World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseSubmarine S-44 was built by Bethlehem Shipbuilding at its Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts, United States in the early 1920s. She operated in both the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean prior to WW2. She was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States for overhaul when the United States entered the war in Dec 1941. The work completed in Jan 1942. In late Jan 1942, she assisted in a rescue operation off the Panama Canal Zone for the survivors of submarine S-26, which had been rammed and sunk by friendly submarine chaser PC-460. She embarked on her first war patrol out of Brisbane, Australia in Apr 1942. Her first three war patrol were successful, sinking three ships, including the heavy cruiser Kako. After her fourth war patrol, she transited the Panama Canal in Jan 1943 for an overhaul at Philadelphia between Apr and Jun 1943. In Jul, she transited the Panama Canal in the other direction for the Aleutian Islands in the US Territory of Alaska. After sundown on 7 Oct 1943, in waters off the northern Kurile Islands, she made radar contact with what the crew determined to be a small cargo ship. The captain ordered the submarine to approach on the surface, and as the boat neared, the deck gun fired on the target. Surprisingly, the crew received heavy return fire. Realizing that they had mistaken the armed escort vessel Ishigaki for a civilian ship, the captain ordered an emergency dive, but the action was not completed before she took several hits. The captain ordered the boat to be abandoned while raising a pillow case for the function of a white flag, but the Japanese fire did not cease. S-44 was sunk by gunfire from Ishigaki. Only two sailors survived. The two survivors spent time at a prisoner of war camp in Paramushiro, Karafuto Prefecture, Japan; the Ofuna Prisoner of War camp in Yokohama, Japan; and finally as a forced laborer at the copper mines in Ashio in central Japan before being liberated and repatriated.

Submarine S-44 (SS-155) Interactive Map

Photographs

S-44 Operational Timeline