Stories From the US Submarine Force
The USS Batfish (SS-310) earned her place in history as “The Champion Submarine-Killing Submarine of World War Two.” But before she ever sent three enemy subs to the bottom in early 1945, she fought her way through tense patrols in the Central Pacific. One of her most daring actions came on August 23, 1944, during her Fourth War Patrol near Palau. It was a day when Batfish stumbled onto a Japanese flotilla trapped by reefs and shoals, and came out swinging.
The USS Muskallunge (SS-262) was one of the U.S. Navy’s steel hunters, a Gato-class submarine that prowled the Pacific during the Second World War. Her name, chosen in honor of the fierce fish that lurks in the lakes and rivers of North America, could not have been more fitting. Fishermen know the muskie as the “fish of ten thousand casts,” a prize hard to land and nearly impossible to forget. For the crew of Muskallunge, the boat became their own elusive prize, tested in battle, hounded by escorts, and remembered today as one of the submarines that carried the Silent Service into the heart of the Pacific war.
The submarine force of the United States Navy often made headlines with daring sinkings and spectacular patrols. Yet the war was also fought by boats like USS Gar, steady workers of the Pacific campaign, which endured mishaps, setbacks, and still managed to strike blows against the enemy. On August 20, 1943, Gar proved her worth in one of those tense encounters that demonstrated grit more than glamour.
Patrol Reports 