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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
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WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # 19-N-114578:   USS Pilotfish, at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 6 March 1946

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Pilotfish (SS-386), 1943-1946

USS Pilotfish, a 1525-ton Balao class submarine built by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, was placed in commission in mid-December 1943. She was employed for experimental torpedo firing work during January-March 1944 and the following month went to the Pacific to join the war against Japan. Her first war patrol, as part of a group of submarines in May-July, targeted enemy troopships bound for Saipan and, after the mid-June U.S. invasion of that island, the routes of possible Japanese Navy counterstrikes and reinforcements. Though she made no attacks, others of her group sank five ships during the first part of the patrol, significantly reducing enemy strength on soon-to-be embattled Saipan.

Pilotfish made her second combat cruise, in the waters between Japan and the Bonin Islands, in July-September 1944. She experienced a near-miss by a Japanese bomber on 20 August and sank a small ship at the beginning of September. Her third patrol, in the same area during October-December, and her fourth, off China with other submarines in January-March 1945, were relatively unproductive, and Pilotfish was on the receiving end of another air attack in late February. She was then overhauled at Pearl Harbor, receiving a new 5"/25 deck gun in place of her original 4"/50. Though troubled by continued machinery problems, she conducted a fifth war patrol in May and June and had begun a sixth when the fighting ended on 15 August. She was then sent to Japan where, on 2 September 1945, she was present in Tokyo Bay during ceremonies marking that nation's formal surrender.

After returning to the United States later in September, Pilotfish remained active, initially at San Francisco, and was sent to Pearl Harbor in early 1946 as a prospective target ship for nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands. In May she went to Bikini Atoll. The first atomic explosion, on 1 July, left her undamaged, but the second bomb test, on 25 July 1946, was fatal. Pilotfish, moored submerged less than three hundred yards from the underwater "Baker Day" detonation, was battered beyond recovery by the force of the explosion. She remains on the bottom of Bikini Lagoon, where where her wreck is occasionally visited by sport divers.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Pilotfish(SS-386).


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.

Photo #: NH 66443

USS Pilotfish
(SS-386)

Underway with crewmen at quarters, September 1945. Probably taken upon her arrival at San Francisco, California, on 21 September.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 62KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: 19-N-114578

USS Pilotfish
(SS-386)

At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 6 March 1946.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 119KB; 740 x 620 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 93498

USS Proteus (AS-19)


At Midway Naval Base between 14 and 28 May 1944.
The submarines alongside are (from left to right):
USS Bang (SS-385);
USS Pintado (SS-387); and
USS Pilotfish (SS-386).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 530 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 90519

USS Proteus (AS-19)


With submarines of Submarine Squadron 20 alongside in Tokyo Bay, on VJ-Day, 2 September 1945.
Names of the submarines present, their commanding officers and the commanding officers of SubRon20 and USS Proteus are printed at the bottom of the image.

Courtesy of Captain Joseph F. Enright, USN(Retired), 1979.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 575 pixels

 


In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold at least one other view of USS Pilotfish (SS-386). The following list features this image:

The image listed below is NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".



  • Photo #: 80-G-269705
    USS Pilotfish (SS-386) underway in New England waters, 19 February 1944. Photographed from an aircraft based at Naval Air Station, South Weymouth, Massachusetts.
    Starboard bow (rather toward the broadside) high aerial view. A small craft is passing near the submarine's stern, about to cross her wake.


    Reproductions of this image should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center.

    The image listed in this box is NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".


  • If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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    Page made 27 August 2006