James Thomas Dunlap was born in Muscogee, Escambia County, Florida on March 7, 1919, the son of Isham Neil Dunlap and Mary Elizabeth Stewart. He was educated in Baldwin County, Alabama. He married Maggie May Givens in 1940 in Milton and she gave birth to their only child Bobby Ray Dunlap. With the landing of the Marines on Saipan on June 16, 1944, the Americans knew the enemy fleet would be forced to come out of hiding. Therefore, the U.S. Submarine Force commander positioned four of his boats in a line to intercept them when they came to attack. At 0816 on June 19th, the submarine USS Albacore sighted enemy carriers heading for the Battle of the Philippine Sea and began an attack on the Taiho with six torpedoes.
Their target was steaming at twenty-seven knots and had just launched forty-two aircraft, which was her contribution to the second-strike wave against the U.S. Fleet. Unfortunately, four of Albacore's torpedoes missed the Taiho. To make matters worse, one of the Taiho's pilots launching off the flight deck, sighted one of the remaining two torpedoes heading straight for his ship. He heroically crashed his aircraft into it, temporarily saving his ship! Nonetheless, the remaining torpedo struck the carrier on her starboard side near her aviation fuel tanks causing only slight damage. Or so they thought at the time! However, the damage was much more severe than they first realized resulting in dire consequences later in the day. At 1530, a violent explosion suddenly erupted on the Taiho causing her armored flight deck to buckle while fires spread quickly out of control. At 1828, the Taiho went under after another tremendous detonation, heeling over on her side and beginning her long voyage to the bottom.
The original torpedo from the Albacore had finally done its job after vapors from the ruptured fuel tanks began to spread below decks and were eventually ignited. This was because the carrier was using Tarakan crude oil, which was so pure you could use it raw without any type of refining. But it was also highly volatile, an undesirable characteristic during a naval battle and was the direct cause of the Taiho's sinking. The Albacore was subjected to heavy depth-charge attacks, but they were able to escape without any serious damage. Sadly, the crew of the Albacore never knew they had sunk the Taiho because the doomed ship just disappeared from the intelligence charts. After the battle, the Albacore returned to duty for her eleventh patrol and disappeared sometime after October 28, 1944. After the war, Japanese records were searched, and found that a submarine in the same area as the Albacore struck a mine close to the shore off northeastern Hokkaido on November 7, 1944. A Japanese patrol boat witnessed the explosion of a submerged submarine and saw a great deal of heavy oil, cork, bedding, and food supplies rise to the surface.
On board that submarine was MOM1c James Thomas Dunlap. His wife and son were notified by the war department that her husband was missing in action, but she certainly knew the fate that befell the submarine crews. He was survived by six siblings, four living in Pensacola and two in Baldwin County. He was the last of six local sailors that perished on submarine duty and was officially declared dead by the War Department on December 15, 1945.
MOM1c James Thomas Dunlap
MOM1c James Thomas Dunlap
USS Albacore
Japanese carrier Taiho prior to her sinking by the USS Albacore.The battle of the Philippine Sea was a tremendous victory for the Americans and a devastating loss to the Japanese.