In June 1942, as the Battle of Midway raged in the Pacific, Japanese forces 2,500 miles to the north were taking control of the Aleutian Islands: Kiska and Attu.

Their goal was clear: to divert American forces from Midway while sending a message that Japan was capable of attacking additional U.S. territories.

In the following months the northern region would be the scene of a series of battles, as weather permitted. American submarines made their presence known on July 4, when the submarine Triton sank the destroyer Nenohi.

But the next day saw the combat debut of two names destined for submarine immortality: the USS Growler and its captain, Cdr. Howard Gilmore.

Howard W. Gilmore was born in Selma, Alabama, on September 29, 1902. He entered the Navy in November 1920 and then took an officer’s commission at the United States Naval Academy.

In 1931, Gilmore transferred to the Navy’s Submarine School in New London, Connecticut. Rising through the ranks and gaining a reputation for being more aggressive than his peacetime counterparts, Gilmore caught the attention of his superiors and was rewarded with a position as executive officer of the submarine USS Shark (SS-174).

While serving aboard the Shark, Gilmore’s career—and life—were nearly cut short. On shore in Panama, he and a crew member were set upon by thieves. Gilmore’s throat was slit in the scuffle, but he survived.

In December 1941, Gilmore was given full command of Shark, but his role was short-lived. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, Gilmore was transferred to the Gato-class submarine USS Growler (SS-174).

The boat’s first war patrol was in the Aleutian Islands, where on the morning of July 5, 1942, a tantalizing sight was sighted: three Japanese destroyers off the coast of Kiska Island.

Approaching directly, Gilmore fired two torpedoes, severely damaging Kasumi and killing 10 of her sailors. She then broke off from the bow of Shiranui, killing three sailors and forcing the destroyer to be towed to Maizuru, Japan for repairs.

Gilmore calmly turned toward the destroyer Arare. He fired two more torpedoes, the second of which sent the ship and her crew to the bottom of the ocean. The commander of Arare and 42 survivors were rescued by the damaged Shiranui.

For his efforts, Gilmore was awarded the Navy Cross, but that was only the beginning.

On the second patrol Growler sank four merchant ships, totaling 15,000 tons, in the East China Sea near Formosa (now Taiwan). Gilmore was awarded a gold star in lieu of a second Navy Cross.

After a third patrol that went without incident, Growler set out on what would prove to be a sinister fourth.

Leaving Brisbane, Australia on New Year’s Day 1943, Growler headed for Rabaul in the western Solomon Islands, sinking a transport on 16 January and another on 19 January. On 30 January she damaged a freighter but was driven to the bottom by a series of artillery fire and depth charges.

The area became a hornet’s nest following the evacuation of the Japanese from Guadalcanal.

On 4 February, Gilmore shadowed two freighters escorted by two patrol boats toward Gazelle Channel. As he was moving Growler into ambush position, the leading Japanese ship appeared ready and fired on the submarine from a range of 5,000 yards.

Gilmore ordered a dive, forced to wait out an hour of depth charges. One hit ruptured a hatch seal in the forward main ballast tank. Emergency repairs slowed the leak.

Just before 6 a.m. Gilmore, thinking the patrol ships had left, brought the Growler down to periscope depth to pursue the ship, which was five miles away.

Early on the morning of February 7, the Growler’s crew sighted the target. Gilmore ordered torpedo tubes ready and reduced range to 2,000 yards, but the Japanese ship changed course.

The Growler’s radar lit up. The enemy ship was heading straight for the submarine.

Nemesis was a Hayasaki, a 920-ton ammunition ship converted to an auxiliary escort. She was armed with one 3-inch and two 25 mm anti-aircraft guns, as well as a single 13 mm machine gun.

Since the distance between Growler and Hayasaki was too small to arm the submarine’s torpedoes, Gilmore ordered “Full left rudder.”

Just then, the collision alarm sounded and the two submarines collided head-on at 17 knots, bringing the submarine to a halt and taking down all of the submarines.

The Growler tilted 50 degrees. An 18-inch section of the bow bent sideways, disabling the submarine’s forward torpedoes.

Hayasaki was rammed amidships, but the 13mm gun crews, realizing they had a tiger by the tail, opened fire on the ship’s conning tower with the only weapon at their disposal.

At close range, the machine gun crew killed Warrant Officer William Wadsworth Williams and Fireman 3rd Class Wilbert Fletcher Kelley.

Badly injured, Gilmore clung to the bridge frame.

Below decks, the battered officer, Lieutenant Arnold F. Schade, was trying to recover as he heard another order from Gilmore.

“Lower the bridge!”

The wounded personnel were pulled through the hatch. Then came Gilmore’s final order.

“Take her down!”

Schade hesitated, as did the crew in the conning tower, but Gilmore did not appear. Another 13mm burst ripped through the upper sections, leaving a hole through which the sea entered.

The crew closed the hatch and submerged.

Taking command, Schade used controlled flooding to equalize the water levels in the Growler while the crew attempted to make temporary repairs.

After about 30 minutes he gave the order to “surface”, but the damaged Hayasaki had already withdrawn to Rabaul.

There was a Gilmore sign.

Thanks to the captain’s sacrifice, the Growler managed to sail to Brisbane, where it was restored to combat readiness.

“The efforts of the officers and crew in making repairs and bringing the ship safely back to base are by far one of the greatest submarine feats of the war,” noted Commander James Fife Jr., chief of staff, Asiatic Submarines.

In New Orleans, Louisiana, on 13 July 1943, Rear Admiral Andrew C. Bennett, Commandant, Eighth Naval District, awarded Howard Gilmore the Medal of Honor. His widow and their children were present.

Under Schade’s command, Growler took part in five more patrols, sinking the destroyer Shikinami and the escort ship Hirado on 12 September 1944.

The boat dispatched a total of 15 ships with a combined displacement of 74,900 tons and caused damage to seven more.

However, on her eleventh patrol, the Growler, then commanded by Thomas B. Oakley, was lost somewhere in the South China Sea off the coast of Mindoro, probably falling victim to the destroyer Shigure.

Meanwhile, Hayasaki survived mines, air attacks, and submarines until the end of the war. After two years of repatriation duties, she was transferred to the Soviet Union on October 3, 1947, as Olekma.

Howard Gilmore is remembered at the Howard family grave — his widow’s family — in Magnolia Cemetery in Meridian, Mississippi.

His final words carved in stone remain just as deeply embedded in the memory of every U.S. Navy sailor.

“Take her down!”