25-27 SEPTEMBER 1943 LOSS OF POMPANO On Thursday, September 30th, 1943, the staff of COMSUBPAC in Pearl Harbor awaited the arrival of USS POMPANO (SS-181), completing her seventh war patrol. She had last been seen five weeks earlier on 20 August, Read More
24 AUGUST 1944 HAKE, HARDER, AND HADDO CDR Samuel D. Dealey commanded a three-sub “wolfpack” off the Philippines comprised of his boat, HARDER (SS-257), along with HADDO (SS-255) and HAKE (SS-256). US planners were anticipating the invasion of those islands in Read More
18 AUGUST 1944 WOLFPACKS IN THE PACIFIC? Hitler’s U-boat wolfpacks in the Atlantic innovated the deployment of submarines in that theater. According to Winston Churchill, those U-boats came close to crippling England’s economy. American submariners in the Pacific took note and Read More
30-31 JULY 1944 “RED” RAMAGE Parche is the name of a small, colorful fish remarkable for its uncanny ability to maneuver, even sideways and upside down, among the clefts and crevices of a coral reef. On this night 82 years ago Read More
23-25 MAY 1939 SS-192 (cont.) It had been 26 hours since SQUALUS (SS-192) slipped below the waves off New Hampshire’s coast, only to be partially flooded and sink 240 feet below. The McCann Rescue Chamber had arrived lashed to the fantail Read More
9 FEBRUARY 1945 OPERATION “CAESAR” On 5 December 1944 the Type IX long-range U-boat U-864 departed Kiel, northern Germany, for Penang, Indochina (modern Malaysia). The Japanese coveted German jet aircraft technology and U-864’s mission was to transport Messerschmitt “Swallow” jet engine Read More
11 AUGUST 1958 OPENING THE ARCTIC The 1950s saw the United States embroiled in a “Cold War” to halt the spread of Soviet Communism. Indeed, by the late 50s the Soviets, once thought to be technologically backward, appeared to have a Read More
30 JULY 1942 LAST CALL FROM GRUNION On 30 June 1942, LCDR Mannert L. Abele conned the new Gato-class submarine USS GRUNION (SS-216) out of Pearl Harbor on her first war patrol. WWII was seven months old, and the first glimmers Read More
10 JULY 1975 “THIS CAN’T BE GOOD” “This can’t be good,” Chief Paul DeLange thought to himself as he stood on the deck of the attack submarine USS FINBACK (SSN-670) early this morning overseeing the aft line handlers. Disco music blared Read More