On the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, World War I ended. This day also marks a day when we should remember those who fought in wars for our country.
Here in Annapolis, a homegrown hero of World Wa II should be remembered for taking the fight to the Japanese just 8 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The man was Thomas Burton Klakring. Born in Annapolis in 1904, he grew up on Lafayette Avenue in the Murray Hill neighborhood. He was educated at St John’s College from which he graduated from its undergraduate course at the age of 18, and later at the Naval Academy from which he graduated in 1927.
At the academy, he led the “Navy Ten,” an orchestra of midshipmen in which he distinguished himself as an accomplished pianist. According to his much younger cousin Clarence Klakring, the 89-year-old owner of Klakring Motors on West Street, Thomas played the piano several times with George Gershwin.
After graduation from the Naval Academy, Klakring entered the submarine service and commanded the submarine USS Guardfish at the age of 37 as a lieutenant commander. In August 1942, his submarine departed Pearl Harbor with five officers and 55 enlisted men to patrol the waters off the eastern shores of the Japanese island of Honshu to sink Japanese ships.
Without benefit of sonar-equipment, Guardfish sighted 77 vessels and sunk eight ships over a 35-day patrol. Upon the submarine’s return to Pearl Harbor, Adm. Chester Nimitz held a rare news conference on Dec. 1, 1942, where he awarded 11 Navy Crosses and Four Distinguished Flying Crosses to 15 Marine aviators for their heroism at the Battle of Midway, and one Navy Cross to Klakring for his recent patrol.
At that news conference, it was reported that Klakring set the record of sinking 70,000 tons of enemy shipping on that patrol. Also, Klakring said that he was so close to shore one night that he watched a horserace under the lights through the submarine’s periscope but could not determine which horse won. Later Klakring corrected that tonnage to 17,000 tons.
But it was understandable for our press to exaggerate at the end of 1942. Japan was trying to envelop Australia by establishing an airfield on Guadalcanal where a fierce battle raged, and Hitler invaded the Soviet Union as far as Stalingrad where another fierce battle was in doubt.
Klakring commanded two more patrols aboard Guardfish in 1943: the second one in the East China Sea sinking two ships and damaging another; and a third one in waters off Rabaul-Kavieng area where he sunk two Japanese warships.
For each patrol, he received another Navy Cross, and Guardfish was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation.
Klakring and his crew’s dedication and heroism set the standard but were not alone. Sadly, one out of every three submarines that left Pearl Harbor never returned. Fifty-one U.S. submarines and 3,100 men were lost in the Pacific.
After Guardfish command, he reported for instructor duty at the Navy Submarine School. In March 1944 he assumed command of Submarine Division 102 in Pearl Harbor that applied wolf-pack tactics against the Japanese. For his actions he was awarded the Silver Star and the Bronze Star Medals.
Following his retirement as a rear admiral in 1949, Klakring became a submarine shipbuilder as a vice president for Electric Boat in New London Connecticut until 1964, when he returned home to Annapolis but continued consulting in the maritime industry.
In 1982 our Navy named the frigate USS Klakring in his honor. So on Veteran’s Day let’s remember a great Annapolitan, Thomas Burton Klakring, but also all the others who never returned home.
Talbot Manvel is a retired Navy captain and a Naval Academy instructor.