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The Attack On Fort Stevens.
The Night A Japanese Sub Atacked The Mainland United States.
On June 21, 1942, Late into the night, the one year anniversary of the largest event in human history had happened. This was of course the massive German invasion of Russia. The war was raging there. And across the world, at the mouth of the Columbia River on the Oregon coastline, one of the smallest combat events was about to take place. This was the attack on Fort Stevens, Oregon by the Japanese 1-25 submarine. Commander Tagami Meiji ordered his crew to aim the sub’s artillery tube at the Fort Stevens. They fired 17 140mm shells into the fort. The shells landed in a swamp, near a concrete pillbox, and a few rounds damaged a backstop in a softball field. But the local commander refused to allow his crew to return fire and ordered lights out to deny the Japanese illumination and targets to fire at. It was a good call. The commander had no idea the size of the force he was facing – and he had only two ten inch guns. The Japanese shells managed to cut phone lines and that became the only and the most sustained damage on a mainland US military target by the Axis powers in World War II.
A US military spotter plane on a training mission found the submarine and directed a B-17 in, which dropped bombs but the sub egressed unscathed.
https://civilianmilitaryintelligencegroup.com/10400/the-attack-on-fort-stevens-the-night-a-japanese-sub-atacked-the-mainland
On the night of 21–22 June 1942, the Japanese submarine I-25 surfaced off Fort Stevens and fired 17 shells from her deck gun, making Fort Stevens the only military installation in the continental United States to come under enemy fire in World War II. (The Ellwood Oil Field near Santa Barbara, California which had been shelled earlier by a Japanese submarine was not a military post.) The Japanese attack caused no damage to the fort itself, only the backstop of the post's baseball field being destroyed. Fort Stevens was decommissioned in 1947. All the armaments were removed and buildings were auctioned. The grounds were transferred to the Corps of Engineers, until finally being turned over to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Stevens_(Oregon)
@ col mikel COL Mikel J. Burroughs @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen C. @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen F. @ ltc frank LTC (Join to see) @ ltc john LTC John Mohor @ maj william Maj William W. "Bill" Price @ maj ivan LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. @ capt tom Capt Tom Brown @ capt marty Maj Marty Hogan @ smsgt doc SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas @ tsgt joe TSgt Joe C. @ ssgt larry SSgt (Join to see) @ sra christopher SrA Christopher Wright @ msg andrew MSG Andrew White @ sgt david SGT (Join to see) @ sgt david SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth @ sp5 mark SP5 Mark Kuzinski SCPO Morris Ramsey Alan K. Cynthia Croft
The Night A Japanese Sub Atacked The Mainland United States.
On June 21, 1942, Late into the night, the one year anniversary of the largest event in human history had happened. This was of course the massive German invasion of Russia. The war was raging there. And across the world, at the mouth of the Columbia River on the Oregon coastline, one of the smallest combat events was about to take place. This was the attack on Fort Stevens, Oregon by the Japanese 1-25 submarine. Commander Tagami Meiji ordered his crew to aim the sub’s artillery tube at the Fort Stevens. They fired 17 140mm shells into the fort. The shells landed in a swamp, near a concrete pillbox, and a few rounds damaged a backstop in a softball field. But the local commander refused to allow his crew to return fire and ordered lights out to deny the Japanese illumination and targets to fire at. It was a good call. The commander had no idea the size of the force he was facing – and he had only two ten inch guns. The Japanese shells managed to cut phone lines and that became the only and the most sustained damage on a mainland US military target by the Axis powers in World War II.
A US military spotter plane on a training mission found the submarine and directed a B-17 in, which dropped bombs but the sub egressed unscathed.
https://civilianmilitaryintelligencegroup.com/10400/the-attack-on-fort-stevens-the-night-a-japanese-sub-atacked-the-mainland
On the night of 21–22 June 1942, the Japanese submarine I-25 surfaced off Fort Stevens and fired 17 shells from her deck gun, making Fort Stevens the only military installation in the continental United States to come under enemy fire in World War II. (The Ellwood Oil Field near Santa Barbara, California which had been shelled earlier by a Japanese submarine was not a military post.) The Japanese attack caused no damage to the fort itself, only the backstop of the post's baseball field being destroyed. Fort Stevens was decommissioned in 1947. All the armaments were removed and buildings were auctioned. The grounds were transferred to the Corps of Engineers, until finally being turned over to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Stevens_(Oregon)
@ col mikel COL Mikel J. Burroughs @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen C. @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen F. @ ltc frank LTC (Join to see) @ ltc john LTC John Mohor @ maj william Maj William W. "Bill" Price @ maj ivan LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. @ capt tom Capt Tom Brown @ capt marty Maj Marty Hogan @ smsgt doc SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas @ tsgt joe TSgt Joe C. @ ssgt larry SSgt (Join to see) @ sra christopher SrA Christopher Wright @ msg andrew MSG Andrew White @ sgt david SGT (Join to see) @ sgt david SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth @ sp5 mark SP5 Mark Kuzinski SCPO Morris Ramsey Alan K. Cynthia Croft
Posted in these groups: 
WWII World War Two
Naval/Maritime History
Military HistoryState of Oregon
National Park Service
WWII World War Two Naval/Maritime History Military HistoryState of Oregon National Park Service
Posted >1 y ago
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West Coast Artillery Post - 10-inch Gun Firing
Wonder what 10-inch guns look like when they fire? The origins of this historic film are somewhat unknown; however, the gun in the video is nearly identical ...
Thanks for reminding us that on the night of 21–22 June 1942, Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-25 commanded by Lieutenant Commander Tagami Meiji surfaced near Fort Stevens, Oregon and fired 140mm shells into the fort from her deck gun into the fort SGT John " Mac " McConnell.
"The I-25 used a screen of fishing boats to avoid minefields off the Columbia and took position off Fort Stevens. On the surface, the crew fired its 14 cm (5.5 inch) deck gun at the shore without taking aim. At the first shot, soldiers at the fort manned their guns and searchlights, and lookouts could see the sub firing. But the enemy ship was plotted (erroneously) to be out of the range, and the artillerymen never received permission to return fire. Also, the fort's commander did not want to give away the precise location of the defenses.
The I-25's shells fell harmlessly in the sand and scrub around Battery Russell, damaging only the baseball diamond backstop and a power line. One soldier cut his head rushing to his battle station. At about midnight, firing ceased and the sub departed to the west, then north. The Japanese crew fired 17 rounds, but witnesses ashore only counted between 9 and 14 shots. Some shells might have been duds or might have fallen into the sea.
I-25 attacked the U.S. again in September 1942 when it launched an aircraft that dropped incendiary bombs in the forests in southern Oregon. There was no conflagration as was hoped by the high command. I-25 then attacked and sank two ships off the Oregon coast, and torpedoed a Soviet submarine by mistake in the mid-Pacific."
From historylink.org/File/7217
Since Alaska and Hawaii were not US states at that time, the attacks of the Aleutians and Hawaii don't count as attacks on the USA.
I expect that Lieutenant Commander Tagami Meiji was honored by Japan for escaping unscathed after he attacked the US mainland.
In August 1943 the I-25 was sunk off the coast of what is now Vanatu, near Australia
"In late August 1943, the crew of the destroyer U.S.S. Patterson scrambled to battle stations off the coast of what is now Vanatu, near Australia. The sonar operator had picked up the signature of a big Japanese submarine submerging close by.
The Patterson steamed into battle, depth charges rolling off the deck and lighting up the sea below. Then, on the final depth-charge barrage, a deep undersea explosion could be heard, bigger than any depth charge. The Patterson had found its mark.
After that day, the most important submarine in the history of the state of Oregon — the Imperial Japanese Navy’s I-25 — was never heard from again.
About Oregon’s favorite enemy sub:
I-25 was one of the large fleet subs the Japanese navy put out to sea during the war. Built in 1939, the boat was 357 feet long and packed a large collection of torpedoes, a 5.5-inch deck gun and even a disassemblable seaplane.
The reason I-25 is so important to Oregon stems from a visit it paid to the Beaver State the year before it sank. In the course of that visit, the I-25 sank two merchant ships, shelled a coastal battery and sent its airplane ashore to try and start a forest fire. It left Oregon not that much worse for wear, but the psychological effect was considerable as Oregonians wondered if this were just the beginning — and realized that if it was, they'd be right on the front lines.
It wasn’t, of course, the beginning of anything. It was just a single submarine. A single very busy submarine."
From offbeatoregon.com/o1101e-Japanese-submarine-blasted-its-way-into-Oregon-history.html
Images: Lieutenant Commander Tagami Meiji, Japanese Flag and I-25 painting; Type B1 submarine I-25; I-26 us same B1 type as the I-25 which was not photographed before it was sunk; M1895 10 inch disappearing rifle at Fort Stevens, ca. 1942
Here is a video of the M1901 10 inch disappearing carriage gun firinghttps://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUmkb_g7cx4
LTC Stephen C. LTC Greg Henning LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown CW5 (Join to see) SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT MSG Andrew White SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx SSgt (Join to see) TSgt Joe C. SP5 Mark Kuzinski SPC (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright Cpl Joshua Caldwell
"The I-25 used a screen of fishing boats to avoid minefields off the Columbia and took position off Fort Stevens. On the surface, the crew fired its 14 cm (5.5 inch) deck gun at the shore without taking aim. At the first shot, soldiers at the fort manned their guns and searchlights, and lookouts could see the sub firing. But the enemy ship was plotted (erroneously) to be out of the range, and the artillerymen never received permission to return fire. Also, the fort's commander did not want to give away the precise location of the defenses.
The I-25's shells fell harmlessly in the sand and scrub around Battery Russell, damaging only the baseball diamond backstop and a power line. One soldier cut his head rushing to his battle station. At about midnight, firing ceased and the sub departed to the west, then north. The Japanese crew fired 17 rounds, but witnesses ashore only counted between 9 and 14 shots. Some shells might have been duds or might have fallen into the sea.
I-25 attacked the U.S. again in September 1942 when it launched an aircraft that dropped incendiary bombs in the forests in southern Oregon. There was no conflagration as was hoped by the high command. I-25 then attacked and sank two ships off the Oregon coast, and torpedoed a Soviet submarine by mistake in the mid-Pacific."
From historylink.org/File/7217
Since Alaska and Hawaii were not US states at that time, the attacks of the Aleutians and Hawaii don't count as attacks on the USA.
I expect that Lieutenant Commander Tagami Meiji was honored by Japan for escaping unscathed after he attacked the US mainland.
In August 1943 the I-25 was sunk off the coast of what is now Vanatu, near Australia
"In late August 1943, the crew of the destroyer U.S.S. Patterson scrambled to battle stations off the coast of what is now Vanatu, near Australia. The sonar operator had picked up the signature of a big Japanese submarine submerging close by.
The Patterson steamed into battle, depth charges rolling off the deck and lighting up the sea below. Then, on the final depth-charge barrage, a deep undersea explosion could be heard, bigger than any depth charge. The Patterson had found its mark.
After that day, the most important submarine in the history of the state of Oregon — the Imperial Japanese Navy’s I-25 — was never heard from again.
About Oregon’s favorite enemy sub:
I-25 was one of the large fleet subs the Japanese navy put out to sea during the war. Built in 1939, the boat was 357 feet long and packed a large collection of torpedoes, a 5.5-inch deck gun and even a disassemblable seaplane.
The reason I-25 is so important to Oregon stems from a visit it paid to the Beaver State the year before it sank. In the course of that visit, the I-25 sank two merchant ships, shelled a coastal battery and sent its airplane ashore to try and start a forest fire. It left Oregon not that much worse for wear, but the psychological effect was considerable as Oregonians wondered if this were just the beginning — and realized that if it was, they'd be right on the front lines.
It wasn’t, of course, the beginning of anything. It was just a single submarine. A single very busy submarine."
From offbeatoregon.com/o1101e-Japanese-submarine-blasted-its-way-into-Oregon-history.html
Images: Lieutenant Commander Tagami Meiji, Japanese Flag and I-25 painting; Type B1 submarine I-25; I-26 us same B1 type as the I-25 which was not photographed before it was sunk; M1895 10 inch disappearing rifle at Fort Stevens, ca. 1942
Here is a video of the M1901 10 inch disappearing carriage gun firinghttps://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUmkb_g7cx4
LTC Stephen C. LTC Greg Henning LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown CW5 (Join to see) SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT MSG Andrew White SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx SSgt (Join to see) TSgt Joe C. SP5 Mark Kuzinski SPC (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright Cpl Joshua Caldwell
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SGT John " Mac " McConnell
Good morning COL Mikel J. Burroughs . Enjoy that Colorado weather today... It will be a steam bath here. Have a great day Mikel..
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COL Mikel J. Burroughs
SGT John " Mac " McConnell - I'm still in NYC right now until Friday night. Fly out in the afternoon and get back lat Friday evening. It's a little warm here today, but it hasn't been too bad. It was 97 degrees back in Colorado yesterday!
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Great video SGT John " Mac " McConnell Ive been reading up on this. It is vaguely familiar but i cant say with certainly I remember it.
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