Willis Lent
Encyclopedia
Willis Ashford Lent nicknamed "Pilly", was a rear admiral
in the United States Navy
. Serving as commanding officer of the Tambor
class submarine USS Triton
during the Second World War
, Lent made the first torpedo attack against the Japanese
of the war.
, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy
in 1925. On August 15, 1940, he assumed command of Triton (SS-201) as she was commissioned.
Lent and Triton were assigned to Submarine Division 62. Triton made a training cruise to Midway
from August 30 to September 15, then participated in local and fleet operations in the Hawaiian area. On November 19, Lent headed west to conduct a practice war patrol and arrived off Wake Island
on November 26. On December 8, he saw columns of smoke rising over the island but assumed it was caused by construction work being done ashore. That night, when he surfaced to charge batteries, he was informed by radio Wake and Pearl Harbor had been bombed and was ordered to stay out of range of Wake's guns. The next morning, Lent observed the Japanese bombing the island. On the night of December 10, he was surfaced, charging batteries, when flashes of light from Wake revealed a destroyer
or light cruiser
on a parallel course. The submarine was silhouetted against the moon, and the enemy ship turned towards. Lent went deep and began evasive action.
When the Japanese ship slowed astern, Lent came to 120 foot and fired four Mark XIV torpedoes – all his stern tube
s, the first American submarine torpedo shots of World War II
– on sonar
bearings (in keeping with prewar doctrine). He heard a dull explosion 58 seconds later and believed one torpedo had hit, then went to 175 foot and cleared the area. (No sinking was recorded, and Lent was not credited with one.) After their initial repulse on December 11, the Japanese returned with two aircraft carrier
s, Hiryū
and Sōryū
; thanks in part to the confusion at Peal Harbor, Lent was not informed, and Triton made no attacks on them, so any chance to delay or prevent the invasion was lost, as was a chance (always exceedingly rare) of sinking or damaging a Japanese aircraft carrier. Neither did he make any effort to evacuate the 350 Marines. On December 21, he was ordered to return to Hawaii
, arriving at Pearl Harbor on December 31.
John Hollingsworth, was sent by Admiral Withers, COMSUBPAC
, to the East China Sea
in January 1942, where he met filthy winter weather patrolling between Nagasaki
, Shanghai
, Dairen, and Korea
. Lent made fourteen contacts, firing twelve torpedoes, earning credit for sinking two ships totalling 12,000 tons (reduced to 5982 tons JANAC postwar) Withers was praiseful, but nitpicked Lent's "squandering" torpedoes (as critical as he had been with Joe Grenfell and Dave White before), because production from Newport Torpedo Station was running drastically behind use. He also criticised Lent's failure to follow up attacks and undue caution around Japanese aircraft. This was following prewar doctrine, however.
(SS-210), departing for the East China Sea in April 1942. He found a convoy of seven ships, including the "magnificent passenger freighter" Taiyo Maru (14,500 tons). Lent fired four torpedoes, two for influence, two for contact; the influence feature failed to function, but the other two sank Taiyo Maru, sending over a thousand oil field technicians with her. Lent then went to 250 feet (76.2 m), where he suffered 36 depth charge
s over the next four hours, so he did not observe the sinking, and on his return to Pearl Harbor, joined the chorus of complaints about the Mark XIV
torpedo and its Mark VI exploder. He was echoed by his division commander, Marmaduke O'Leary; Admiral English
, COMSUBPAC (replacing Withers), "[s]tubbornly following the policy of his predecessors -and the Gun Club line", instead blamed his skippers and crews.
Lent's biggest opportunity was Shōkaku
, which he was detailed to intercept in the Bungo Suido. Like Gar
(SS-206), Ed Hutchinson's Grampus
(SS-207), Chet Bruton
's Greenling
(SS-213), Joe Willingham's Tautog
(SS-199), Spike Hottel's Cuttlefish
(SS-171), Bob Rice's Drum
(SS-228), Stan Moseley's Pollack
(SS-180), and Triton (now under C. C. Kirkpatrick), Lent never sighted her.
) accomplished nothing of consequence during the battle
. Operating south of Nautilus, Lent picked up an 06.15 contact report of a force already out of reach. At 08.37, he surfaced and headed for Midway in hope of intercepting Japanese in retreat, but was forced to dive by American aircraft (still likely to attack, as Grayling learned), and quickly surfaced again to continue.
-engined Haddo
(SS-255) with SubRon 12 in England (which made dozens of patrols but did no recorded damage) and then SubRon 16, relieving Tex McLean, who went to the Submarine School. Lent's wartime score totalled 20,482 tons.
es and the Legion of Merit
, Lent retired and under the tombstone promotion law was made rear admiral. He later worked with the Electric Boat Division of the General Dynamics Corporation.
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...
in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
. Serving as commanding officer of the Tambor
Tambor class submarine
The Tambor class submarine was a United States Navy submarine design, used primarily during World War II. It was the USN's first practical fleet submarine and formed the core of the United States Pacific submarine fleet at the time of the US entry into World War II.-Design history:Early U.S...
class submarine USS Triton
USS Triton (SS-201)
USS Triton , a Tambor-class submarine, was the first submarine and third ship of the United States Navy to be named for Triton. Her keel was down on 5 July 1939 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard. She was launched on 25 March 1940 sponsored by Mrs. Ernest J. King, wife of Rear Admiral King, and...
during the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Lent made the first torpedo attack against the Japanese
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
of the war.
Early life
Lent was born in West Roxbury, MassachusettsWest Roxbury, Massachusetts
West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston bordered by Roslindale to the north, the Town of Dedham to the east and south, the Town of Brookline and the City of Newton to the west. Many people mistakenly confuse West Roxbury with Roxbury, but the two are not connected. West Roxbury is separated from...
, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
in 1925. On August 15, 1940, he assumed command of Triton (SS-201) as she was commissioned.
First patrol
Upon the outbreak of World War II, Lieutenant CommanderLieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
Lent and Triton were assigned to Submarine Division 62. Triton made a training cruise to Midway
Midway Atoll
Midway Atoll is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago, about one-third of the way between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Tokyo, Japan. Unique among the Hawaiian islands, Midway observes UTC-11 , eleven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time and one hour...
from August 30 to September 15, then participated in local and fleet operations in the Hawaiian area. On November 19, Lent headed west to conduct a practice war patrol and arrived off Wake Island
Wake Island
Wake Island is a coral atoll having a coastline of in the North Pacific Ocean, located about two-thirds of the way from Honolulu west to Guam east. It is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior...
on November 26. On December 8, he saw columns of smoke rising over the island but assumed it was caused by construction work being done ashore. That night, when he surfaced to charge batteries, he was informed by radio Wake and Pearl Harbor had been bombed and was ordered to stay out of range of Wake's guns. The next morning, Lent observed the Japanese bombing the island. On the night of December 10, he was surfaced, charging batteries, when flashes of light from Wake revealed a destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
or light cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
on a parallel course. The submarine was silhouetted against the moon, and the enemy ship turned towards. Lent went deep and began evasive action.
When the Japanese ship slowed astern, Lent came to 120 foot and fired four Mark XIV torpedoes – all his stern tube
Torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units installed aboard surface vessels...
s, the first American submarine torpedo shots of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
– on sonar
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
bearings (in keeping with prewar doctrine). He heard a dull explosion 58 seconds later and believed one torpedo had hit, then went to 175 foot and cleared the area. (No sinking was recorded, and Lent was not credited with one.) After their initial repulse on December 11, the Japanese returned with two aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
s, Hiryū
Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryu
was a modified Sōryū-class aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was one of the carriers that began the Pacific War with the attack on Pearl Harbor...
and Sōryū
Japanese aircraft carrier Soryu
was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy. During the Second World War, she took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, Port Darwin and raids in the Indian Ocean before being sunk at the Battle of Midway.-Design:...
; thanks in part to the confusion at Peal Harbor, Lent was not informed, and Triton made no attacks on them, so any chance to delay or prevent the invasion was lost, as was a chance (always exceedingly rare) of sinking or damaging a Japanese aircraft carrier. Neither did he make any effort to evacuate the 350 Marines. On December 21, he was ordered to return to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, arriving at Pearl Harbor on December 31.
Second patrol
Lent, with execExecutive officer
An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.-Administrative law:...
John Hollingsworth, was sent by Admiral Withers, COMSUBPAC
ComSubPac
Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet is the principal advisor to the Commander, United States Pacific Fleet for submarine matters. The Pacific Submarine Force includes attack, ballistic missile and auxiliary submarines, submarine tenders, floating submarine docks, deep submergence...
, to the East China Sea
East China Sea
The East China Sea is a marginal sea east of China. It is a part of the Pacific Ocean and covers an area of 1,249,000 km² or 750,000 square miles.-Geography:...
in January 1942, where he met filthy winter weather patrolling between Nagasaki
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
, Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, Dairen, and Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
. Lent made fourteen contacts, firing twelve torpedoes, earning credit for sinking two ships totalling 12,000 tons (reduced to 5982 tons JANAC postwar) Withers was praiseful, but nitpicked Lent's "squandering" torpedoes (as critical as he had been with Joe Grenfell and Dave White before), because production from Newport Torpedo Station was running drastically behind use. He also criticised Lent's failure to follow up attacks and undue caution around Japanese aircraft. This was following prewar doctrine, however.
Third patrol
After his return, Lent was transferred to command of the Tambor class submarine GrenadierUSS Grenadier (SS-210)
USS Grenadier , a Tambor-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the grenadier fish, relatives of cod that are very common in bathyal and abyssal habitats....
(SS-210), departing for the East China Sea in April 1942. He found a convoy of seven ships, including the "magnificent passenger freighter" Taiyo Maru (14,500 tons). Lent fired four torpedoes, two for influence, two for contact; the influence feature failed to function, but the other two sank Taiyo Maru, sending over a thousand oil field technicians with her. Lent then went to 250 feet (76.2 m), where he suffered 36 depth charge
Depth charge
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon intended to destroy or cripple a target submarine by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a preselected depth in the ocean. Depth charges can be dropped by either surface ships, patrol aircraft, or from...
s over the next four hours, so he did not observe the sinking, and on his return to Pearl Harbor, joined the chorus of complaints about the Mark XIV
Mark 14 torpedo
The Mark 14 torpedo was the United States Navy's standard submarine-launched anti-ship torpedo of World War II.This weapon was plagued with many problems which crippled its performance early in the war, and was supplemented by the Mark 18 electric torpedo in the last 2 years of the war...
torpedo and its Mark VI exploder. He was echoed by his division commander, Marmaduke O'Leary; Admiral English
Robert Henry English
Robert Henry English was a United States Navy Commissioned officer who commanded the U.S. Navy's submarine force in the Pacific Ocean early in World War II....
, COMSUBPAC (replacing Withers), "[s]tubbornly following the policy of his predecessors -and the Gun Club line", instead blamed his skippers and crews.
Lent's biggest opportunity was Shōkaku
Japanese aircraft carrier Shokaku
Shōkaku was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the lead ship of her class. Along with her sister ship , she took part in several key naval battles during the Pacific War, including the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands...
, which he was detailed to intercept in the Bungo Suido. Like Gar
USS Gar (SS-206)
USS Gar , a Tambor-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the gar, a fish of the Lepisosteidae family....
(SS-206), Ed Hutchinson's Grampus
USS Grampus (SS-207)
USS Grampus , a Tambor-class submarine, was the sixth ship of the United States Navy to be named for a member of the dolphin family : Grampus griseus, also known as Risso's dolphin....
(SS-207), Chet Bruton
Henry Bruton
Henry William Bruton was a Gloucester businessman who was a key figure in the development of the city during the later part of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century...
's Greenling
USS Greenling (SS-213)
, a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the greenling, an elongate, fine-scaled fish found from Kamchatka to California....
(SS-213), Joe Willingham's Tautog
USS Tautog (SS-199)
', a Tambor-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the tautog, a small edible sport fish, which is also called a blackfish....
(SS-199), Spike Hottel's Cuttlefish
USS Cuttlefish (SS-171)
USS Cuttlefish , a Cachalot-class submarine and one of the "V-boats," was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the cuttlefish. Her keel was laid down by Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 21 November 1933 sponsored by Mrs. B. S. Bullard, and...
(SS-171), Bob Rice's Drum
USS Drum (SS-228)
USS Drum is a Gato-class submarine of the United States Navy, the first Navy ship named after the drum, any of various types of fish capable of making a drumming sound. Drum is presently on display as a museum ship in Mobile, Alabama, at Battleship Memorial Park.Drum was laid down on 11 September...
(SS-228), Stan Moseley's Pollack
USS Pollack (SS-180)
USS Pollack , a , was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the pollack, a food fish resembling the true cod, but with the lower jaw projecting and without the barbel....
(SS-180), and Triton (now under C. C. Kirkpatrick), Lent never sighted her.
Battle of Midway
En route home, with the decryption of the Japanese plan to invade Midway, Lent was reassigned to the second of three submarine patrol lines defending the island. His was one of eighteen boats around the island, which (except for NautilusUSS Nautilus (SS-168)
USS Nautilus , a and one of the "V-boats", was the third ship of the United States Navy to officially bear that popular ship's name. She was originally named and designated V-6 , but was redesignated and given hull classification symbol SC-2 on 11 February 1925...
) accomplished nothing of consequence during the battle
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...
. Operating south of Nautilus, Lent picked up an 06.15 contact report of a force already out of reach. At 08.37, he surfaced and headed for Midway in hope of intercepting Japanese in retreat, but was forced to dive by American aircraft (still likely to attack, as Grayling learned), and quickly surfaced again to continue.
Subsequent wartime career
Lent went on to command the troubled HORHooven-Owens-Rentschler
The firm of Hooven, Owens, Rentschler, and Company manufactured steam and diesel engines in Hamilton, Ohio. Because the firm was frequently known by its initials, H.O.R., the Hooven is sometimes incorrectly rendered as Hoover, and the Owens may be mistaken for Owen.The firm was the successor to the...
-engined Haddo
USS Haddo (SS-255)
, a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the haddo, a pink salmon fish prevalent on the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada....
(SS-255) with SubRon 12 in England (which made dozens of patrols but did no recorded damage) and then SubRon 16, relieving Tex McLean, who went to the Submarine School. Lent's wartime score totalled 20,482 tons.
Postwar
In 1955, having been decorated with both two Navy CrossNavy Cross
The Navy Cross is the highest decoration that may be bestowed by the Department of the Navy and the second highest decoration given for valor. It is normally only awarded to members of the United States Navy, United States Marine Corps and United States Coast Guard, but can be awarded to all...
es and the Legion of Merit
Legion of Merit
The Legion of Merit is a military decoration of the United States armed forces that is awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements...
, Lent retired and under the tombstone promotion law was made rear admiral. He later worked with the Electric Boat Division of the General Dynamics Corporation.