Patrol Reports

In the summer of 1958, the USS Queenfish was not chasing enemy shipping or slipping through Pacific patrol zones. Instead, she was tied up in San Diego Harbor, carrying out the routine but necessary duties that kept the submarine force sharp. For her crew, it meant a long stretch of daily operations that rarely made headlines but defined the rhythm of Navy life. Torpedoes were offloaded, equipment was checked, and berths were shifted from one buoy to another as the boat prepared for her next

In late August of 1944, USS Ronquil, a brand-new Balao-class submarine, made her first serious mark in the Pacific war. After weeks of drills, training, and shakedowns, the crew finally got their chance at combat in the waters north of Formosa. What they found was a massive Japanese convoy, heavy with cargo ships and bristling with escorts. For a green boat on her first patrol, it was a dangerous assignment.Over the course of two days, August 23 and 24, Ronquil went head-to-head with the enemy,

The USS Batfish (SS-310) earned her reputation later in the war as the submarine that destroyed three enemy subs in just three days, a record that still stands. But before that legendary patrol, Batfish carved out her place in the Pacific with a series of bold and dangerous actions that tested her crew and her skipper, Lieutenant Commander John K. Fyfe.One of those moments came on August 23, 1944, during her Fourth War Patrol near Palau. Acting on a contact report, Batfish closed in on Velasco Reef

In 1928, the submarine force found itself caught between tragedy and transformation. The year opened with the lingering sorrow of the USS S-4, lost after colliding with the Coast Guard destroyer Paulding. Her crew of forty never came home, though their struggle and the desperate attempts to save them gripped the nation. Salvage teams fought the sea for months until the boat was finally raised, and the lessons of that disaster would change the Navy forever.Across the Atlantic, Italy’s F-14 sank in

Welcome to Patrol Reports, where we share stories from the history of the United States Submarine Force. Today we turn to USS Muskallunge, a Gato-class submarine whose name came from the legendary muskie, the fish of ten thousand casts.Built at Electric Boat and commissioned in 1943, Muskallunge was destined to play an outsized role in the Silent Service. She tested the torpedoes that helped turn the tide of the war, carried the first electric torpedoes into combat, and prowled the Pacific through

On August 20, 1943, the submarine USS Gar went to battle carrying more than torpedoes. She carried damage. Earlier that day, she struck a floating log that bent her port screw and left her nearly crippled. On the surface she could barely make eleven knots, underwater only four. Most commanders would have turned back. But Gar pressed on.That afternoon, she sighted a Japanese freighter with an escort in Makassar Strait. Even hobbled, she closed for an attack. Three torpedoes left their tubes. Depth

August 19, 1944. On that night, Bluefish would slip into history. Alongside USS Rasher, she fell upon one of the last great Japanese convoys, a lumbering mass of ships carrying men, supplies, and hope for a faltering empire. Out in the blackness, under rain squalls and against the pulse of enemy escorts, Bluefish delivered one of the decisive strikes of the submarine war. That night became her defining moment, and it remains a sharp reminder of how much damage a single submarine could do when