Lost Boats - October
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died...rather we should thank God that such men lived...
~ George S. Patton
Sunk with the loss of three men when rammed and sunk by SS Abangarez off the Panama Canal.
Sunk by a Japanese destroyer on 07 OCT 1943 with the loss of 56 officers and men when off Paramushiru, Northern Kuril Islands.
USS S-44 was on her fifth war patrol when, after attacking a target thought to be a merchant on the surface, USS S-44 found herself in a losing gun battle with a heavily armed Japanese destroyer.
Two crewmen were taken prisoner and survived the war.
Sunk on 11 OCT 1943 with the loss of 80 officers and men near La Perouse Strait, Northern Japan.
Under command of one of the great sub skippers of World War II, LCDR "Mush" Morton, USS WAHOO was on her seventh war patrol.
USS WAHOO had earned a Presidential Unit Citation and ranks fifth in the number of enemy ships sunk.
She was lost to depth charges dropped by a Japanese patrol aircraft.
Lost on 12 OCT 1943 with the 77 officers and men when she was sunk by unknown causes in the western Atlantic near Cuba.
Newly commissioned, she had departed New London and was enroute to Panama.
She may have been sunk by a U.S. patrol plane that received faulty instructions regarding bombing restriction areas or a German U-boat that was in the vicinity.
Lost on 03 OCT 1944 with 83 officers and men and 17 embarked US Army troops when she was sunk just North of Morotai, Republic of the Philippines, in a 'friendly fire' incident with USS RICHARD M. ROWELL (DE 403), a Destroyer Escort.
In this tragic error, USS RICHARD M. ROWELL mistook USS SEAWOLF for a Japanese submarine that had just sunk another US destroyer.
USS SEAWOLF ranks seventh for number of enemy ships sunk.
Presumed lost on 24 OCT 1944 with the loss of 87 officers and men when she was sunk near Hainan.
The second boat to carry this name during World War II, USS SHARK was on her third war patrol.
USS SHARK was sunk by escorts after attacking and sinking a lone Japanese freighter.
Compounding the tragedy, it turned out that the freighter had 1,800 U.S. POW's on board.
Lost on 24 OCT 1944 when she became grounded on Bombay Shoal off Palawan and was then destroyed by the deck gun of the USS NAUTILUS (SS 168) to prevent her falling into enemy hands intact.
The entire crew was rescued by USS DACE (SS 247).
Winner of one Navy Unit Commendation, Darter had sunk a heavy cruiser and damaged another, then went aground while attempting an "end around" on an enemy formation in hopes of getting in an attack on a battleship.
Lost on 25 OCT 1944 with the loss of 78 officers and men in the Formosa Strait.
USS TANG was on her fifth war patrol. She ranks second in the number of ships sunk and fourth in tonnage, and had won two Presidential Unit Citations.
During a daring night surface attack, USS TANG was lost to one of her own torpedoes. Her last shot broached and curved to the left in a circular run. She fishtailed to clear the turning circle of the torpedo, but it struck her abreast the after torpedo room approximately 20 seconds after it was fired.
USS TANG sank by the stern.
Nine of the crew survived and were taken prisoner, including CO CDR O'Kane, the bridge crew, and five who had gained the surface from her final resting place 180 feet below. All survived the war, and CDR O'Kane was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.