The War Off California

by Michael Ellis

A Night to Remember

On the evening of Monday, February 23rd, 1942, Ellwood, California is quiet. The coastal oil refineries in the Ellwood Oil Field are mostly deserted except for some workmen still on duty. Most of their fellows have gone home, whilst others have gone to nearby Wheeler’s Inn to relax before retiring home for a night’s rest. Just after 7:00 PM the President begins his Fireside Chat, and the radio at Wheeler’s Inn is tuned to that broadcast. The tranquility of the scene is ironic considering the events taking place elsewhere in the world. On the Eastern Front, the Red Army has retaken Dorogobuzh, a town about fifty miles east of Smolensk. President Franklin Roosevelt has just ordered General MacArthur to leave his beleaguered forces on Luzon and report to Australia. On the Sittang River in Burma, Japanese troops threaten to envelop the British Army’s 17th Indian Division as it attempts to withdraw under heavy fire. Singapore and its 100,000-strong garrison has fallen, and within the next two weeks, the Dutch stronghold on Java will follow. Admiral William Halsey’s meager naval task force based around the aircraft carrier Enterprise is approaching Wake Island, which fell to the Japanese onslaught two months previous.

And cruising silently off Ellwood is a lone, undetected Japanese submarine.

Poised to Strike

That submarine is HIJMS I-17 under the command of Japanese Navy Commander Kozo Nishino. Launched in 1939, I-17 displaces 3,654 tons submerged, employs a crew of 101 officers and men, and is armed with six 21” torpedo tubes with eleven spare torpedoes plus the six already in the tubes. When cruising at 16 knots, I-17 had a range of 14,000nm. She could also carry a single seaplane if her mission required her to do so. Finally, I-17 carried a single 5.5”/40 caliber (140mm) deck gun for surface attacks or shore bombardments. That deck gun will be employed to effect this night.

Commander Nishino knows the area around Ellwood well. Prior to the outbreak of hostilities, Nishino had captained an oil tanker which loaded at the Ellwood facility many times. The scene on the conning tower can be easily reconstructed. It has been three days since I-17 arrived on her patrol station off San Diego. So far, no shipping targets have been found. The crew, full of bushido, the Samurai warrior code, are no doubt itching for action. Nishino too is probably anxious for a chance to fight. The Japanese Empire has won victory after victory in the Pacific and even the most level headed in the High Command are affected by it. Soon this euphoric attitude will cause several disastrous miscalculations which will lead to Japan’s defeat. The staff officers will call it “victory disease.” On February 23rd, however, this is all in the future.

Now the I-17 is sailing off the Ellwood Oil Field. Nishino will probably be sweeping the horizon with his binoculars, his eyes keenly adjusted to the rapidly approaching darkness. Until the US Navy’s introduction of shipboard fire control radars later that year, the Japanese have the advantage in night actions, for their shipboard optics and lookout training are the best in the world.

The tall, pyramidal derricks of Ellwood’s oil wells come into sight. Nishino may have called down to his navigator to get his position, or maybe he knew already. The coast seems almost totally quiet, and there is no sign of armed opposition in the vicinity. “What to do now?”, Nishino doubtlessly wonders.

His mind probably drifts back to the days just after the Pearl Harbor attack when I-17 and seven of her sister submarines were deployed to positions off the U.S. West Coast. The submarine force’s commanding officer, Vice Admiral Shimizu, passes on instructions for the submarines to shell targets along the coast on Christmas Eve. This decision comes from the Imperial High Command. The operation is postponed until the 27th, then finally cancelled outright. A key reason in the cancellation of the shelling is the fear of American reprisals if civilian areas such as Los Angeles or San Francisco are attacked.

As I-17 cuts through the sea unseen from the shore, Nishino makes his decision and calls down into the sub’s steel hull.

“General Quarters! Action stations, guns!”

The disciplined crew quickly take up their positions. They will carry out a bombardment of the U.S. mainland, the first such attack since the War of 1812.

Why Commander Nishino chooses to attack is not known with any certainty. Perhaps I-17’s other officers coaxed him into the decision, or he wants to goad a fight with any nearby American warships. One rumor which circulated after the war is that an incident of some sort took place when his tanker was loading at Ellwood. Angered by this incident, he now has a chance to take his revenge.

Ultimately, however, Nishino’s reason is of little concern. What is of real concern, however, is the fact that Nishino and the I-17 are about to cause quite a commotion in Southern California.

“It started about 7:15…”

Inside Wheeler’s Inn, dinner is being served to the patrons by the owner, Laurence Wheeler, and his staff. Franklin Roosevelt’s characteristic New England brogue is echoing from a radio set. During the broadcast, he claims:

"…the broad oceans that have been heralded in the past as our protection from attack have become endless battlefields on which we are constantly being challenged by our enemies".

As if to underline this statement in the most vivid manner possible, Nishino orders his gun crew to open fire.

The first shells land in one of the refineries. The workmen on site are no doubt baffled momentarily. Maybe an underground gas pocket has caught fire and exploded violently to the surface. Perhaps a fifth-column saboteur dynamited something in the refinery. Several seconds later, another explosion rocks the area. They wonder what is happening.

Then someone spots the submarine out to sea. A witness, refinery workman G.O. Brown, later describes it as “so big that I thought it might be a destroyer or a cruiser.” Brown and the others race to inform the local authorities.

A shell sails over Wheeler’s Inn, and Laurence Wheeler telephones the Sheriff’s office. They tell Wheeler planes will be there in “ten minutes”, but no planes arrive.

I-17 escapes undamaged. Around the same time, I-17 is observed by Reverend Arthur Basham of Pomona, California. Reverend Basham was visiting Montecito, about sixteen miles east of Ellwood. He later told the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s office that the submarine was:

“…heading south toward Los Angeles and flashing lights as if it were attempting to signal with the shore.”

Reports of lights flashing out to sea in the Santa Barbara-Ventura area are also reported. The Santa Barbara area is blacked out after the attack (the all-clear signal was given at 12:12 am.)

I-17’s attack lasted somewhere around twenty minutes. Nishino’s crew fired between twelve and twenty-five 5.5” AP (armor-piercing) shells, causing little actual harm apart from a direct hit on an oil derrick and slight damage to a catwalk and a portion of the Ellwood Pier.

The attack, first reported by the Associated Press Wire Service, sent a chill up the country’s spine. The next day’s Late City Edition of The New York Times carried the headline: SUBMARINE SHELLS CALIFORNIA OIL PLANT. The attack also exacerbated animosity towards the Japanese-American population of California, already at a critical point because of the attacks on Pearl Harbor.

The Silent Hunters

The bombardment of Ellwood was an unintended climax to the Japanese Navy’s submarine warfare campaign off the U.S. West Coast. Although Japanese submarine doctrine emphasized that submarines were intended to sink capital ships in order to weaken an enemy’s potential battle line, their captains would usually attack merchant shipping if the opportunity arose. Indeed, the first attack occurred before the first bombs fell on Pearl Harbor.

The steam schooner Cynthia Olson was about 1,000nm northwest of Diamond Head, Hawaii on December 7th when she was attacked at 8:00 am (Hawaiian Time) by the submarine I-26 under Commander Yokota. A shore station received an SOS signal from the Cynthia Olson reporting a submarine attack. This message was the last that was heard of both the Cynthia Olson and her 33 crew and passengers, which included two U.S. Army radio specialists, one of whom probably sent the SOS signal.

On the 11th, the freighter Lahaina was sunk 800nm of Honolulu by Lieutenant-Commander Fujii’s I-9. Four of the crew were killed, two from jumping overboard during the attack, and two dying from exposure during the ten days the survivors spent at sea before washing ashore at Kahtilui, Maui.

Several more ships were sunk close to Hawaii during December of 1941, but they are not as relevant as the sinking of the tanker Emidio on December 20th.

A Prequel to Ellwood

The Emidio, an oil tanker bound from Seattle to Ventura, was attacked by Nishino’s I-17 on the afternoon of the 20th at a position twenty miles off Blunts Reef. Lookouts aboard the Emidio spotted the submarine, but Nishino overtook the tanker and opened fire, forcing the Emidio’s captain, Clarke Arthur Farrow, to stop the ship. Nishino continued firing, one shell hitting #3 lifeboat and killing two of the crew. Three others died when another boat overturned. As the crew abandoned the tanker, a navy patrol bomber appeared overhead and attacked the fleeing I-17 with depth charges, which did no damage, but drove off the submarine. The tanker’s survivors were later rescued by the Coast Guard cutter Shawnee. The tanker did not sink immediately, however, and drifted aground near Crescent City, California, wrecking herself against the rocky shore.

Two days previous to his attack on the Emidio, Nishino had attacked the San Diego bound freighter Samoa with torpedoes and her deck gun. The attack failed to damage the ship, however, and Samoa arrived in San Diego safely.

The same day as the Emidio was sunk, Lieutenant-Commander Shibata’s I-23 attacked the tanker Agwiworld off Santa Cruz, firing eight shots from her deck gun. However, the tanker’s captain managed to evade Shibata by zig-zaging. Agwiworld sought refuge in a nearby coastal anchorage and reached her destination safely a few days later.

On December 22nd, the I-19 under Lieutenant-Commander Narahara chased the oil tanker H.M. Storey for an hour before firing three torpedoes. All the torpedoes miss and the H.M. Storey escapes I-19, only to be sunk in May 1943 by I-25.

The next day saw Nishino’s I-17 attack the tanker Larry Doheny southwest of Cape Mendocino. Nishino fires four shells at the tanker, causing some damage, but the appearance of a patrol plane forces him to dive. Later, he executes a torpedo attack against the tanker, but the torpedo detonates prematurely. The Larry Doheny escapes with minor damage.

Commander Matsumura’s I-21 had more success that day. He found the tanker Montebello off Cambria, California. A torpedo struck the tanker’s #2 hold and set the ship ablaze. Within twenty minutes the entire crew had begun to abandon ship. Matsumura fired several deck gun rounds into the burning tanker to speed her sinking. All hands from the Montebello survived. Later that day, I-21 attacked the tanker Idaho without success.

Monterey Bay was the site of another attack on December 24th. The steamer Dorothy Philips was attacked by I-23. The sub’s lookouts initially identify the Dorothy Philips as an old gunboat, but soon realize their mistake. I-23 shells the steamer, damaging her rudder and forcing the ship aground.

On December 25th, Narahara’s I-19 attacks the lumber carrier Absaroka about three miles off Point Vicente. One of the submarines torpedoes hits the #5 hold, causing extensive damage and forcing the crew to abandon ship. The Absaroka is later reboarded and towed back to San Pedro. I-19, meanwhile, attacks the Barbara Olson off San Pedro with torpedoes, but misses. She is counterattacked by a U.S. Navy coastal patrol vessel, but escapes without damage.

One final attack took place on the 28th, when Commander Tagami’s I-25 damaged the tanker Connecticut with a torpedo. Connecticut runs aground as a result of the torpedo, but is later salvaged. I-25 also attacked the tanker L.P. St. Clair on December 14th without effect.

By the end of December 1941, the Japanese submarines operating off the West Coast were low on fuel and provisions, and were ordered back to their bases in the Marshall Islands to resupply and refuel.

Finally, on February 28th, five days after the attack on Ellwood, Nishino and the I-17 attacked the tanker William H. Berg with a torpedo which detonates prematurely. Although Nishino thinks he hit the tanker, in fact she escapes undamaged.

Postscript

After Commander Nishino’s attack on the William H. Berg, there were only two successful submarine attacks against shipping off the West Coast. Tagami’s I-25 makes two more patrols off the Northwest Coast, engaging a Coast Artillery battery in a short firefight and attempting to start a forest fire by launching a seaplane armed with incendiaries (the attempt fails.) On October 4th, during her third patrol off the West Coast I-25 sinks the tanker Camden off Coos Bay, Oregon. Two days later I-25 sinks the Larry Doheny, the tanker that survived Nishino’s attack on December 23rd of the previous year.