Anderson part of Battle of Leyte Gulf victory in World War II

Walter Anderson of rural Carthage attends many military reunions. His vest shows patches earned during his service.

Walter Anderson still loves submarines more than half a century after serving in them during World War II.

Anderson was moved to enlist for the same reason that thousands of other young men did- the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. He moved to Dallas, Texas, where he took the test to become an Air Force pilot.

“I missed one too many questions to qualify,” said Anderson. “They offered to put me on ground crew. I didn't want to do that. That afternoon, I joined the Navy.”

His decision set him on a course to be involved in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944, one of the most important events in World War II. Anderson was serving on the submarine, the U.S.S. Dace. It and the U.S.S. Darter picked up the Japanese Imperial Second Fleet enroute to Leyte Gulf. The discovery was important since the fleet's whereabouts had been unknown for a week.

The Dace and Darter eventually attacked the fleet, which included Japanese Admiral Takeo Kurita's flag ship, the Atago, and another heavy cruiser, the Maya, which was sunk by the Dace. The submarines' actions helped win the engagement, which effectively cut off Japanese oil supplies and was a turning point in the war with Japan.

The night took a turn for the worse when the Darter ran aground of a reef in the South China Sea while tracking other ships from the fleet. The Dace took on the entire crew before dawn.

Anderson takes pride in the fact that U.S. submarines did huge amounts of damage to the Japanese fleet.

“About 5 percent of Navy personnel were in submarines, but we did 90 percent of the damage to Japanese shipping,” he said.

The Dace sank six ships in the war.

Danger didn't just come from the enemy. Malfunctioning torpedoes killed some crewmen during the war.

“One time we fired a torpedo at an enemy ship. It malfunctioned and came right back at us,” said Anderson. “We were able to avoid it.”

Sometimes the malfunction caused the torpedoes to not hit anything. One time his submarine was loaded with torpedoes that turned out to have problems with the firing pin. They fired six straight torpedoes at one ship and missed every time.

“Our commander saw one of them jump the waves like a dolphin,” said Anderson.

Anderson said torpedoes that detonate below a submarine are the dangerous ones.

“The ones that explode above you aren't bad, it's the ones that explode underneath you that are bad,” he said. “The explosion forms an air bubble and you'll go up to the surface in that air bubble. Once you're up there, the enemy ship can open up on you with its guns.”

Anderson had another close call when a Japanese submarine caught them on the surface.

“We were on the surface and we saw the wake from the torpedo go by us,” he said.

Submarines returned to base if they shot all 26 torpedoes in under 30 days. Otherwise, submarines normally had patrol lengths of about 60 days. The crew was given two weeks of rest and relaxation time while another crew made all necessary repairs to the submarine. Crews on leave received beer chits and sometimes free food. They also received their paychecks.

Once a crew returned to the submarine, 10 percent of them were transferred to a different crew as part of crew rotation. A commander could not do more than four patrols in the same submarine before being transferred.

Crews had to get along and be in sync with each other due to the nature of the work and the close quarters.

“The ones who did not get along with others were the first ones selected to be transferred off,” said Anderson.

Anderson eventually returned to Midway Island after he served on eight patrols where he heard that the war was over. His Navy time started at Midway Island where he served the first two of his patrols in the U.S.S. Snook. All submarines at that time were named after fish.

Anderson began his service with basic training and Quartermaster school in San Diego, Calif. He was one of 10 to qualify as a Quartermaster from the school. Two of the 10 were selected even though they did not meet requirements.

“They had to produce 10 in each class so they relaxed the standards,” said Anderson.

Anderson went to Pearl Harbor, but was unable to see any of it. He arrived at night, slept in a barracks, and was shipped out to Midway Island the next morning.

His two patrols on the U.S.S. Snook qualified him as Quartermaster. The Snook patrolled near Guam. At that time, submarines were assigned an area to patrol. They were not to leave the area before receiving clearance, and they were to consider any ships in that area as enemies.

The policy was changed later after a U.S. submarine sank another submarine. The new policy was to positively identify an enemy ship before firing.

Anderson's final Quartermaster test included a walking tour of a submarine with his commander asking him questions about any and all areas of the submarine and how things worked. A Quartermaster must be able to do all jobs on a submarine.

Anderson ended his active duty with eight patrols. He became a member of the Navy Reserves for the next 30 years.

Anderson loves to attend reunions with other military personnel, especially fellow submarine enthusiasts. He recently toured a new submarine and was amazed at how much things had changed. He said he would have loved to have been a navigator on the new submarines.

“We had to read the stars,” he said. “Now they push a button and a few seconds later, they have their position. That would have made my job a lot easier. It's amazing what they've done.”