Stories From the US Submarine Force
The South China Sea lay deceptively calm on the evening of June 28, 1944, as USS Jack SS-259 slipped through the tropical waters just off the coast of French Indochina. The day had begun hours earlier with routine maneuvers submerging before dawn, surfacing after first light, and diving again with the twilight. It was a pattern worn smooth by repetition, the daily rhythm of a hunter.
Continue reading “A Moonlit Standoff: USS Jack SS-259 on June 28, 1944”
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser ran the story on June 10, 1955. There it was in black and white, plain as day: Commander Stephen S. Mann, U.S. Navy, was taking over Submarine Squadron 72. It might have just been another quiet military personnel notice to most folks reading their morning coffee over the paper, but for the men who served with Mann, it carried the weight of experience and the quiet authority of a man who had faced death and kept his boat afloat.
Continue reading “The Divine Devilfish”
In the dark, moonlit hours of May 10, 1944, the Pacific Ocean off the northwestern coast of Luzon was alive with danger. Beneath the gently rolling swells, the steel predator USS Cod (SS-224), a fleet submarine of the Gato-class, stalked its prey—a leviathan of a convoy moving southwesterly, heavily guarded by Japanese destroyers, torpedo boats, and patrol planes. What followed was a daring submerged engagement worthy of any tale from Theodore Roscoe’s annals of undersea valor: an audacious attack on a 30-ship convoy that left fire on the sea and silence below.
Continue reading “USS Cod’s Torpedo Ballet: The Action of May 10, 1944”
Patrol Reports 