Lost Boats - February
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died...rather we should thank God that such men lived...
~ George S. Patton
Lost on 11 FEB 1942 with the loss of 59 officers and men on her first war patrol.
USS SHARK was the first US submarine sunk by enemy surface craft during WWII in the Pacific.
She was most likely sunk by depth charges, reported as the victim of unknown causes.
Lost on 16 FEB 1943 with the loss of 72 officers and men on her third war patrol.
She reported having been forced down on 13 FEB 1943 by two destroyers, and that she had recovered an enemy aviator from the water and taken him prisoner.
Off Rabaul, she reported being attacked by a Japanese patrol plane, attacked by a torpedo boat, and then depth charged by a subchaser.
All further messages to the vessel remained unanswered.
One additional man was killed earlier on the last patrol.
Lost on 26 FEB 1944 with the loss of 80 officers and men on her tenth war patrol.
She appears to have been caught on the surface in the East China Sea by a Japanese carrier plane whose bombs made a direct hit.
During this patrol she sank 4 ships totaling 21,594 tons and was tied for eleventh in the number of ships sunk.
Lost on or after 29 FEB 1944 with the loss of 81 officers and men on her eleventh war patrol.
USS TROUT topped off with fuel at Midway and was never heard from again. She is presumed to have been sunk by escorts in the middle of the Philippines Basin after sinking a passenger-cargoman and damaging another in a convoy. Japanese records indicate that one of their convoys was attacked by a submarine on 29 FEB 1944 in the area assigned to USS TROUT. Possibly one of the convoy's escorts sank the USS TROUT.
She carried out several notable special missions, including carrying over two tons of gold bullion out of Corregidor in February of 1942.
Lost on 04 FEB 1945 with the loss of 81 officers and men on her fourth war patrol.
Based on Japanese records, she was bombed near the southern entrance to the Palawan Passage.
The day before, she reported she survived 3 depth charge attacks. USS BARBEL sent a message reporting that she had been attacked three times by enemy aircraft with depth charges and would transmit further information on the following night.
USS BARBEL was never heard from again.