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As Commander, Submarines, Pacific Fleet, Vice Admiral Charles Lockwood
pushed for newer boats, better ordnance and more daring officers, earning
the respect and gratitude of the men he commanded.
The submarine force gained a second champion in Rear
Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, who became Commander,
Submarines, Pacific Fleet in February 1943. A 1912 graduate
of the Naval Academy, Lockwood had commanded his first
submarine in 1914 and by the time that America entered
World War I, Lockwood commanded Submarine Division
One, Asiatic Fleet. Almost all of his service from then until
the outbreak of World War II had been with submarines. In
February 1941, Captain Lockwood had gone to the U.S.
Embassy in London as naval attaché and principal observer
for submarines. Promoted to rear admiral in May 1942,
Lockwood reported as Commander, Submarines, Southwest
Pacific. He became COMSUBPAC upon the death of Rear
Admiral Robert Henry English.
Lockwood, who was promoted to vice admiral in October
1943, quickly earned the respect and gratitude of the submariners.
The sailors dubbed him “Uncle Charlie” when he
began treating sub crews to such luxuries as ice cream and
fresh vegetables upon their return from long patrols. He even
ordered two-week stays at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for combat
weary crews.
With Admiral Nimitz’s blessing, Lockwood began establishing
forward sub bases both to reduce the distance of submarine
patrols and to begin to close the net on Japanese
supply routes.
Vice Admiral Lockwood ordered tests of the torpedoes that
the Bureau of Ordnance had provided and found them faulty.
The torpedoes habitually ran deeper than they were supposed
to, and their firing pins proved to be defective. Though he
had to battle bureaucracy and another flag officer, Lockwood
was successful in getting enhancements made; the number
of duds dropped off dramatically.
Admiral (later Fleet Admiral) Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief, Pacific
Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, recognized the capabilities that submarines
could bring to the war in the Pacific.
Similarly, Lockwood replaced more tentative commanders with
younger, more daring officers who were not afraid to employ
aggressive tactics. Armed with better ordnance and newlyconstructed
boats, this new batch of submarine commanders
began sinking Japanese ships almost at will, severely crippling
Japan’s merchant fleet. By the end of 1943, U.S. submarines
had sunk more than 1.5 million tons of Japanese shipping. Two
of the five Japanese carriers at the Battle of the Philippine Sea
were sunk by submarines. In 1944, U.S. subs were sinking
50 Japanese vessels every month — better than the German
U-boats had done in 1942.
The submarine service comprised less than two percent of
all U.S. Naval personnel in the pacific, yet submarines accounted
for more than half of all enemy shipping sunk during
the war. Of the more than 10 million tons of Japanese warships
and merchant vessels sunk during World War II, U.S.
submarines accounted for 5.4 million tons.
Nimitz, an early proponent of submarine warfare in the Pacific,
became the third of four five-star admirals on December 19,
1944. Fleet Admiral Nimitz went on to represent the United
States in signing the instruments of surrender when the Japanese
formally surrendered on board the USS MISSOURI
on September 2, 1945. He became the Chief of Naval Operations
following the war. Vice Admiral Lockwood served as
Inspector General of the Navy after the war. Nimitz died in
1966, Lockwood a year later. By agreement, both are buried
alongside Admirals Spruance and Turner and their wives at
Golden Gate National Cemetery.
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