Willie Peeler was born in Paragould, Greene County, Arkansas on November 17, 1923. From the 1930 U.S. Census, we learn that Willieâ??s father, Charles, 62, was a retail merchant at a grocery store.  His mother, Maggie, 45, had six children living at home at this time. Willie, five years old, was the fifth born with two sisters and three brothers. They lived at 522 East Kings Highway in Paragould.
Ten years later, the family moved to Pekin Street, still in Paragould. The parents, Charles and Maggie, had three grandchildren, James Hampton, 12, Willie Hampton, 7, and Earnest Laugley, 10, living with the family. In addition, their daughter, Rosa Moore, 34, Willie, 15, and Mary, 12, lived at the house also. This information was included in the 1940 U.S. Census.Â
Peeler joined the Navy on August 4, 1942 in Little Rock, Arkansas. After basic training, he volunteered for the submarine service and trained at the base in New London, Connecticut. He attained the rating of Fireman, Second Class with a Navy Service Number of 630 31 25.
His first recorded duty was to muster aboard the submarine tender USS Fulton (AS-11) on October 26, 1942. Fulton was underway on her shakedown cruise out of San Diego when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. She was ordered at once to Panama, arriving on 9 December. During the next month, she established advanced seaplane bases in the Gulf of Fonseca, Nicaragua, and in the Galapagos Islands, then returned to San Diego to prepare for Pacific duty. She tended Pacific Fleet submarines at Pearl Harbor from 15 March-8 July 1942, putting to sea during the Battle of Midway. She transported many of the survivors of the sunken aircraft carrier Yorktown back to Pearl Harbor, arriving on 8 June. She was at Midway until 17 October; and at Brisbane from 9 November. There she established a submarine base and rest camp, and in addition to refitting submarines between their war patrols, acted as tender to other types of ships.
Peeler next joined the crew of the ill-fated submarine USS Triton (SS-201) on January 31, 1943. Willie participated in two war patrols into the Southwest Pacific aboard the Triton. The USS Triton (SS-201) was the fourth Tambor-class submarine to be commissioned in the United States Navy in the years leading up to the country's December 1941 entry into World War II. Her wartime service was in the Pacific Ocean. She completed five patrols in the following 14 months, and is credited with the sinking of over 20,000 tons of Japanese shipping and warships. She was lost with all hands on or around March 15, 1943. Of the twelve Tambor-class submarines, only five survived the war.
Her keel was down on 5 July 1939 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard. She was launched on 25 March 1940 and commissioned on 15 August 1940 with Lieutenant Commander Willis A. "Pilly" Lent (Class of 1925) in command. She was the first submarine and third ship of the United States Navy to be named for Triton, a mythological Greek god, the messenger of the sea.
The new submarine held her shakedown training in the Caribbean Sea from 14 January to 26 Marh 1941 and then conducted training and minelaying exercises in the Portsmouth, New Hampshire - New London, Connecticut area. Triton departed Portsmouth on 1 July, transited the Panama Canal on 12 July, and arrived at San Diego, California, on 20 July. Nine days later, she and sister ship USS Trout (SS-202) headed for Hawaii and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 4 August 1941.
Fifth War Patrol - On 16 December, 1942, Triton got underway for a position 20 miles (32 km) east of Wake on the Midwayâ??Wake route. She was one of three submarines stationed between the two islands to mark the way for United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bombers in strikes on Wake and to rescue the crews of any planes forced down at sea. She made no rescues, but, on the night of 23 December, she aided in guiding the Liberators in a night bombing attack on the island. On 24 December, the submarine sighted the mast of a ship on the horizon, headed for Wake anchorage. Triton (alerted by ULTRA) closed to 1,000 yards (910 m) and launched two torpedoes. One hit under the stack, the other under the foremast. Amakasu Maru Number 1 was obliterated in a cloud of smoke and steam as she went under. The submarine then set a course for Brisbane. On 28 December, she sighted an enemy ship, closed to 7,000 yards (6,400 m), and launched three torpedoes into the transport Omi Maru. The ship sank almost immediately and, although there was much wreckage, no survivors were seen.
Triton was then ordered to patrol the Trukâ??Rabaulâ??New Guinea shipping lanes, north and northwest of New Ireland, arriving on 30 December 1942. On 10 January 1943, Triton stalked an unidentified vessel but withheld her attack upon observing it was marked as a hospital ship. Three days later, she launched four torpedoes at a tanker and scored one hit. When the enemy began firing at her periscope, she went deep to begin an end around. About 20 minutes later, the submarine returned to periscope depth and launched a spread of four torpedoes. Two geysers of water rose amidships as high as the target's bridge, but no explosions followed. The next day, Triton attempted to attack a freighter, but an escort forced her down where she was subjected to a two-hour depth charge attack. On 16 January, she attacked two cargo ships, scoring two hits on the first and one on the second; but her victims forced her to submerge before she could evaluate the damage. Later that day, Triton fired her last three torpedoes at a large freighter but heard no explosions. She then headed for Australia and reached Brisbane on 26 January, with a total of 6,500 tons for the trip.
Sixth and Final patrol - Falling under the strict tactical control of Admiral James Fife, Jr., Triton (now in the hands of Peeler K. MacKenzie) on 16 February, 1943 began her sixth and final war patrol, hoping to destroy enemy shipping between the Shortland Basin and Rabaul. She reported smoke on 22 February and a new Japanese radar at Buka. On 6 March, the submarine attacked a convoy of five destroyer-escorted ships, sinking the cargo ship Kiriha Maru and damaging another freighter. One of her torpedoes made a circular run, and Triton went deep to evade it. She attacked another convoy on the night of 8 March and claimed that five of the eight torpedoes she had fired scored hits. She could not observe the results or make a follow-up attack because gunfire from the escorts forced her down. On 11 March, Triton reported she was chasing two convoys, each made up of five or more ships. She was informed Trigger (SS-237) was operating in an adjoining area and ordered to stay south of the equator. On 13 March, Triton was warned that three enemy destroyers, including the Akikaze were in her area either looking for a convoy or hunting American submarines.
On 15 March, Trigger reported she had attacked a convoy and had been depth charged. Even though attacks on her ceased, she could still hear distant depth charging for about an hour. No further messages from Triton were ever received. Post-war examination of Japanese records revealed on 15 March 1943, three Japanese destroyers attacked a submarine a little northwest of Triton's assigned area and subsequently observed an oil slick, debris, and items with American markings. On 10 April 1943, Triton was reported overdue from patrol and presumed lost, one of three lost in a month.
Willie Peeler was one of the 74 sailors killed aboard the USS Triton on March 15, 1943. None of the bodies were able to be recovered. All of the crew are memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. He was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously and was entitled to the American Defense Service Medal, and the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.Â
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In addition, his family applied for and was granted permission to place a memorial stone at the Arlington National Cemetery. The grave was located in section MC Site 35-M. The inscription reads: â??IN MEMORY OF WILLIE LEE PEELER, F2C, US NAVY, WORLD WAR II, NOV 17, 1923, APR 10 1944, PURPLE HEARTâ??
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This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallenâ??s name and read his/her story.
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Resources:
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/united-states-submarine-losses/triton-ss-201.html
http://oneternalpatrol.com/peeler-w-l.htm
1930 and 1940 U.S. Census
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/86192164:6224?tid=&pid=&queryId=4af63a0b920cd7df70314875af362b10&_phsrc=DRX678&_phstart=successSource
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/100015395:2442?tid=&pid=&queryId=4af63a0b920cd7df70314875af362b10&_phsrc=DRX679&_phstart=successSource
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/106056:2324?tid=&pid=&queryId=4af63a0b920cd7df70314875af362b10&_phsrc=DRX680&_phstart=successSource
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/2382483:8750?tid=&pid=&queryId=4af63a0b920cd7df70314875af362b10&_phsrc=DRX681&_phstart=successSource
U.S. Navy WWII Muster Rolls
