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 15 MAR 1943 with the loss of 74 officers and men. She was reported overdue, and presumed sunk north of the Admiralty Islands during a fight with three Japanese destroyers.
USS TRITON was the first boat to engage the enemy during WWII in December 1941 off Wake Island, sinking nine ships, one submarine and a destroyer.
Lost on 03 APR 1943 with the loss of 74 officers and men while on her seventh war patrol.
USS PICKEREL departed Pearl Harbor, HI, and after topping off with fuel at Midway Island on 22 MAR 1943, she headed for the Eastern Coast of Northern Honshu.
She was presumed lost somewhere off Honshu.
The exact cause of her loss has never been determined, but her operational area contained numerous minefields.
Lost on 22 APR 1943 near Penang, with no immediate loss of life.
USS GRENADIER was on her sixth war patrol off Malay Peninsula. While stalking a convoy, she was spotted by a Japanese aircraft and immediately dove. While passing 130 feet, USS GRENADIER was bombed, causing severe damage.
She was lodged on the bottom at 270 feet and the crew spent hours fighting fires and flooding. When she surfaced, she had no propulsion and was attacked by another Japanase aircraft. USS GRENADIER succeeded in shooting down the secord aircraft, however, she remained heavily damaged. When enemy ships arrived, the CO ordered abandoned ship and scuttled the boat.
Of the sixty-one officers and crew members taken prisoner, fifty-seven survived the war.
Lost on 12 JUN 1943 with the loss of 42 officers and men near Key West, FL during a practice torpedo approach when Forward Battery compartment flooded. The cause was probably due to flooding through a torpedo tube.
The Commanding Officer and two other men on the bridge survived, as did eighteen crew members on liberty at the time of the accident.
Lost between 26 JUN 1943 and 04 JUL 1943 with the loss of 78 officers and men. USS RUNNER was on her third war patrol and is presumed to have struck a mine.
Prior to her loss, she reported sinking a Japanese freighter, the Seinan Maru, on 11 JUN 1943 and a passenger-cargoman, Shinryu Maru, off the Kurile Islands on 26 JUN 1943, so the USS RUNNER was lost between then and 24 JUL 1943, when she was scheduled to return to Midway.
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.