World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseCommissioned into service in late 1942, USS Hoe sailed for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, United States in mid-1943, arrived on 15 May to prepare for her first war patrol in the Guam of the Mariana Islands and the Palau Islands area. Her second war patrol took her west of Truk, Caroline Islands. After extensive repairs (she had been damaged by a depth charge attack during the second war patrol), she departed Pearl Harbor for her third war patrol on 26 Jan 1944 in waters between Mindanao, Philippine Islands and Halmahera, Maluku Islands and sank one Japanese tanker, Nissho Maru, on 25 Feb. Her fourth through sixth war patrols, all of which started from Fremantle, Australia, were conducted in the South China Sea; her sixth war patrol saw her acting as the leader of a successful submarine wolfpack operating in waters southwest of Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, Philippine Islands, with Hoe claiming credit for the sinking of passenger ship Kohoko Maru. After an uneventful seventh war patrol, her eighth and final war patrol was conducted again in the South China Sea, during which she made an underwater collision with USS Flounder, which was one of the very few recorded in United States Navy history. She was decommissioned in Aug 1946 and placed in reserve. In Sep 1956, she was taken out of reserve to act as a training ship for the Naval Reserve in the 3rd Naval District. Upon completion of her training duties, she was sold for scrap.

Submarine Hoe (SS-258) Interactive Map

Photographs

Hoe Operational Timeline

Visitor Submitted Comments

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8.  David Stubblebine says:
27 Jan 2021 11:19:26 AM

Lin Xiyi (above x2):
Thank you for submitting your comments about your father’s rescue by the USS Hoe. It is nice to know some of the war’s seemingly minor details still have a large importance to people today. I was able to look up the Hoe’s report from her eighth war patrol and I found the description of this rescue. That report does not add any more details except to say that when they first approached the swamped sailboat, they thought it might have been the raft of some downed Allied airmen they were looking for. It wasn’t the airmen but your father and his companions.

Thank you also for causing us to take a closer look at USS Hoe’s war record. The official Hoe history says she ended her last patrol on 6 Mar 1945 in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. But if she ended her last patrol on 6 Mar in Hawaii, how could she be rescuing stranded fishermen in the South China Sea on 15 Mar? It turns out the Navy’s official history is in error. The patrol report is clear that the patrol ended on 26 Mar at Saipan, as you stated in your second comment. The Hoe timeline has been corrected to reflect this and we are always pleased to lead the way with accurate information whenever we can.