For the most up-to-date version of this article, please visit his profile on Delaware's World War II Fallen.

Early Life and Enlistment

Larson was probably born in Irwin, Iowa on December 26, 1919, the son of Roy L. Larson and Anna W. Lewis. He graduated from Irwin High School in 1937. Larson volunteered for the U.S. Navy in Des Moines or Carroll, Iowa (there are different entries in various U.S. Navy records) on February 21, 1939. U.S. Navy muster rolls and articles in the Council Bluffs Nonpareil make it possible to follow most of his career. By May 1939, he was assigned to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station (Council Bluffs Nonpareil, May 29, 1939). On April 9, 1940, he was recorded on the census as hospital apprentice at the Naval Training Station in San Diego, California. Pharmacist’s Mate Third Class Larson was transferred from the Naval Training Station to the Naval Receiving Station, San Diego on May 10, 1941. Larson joined the crew of a destroyer—the U.S.S. Dale (DD-353)—on June 20, 1941.

World War II

Dale was present at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Although attacked by aircraft after it got underway, the ship wasn’t hit. Four days later, he mailed a letter to his parents that he was safe. During 1942, Dale performed escort duties for American aircraft carriers and troop convoys.

Larson was promoted to pharmacist’s mate second class on May 1, 1942. On October 18, 1942, he was transferred from the Dale to the U.S.S. Dixie for reassignment. After reaching Pearl Harbor, he shipped out for California on December 20, 1942 as a passenger aboard the transport U.S.S. Henderson. A January 14, 1943 article in the Council Bluffs Nonpareil reported that he had married Caryl Ruhs (Margaret Caryl Ruhs, 1921–2015) in Omaha, Nebraska on January 7, 1943. His bride had also graduated from Irwin High School (in 1939, two years after Larson) and was a manager at a beauty salon. The paper reported that he left on January 10, 1943. On February 4, 1943, he arrived back in Hawaii and transferred to the Naval Hospital at Pearl Harbor. He was promoted to pharmacist’s mate first class by May 4, 1943, when he was transferred to Submarine Base 128 at Pearl Harbor.

A January 2, 1944 article in the Council Bluffs Nonpareil stated that Larson and his brother Bobby had been back in Iowa “enjoying a 30-day furlough.” Paul left home for the final time on December 27, 1943 to return to Pearl Harbor. On January 1, 1944, Larson sailed from Bremerton, Washington as a passenger aboard U.S.S. Litchfield, arriving at Pearl Harbor on January 6 and reporting back to Submarine Base 128. On February 17, 1944, he was transferred from Submarine Base 128 (Pearl Harbor) to Submarine Division 42 as relief crew. Relief crews, typically rookie submariners, were responsible for maintenance and repairs on submarines returning from war patrols.

Pharmacist's Mate Aboard a Submarine

On June 3, 1944, Larson joined the crew of U.S.S. Tang (SS-306), commanded by Richard H. O’Kane. Submarines crews were too small to have a doctor on board. Pharmacist’s mates, typically referred to as “doc” by their shipmates, provided medical care during war patrols. Larson served aboard Tang during its third, fourth, and fifth war patrols. In his book Escape from the Deep, Alex Kershaw described Larson as a “soft-spoken Iowan, a favorite with all the men aboard”. Larson had been promoted to chief pharmacist’s mate by the start of Tang’s fifth patrol.

By a quirk of fate, during preparations at Pearl Harbor before Tang’s fifth patrol, the boat received a load of 24 Mark 18 Mod 1 torpedoes that had been earmarked for another submarine, the U.S.S. Tambor, which was still undergoing refit. Tang set sail on September 24, 1944 to patrol the Formosa Strait. Tang sank multiple Japanese ships in a series of attacks during October 11–25, 1944. The final attack, on the evening of October 24, was among Commander O’Kane’s more daring. Tang made a night surface attack on a convoy consisting of an estimated 14 ships and 13 escorts. In the ensuing battle, O’Kane claimed three transports, two tankers, and a destroyer sunk.

Early on the morning of October 25, 1944, O’Kane fired the boat’s last two torpedoes to finish off one of the damaged transports. The last torpedo went into circular run. (Commander O’Kane noted in his book Clear the Bridge! that unlike the torpedoes used by surface ships, American “submarine torpedoes were not fitted with anti-circular run devices, a relatively simple addition to send them into a dive should they turn beyond a specific limit.”) Despite desperate evasive maneuvers, the torpedo struck Tang’s stern and exploded.

The submarine sank quickly. All men in aft engine room, maneuvering room, and aft torpedo room were killed by the explosion or drowned, as did all but two of the men in the conning tower. Nine men were topside and one escaped from the conning tower as the boat sank; of the ten, four of them, including Commander O’Kane, managed to stay afloat until rescued.

The remaining crew, including Doc Larson, were trapped the sunken submarine. Tang’s stern hit the seafloor, leaving the submarine suspended in the water at a 40-degree angle. The submarine’s watertight doors and the relatively shallow water saved them for the moment, but many had been severely injured in the sinking. Their ordeal was only just beginning.

Trapped 180 Feet Underwater

Based on survivors’ accounts, O’Kane later wrote in his report that the crew “leveled the boat off[…] and proceeded to the forward torpedo room carrying the injured in blankets.” Depending on the account, between 30 and 45 men made it to the forward torpedo room, where an escape trunk was located. At sub school, crewmembers had trained in using an escape device, a rebreather known as a Momsen lung. Small groups of submariners would have to wait in the escape trunk while the pressure equalized, then use their Momsen lungs to breathe as they followed an ascending line secured to a buoy. Training escapes in a tank of water at sub school were from 50 feet (with a 100-foot deep escape optional), but those escaping Tang would have to do so from a depth of about 180 feet. Furthermore, as one Tang survivor quoted in a U.S. Navy report about the loss reported: “Difference of opinion among the first men attempting escapes wasted valuable minutes. The men weren't sure of escape procedure and were afraid they would make a mistake that would be fatal to the men below. Escape procedure is very simple on paper but somewhat different where everyone's life depends on it.”

Depth charge attacks by the convoy’s escorts delayed the crew from escaping for a few hours and apparently started a fire in the adjoining battery compartment. The resulting heat, smoke, pressure and buildup of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide apparently rendered some of the men unconscious and sapped the will of others to attempt to escape. An estimated 13 men left the submarine in five parties, but five of those men were never seen again. Another five survived their ascents in good condition. Perhaps unwilling to abandon the wounded until the very end, Doc Larson stayed in the submarine until the last known escape party.

In Escape from the Deep, Alex Kershaw wrote that when Larson surfaced, “He was in a shocking state[…]Blood was running out of his ears, his nose, and his mouth.” In The Bravest Man, William Tuohy wrote that “Larson was only semi-conscious, probably dying. He had difficulty keeping his head above water.” Whether due to equipment failure or because, in his hypoxic state, he had failed to exhale during his ascent, it appears that Larson was mortally injured due to pulmonary barotrauma. Somehow, his five shipmates kept his head above water while clinging to the buoy during the hours that followed, until they were picked up by a Japanese patrol boat (which had also rescued the four survivors who’d gone into the water when Tang first sank). It is unclear if Larson was still alive at that point, but another survivor recalled that Larson failed to respond when the Japanese crew slapped him and he was thrown overboard.

Only nine members of the Tang’s crew of 87 men survived. Despite enduring months of brutality at the hands of the Japanese, all nine survived the war. Chief Pharmacist’s Mate Larson was posthumously awarded the Silver Star Medal.

Bibliography

Ancestry.com Family Trees, https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/120541733/person/130199482710/facts

Council Bluffs Nonpareil (May 29, 1939; January 5, 1942; January 14, 1943; January 2, 1944)

Hargis, Robert. US Submarine Crewman 1941–45. Osprey Publishing, 2003.

Iowa Delayed Birth Records, 1856-1940. State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa via Ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61441/images/101713791_02836 and https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61441/images/101767312_01181

Kershaw, Alex. Escape from the Deep: The Epic Story of a Legendary Submarine and Her Courageous Crew. Da Capo Press, 2008.

Muster Rolls of U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and Other Naval Activities, 01/01/1939-01/01/1949; A-1 Entry 135, 10230 rolls, ARC ID: 594996. Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group Number 24. National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. Via Ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1143/?name=Paul+Lewis_Larson&count=50&military=1939

O’Kane, Richard H. Clear the Bridge!: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang. Rand McNally & Company, 1977.

O’Kane, Richard H. “U.S.S. TANG (SS306) – Report of War Patrol Number Five.” 1945. https://www.fold3.com/image/300337447

Preliminary Design Branch, Bureau of Ships, Navy Department. “Submarine Report Depth Charge, Bomb, Mine, Torpedo and Gunfire Damage Including Losses in Action 7 December, 1941 to 15 August, 1945 Volume 1” 1949 https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/w/war-damage-reports/submarine-report-vol1-war-damage-report-no58.html

Tuohy, William. The Bravest Man: Richard O’Kane and the Amazing Submarine Adventures of the USS _Tang._ Presidio Press, 2006.

United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940 via Ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-00447-00578

WWII Bonus Case Files. State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa via Ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61186/images/45280_1020705384_1018-00239

Paul Lewis Larson