Iran was surrounded by Turkey on all sides.
A Little More about the Role of Chance
Service on submarines has always been a matter not for the faint-hearted. In a way, it is at the opposite pole in relation to the service of a fighter pilot. For the latter, the whole life boils down to brief moments: takeoff, flight, a fleeting air battle, and if lucky, landing back home. Everything happens so quickly that you hardly have time to be properly scared.
The work of a submariner is mostly about waiting. Moreover, it’s waiting in the most miserable conditions for this: in an eternally leaking, stuffy coffin where you can’t even properly stretch out, let alone walk normally. Endless silence and intense listening, as vision is practically useless here.
For submariners of World War II, it was even worse. Their submarines were quite slow, and only precise calculation could bring them to a point from which they could attack. The attack itself was usually a long, tedious pursuit, trying to cut the corner and cross the course, constant calculation of torpedo triangles, finally a salvo and escape. Often so quick that you don’t even have time to assess the results of your attack, as the submarine is practically defenseless against surface ships.
Escape is also about waiting. A dash, a stop: you can’t make noise with the propellers for too long, lie low, be silent, hide. Then another dash and another stop. The roar of depth charges, and you will either surface someday or not. We deduce the fate of many submarines and their crews later, solely from the results of studying enemy archives: pursued, bombed, and an oil slick surfaced. We verify yes, there was a submarine in that area, and yes, it did not return. And several dozen people, at best, drowned in obscurity, at worst, suffocated for many hours in their box, having no chance to reach the surface.
So, in September 1942, when the Americans were losing everything possible in the Pacific, the Japanese submarine I-19 was quietly humming with electric motors in the Solomon Islands area, where a major tropical slaughter had begun a month earlier. By her luck, American ships were hurriedly passing by: two large carrier groups led by “Wasp” and “Hornet.” In fact, they included almost all the major modern vessels that the USA had in the southern part of the Pacific at that time.
I-19 chose the fattest and closest target, fired a torpedo salvo in a fan, and as expected, quickly and successfully slipped away into the distance. The fat target – the aircraft carrier Wasp – received two torpedoes out of six in its side, and since Japanese torpedoes were far superior to American ones, having no defects, it soon went to the bottom. This was recorded by the sonar operators on the submarine, and the commander reported it upon arrival.
There would be nothing remarkable about this story if not for one circumstance: the sonar operators recorded nothing regarding what happened to the other four torpedoes, and the Japanese command only learned about it after the war. Here’s what happened: these torpedoes did not hit the “Wasp” but continued on their course for the full range of their design, which was 15 nautical miles. They traveled there for half an hour, and in the meantime, the second carrier group – “Hornet” and its escort ships – arrived in the same area. No one could have foreseen that they would be there, as fifteen miles is practically beyond the horizon, and in half an hour, the warships of World War II could cover almost the same distance. Nevertheless, one torpedo found the battleship “North Carolina” and another hit the destroyer “O’Brien.” The explosion caused enough damage to the massive battleship – at that time the only modern battleship of the Allies in the Pacific – to send it into long-term repairs. The destroyer, although not immediately, eventually went to the bottom. So, it wasn’t just Captain McClusky who had luck in the war.
About their own luck, the Japanese sailors, unlike historians, never found out at all. A year later, a resting submarine56 in a surfaced position was discovered, caught up with, and sunk with its entire crew by another American destroyer. The year was ending.
The third year – Japanese luck was finally coming to an end.
The Last Greeting of the Middle Ages
We really love to believe that any events are objectively determined, have clearly defined causes and understandable consequences. However, this is not the case. Often, the reason for serious matters can be something completely insignificant: a personal grievance, an unfortunate or, conversely, fortunate incident, accumulated anger or fatigue. Sometimes, a rash decision by one person is enough, and at other times, everything happens by the will of an agitated crowd.
Psychology plays no less, if not a greater role in history than economics, and human passions often prove to be a more significant reason than the arguments of reason. Because the history we study is the history of humanity with all its virtues and flaws.
Everyone wanted World War II, but from the perspective of our time, it looks like complete idiocy57. On one side: the largest power in the world – Great Britain, the biggest and well-armed army – the Soviet, the best economy – the American, and the country with the most progressive social system at that time – France. On the other – Germany, utterly defeated, stripped of the right to have an army or aviation and navy. Italy, torn apart, and Japan, isolated from the world, lost at the edge of the Earth. If the war is won by the economy, which is almost always true, the outcome should have been decided immediately and, as they say, in one gate. However, in three years, the Axis managed to subjugate almost all of Europe, a significant portion of Asia, and even make significant advances in Oceania, casually defeating the once invincible armies and navies of vastly superior powers.
How could this even happen? How could countries that, while not dwarfs, were quite secondary in capabilities, manage to “lead” giants, the recognized world leaders and superpowers of that time, for years?
Usually, this is explained by the fact that England, France, the USSR, and the USA were “not ready for war.” They try not to elaborate on what exactly this unpreparedness entailed so as not to have to explain the abundance of Soviet tanks and British battleships58. And yet, it is true – everyone wanted the war, but practically no one was ready for it. In the sense that “no one wanted to die”.
Boys and historians love to compare tanks, the number of aircraft, infantry and motorized divisions, bomb loads, and turning radii. But war in most cases.
Not about who has thicker front armor and cannon barrels, although in a specific battle like Jutland59 or Tsushima60 this can be crucial. War is about the willingness to stand to the death, like Wellington’s soldiers61 at Waterloo62 or Meade63 at Gettysburg64. When it seems like they’ve already lost and need to surrender or flee, yet they grimly hold the lines, dying but not retreating. And the attack falters, followed by another, then a third, and then Blücher’s cavalry appears.
The Germans of thirty-nine and even forty-five were ready to die for the Führer, for Germany, to wash away the shame of Versailles65 and earn the right to a better life with blood. Weimar Republic66, was probably not the worst place to live, but a completely bleak place in terms of expectations and prospects for the majority of the population. To toil until the seventh sweat in the hope of not remaining impoverished in old age – that was all the then government could offer the Germans. It’s not surprising that Hitler, with his national grandeur and world domination, was perceived almost like