The South China Sea in December 1944 was a hunting ground, and the USS Flasher (SS-249) was one of its fiercest predators. As the tides of war turned decisively against Japan, Allied submarines prowled beneath the waves, targeting the convoys that were vital to Japan’s survival. On December 4, 1944, under the command of Lieutenant Commander George W. Grider, the Flasher launched a daring attack that would further cement her place in history. In a single engagement, she sank the Yūgumo-class destroyer Kishinami and crippled the tanker Hakko Maru, strikes that contributed to her distinction as the most successful U.S. submarine in tonnage sunk during World War II. Continue reading “FLASHER’s Legendary Night”
FLASHER’s Legendary Night
On a stormy December night in 1943, the Pacific Ocean was both battlefield and graveyard. The USS Sailfish (SS-192), a veteran submarine of the U.S. Navy’s Silent Service, hunted in the dark, braving typhoon-like conditions and enemy patrols south of Honshū, Japan. The stakes were high: a war-worn world watched as Allied forces slowly gained momentum in the Pacific Theater. The Sailfish’s prey that night was the Japanese escort carrier Chūyō, part of a convoy ferrying personnel, aircraft, and supplies critical to Japan’s war effort. But aboard the Chūyō were 21 American prisoners of war, survivors from the USS Sculpin (SS-191), lost just weeks earlier. The events of December 4, 1943, would mark one of the Silent Service’s most significant victories—and one of its deepest tragedies. 
Patrol Reports 