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. Continue reading “The Tragic Revenge of USS Sailfish” →