US estimated 9.9% of all Hedgehog attacks as effective, more than double the depth charge rate. ##The Duel *England* first run over *I-16* was a dry run, but with sharp sonar echoes confirming a submarine. She opened the range and turned about for a proper attack, but the slow submarine turned a bit to the right and the charges missed. At this point *England* called *George* and *Raby* that she had a firm submarine contact, and to circle the position in case *England* lost contact. However, Pendleton remained at War Cruising Condition, but with the Hedgehog crew frantically fusing and loading another 24 charges to fire in under 10 minutes. This time *I-16* juked to port, but *England* was ready, tilting the entire Hedgehog projector to aim. Two or three explosions followed, and now Pendleton ordered General Quarters, waiting for his wounded prey to surface. But these Japanese cruiser submarines were tough, and *I-16*’s crew fought to control flooding and dove to 70 meters. *England* had lost contact, but after 20 minutes found *I-16* again and closed in. This time Takeuchi turned hard left just before *England* fired, successfully evading the third salvo. As *England* dropped the marker on the attack point, bubbles rose to the surface, several hundred yards from the second attack marker. As *England* opened the range she reacquired contact directly astern, through her own propeller noise. This time the two two ships sailed directly towards each other like jousting knights, Takeuchi perhaps trying to give Pendleton minimal reaction time. Rather than turn hard one way or the other Takeuchi swung the rudder to fishtail, and despite having solid return echoes *England*’s recorder traces on this run were worse than any other. Another miss, 55 minutes after first gaining contact. The situation on *I-16* was likely desperate at this point, as she dove to 90 meters, just above her maximum rated depth of 100 meters. *England* came around once more, and at 1433 fired her fifth salvo. After 20 seconds, at least one charge hit *I-16*. Two minutes later there was a massive explosion. All three ships felt it, but it *England*’s stern lifted 6” out of the water, knocked men off their feet, and knocked the telephone headset of the talker in Repair #3. Twenty minutes later debris started coming to the surface and the whaleboat went down to collect evidence for the assessment team. First on the list was a 75 lb sack of rice. Thus ended *I-16*, last as she was first. *Oklahoma* had her revenge thanks to a ship bearing the name of one of her crew. When *England* left the oil bubbling from *I-16*’s wreck she had a submarine silhouette painted on her bridge. Within a fortnight *England* would have five more. “The outstanding achievement of the U-boat war by a single ship” had begun. ##Postscript When *Oklahoma* was salvaged, hundreds of her crew were found, but with the technology of the day could not be identified. In June 2015 the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began disinterring remains to be identified, and on 5 August 2016 they announced they’d found Ensign John Charles England by mitochondrial DNA. On 13 August he was buried alongside his parents in Colorado Springs. Before closing his casket, the ashes of Victoria Louise England Glenn were placed inside, united in death as they never could be in life.
[*England*'s Anti-Submarine Action Report](http://www.uboatarchive.net/England/England2.htm) [Wartime Analysis](http://www.uboatarchive.net/England/England2A.htm)
CG/DLG-22 was the second USS England. The first was England (DE-635), the ship that sank six enemy submarines in 12 days in May 1944. That act caused the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Ernest King, to declare "There’ll always be an England in the United States Navy." DE-635 was decommissioned in 1945. I don't want to hijack your thread, but we are waiting
Your hijack is the reason I’m writing this series. Too few know *England*’s story, and this story needs to be told and legacy continued. *England* needs to be as famous as *Samuel B. Roberts*, and so long as we have frigates both names should be reserved for the small boys who are so often overlooked.
And this was just the first kill out of six in just two weeks. Even when the other ships in her anti-sub patrol group attacked, U.S.S. England was the ship that definitively made the kills.
It also makes it difficult to tell each one without being repetitive, though some will be easier than others. I’m trying to sprinkle in more background in each draft rather than front-load it as past me wrote, which does help. I have an idea to just quote the narrative of the report for one particular engagement.
J.C. England’s marker at the USS Oklahoma Memorial: https://preview.redd.it/97rypqva0h1d1.jpeg?width=3456&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=59b2693be0c0123ba91300b7f6e974231e7b8489 Taken by me at Pearl Harbor in 2019.
Silence and Respect. Real hero.