American Valor Quarterly Issue 4 - Autumn 2008 | Page 8

Joint Chiefs of Staff Photo

squadron. The Germans, with very few submarines, were doing
a good job of putting us out of business. Up and down the east
coast, none of the beaches were usable because of all the oil
from the merchant ships that were sunk. Initially, the merchant
ships wouldn’t pay any attention to the advice from the military
on how to evade the U-boats because they felt they had a schedule
to keep, and they were determined to keep it. So many of them
were sunk. It was a very serious thing, and it took us some time
to develop a force.

Had we executed the planned invasion of Japan, the casualties on
both sides would have been far greater than many believe. I actually
spoke with the Japanese about that when I was there. They were
ready to use every plane they had as a kamikaze plane, and had
scuba divers by the hundreds that were going to swim out to the
ships when they were anchored with troops aboard and affix
charges to the sides. They had a great number of little two-man
submari