- “Congratulations on The Submarine Reviewl It’s just great. I thought to bring it to the attention of our young submariners here (there are, sadly, not very many) . But they seem to be getting it already, and that’s good.”
Wayne P. Hughes
Department of Operations Research
PG School Monterey
- “The inaugural copy of The Submarine Review fell quite accidentally into my hands. I just
relieved the u.s. Naval Attache, Moscow, and it was addressed to my predecessor (a surface
sailor I). If there is any contribution that I can make from my vantage point in Moscow, please
let me know.”
Captain Steve F. Kime, USNavy
- “I have just seen the July issue, it is interesting and useful, with some good thought on important subjects. Keep it up.”
Frank Uhlig, Jr.
Editor, Naval War College Review
- “Thank you for your thoughtfulness in sending me a copy of your fine Submarine Review. I am in the process of reading it and I am enjoying it as I go. I thought I would send my copy to my good friend and classmate, Karl Hensel, if he is not yet on your mailing list. If he is not, he should be. He has a lot of
submarine stories, and I believe some of them.
“Since he is one of the most ardent submariners I know, and I know quite a few other ardent ones, he is likely already on your list.”
Arleigh Burke
(Editor’s note: A copy was sent to RAdm Hensel. But in so doing it seemed worthwhile to
relate a “submarine story” about him. RAdm Hensel was a Division Commander at Midway in WWII
when Frank Barrow aborted his patrol in Swordfish due to stern plane trouble and brought her back
to Midway and asked to be relieved. Hensel had been considered a very demanding martinet at Sub
School, where he taught tactics in the Attack Teacher, before the War and growled impatiently at students like myself who were less than perfect on our approaches. Later I heard that he was writing tough and critical endorsements on the patrol reports of the submarines in his Division. He wasn’t winning any popularity contests! And many of the skippers were muttering that if the old ¢&$*&* took a boat on patrol he’d soon change his tune. But “the old ¢*&$*” with no PCOs available to substitute for Frank Barrow, took the boat back out to sea for her 10th war patrol. The Swordfish was pretty
well beat up and worn out by that time and Captain Hensel could have found a lot of excuses for
taking her back to port. But he didn’t I Off Tokyo, he got into a convoy and sank a big cargo
ship, then took a heavy depth charge beating as he took Swordfish deep. The depth charging had
wrecked Swordfish’s electrical controls and Hensel almost lost his boat next morning when she dove
for a submerged patrol. With no electrical power on the dive, Swordfish went down at a steep angle,
was saved by blowing everything, and then lay on the surface helplessly with a Japanese patrol boat
closing fast. Just in time, Hensel got Swordfish under and evaded the patrol boat. That night,
when back on the surface he picked up a small merchant ship with two PT boats as escorts. He
dove Swordfish for a submerged approach and then put 3 torpedoes into his target. When the ship
blew up with a tremendous bang he should have suspected she was carrying a lot of aomunition.
She was, as learned later, because she was Japan’s first Q-ship (sent out to get the wise guy who
just sank one of their very good ships) with good sonar, lots of depth charges and a well-drilled
military crew. The innocent looking PT boats then gave Swordfish a severe depth charging. With
plenty of torpedoes remaining, Hensel ten days later attacked a well escorted convoy and sank
another cargo ship while damaging a second. On his arrival back at Midway, I was told he walked
ashore to join a group of officers who were greeting Swordfish’s return. His first remarks
were that he’d never again critize his skippers for their patrol results and that one parol was
plenty for him. The “old $¢&#*” was vindicated for being a harsh taskmaster because we all knew
then that he could back up everything he preached!)
