Lost Boats
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 or after 09 SEP 1943 and before 12 SEP 1943 with the loss of 76 officers and men near the Tablas Strait, in either the Lingayen Gulf or along the approaches to Manila.
USS GRAYLING was on her eighth war patrol and sank two ships before being lost.
USS POMPANO was sunk (between 17 SEP 1943 and 05 OCT 1943) with the loss of 77 officers and men while on her seventh war patrol.
Japanese records show that a submarine was sunk in her patrol area on 17 SEP 1943 by air & depth charge attack off the Aomori Prefecture near Shiriya Zaki.
Before being lost, USS POMPANO sank two enemy cargo ships.
The exact cause of her loss remains unknown, but she probably was sunk by the air/sea attack above or fell victim to a mine on or after 25 SEP 1943.
The last ship reported sunk, the Taiko Maru, occurred on 25 SEP 1943, so she probably hit a mine on or after that date but before 05 OCT 1943, when she was scheduled back at Midway.
The USS CISCO was lost on 08 SEP 1943 on her first war patrol with the loss of 76 officers and men in the Sulu Sea west of Mindinao.
Japanese records tell of sighting a submarine leaking oil in the area where USS CISCO was known to have been on duty, and that a submarine, presumably USS CISCO, was sunk by bombs and depth charges.
Sunk by a Japanese destroyer on 07 OCT 1943 with the loss of 56 officers and men when off Paramushiru, Northern Kuril Islands.
USS S-44 was on her fifth war patrol when, after attacking a target thought to be a merchant on the surface, USS S-44 found herself in a losing gun battle with a heavily armed Japanese destroyer.
Two crewmen were taken prisoner and survived the war.
Sunk on 11 OCT 1943 with the loss of 80 officers and men near La Perouse Strait, Northern Japan.
Under command of one of the great sub skippers of World War II, LCDR "Mush" Morton, USS WAHOO was on her seventh war patrol.
USS WAHOO had earned a Presidential Unit Citation and ranks fifth in the number of enemy ships sunk.
She was lost to depth charges dropped by a Japanese patrol aircraft.
Lost on 12 OCT 1943 with the 77 officers and men when she was sunk by unknown causes in the western Atlantic near Cuba.
Newly commissioned, she had departed New London and was enroute to Panama.
She may have been sunk by a U.S. patrol plane that received faulty instructions regarding bombing restriction areas or a German U-boat that was in the vicinity.
Missing, presumed sunk, on or after 16 NOV 1943 with the loss of 82 men.
USS CORVINA topped off with fuel at Johnston Island and was never heard from again.
She was on her first war patrol and it is likely that she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine south of Truk.
Sunk by scuttling in the Gilberts Archipelogo with the loss of 43 men following an attack near Truk.
On her ninth war patrol, severely damaged by depth charges after attacking an enemy convoy, USS SCULPIN continued to fight on the surface.
When Commanding Officer CDR Connaway was killed, the crew abandoned ship and scuttled her.
Forty-one survivors were taken prisoner but only twenty-one survived the war.
Among those not abandoning ship was CAPT Cromwell, aboard as a potential wolf-pack commander, and he rode the USS SCULPIN down, fearing that vital information in his possession might be compromised under torture.
For this, CAPT Cromwell was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Missing, presumed sunk, on or after 01 DEC 1943 with the loss of 76 officers and men.
She was on her first war patrol in the Celebes Sea, but her exact location, date and cause of loss remain a mystery.
She may have been lost to mines or an operational casualty.
Lost with a total of 77 officers and men in the East China Sea on her fourth war patrol.
It is assumed she was sunk by a mine.