Dirt Poor to Navy Sailor

Learning to be a Sailor

Submarine Life

Submarine Patrols

R&R in Perth

War's End

Reflections on the War

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William Hill was born in August 1922 in rural eastern Kentucky. His father, a subsistence farmer, moved the family to Hamilton, Ohio where he found work painting houses. His father died in 1934 of pneumonia. He and his mother were left with nothing. His mother remarried not long after. Hill graduated from high school in 1940, and then worked as an apprentice at a machine shop until he enlisted in the Navy. By the late 1930s, Hill was working at a defense plant producing marine engines being sent to England as part of the Lend-Lease Program [Annotator’s Note: a policy under which the United States supplied the Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and 1945]. Hill knew of the war in Europe at the time, but was mostly clueless regarding the threat of the Japanese. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Hill underestimated the Japanese and felt that the war would be over in a year. He was inducted into the Navy in the summer of 1942. He chose the Navy because he did not want to fight in trench warfare. After being sworn in, he boarded a train and was sent to a basic training course at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Illinois. His training was only four weeks long. While in camp, he slept in a hammock, and kept all his clothing and equipment in a sea bag.

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After completing the Navy basic training program, William Hill was enrolled in the University of Chicago [Annotator’s Note: Chicago, Illinois] visual communications course to learn the job of a Naval signalman. The Navy was very weary of radio communication because the enemy could intercept the messages. He learned Morse code [Annotator’s Note: a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called dots and dashes, or dits and dahs], flag signaling, light signaling, and navigation. He often saw foreigners on campus and realized later that these men were developing the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. Hill had a partner in school, and they worked well together in school. After graduating near the top of the class, Hill chose to join the submarine service and was sent to New London, Connecticut for training. Hill was pulled out of submarine school before it was over to join the crew of the USS Bonefish (SS-223). He was chosen because the original quartermaster on the ship came down with an illness and Hill had to replace him. When he first boarded the ship, he had to hot bunk [Annotator’s Note: a practice in which more than one man is assigned to a single bunk, taking turns sleeping], which Hill was not happy about. The ship left the United States and headed to the Panama Canal and then onto Brisbane, Australia in August 1943.

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William Hill was assigned to the USS Bonefish (SS-223) in the role of the quartermaster. His duty included standing watch on the bridge and keeping a log of the events aboard ship. He also kept a weather log to keep record of the wind and water conditions. The bridge crew consisted of the officer of the deck, junior officer of the deck, a quartermaster, and four lookouts. All these roles were to look for things out of the ordinary including aircraft activity. During normal operations, the crew was divided into three duty sections. He stood guard for four hours on and eight hours off. When they reached the war zone, the bridge crew looked for enemy ships. They used rudimentary radar, but it was not very accurate. The crew often looked for plumes of smoke, and many times it would end up being merchant ships. He explained the feelings of being depth-charged [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum] and gives detailed descriptions of how submerged and surface attacks are carried out. The torpedoes at the beginning of the war were horrible and were often defective. At the beginning of the war, many of the skippers [Annotator's Note: captain or commander of a naval vessel or aviation unit] were very cautious about when and at what depth to release torpedoes, which caused a lot of complications. These kinks did not work themselves out until after 1943, and there were many unnecessary casualties.

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William Hill was assigned to the USS Bonefish (SS-223) in the role of the quartermaster. After a very successful first patrol, the Bonefish gained a reputation as a “hot boat”. Hill credits this to the boat’s skipper [Annotator's Note: captain or commander of a naval vessel or aviation unit], Tom Hogan [Annotator’s Note: Captain Thomas Wesley Hogan]. He liked Hogan the best out of the three skippers he served under. He spoke about the variety of strategies when locating an enemy vessel. He explained the feelings of being depth-charged [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum] and gives detailed descriptions of how submerged and surface attacks are carried out. Every time a depth charge was released, he thought that it could be the end for him. He took part in five war patrols on the Bonefish in the South China Sea from Perth, Australia. The route from Australia to the South China Sea was dangerous and the condition of the water was rough. Hill did not have a high opinion of the Japanese, but thought they had superior torpedoes.

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William Hill was assigned to the USS Bonefish (SS-223) in the role of the quartermaster. War patrol became an everyday routine as they looked for ships, chased them, and fired torpedoes. As radar improved, his ship performed surface night attacks which was more effective. When new sailors came on board, he often gave them training because Hill knew they were green and needed to know what to do. Between each patrol, the Bonefish returned to Perth, Australia for R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation] for two weeks with pay. There were a lot of Australian ladies the welcomed their arrival. He was told by his executive officer that the Bonefish was returning to San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California] for an overhaul which would take over three months to complete. He was given the option to either stay in Perth, or to be transferred to a new submarine. Hill wanted to stay in Perth, but was shipped back to the United States for the commissions of the USS Entemedor (SS-340) in September 1944. He took a train from Perth to Brisbane, Australia. The railroad system was very primitive, and passengers could not move from one cart to another without the train having to stop. During dinner service, the train had to stop to feed the troops. He was served mutton stew and hot tea. He saw aborigines [Annotator’s Note: indigenous Australians] who came to the train to ask for food. The Australians treated the aborigines cruelly. He had an additional 30 days of leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] at the port because he missed his boat and had to wait for another to arrive. When he arrived in the United States, he came into San Francisco. He was given 36 days to report to the Entemedor in Connecticut. He was stationed on a barge until the ship’s completion.

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William Hill was assigned to the USS Entemedor (SS-340) in the role of quartermaster. After the commission of the ship, they set sail for Pearl Harbor [Annotator’s Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. Hill completed a single patrol on the Entemedor doing lifeguard duty off Marcus Island [Annotator’s Note: Minamitorishima, Japan]. If any of the plane crew of B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] had to ditch, the Entemedor would pick them up. The war came to an end while his ship was stationed in Marcus Island, and he returned to the United States. He received updates on the war from “fox schedules” [Annotator’s Note: a constant stream of orders and messages broadcast by Naval Headquarters to all ships in the fleet], and that was when he first heard about the news of the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] and the Japanese surrender. His ship took him to Saipan [Annotator’s Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands], Shanghai [Annotator’s Note: Shanghai, China], the Philippines, Pearl Harbor, and finally arrived in the United States at Seattle [Annotator’s Note: Seattle, Washington] on 3 November 1945. He spent a few more months in the service before he was discharged in early 1946 with the rating of signalman first class. He began his journey back home by way of train, stopping in cities throughout the country. His last leg home was on a bus. His homecoming was disappointing because he had hoped to go to college on the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment], but was unable to afford room and board. Instead, he went to work for General Motors. He adjusted to civilian life with ease because all his friends were returning home too.

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William Hill’s most memorable experience of World War 2 was cleaning underneath the deck because he had to crawl around to get to it. His submarine [Annotator’s Note: either the USS Bonefish (SS-223) or USS Entemedor (SS-340)] sunk a Japanese warship that had British prisoners of war aboard. He had no idea that his ship did that until after the war. There was another incident where they sank a Japanese ship, and they rescued one Japanese sailor. The Japanese sailor was put in the torpedo room, and they caught him trying to arm the torpedo. Hill fought because he was patriotic and wanted to support the country against the enemy. His life would have been simpler had he had not participated in World War 2, but he is proud to have done his duty. World War 2 to America meant the end of the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] and progressing as a country. He believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and that we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations to prevent future wars.

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