USS Swordfish (SS-193), 1939-1945

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USS Swordfish, a 1450-ton Sargo class submarine, was built at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California. Commissioned in July 1939, she was based on the West Coast and at Pearl Harbor until November 1941, when she crossed the Pacific to take station in the Philippines. Between December 1941, when Japan went to war with the United States, and March 1942 Swordfish conducted two combat patrols, sinking two enemy cargo ships and helping to evacuate important personnel, among them President Quezon of the Philippines, from Manila Bay to safer locations. Her third patrol, out of Fremantle, Australia, was an attempt to take supplies to beseiged Corregidor, which surrendered before she arrived. Swordfish made four more cruises into enemy waters while based in Australia, sinking three ships.

In February 1943 the submarine proceeded to West Coast for a shipyard overhaul, then began her eighth war patrol in late July. This cost the Japanese logistics system two more freighters. Following a brief cruise that was terminated due to mechanical problems, Swordfish made a very successful tenth patrol during December 1943 - February 1944, sinking a passenger-cargo ship, the "q-ship" Delhi Maru and a salvage ship despite constant materiel difficulties, a depth charge counterattack by the Japanese, and a fire on board.

Swordfish conducted two more patrols out of Pearl Harbor in March-June 1944. The second of these sent the destroyer Matsukaze and another freighter to the bottom of the Pacific. Six months later, in December 1944, the submarine left Hawaii to begin her thirteenth combat cruise, which was to include a photographic reconnaissance of possible invasion beaches in Okinawa. She was seen on 12 January 1945 by USS Kete (SS-369), which was also operating in the Okinawa area. USS Swordfish was not heard of again, and was presumably sunk by an enemy minefield or a depth charge attack on or soon after that date. Eighty-nine men were lost with the veteran submarine.

  
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