USS HERRING SS 233

USS HERRING SS 233 Gato Class

June 1, 1944. Sunk by shore batteries. 83 men lost.

From: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

Herring
A very valuable food fish which reaches a length of about 1 foot and is extraordinarily abundant in the temperate and colder parts of the North Atlantic.

(SS-233: dp. 1,526; l. 311'8"; b. 27'4"; dr. 15'3"; s. 20 k.; cpl. 60; a. 10 21" tt, 1 3"; cl. Gato)

Herring's career is unique because she served in two theaters during World War II. Her First four patrols were in the Atlantic. Following her commissioning and shakedown in May 1942, she was sent to the Mediterranean to take station off the North African coast prior to Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. On November 8, 1942, as the invasion was launched, she sank the 5,700-ton Axis cargo ship Ville du Havre. On her third Atlantic war patrol, Herring attacked and sank a marauding' Nazi submarine, U-163, on March 21, 1943. Her second and fourth Atlantic patrols did not result in any sinkings. Her fifth patrol consisted of passage from the United Kingdom, where she had been based for her Atlantic patrols, to New London, Connecticut. From New London Herring transitted to Pearl Harbor on August 9, 1943.

On November 15, 1943, Herring left Pearl on her sixth war patrol in the East China Sea. There she sank two large transports, a freighter, and a small escort type vessel. Her sixth war patrol did not yield any sinkings. Herring's seventh war patrol was in the area just south of the Japanese home islands where she damaged a destroyer-type vessel.

Herring left Pearl Harbor on May 16, 1944 to conduct her eighth and final war patrol in the Kurile Islands. On May 21 she topped off with fuel at Midway and departed for the Kurile region. No word was received from Herring directly after her departure from Midway, but she did make a rendezvous with USS Barb on May 21, 1944 to coordinate their joint patrol in the Kurile region. Later on the same day, Barb made contact with two Japanese merchants, which she subsequently sunk. A prisoner pulled out of the water by Barb revealed that Herring had sunk the convoy's escort. The convoy had originally consisted of three merchants, but after the escort vessel, a new type destroyer escort built in 1942, had been sunk with just one torpedo hit, the three merchants scattered, two of which were the ones sunk by Barb. Post war records reveal that Herring had sunk the third merchant.

On June 3, 1944, orders were sent to Barb and Herring directing them to stay outside of a restricted area in which friendly surface ships would be operating during the Marianas Campaign. Herring did not acknowledge receipt of the order. On July 13, 1944, Herring was reported as presumed lost.

Post war Japanese records reveal that Herring was sunk on June 1, 1944, two kilometers south of Point Tagan on Matsuwa Island in the Kurlies, after sinking two merchant ships at anchor at Matsuwa with torpedoes. In a counterattack, a shore battery scored two direct hits on the conning tower, and "bubbles covered an area about 5 meters wide, and heavy oil covered an area of approximately 15 miles."

Herring received five battle stars for her service in World War II. She is credited with sinking 19,959 tons of Japanese shipping in six vessels during her Pacific Theater career and a 5,700 ton Axis cargo ship and Nazi submarine U-163 during her Atlantic career.