World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseCommissioned into service in Sep 1944, USS Charr departed Connecticut, United States in Nov 1944 for the Pacific Ocean, reaching Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, United States on 9 Dec. She began her first war patrol on 30 Dec in waters off Indochina. On 29 Jan 1945, her commanding officer daringly remained at anchor only one mile from the Indochina coast for four hours while a team of two men was dispatched ashore, via a rubber boat, to rescue a downed PBY Catalina airman; luckily for the submarine and her crew, this did not attract enemy fire. She remained in the area through the next few days in an attempt to contact, unsuccessfully, the remaining members of the aircraft's crew. In Feb, she escorted the damaged Dutch submarine HNLMS Zwaardvisch through the Java Sea and Lombok Strait to Fremantle, Australia, arriving on 3 Mar and ending her first war patrol. USS Charr departed Fremantle for her second war patrol in Mar 1945. The first portion of the second war patrol was spent in Flores Sea, Java Sea, and South China Sea, during which she sank the Japanese cruiser Isuzu which had shortly before been damaged by wolfpack mate USS Gabilan; Isuzu also presented her first kill. During the second portion of the patrol, she performed lifeguard duty in waters southeast of Taiwan, during which she rescued one downed P-51 pilot. She departed Fremantle on 15 Jun 1945 for her third and final war patrol in the Gulf of Siam region as a member of a wolfpack; while USS Bluefish, a member of the wolfpack, sank a Japanese submarine, USS Charr did not gain credit for any sinkings.

ww2dbaseAfter the end of the Pacific War, USS Charr received repairs at Pearl Harbor and then conducted training at Guam, Mariana Islands. She was based out of San Diego, California, United States from Jan 1946, patrolling nearby waters and conducting simulated war patrols as far west as Asia. She received an overhaul at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California in mid-1949 before returning to training duties. She operated out of Pearl Harbor and the west coast of the United States during the early years of the Korean War, and then, after conversion to a Four Engine Fleet Type Snorkel Submarine, she served in Korean waters between 1952 and 1953. In 1954, she visited Acapulco, Mexico in Jan and then cruised in Asian waters; during the latter, she hosted Chinese President Chiang Kaishek on his first submarine cruise on 9 Nov. In the 1950s and the 1960s, she served generally in the west coast of the United States and in Asian waters, visiting ports such as Kobe and Yokosuka, Japan. In 1965, she operated in direct support of American forces fighting in Vietnam. On 1 Jul 1966, she was reclassified an auxiliary submarine and received the new designation AGSS-328. She was decommissioned on 28 Jun 1969 and eventually was sold for scrap in 1972.

Submarine Charr (SS-328) Interactive Map

Photographs

Charr Operational Timeline