World War II Database

Contributor: David Stubblebine

ww2dbaseSargo-class submarine Spearfish was laid down on 9 Sep 1937 at the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, United States. The boat was launched on 29 Oct 1938 with Mrs. Lillian Spear as sponsor, wife of the Electric Boat Company president. USS Spearfish was commissioned on 17 Jul 1939 at New London, Connecticut with Lieutenant Charles E. Tolman, Jr., in command. The submarine shifted to the Pacific in 1940 and arrived in the Philippines on 8 Nov 1941.

ww2dbaseOn 8 Dec 1941, just seventeen hours after bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, Spearfish departed Corregidor in the Philippines on her first war patrol. Her assignment was to patrol the South China Sea and the approaches to Saigon, French Indochina (now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam). She fired her first shots of the war on 20 Dec 1941 when she launched four torpedoes at three Japanese submarines off Cam Ranh Bay with no hits. On 8 Jan 1942, Spearfish shifted to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and at the end of that month, ended her first war patrol at Soerabaja (now Surabaya) in East Java, Dutch East Indies.

ww2dbaseSpearfish patrolled the Dutch East Indies on her second war patrol and drew her first blood in the Philippines on her third patrol when, on 17 Apr 1942 off Panay, Spearfish torpedoed and sank a 5,000-ton Japanese transport ship. She severely damaged a similar ship a week later north of Lingayen Gulf. On 3 May 1942, Spearfish evacuated 27 military, nursing, and civilian personnel from the island of Corregidor in Manila Bay, Philippines only hours before the island fell to the Japanese. Spearfish delivered the evacuees to Fremantle, Australia on 20 May 1942.

ww2dbaseSpearfish's fourth war patrol took her back to French Indochina. On 27 Jul 1942 off Cam Ranh Bay, she torpedoed and badly damaged the 9,500-ton Japanese submarine repair ship Rio de Janeiro Maru. Postwar analysis officially credited Spearfish with sinking this ship but, in fact, Rio de Janeiro Maru survived and was repaired. Spearfish's fifth war patrol took her back to the Philippines. On 24 Sep 1942, Spearfish torpedoed and sank a 3,000-ton Japanese minelayer south of Mindoro. Two weeks later, Spearfish intercepted her first convoy off northern Luzon where she fired three torpedoes at the 7,000-ton cargo ship Tottori Maru. Lookouts aboard the freighter saw the tracks of the approaching torpedoes and the ship was able to turn out of their path. These torpedo misses were not such a bad thing, however, because the Tottori Maru was carrying 1,961 Allied prisoners-of-war from camps on Luzon and Mindanao. Some of these prisoners were survivors of the "Bataan Death March" and others were captured on Corregidor. Spearfish ended her fifth war patrol at Brisbane, Australia.

ww2dbaseFor her sixth war patrol, Spearfish patrolled the Bismarck Sea and the approaches to Rabaul, New Britain. On 12 Dec 1942, she tracked a task force of warships consisting of two heavy cruisers and three destroyers. Spearfish tried to gain a position of advantage but the warships were too fast and continued on their mission without ever knowing Spearfish was there. She sighted many other ships during this patrol, damaging two, but was distracted by six different sightings of the same properly marked hospital ship. Spearfish ended this patrol at Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i.

ww2dbaseAfter an overhaul and change of command at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California, Spearfish sailed on her seventh war patrol to the approaches north of Truk in the Caroline Islands. On 21 Jun 1943, she detected her second task force of major warships. This time, the formation was made up of three aircraft carriers, two battleships, one cruiser, and several destroyers. Spearfish was able to fire her torpedoes this time but scored no hits and, again, the Japanese warships sailed on with no indication they were ever aware of the submarine's presence. She ended this patrol at Midway on 1 Aug 1943.

ww2dbaseSpearfish's eighth war patrol took her to southern Japan and the approaches to the Bungo Channel. On 11 Sep 1943, after sighting a Japanese convoy, Spearfish maneuvered into the very center of the formation of ships. Within a span of four-and-a-half minutes, Spearfish fired eight torpedoes at four different ships from both her bow and stern tubes. Two torpedoes hit and sunk one freighter and one torpedo hit transport ship Tsuyama Maru but did not explode. This ship was so damaged by the dud, however, that she went dead in the water and was later taken under tow. Almost immediately after the attack, Spearfish was subjected to a depth charge pounding that kept her submerged for 22 hours. Five days later, Spearfish located another convoy departing the Bungo Channel. After stalking that convoy for a day and a half, Spearfish fired eight torpedoes at three different ships with five hits. One 7,000-ton cargo ship was nearly broken in two before sinking and two others were badly damaged. Spearfish ended this war patrol at Pearl Harbor.

ww2dbaseSpearfish's next patrol was almost entirely a reconnaissance mission to the Marshall Islands. Her primary focus was the Jaluit Atoll where Spearfish made a detailed close-range survey from all around the atoll. She also made less detailed surveys of the atolls of Mili, Wotje, and Maloelap.

ww2dbaseHer tenth patrol was to the shipping lanes leading to and from Formosa (Taiwan). On 30 Jan 1944, Spearfish attacked a convoy of large cargo ships, damaging the 7,000-ton freighter Tamashima Maru quite badly. After enduring a depth charge attack, Spearfish circled back to the damaged freighter. By this time, another cargo ship and one of the escorts had come alongside Tamashima Maru. Since night had fallen, Spearfish was able to make her approach on the surface and fired four additional torpedoes at the three ships huddled together. Three torpedoes exploded against Tamashima Maru's side setting off her cargo of high explosives. All three ships disintegrated in a brilliant flash of light. Starting on 10 Feb 1944, Spearfish attacked three different convoys over three consecutive days. Two ships were sunk and another two were damaged. Having expended all of her torpedoes, Spearfish began retiring toward Pearl Harbor.

ww2dbaseDuring her next patrol to the East China Sea, on 6 May 1944, Spearfish again attacked a convoy where her torpedoes set off a ship's cargo of munitions and the ship vanished before their eyes. A second munitions ship was also struck by Spearfish's torpedoes, though with less spectacular results.

ww2dbaseAfter another overhaul at Mare Island, Spearfish sailed on her twelfth and final war patrol, this time to the Bonin Islands. During this patrol, her first assignment was a secret mission to make close reconnaissance surveys of Iwo Jima and Minami Jima. After delivering the survey results to Saipan, Spearfish continued with her patrol where her assignment was to maintain a lifeguard station along the B-29 bomber routes. On 19 Dec 1944, Spearfish picked up seven USAAF aircrewmen from the downed B-29 Superfortress "Pee-Wee" after they had been in the water for 25 hours. While departing her patrol area, Spearfish came across a large sampan that appeared to be adrift. She took three Japanese prisoners aboard and sank the sampan with gunfire. She delivered the aircrewmen and the prisoners to Saipan before sailing toward Hawai'i.

ww2dbaseUpon Spearfish's arrival at Pearl Harbor on 24 Jan 1945, she was relieved of further war patrols. For the remainder of the war, she operated out of Pearl Harbor on training assignments. Shortly after the end of hostilities, Spearfish sailed to California where she was promptly deemed to be so tired and worn out that she was recommended for immediate scrapping. Spearfish was laid up with the reserve fleet until she was decommissioned on 22 Jun 1946 before being scrapped in Oct 1947.

ww2dbaseSpearfish served throughout World War II and completed twelve war patrols, including one that began when the war was only hours old. She was officially credited with sinking 75,000 tons of shipping and damaging another 62,600 tons. She was authorized for the Submarine Combat Patrol Insignia five times and earned ten battle stars in World War II (the Submarine Combat Patrol Insignia was not created until after Spearfish's sixth war patrol, so she only made one patrol, her 7th, where she was denied the insignia).

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