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 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.
The Pacific War was not won by a single battle or a single weapon, but by the grinding, relentless pressure applied across thousands of miles of ocean. In that vast chessboard of sea lanes and islands, submarines played an outsized role. Among them was USS Bluefish (SS-222), a Gato-class submarine commissioned in May of 1943. She was not one of the glamour boats that made headlines back home, but she was steady, aggressive, and efficient, a hunter that earned the respect of the men who served in her.
Patrol Reports 