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USS Hake (SS-256)
Encyclopedia
USS Hake (SS/AGSS-256), a , was a ship of the United States Navy
named for the hake
, a kind of fish.
Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company, Groton
, Connecticut
. She was launched
17 July 1942 (sponsored by Mrs. F. J. Fletcher, wife of Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher
), and commissioned
30 October 1942, Lieutenant Commander
J. C. Broach in command.
soon after commissioning and after bringing crew and equipment up to fighting efficiency began her first war patrol from New London 8 April 1943. Her mission on this patrol was to search out and destroy German submarines in the North Atlantic, but no contacts were gained and she arrived Helensburgh, Scotland, to terminate the patrol 29 April. She departed for her second patrol, off the Azores
and again on antisubmarine patrol, 27 May 1943 and after encountering few submarines returned to New London 17 July.
. After a training period off the California
coast, she sailed for the western Pacific 6 December. Hake armed at Pearl Harbor
and departed for her third war patrol 27 December 1943. She sighted a transport en route to Japan
11 January 1944 and after a day-long chase to gain position sank her the next day. The submarine then continued to her cruising grounds off the Philippine Islands, patrolling off Luzon
and later moving south to Mindanao
.
The night of 26 January she attacked a tanker
, damaged her, and in turn suffered considerable damage from depth charge
attacks before making her escape. Hake next encountered three ships with two escorts 1 February. With the three targets in a line of bearing after a perfect approach, the submarine launched a spread of six torpedoes, sinking two of the three, Tacoma Maru, and Nanka Maru. The attack achieved complete surprise and Hake was not attacked by the screening vessels. She then departed for Fremantle, Australia, terminating the patrol there 20 February 1944.
Hakes fourth war patrol was spent in the South China Sea
near Singapore
, following departure from Fremantle 18 March 1944. She encountered her first target 27 March off southwest Borneo
, and it was a submariner's dream: an unescorted tanker. Two torpedoes sent the ship, Yamamizu Maru, to the bottom. After an attack the night of 1 April in which Hake damaged several ships, she battled escorts and searched for more transports until 30 April, when she arrived at Fremantle.
. Her duty was to attack shipping and to act as a picket to alert American forces to the approach of the Japanese fleet, which was expected to sortie from Tawi Tawi to the Mariana Islands
. Sighting destroyer
Kazegumo 8 June, the sub closed for the attack and succeeded in sinking her adversary, but fierce attacks prevented her from sinking any of the accompanying destroyers. Hake also succeeded in sinking two transports during this patrol. Cargo ship Kinshu Maru was sunk 17 June after four hits, and a heavily laden troop transport was sunk 3 days later at the entrance to Davao Gulf
. She returned to Fremantle 11 July 1944. During this patrol, Hake was the witness to the loss of .
Hake returned to her patrol area off the Philippines, departing 5 August. During this, her sixth war patrol, she attacked another destroyer, damaging it, but made few additional contacts because of extremely heavy air and surface patrolling by Japanese forces. She arrived at Fremantle Harbor 24 September 1944.
s and sustaining considerable damage.
On 19 November Hake torpedoed Japanese cruiser Isuzu
west of Corregidor, damaging her rudder.
Hake was subsequently sent on a special mission off Panay Island
, where she rendezvoused with Filipino guerrillas
to bring on board 29 U.S. aviators shot down in recent air attacks. Her valuable cargo safe, Hake returned to Australia
, arriving Fremantle 16 December.
Hake departed Fremantle for her eighth war patrol 12 January 1945. After searching the South China Sea
(now almost denuded of targets) for almost a month, she headed for San Francisco, arriving 13 March. After overhaul she departed San Francisco some 2 months later and began her ninth war patrol in the Pacific 20 July 1945. Hake acted as lifeguard ship for the air strikes against Japan, and after the surrender had the distinction of being 1 of 12 submarines to witness the historic ceremonies on board the battleship
in Tokyo Bay
.
, and was taken out of reserve 15 October 1956 to serve as a Reserve Training Ship for 4th Naval District at Philadelphia, Pa.
Her classification was changed to AGSS-256, auxiliary submarine, 6 November 1962. She continued to serve out of commission as a training ship for reservists at Philadelphia until she was struck from the Navy List
1 March 1967 to be sold.
Hake received seven battle stars for her service in World War II
. Her third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh war patrols were designated successful.
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
named for the hake
Hake
The term hake refers to fish in either of:* family Phycidae of the northern oceans* family Merlucciidae of the southern oceans-Hake fish:...
, a kind of fish.
Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company, Groton
Groton, Connecticut
Groton is a town located on the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 39,907 at the 2000 census....
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
. She was launched
Ship naming and launching
The ceremonies involved in naming and launching naval ships are based in traditions thousands of years old.-Methods of launch:There are three principal methods of conveying a new ship from building site to water, only two of which are called "launching." The oldest, most familiar, and most widely...
17 July 1942 (sponsored by Mrs. F. J. Fletcher, wife of Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher
Frank Jack Fletcher
Frank Jack Fletcher was an admiral in the United States Navy during World War II. Fletcher was the operational commander at the pivotal Battles of Coral Sea and of Midway. He was the nephew of Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher.-Early life and early Navy career:Fletcher was born in Marshalltown, Iowa...
), and commissioned
Ship commissioning
Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...
30 October 1942, Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant commander (United States)
Lieutenant commander is a mid-ranking officer rank in the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard, the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps, with the pay grade of O-4 and NATO rank code OF-3...
J. C. Broach in command.
Atlantic war patrols, April – July 1943
Hake departed for shakedown off New LondonNaval Submarine Base New London
Naval Submarine Base New London is the United States Navy's primary submarine base, the "Home of the Submarine Force", and "the Submarine Capital of the World".-History:...
soon after commissioning and after bringing crew and equipment up to fighting efficiency began her first war patrol from New London 8 April 1943. Her mission on this patrol was to search out and destroy German submarines in the North Atlantic, but no contacts were gained and she arrived Helensburgh, Scotland, to terminate the patrol 29 April. She departed for her second patrol, off the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
and again on antisubmarine patrol, 27 May 1943 and after encountering few submarines returned to New London 17 July.
Third and fourth war patrols, December 1943 – April 1944
Newly assigned to the Pacific, Hake departed New London 25 August 1943 for San Diego, via the Panama CanalPanama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
. After a training period off the California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
coast, she sailed for the western Pacific 6 December. Hake armed at Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
and departed for her third war patrol 27 December 1943. She sighted a transport en route to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
11 January 1944 and after a day-long chase to gain position sank her the next day. The submarine then continued to her cruising grounds off the Philippine Islands, patrolling off Luzon
Luzon
Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines. It is located in the northernmost region of the archipelago, and is also the name for one of the three primary island groups in the country centered on the Island of Luzon...
and later moving south to Mindanao
Mindanao
Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...
.
The night of 26 January she attacked a tanker
Tanker (ship)
A tanker is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and the liquefied natural gas carrier.-Background:...
, damaged her, and in turn suffered considerable damage from depth charge
Depth charge
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon intended to destroy or cripple a target submarine by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a preselected depth in the ocean. Depth charges can be dropped by either surface ships, patrol aircraft, or from...
attacks before making her escape. Hake next encountered three ships with two escorts 1 February. With the three targets in a line of bearing after a perfect approach, the submarine launched a spread of six torpedoes, sinking two of the three, Tacoma Maru, and Nanka Maru. The attack achieved complete surprise and Hake was not attacked by the screening vessels. She then departed for Fremantle, Australia, terminating the patrol there 20 February 1944.
Hakes fourth war patrol was spent in the South China Sea
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
near Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, following departure from Fremantle 18 March 1944. She encountered her first target 27 March off southwest Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
, and it was a submariner's dream: an unescorted tanker. Two torpedoes sent the ship, Yamamizu Maru, to the bottom. After an attack the night of 1 April in which Hake damaged several ships, she battled escorts and searched for more transports until 30 April, when she arrived at Fremantle.
Fifth and sixth war patrols, May – September 1944
For her fifth war patrol, commencing 23 May, Hake was assigned the area southwest of MindanaoMindanao
Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...
. Her duty was to attack shipping and to act as a picket to alert American forces to the approach of the Japanese fleet, which was expected to sortie from Tawi Tawi to the Mariana Islands
Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up by the summits of 15 volcanic mountains in the north-western Pacific Ocean between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east...
. Sighting destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
Kazegumo 8 June, the sub closed for the attack and succeeded in sinking her adversary, but fierce attacks prevented her from sinking any of the accompanying destroyers. Hake also succeeded in sinking two transports during this patrol. Cargo ship Kinshu Maru was sunk 17 June after four hits, and a heavily laden troop transport was sunk 3 days later at the entrance to Davao Gulf
Davao Gulf
Davao Gulf is a gulf found in Mindanao in the Philippines. It has an area of 308,000 hectares. Davao Gulf cuts into the island of Mindanao from Celebes Sea. It is surrounded by all four provinces in the Davao Region. The largest island in the gulf is Samal Island. Davao City, on the gulf's west...
. She returned to Fremantle 11 July 1944. During this patrol, Hake was the witness to the loss of .
Hake returned to her patrol area off the Philippines, departing 5 August. During this, her sixth war patrol, she attacked another destroyer, damaging it, but made few additional contacts because of extremely heavy air and surface patrolling by Japanese forces. She arrived at Fremantle Harbor 24 September 1944.
Seventh, eighth, and ninth war patrols, October 1944 – August 1945
Departing 20 October for her seventh war patrol, Hake encountered few contacts in her patrol area. Operating with and the ill-fated , which was lost on the patrol, Hake spent a harrowing 16 hours 7 – 8 November, counting nearly 150 depth chargeDepth charge
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon intended to destroy or cripple a target submarine by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a preselected depth in the ocean. Depth charges can be dropped by either surface ships, patrol aircraft, or from...
s and sustaining considerable damage.
On 19 November Hake torpedoed Japanese cruiser Isuzu
Japanese cruiser Isuzu
was one of six s in the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was named after the Isuzu River, near Ise Shrine in the Chūbu region of Japan.-Background:Isuzu was the second of the six vessels completed in the Nagara-class of light cruisers, and like other vessels of her class, she was intended for use as...
west of Corregidor, damaging her rudder.
Hake was subsequently sent on a special mission off Panay Island
Panay Island
Panay is an island in the Philippines located in the western part of the Visayas. Politically, it is divided into five provinces: Aklan, Antique, Capiz, and Iloilo, all in the Western Visayas Region. It is located southeast of the island of Mindoro and northwest of Negros, separated by the...
, where she rendezvoused with Filipino guerrillas
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
to bring on board 29 U.S. aviators shot down in recent air attacks. Her valuable cargo safe, Hake returned to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, arriving Fremantle 16 December.
Hake departed Fremantle for her eighth war patrol 12 January 1945. After searching the South China Sea
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
(now almost denuded of targets) for almost a month, she headed for San Francisco, arriving 13 March. After overhaul she departed San Francisco some 2 months later and began her ninth war patrol in the Pacific 20 July 1945. Hake acted as lifeguard ship for the air strikes against Japan, and after the surrender had the distinction of being 1 of 12 submarines to witness the historic ceremonies on board the battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
in Tokyo Bay
Tokyo Bay
is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was .-Geography:Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Bōsō Peninsula to the east and the Miura Peninsula to the west. In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the on the Miura Peninsula on one end and on...
.
Post-war service
Following the signing, Hake started on the long trek back to New London, via the Panama Canal. She decommissioned at New London 13 July 1946, entered the reserve fleetReserve fleet
A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern U.S....
, and was taken out of reserve 15 October 1956 to serve as a Reserve Training Ship for 4th Naval District at Philadelphia, Pa.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
Her classification was changed to AGSS-256, auxiliary submarine, 6 November 1962. She continued to serve out of commission as a training ship for reservists at Philadelphia until she was struck from the Navy List
Naval Vessel Register
The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...
1 March 1967 to be sold.
Hake received seven battle stars for her service in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Her third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh war patrols were designated successful.