Just a year after graduating from college, Harry Anderson of Kalispell was assigned to the sixth patrol of the USS Perch II (SS-313) toward the end of the Pacific War in World War II. During that excursion, the submarine endured two hours of depth charges from a Japanese ship.

Anderson documented this harrowing experience in his journals and notes, which were discovered after his death by his son, Martin Anderson. Martin, a retired history professor, knew that his hometown museum, housed in the building where he graduated from high school, would be a good home for his father’s war artifacts.

So he donated the items to the Northwest Montana History Museum in Kalispell.

“I think they (local museums) do a great job of telling the stories and experiences of the people who live in the community,” said Martin Anderson when he saw the exhibition for the first time recently.

Museum volunteer Mary Miers was excited to see the donated items. Her husband was a veteran who also served on a submarine during the Vietnam War. It was one of her first projects as a volunteer at the museum and she jumped at the chance to create an exhibit around the writings.

“This is a young man on a submarine. He was only 23 and experienced all these depth charges. And he came from Montana, which is so interesting because Montana is surrounded by water. How did he become a submariner?” Miers said.

ANDERSON HAS GRADUATES He graduated from Flathead High School in 1940, where he was editor of the school newspaper, The Arrow. Although his love of writing is evident in his numerous notes and diaries, Anderson studied chemical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, according to his son. After his service, he had a long career at Chevron.

In 1943, he entered the V-5 program, which allowed students to earn an accelerated degree for officer training in the Navy. A year later, he entered the submarine service.

“My father mainly picked up pilots who had been shot down and landed at sea. It was important to save them,” said Martin Anderson.

By far the most shocking thing during Anderson’s time on the Perch were the depth charges, i.e. the explosive bombs, to which the submarine was exposed over a period of two hours.

“I mean, he never talked about it, but I can’t imagine it. The longest two hours of your life. Being underwater and knowing they’re trying to sink you,” said Martin Anderson.

Miers said her husband’s experiences from his time on the submarine helped her understand what Anderson went through during his time in World War II, particularly by imagining what it must have been like to be in the submarine with explosions going off all over the place.

“The pipes burst, lights flickered and you had to be very quiet. You couldn’t scream or anything because the sonar would have recorded it,” said Miers.

With a furry friend on board, things got even more complicated. A trademark of the Perch was her mascot, a lap dog named Duchess. She had to suppress her barking while the submarine survived the bombing.

“I never imagined that the submarine crew would have a mascot, like a little dog. I mean, it’s underwater, running around and stuff. You wouldn’t consider something like that. But I think they had pets to humanize themselves a little bit,” said Martin Anderson.

The exhibit is located to the left of the reception desk as visitors enter the museum. As it is one of the first things visitors see when they walk in, it has already caught the attention of several veterans who are talking to their families about their own war experiences.

Museum volunteer Sharon Bristow, who helped set up the exhibit, said she heard one visitor, after discovering the exhibit, start a conversation with his family about his own submarine service.

“I could hear him saying he was in a submarine, and I don’t even know if his family knew about it … But he explained to his whole family how hard he fought for it,” Bristow said.

Martin Anderson was thrilled to hear that his father’s exhibit was already inspiring others to tell their stories of military service. Drawing on his career as a history professor, he said museums and their exhibits allow people to put the past in perspective.

“People lived in the past. They did things in the past. And it’s these kinds of exhibitions that make it easier for people to relate to it, as opposed to what we have to do in history classes,” said Martin Anderson.

For Miers, putting together the exhibit was one exciting find after another. From the photos of the dog Duchess to the diaries of underwater bombardment survival, she hopes the items will help people understand the sacrifices these soldiers made.

“Here is a young man who just graduated from college and went through this horrific experience. I think people should know how much people gave to the country from a war perspective,” she said.

The exhibit will be on display through Veterans Day. Visitors can view several pages of diaries, photos and relics from the Perch.

The Northwest Montana History Museum is located at 124 Second Ave. E., Kalispell. For more information, visit www.nwmthistory.org/

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4433 or by email at [email protected].

The Northwest Montana History Museum’s new exhibit is titled “The Silent Service: A WWII Diving Denizen of the Deep, Harry Martin Anderson” on Thursday, August 8. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Chalker

A handwritten account of Harry Anderson’s real-time submarine depth charges in the Northwest Montana History Museum’s new exhibit titled “The Silent Service: A WWII Diving Denizen of the Deep, Harry Martin Anderson” on Thursday, Aug. 8. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Chalker