20 January 2007

Three Feathers and a Flag



It is sometimes said that the Department of War never lost one, and the Department of Defense never won a conflict. There is some room to quibble, since at the time we considered the first Gulf War to be a victory, since it liberated Kuwait from Saddam. But in the larger strategic context, the unpleasantness in occupied Iraq today would argue that the matter is in doubt.

Drinking is officially prohibited in the War Zone, which it was not in the Cold War, which is another of those ambiguous victories. I am a Cold Warrior, which by definition means I was an atomic warrior, of a sort, and always considered that a stiff drink at the end of a nuclear watch was a decent way to cool off.

You do not have to bear with me as I follow the rabbit down into the hole of memory. There is a point to this narrative, and I will arrive with you at the end presently. Of course I am concerned about Fidel, who is on his death-bed, and naturally I woke with a continuing numbness about the random but inexorable carnage in the war in which we are embarked now.

All I can say is that the last complete victory, ambiguous as it is, was fueled with whiskey and sustained by nicotine. Most of the brands of that age are gone now; I have not lit up a Lucky in some years, and you cannot find Three Feathers whiskey anywhere.

Ships have the same problem. Regardless of how expensive or grand, they are nothing more than holes in the water that the owner, private or government, attempts to fill with money.

The Flagship of the Imperial Fleet, IJN Nagato, is a case in point. After Pearl Harbor, she saw action only once, during the battle of Leyte Gulf. She was a victim to a colossal error is strategy, which is the lifeblood of the successful war.

The Americans had adapted to the newest special weapon, the aircraft carrier, and only operated their battleships under the cover of aircraft. The Japanese never crystallized their doctrine in quite the same manner, failing in the integration and combined-arms concept. The IJN leadership kept their major units in reserve for the decisive battle, which as it turned out, happened while they were waiting.

At the outbreak of the American phase of World War II, Nagato was under the command of Captain Yano Hideo, and with her sister Mutsu formed Battle Division 1. Nagato was the flagship of the Combined Fleet, flying the flag of Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku. On 2 December 1941, Nagato's radio-room transmitted the signal “Niitaka yama nobore 1208,” which translates from the Japanese as an admonition to "Climb Mount Niitaka on 12/08."

Mount Niitaka was the highest mountain in the Empire of the Sun, over 13,000 feet in height, and located on the island of Formosa, which we now call Taiwan.

That signal committed the Carrier Strike Force to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Japan to the Pacific War. The glory was swift and fleeting. Admiral Yamamoto transferred from Nagato in February of 1942, breaking his flag from the awesome new battleship Yamato's mast on the fifteenth.

Nagato's time as the most special weapon in the inventory had passed. Yamato and her class were stupendous, the first Japanese warships designed in the post-Treaty era. The limitations which preserved the primacy of her class had been established in Washington in 1922 had been extended in London in 1930, as the international community hoped to put off another naval arms race until after 1937, at the earliest.

Yet another desperate diplomatic effort was scheduled for 1936, again in London. But under sanction, the Japanese withdrew from the pact. They commenced work on Yamato in 1934, and preliminary designs were accepted on March of 1935. After modifications, the design for a 68,000 ton ship mounting 18.1-Inch guns was accepted in March 1937.
Constructed under intense secrecy at the Kure Naval Dockyards, Yamato was commissioned two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Nagato accompanied the First Fleet to the battle of Midway, but was consigned to the second rank. She saw no action at Midway, which turned the tide of the war, and returned carrying the survivors of the aircraft carrier Kaga to Japan.

As a part of the strategic reserve striking force, she proceeded to the anchorage at Truk in 1943, under the command of Captain Hayakawa Mikio, Upon the evacuation of that strategic base in February 1944, she steamed to Lingga, near the occupied British Crown Colony of Singapore.

Beginning in June 1944, she took part in the series of operations against the Allies that started in the Mariana Islands, and continued in the Philippine Sea, and Leyte Gulf. Nagato passed through the San Bernardino Strait with other units of the Central Force, and engaged escort carriers and destroyers of the Task Group 77.4.3, the famous desperate fight of Task Group Taffy-3.

Under continuous air attack from the Americans, the Japanese fleet withdrew to the north, arriving at Yokosuka for refit and replenishment. The course of the war had changed. Lack of fuel and materials meant that she could not be brought back into service.

In December 1944, the battleship was tied with heavy lines to the Koumi pier, next to the gigantic Yamato dry-dock where the American Carriers are now accomodated. Worse, she was “cold iron,” with no boilers on the line. Lack of fuel meant that she could not get underway for evasive action, the ship was painted in an elaborate camouflage and her turrets were covered with wooden scaffolding.

The New Year of 1945 was a dismal one. The Imperial Navy was shuffling personnel to match its remaining ships. Nagato was assigned as a coastal defense ship, isolated in Yokosuka, with the rest of the fleet in the Inland Sea.

In April, Rear Admiral Otsuka Miki arrived to assume command. Concealment operations continued, though increasingly it was apparent that battleships were hard things to hide. In late June the word came that Okinawa had fallen, and the home islands were the last objective of the Americans.

Nagato's secondary and anti-aircraft guns were moved ashore, to be placed strategically in the low green hills around the harbor. Tunnels were dug to provide shelter for the 1,000 crewmen who remained with the ship.

On the first of July, the fast carriers and supporting ships of Task Force 38 moved north from Leyte Gulf, and took up positions to launch aircraft in July.

One of the prime targets of the combined American-British Fleet was Nagato. Admiral Bill Halsey viewed her as the very symbol of the perfidy of Pearl Harbor, and he was determined to sink her, in port if necessary, just as the Arizona had been on Battleship Row.

Nagato was tied up with her bow facing northwest at nearly right angles to the inner harbor entrance, starboard side to the pier. The huge yard crane I remember from my days on the waterfront is evident in the ancient reconnaissance pictures.

Inclement weather conditions forced cancellation of flight ops on the 17th, but the next day the weather improved. The carriers Essex, Randolph, Yorktown, Shangri-la and Belleau Wood launched two hundred and fifty airplanes against Yokosuka.

The flight to the target was uneventful, with no resistance. At the target, though, a brisk action ensured, with fierce anti-craft fire from the hills around the harbor, and from the ships themselves. The attack went on for around twenty minutes. Nagato took a 500LB bomb in the bridge, coming in at an angle from the port bow, slanting down.

The blast stopped at bridge clock at 1552, and shattered the pilothouse. Commanding Officer Otsuka, XO Higuchi and thirteen others were killed where they stood.

Months later, when Ed Gillfellen arrived, the compartment was still a mess.

For all the furor, only one more bomb hit the ship. It impacted the 01 deck aft of the mainmast, port side. It detonated at the base of the Number Three turret, and Gillfellin marveled that although it had distorted the barbette, the turret was undamaged. The blast scar left a nearly perfect image of the rising sun flag on the surface of the armor plate. Worse, it had penetrated the ceiling of the lightly armored deck near the wardroom, killing over twenty men.

There is some controversy about a possible third hit. Something, possibly a five-inch rocket, tore through the port side stern and passed through the Admiral's mess and out the other side without exploding.

Gillfellen reported there was a gouge on the surface of the table, and markings that looked like they might have been made by teeth. He was astonished that no one was killed there.

Between the two bombs, Nagato lost thirty-five officer and men.

The Allies lost fourteen planes and eighteen fliers, most of them over the harbor. 

That was the last action of the war for the old battleship. Rear Admiral Ikeuchi Masamichi was recalled from retirement to assume command in late July.

The newest Special Weapons of the Allies were employed against Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th of August, respectively. At noon on the 15th, the Admiral called the crew to quarters to listen to the unprecedented broadcast of the Emperor, calling on his subjects to end hostilities.

On the 20th, Captain Sugino Shuichi arrived on the ship and there was a small change of command ceremony to make him the last Japanese commander. The pierside position she occupied would be needed for other uses. Under his direction, Nagato was relocated to the Number One buoy in Yokosuka's inner harbor.

On the 28th, the Americans arrived. There are several accounts of who "captured" Nagato. The official legend is that a boarding party composed of about 35 men from the USS South Dakota, symbolically on surrender day (Sep 2nd).  The version some like to belive goes like this: “Many artifacts were brought back aboard USS South Dakota. The battleflag of the Nagato was acquired at this time. Charles M. Cavell, QM1, USN, preserved the Nagato flag and donated it to the crew of USS South the Dakota, and the USS South Dakota Memorial in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.”

Other credible reports include the diary of the Skipper of the USS Buchanan, CDR Daniel E. Henry, USN, who reported this on August 30:

" - Battleship Nagato boarded; San Diego docks at Yokosuka Naval Yard; first sighting of POWs; transferred 40 POW correspondents with horrifying reports on POW treatment
Awakened at 0700 and found the DD Nicholas (captained by D.C. Lyndon, my first classmate at the Naval Academy) was waiting to relieve us. They had met a Jap DD on the 27th and taken some Japs to Admiral Halsey on the Missouri. We proceeded to anchorage but found our berth occupied by transports busy sending Marines ashore at Yokosuka. We anchored and watched the show. American planes are landing at the field at Yokosuka, says the commodore, but I am not sure.

0830 our APD (USS Horace A. Bass (LPR-124)) went alongside the BB Nagato, boarded, hauled down the Jap flag and hoisted ours. They report Nagato #10 boiler still warm, a diesel OK as is the anchor engine and steering gear. Other steam lines cut.”

I think that may have been the first boarding right then. Others followed over the next few days.

My pal the Admiral had one of the flags from the last Japanese battleship, and it now hangs in a place of honor at the Navy Intelligence Center our in suburban Maryland. It is a gleaming building of steel and glass, one of the last of the Cold War buildings that replaced the complex that served in World War Two.

In the course of its construction, a former Director of Naval Intelligence had the high-security facility designated an official depository for the combat art commissioned by the Government. Accordingly, there are some spectacular original paintings dotting the corridors between the anonymous cipher-locked officers.

In pride of place outside the auditorium is Nagato's battleflag.

It is a centerpiece that connects the young sailors with their history. I asked the Admiral how the flag came to be in his possession. There is clearly more to the story, but he summarized it this way:

“Never having served on a large ship, I always assumed the flag locker would contain several national flags (different sizes, different conditions).  

My flag came from a Marine sentry on the Yokosuka docks (about 4 or 5 Sept. '45) who told me he was a member of the boarding party on NAGATO and that his duty station was the flag locker.  With this convenience, he said he had "liberated" four Rising Sun flags, two large and two small.  Desiring such a souvenir, I told him I only wanted one and would take a small one.  Then we negotiated the price and the whiskey trade, and he disappeared for a few minutes. 

He returned with a brown paper package that looked about the right size.  I tore open just a bit of the wrapping to confirm it was the Rising Sun design, we completed the deal, and I then caught my boat for the seaplane tender from which I would depart by seaplane the next morning for my return to Guam.   I didn't open the package until I was back in my private quarters on Guam, and then was pleased with what I had.  I showed it only to Captain Eddie Layton, who confirmed I had a genuine souvenir.

There's more that can be told, but that's the most authentic account of my procurement.

In summary and in short, I'm sure there are other NAGATO flags, but mine was clearly used, obviously had flown from the ship, and was from a believable source. More than that I cannot say.

As I look back on the encounter and the bargain I struck, I now believe I could have talked the Marine out of all four of his flags in trade for the bottle of Three Feathers Whiskey I provided.  But I was satisfied, I'm sure the Marine was, and I have no idea how he disposed of the other three flags.”

Nagato was systematically plundered for the next few weeks, and formally stricken from the Navy List on the 15th of November, 1945. Rust streaked the hull and the proud pagoda superstructure, and gulls of the Sagami Wan rendered their opinion of the works of man in streaks of white.

But that was not the last of the story, nor even the best part. That was going to come when the Last Battleship got a new crew. An American crew, and in the process, the enlisted ship-fitters discovered the Nagato's store of grain alcohol, which may not have been Three Feathers, but suited them just fine on the last deployment of the Nagato.

Copyright 2007 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com


Close Window