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The first Billfish (SS-286) was
laid down by the Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard on 23 July 1942; launched on 12
November 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Zelda L. Parks; and commissioned on 20 April
1943, Lt. Comdr. Frederic C. Lucas, Jr., in command.
Following shakedown training off the east coast, the new submarine sailed via
the Panama Canal for the southwest Pacific. She reached Brisbane, Australia, on
1 August but departed that port on the 12th for her first war patrol that took
her, via Darwin, to the waters of the Netherlands East Indies. Shortly after
midnight on 29 August, she chased an unescorted tanker near Balobac Strait but
that target's zigzag course enabled her to escape into the darkness before the
submarine could reach a suitable attack position. That evening, Billfish
encountered another ship, which she took to be the large tanker that had eluded
her earlier, and fired a spread of torpedoes at this target. The "fish" passed
under the stranger that then turned and revealed herself to be a small combatant
rather than the expected deep-draft vessel for which the torpedoes had been set.
On the morning of 8 September, she sighted a group of five ships steaming along
the Indochinese coast and chased them until late afternoon when she closed her
quarry to within torpedo range and launched a spread of torpedoes. The crew
heard an explosion, but Billfish was forced to go deep by the first of 15
depth charges. As a result, she was unable to assess any damage that her attack
may have done to the enemy. Early on 25 September, the submarine sighted a
convoy of five ships escorted by a torpedo boat, but could not reach a suitable
attack position. However, she reported the contact to Bowfin (SS-287)
that managed to sink the 8,120-ton passenger-cargo ship Kirishima Maru.
Billfish then continued her hunt for enemy shipping until ending her
maiden patrol at Fremantle on 10 October.
After refit, the submarine put to sea again on 1 November and headed through the
Netherlands East Indies, via the Makassar Strait and waters north of Borneo,
toward the coast of Indochina. While transiting Sibutu Passage, she slipped by a
Japanese antisubmarine-warfare ship without harm and entered the South China Sea
on the 16th. From time to time during the patrol, she again teamed up with
Bowfin. In the predawn darkness of the 28th, Billfish picked up an
escorted five-ship convoy and reported the find to her consort. In a surface
attack, Bowfin got off a spread of torpedoes all four of which hit and
quickly sank the 2,866-ton tanker Tonan Maru. Only moments later,
Bowfin fired two bow torpedoes, which struck a second huge ship leaving its
bow awash. At this point, a third vessel headed for Bowfin at high speed,
guns blazing. One shell hit the submarine, causing considerable damage; but,
undaunted, she got off two stern torpedoes which sent the 5,425-ton
passenger-cargo ship Sydney Maru to the bottom. A short time later,
Bowfin--out of torpedoes--headed for Australia. Meanwhile, Billfish
got into position to fire four stern-tube torpedoes at one of the Japanese
vessels still afloat. Though she soon heard explosions, Billfish was
unable to observe the results of the attack.
A week later while heading through the Celebes Sea to Australia, Billfish
survived an attack of 15 depth charges. Unscathed, she reached Fremantle on
Christmas Eve 1943. Refit lasted until 19 January when she headed back to the
South China Sea for her third war patrol. The submarine transited Sibutu Passage
on the evening of 1 February and, about half an hour before midnight, opened
fire with her 4-inch gun on two sea trucks. The enemy vessels responded with
erratic fire and scored a few hits on the submarine's deck aft. Unharmed,
Billfish set one of the small ships afire and left the second listing
dangerously. On the 13th, a comparatively small enemy warship surprised
Billfish on the surface and bracketed her with 4.7-inch gunfire, forcing the
submarine to go deep. A depth-charge attack ensued but did her no damage as she
slipped away to safety. After a final brush with an enemy convoy on 1 March, she
returned to Fremantle on the 24th.
Underway again on 18 April, Billfish proceeded to waters between and
around the Marianas and the Carolines for her fourth war patrol. On 2 May, she
almost closed within range of a freighter escorted by a destroyer and a
minesweeper. However, a sudden and radical change of course by the enemy
prevented her from launching any torpedoes at these targets. While running
submerged on 21 May, she found herself in the path of a four-ship Japanese
convoy escorted by as many submarine chasers. Billfish worked into
position to attack and fired six torpedoes at the two largest targets. According
to the report, three torpedoes sent one ship to the bottom and one hit the
second, severely damaging her, as depth charges forced the submarine deep.
However, postwar analysis of Japanese records failed to confirm the kill.
The following day, the submarine sighted Japanese submarine I-43 and
stalked her for six hours before reaching attack position. She then fired four
bow torpedoes at this enemy; but three missed because the target made a last
minute zig in its course. The fourth hung up in the tube and had to be jarred
loose with a second, much heavier, blast of compressed air. Not surprisingly,
I-43 submerged and escaped. Billfish spotted another enemy submarine
on 26 May but failed to gain a favorable attack position. Later, after surviving
two air attacks, Billfish headed for Hawaii on 5 June and reached Pearl
Harbor on the 13th.
Following a hasty overhaul, Billfish--carrying Comdr. Stanley P. Moseley,
the commander of a coordinated attack group which also included Greenling
(SS-213) and Sailfish (SS-192)--departed Pearl Harbor and headed, via
Midway, for Luzon Strait. On 7 August, after Sailfish reported a convoy,
Billfish launched a spread of four torpedoes at a 300-foot freighter from
2,000 yards. However, the target spotted the wakes trailing these "fish" and
managed to evade them. An immediate depth-charge attack by an escort forced the
submarine to go deep and prevented her from having another go at this target.
Later in the patrol, several Japanese aircraft attacked the submarine; but she
escaped without harm. For several weeks, she continued to search for enemy
shipping until finally leaving her patrol area early in September and proceeding
via Saipan to Majuro Atoll in the Marshalls where she arrived on 13 September.
After refitting at the new advanced submarine base there, Billfish got
underway on 6 October for the Volcano Islands where she performed lifeguard duty
in support of raids on the Japanese home islands by Army B-29 bombers based in
the Marianas. On the 21st, she shifted to the Ryukyus where she sighted a convoy
of 10 ships on the night of 4 and 5 November. However, shoal water thwarted her
efforts to approach the enemy ships for an attack. Shortly after dawn on the
7th, she spotted a group of five merchantmen escorted by four escorts and
tracked them until just past 2200 that night when she fired three bow torpedoes
and hit two ships. Even before hearing the explosions, the submarine turned
around and launched four more "fish" from her stern tubes. The report stated
that two of these exploded against the largest vessel in the group, but it was
impossible for her to observe the results of the attack since the escorts struck
back with depth-charges and forced her down nearly to maximum depth. Postwar
analysis of Japanese records failed to credit her with any sinkings on that day.
Yet one or more ships in the convoy may have been severely damaged.
That night, Billfish fired four more torpedoes at a 2,500- to 3,000-ton,
two-masted, vessel; but she answered with machinegun fire before escaping
unharmed. Five days later, the submarine sank a 40-ton, diesel-powered sampan
with gunfire. She ended the patrol at Pearl Harbor on 27 November; but, four
days later, pushed on toward the west coast and arrived at San Francisco on 9
December for an overhaul.
The submarine departed San Francisco Bay on 12 March and proceeded to Pearl
Harbor. Following refresher training in Hawaiian waters, she sailed for the
western Pacific and proceeded via the Marianas to the East China Sea to provide
lifeguard service for Army Air Force B-29 bombers during raids on Honshu. Late
in the month, she shifted to the Tsushima Strait area where, on 26 May, one of
her torpedoes sank the 991-ton freighter Kotobuki Maru No. 7. Following
an unsuccessful torpedo attack upon a small coastal cargo ship two days later,
Billfish scored again when two of her torpedoes sank the 2,220-ton
freighter Taiu Maru on 4 June in the Yellow Sea about a mile off the
Korean coast. A short time later, she surfaced and destroyed three coastal
steamers by gunfire. During the action, rifle fire from the third and last
schooner killed Quartermaster 1st Class Robert V. Oliver and wounded another
Billfish crewman. At noon on the 5th, the submarine launched a salvo of four
torpedoes at a medium-sized freighter; but the target's simultaneous, radical
course change caused all to miss. As Billfish left her patrol area, a
Japanese plane dove out of the sun and dropped two well-aimed depth bombs that
burst close aboard, violently shaking the submarine without doing her any
serious harm. She arrived safely at Midway on 17 June for refitting.
Billfish got underway again on 12 July for her eighth and final war
patrol. This mission took her back to Japan's home waters. Even there, Japanese
shipping had become a rare commodity, and Billfish only achieved two
significant successes during the entire patrol. On 5 August, near the coast of
Manchuria, three torpedoes from a salvo of four hit and sank the 1,091-ton
freighter Kori Maru. Two days later, in practically the same area, she
sent a considerably smaller cargo ship to the bottom with a single torpedo. She
then escaped her victim's escort by skillful maneuvering in water scarcely deep
enough to permit her to operate submerged. That night, while proceeding on the
surface at high speed, Billfish collided with and sank a small fishing
junk. She then took up a lifeguard station off the coast of Kyushu. On 15
August, while carrying out this duty, she received word of Japan's capitulation
and orders back to Hawaii. The submarine ended her wartime career with her
arrival at Pearl Harbor on 27 August.
There, more orders sent her on to the Atlantic. After transiting the Panama
Canal, the submarine reached New Orleans on 19 September and began several
months of maneuvers and training in the Gulf of Mexico and in waters adjacent to
the Canal Zone. At New London, Conn., by late spring of 1946, Billfish
moved to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in June for her inactivation overhaul.
Towed back to New London by ATR-64 early that autumn, she was decommissioned
there on 1 November 1946. While in reserve, she was reclassified AGSS-286 on 6
November 1962. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 1 April 1968, and she
was scrapped.
Billfish (SS-286) received seven battle stars for her World War II
service.
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