Operation Iceberg in 1946

Since 03-01-03

Subs to Leave Tuesday on Arctic Test Cruise

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 By HOWARD O. WELTY

On the deck of the USS Diodon, skippers of two San Diego based submarines, which will operate in “Operation Iceberg”, discuss plans for their forthcoming cruise into Arctic waters.  They are (left to right) Comdr. Paul E. Summers and Comdr. Beverly R. Van Buskirk.

    Preparations for sailing were being made yesterday aboard two San Diego-based submarines, the Cusk and the Diodon, which are to depart Tuesday to participate in "Operation Iceberg," a test expedition to be conduced in ice-filled Arctic waters between Siberia and Alaska.

     The two subs are scheduled to rendezvous at Kiska about July 25 with the Blackfin and Trumpetfish, which are- sailing next week from Pearl Harbor; and to proceed through the Aleutians to Adak, pass,from there through Bering Strait and enter the Arctic Ocean about August 1st. 

     Joining a fifth member of the expedition, the Becuna which already is conducting exploratory reconnaissance in the area, the submarines are expected to encounter the polar ice pack the end of the first week in August, reaching a point north of the 70th parallel before ice halts their progress toward the North Pole.        

   The cruise is the first in a series through which the Navy hopes to acquire the same skill operating submarines in Arctic waters that undersea skippers showed in warmer climates in World War II when they sent 5, 000, 000 tons of Japanese shipping to the bottom.                                 

   Skipper of the Diodon will be Comdr. Beverly R. Van Buskirk who resides with his wife and daughter at 3629 Georgia St. The Cusk will be commanded by Comdr. Paul E. Summers, whose wife and two sons reside at 1533 Pendleton Rd, Coronado. 

     Van Buskirk, who is 36, last sailed from San Diego on the submarine Perch.  That was in 1939.  His ship was at Manila when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The Perch on a  foray into the Java sea, was damaged heavily by Japanese destroyers in April, 1942, and the crew was compelled to scuttle the ship. Van Buskirk spent the remainder of the war. in enemy prison camps.      

     Summers, who is 32, also sailed from San Diego when fleet submarines were moved from here to the western Pacific. He participated in seven war patrols as executive officer of the Stingray, and in five patrols as skipper of the Pampanito.  His decorations include the Navy Cruss, awarded for the Pampanito’s work, as member of a wolf pack that destroyed a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea in 1944; and the Bronze Star, for a patrol conducted in the Gulf of Siam.        

   The Cusk and Diodoa are members of Submarine Squadron 7, which is commanded by Captain J. W. Blanchard. The vessels are moored to the tender Nereus, at Buoy 34.