World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbasePickerel was a Porpoise-class submarine of the P-5/Perch sub-class. She held her shakedown cruise to the South Atlantic Ocean, operated on the East Coast of the United States, then on 26 Oct 1937 headed for the Pacific Ocean, arriving in San Diego, California, United States in Nov 1937 via the Panama Canal. In the fall of 1939, she sailed to the Philippine Islands to join the Asiatic Fleet. When the United States entered the war in Dec 1941, she was in Manila. Under the command of Lieutenant Commander Barton E. Bacon, Jr., she was immediately dispatched to Camranh Bay and Tourane Harbor off Indochina to hunt for Japanese shipping. She tracked a submarine and a destroyer but lost contact with them before she could attack, then on 19 Dec she attacked a small Japanese patrol craft with five torpedoes, but they all missed. The first patrol ended at Manila, Luzon, Philippines on 29 Dec. Her second war patrol lasted from 31 Dec 1941 to 29 Jan 1942, which brought her to waters between Manila and Surabaya, and she sank the 2,929-ton converted gunboat Kanko Maru on 10 Jan. Her third patrol lasted from 7 Feb to 19 Mar along the Malay Barrier and the fourth from 15 Apr to 6 Jun in the Philippine Islands; both of them were uneventful. Her fifth war patrol originated from Brisbane, Australia and lasted from 10 Jul to 26 Aug, with the primary mission being reaching Pearl Harbor for eventual refitting at the Mare Island Navy Yard in California, United States, though she did patrolled briefly in the Mariana Islands en route and damaged a freighter. Her sixth war patrol lasted from 22 Jan to 3 Mar 1943 at the Kuril Islands in northern Japan, which saw the sinking of the 1,990-ton cargo ship Tateyama Maru and two sampans. On 22 Mar, she left Midway for her seventh war patrol, again to the northern Japanese waters. Communications was lost some time in early Apr 1943, and Pickerel was never heard from again. After the war, captured Japanese documents noted that Pickerel might have been attacked and damaged (as indicated by large oil leakage) by depth charges launched from aircraft and ships off Shiramuka Lighthouse in northern Honshu on 3 Apr 1943, then the submarine went on to sink the 440-ton Submarine Chaser Number 13 on 3 Apr and then the 1,113-ton cargo ship Fukuei Maru on 7 Apr. The Japanese reports most likely described the movements of Pickerel, since she was the only submarine operating in that area at the time. She was likely sunk shortly after 7 Apr by a similar attack that she experienced on 3 Apr.

Submarine Pickerel (SS-177) Interactive Map

Photographs

Pickerel Operational Timeline

Visitor Submitted Comments

Show older comments