Oral history interview with James Fife, 1962.

Biographical Note

Naval officer.

Scope and Contents

Background and education, Naval Academy; convoy duty, World War I; submarine school, 1918; Yangtze River patrol; fleet problems and training; merchant marine inspections; Director, Submarine School, New London, 1938-40; submarine observer in England, 1940; London Blitz, Portsmouth and Coventry damage; Mediterranean mission, submarine patrol; impressions of General Archibald Wavell, Colonel William Donovan, Anthony Eden, Sir John Dill; General Board, Washington, 1941; Pearl Harbor; Philippines, Admiral Thomas Hart, Corregidor; submarine operations, Australia and South Pacific; Battle of Java Sea; General Douglas MacArthur; Task Force 42; Solomons campaign; impressions of Admirals William Leahy, Chester Nimitz, Alan Kirk, Arthur Hepburn, Ernest King, Robert Ghormley, Arthur Carpender, Thomas Kinkaid, Charles Lockwood, and Fairfax Leary.

Subjects

• Fife, James, 1897-1975--Interviews.
• Interviews.
• Mason, John T., 1909-1998, interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Military education.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Submarine warfare.
• Veterans--Interviews.
• World War, 1914-1918.
• World War, 1939-1945--Naval operations, American.
• World War, 1939-1945--Naval operations--Submarine.

Access Conditions

Copyright by The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 1971.