USS Gato SS-212 Part 2

Yesterday the Gato had completed her sixth war patrol. The seventh patrol began on November 18, 1943. She went to the Bismark Archipelago and on November 30th she assisted the USS Ray in sinking the Columbia Maru. On December 16 the Gato found a lone Japanese soldier adrift on a raft and took him as a prisoner of war. December 20th the Gato identified and attacked a Japanese supply convoy sinking the Tsuneshima Maru and damaging another freighter. Enemy destroyers responded with a depth charge attack which took the Gato two hours to make it to safety. The Gato then tried to go to Tigmon in an effort to find and finish off the damaged freighter. The crew discovered an unexploded depth charge on the hull. It was dislodged, loaded on a raft and floated out to sea. The Gato spotted two Japanese destroyers and after evading them identified another convoy and pursued it. A Japanese floatplane caused them to abandon this pursuit. The patrol ended January 10, 1944 at Milne Bay New Guinea.

The eight patrol began February 2, 1944. The Gato was sent to patrol the waters near Bismark and Truk. A trawler was sunk on February 15, the Daigen Maru Number 3 followed on February 26th and the Okinoyama Maru Number 3 was sunk on March 12th. Before returning to Pearl Harbor on April 1, 1944 two additional trawlers were sunk.

The ninth war patrol began May 30, 1944 with the Gato serving as a clandestine transport for Admiral Charles A. Lockwood. The Admiral and his entourage were delivered to Midway Island. The Gato then conducted a photographic reconnaissance against Woleai Island and support air attacks against Truk. The patrol was completed on June 22, 1944.

The tenth war patrol began on July 15, 1944 as the Gato served as a lifeguard station during air attacks on Chichi Jima. The Gato was called on to rescue two downed airmen before returning to Pearl Harbor on September 2, 1944. She was ordered to Mare Island for another overhaul and refit before returning to Pearl Harbor for her eleventh war patrol.

The eleventh patrol began on January 13, 1945 and saw the Gato enter the Yellow Sea. There she sank the Tairku Maru cargo ship on February 21xt. She returned to Guam on March 13th before embarking on another patrol.

The twelfth war patrol began on April 12, 1945. Adolph Hitler would commit suicide later that month ending the  war in Europe. The Gato again served as a lifeguard station during the amphibious assault of Okinawa. On April 22nd and 23rd the Gato engaged two enemy submarines without success and barely escaped herself. The Gato was credited with rescuing 10 US airmen in the waters off Toi Misaki, Kyushu between April 27th and 30th. Whe returned to Pearl Harbor on June 3, 1945.

The thirteenth war patrol began on July 8th and was the Gato again on lifeguard duty during the attacks on Wake Island. She served the same role when attacks were made against Honshu. During an attack approach on a Japanese cargo vessel on August 15th the Gato was advised to abort any further attacks on Japanese targets. The war had ended.

The Gato was part of the massive US Naval contingent in Tokyo Bay on August 31, 1945 called to witness the official surrender of the Japanese Empire on the deck of the USS Missouri. The Gato left Toyko on September 3, 1945 and returned to Pearl Harbor. After resupply she returned to the New York shipyard ending her World War II tour of duty. She was decommissioned as a US Navy fighting boat on March 16, 1946. She served for a time as a reserve training platform for Navy submariners in New York before being moved to Baltimore. Her name was struck from the US Navy Register on March 1, 1960 and sold for scrap to the Northern Metals Company of Philadelphia on July 25, 1960.

The Gato was named after the Gato catshark a species found off the west coast of Mexico.

So there is the story of the Gato and of Harriet's brave husband Don. When you wonder about the Greatest Generation think about stories like the one of the Gato and its intrepid crew. Men who risked everything in war and then returned to do the hard work at home building a nation we can all be proud to live in. We cannot thank them enough for their military service or the lives they lived working and building this country. We will likely never see a generation like them again.