USS Lagarto, a 1526-ton Balao class submarine, was built at Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Commissioned in mid-October 1944, she passed down the Mississippi River to salt water in early December and soon went through the Panama Canal to join the war against Japan. Her first war patrol, in February-March 1945, took her into the waters off Japan as part of a three-submarine action group. During this patrol Lagarto sank a small freighter and a submarine, as well as participating in the destruction of a number of picket boats. In April, operating out of Subic Bay in the Philippines, she went into the Gulf of Siam for her second combat patrol, this time in company with the submarine Baya. During the night of 3-4 May 1945, while attacking a Japanese convoy, Lagarto was apparently sunk by the Japanese minelayer Hatsutaka. Her entire crew of 85 officers and men was lost with her.
This page features the only views we have related to USS Lagarto (SS-371).
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 9 March 2003