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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND
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WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 50389:  USS Trout at Pearl Harbor in early March 1942

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

USS Trout (SS-202), 1940-1944

USS Trout, a 1475-ton Tambor class submarine built by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, was placed in commission in November 1940. The new submarine was sent to the Pacific in mid-1941, arriving at her new base, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, early in August. When Japan's 7 December 1941 surprise attack on that facility began the Pacific War Trout was on patrol near Midway Island and witnessed a bombardment by two enemy destroyers. Too distant to interfere, she remained on station until later in the month. Trout's second war patrol took her to the Philippines with a cargo of ammunition. At Corregidor in early February 1942 she took aboard twenty tons of gold and silver for transportation to Pearl Harbor. On her return trip, by way of the Formosa Strait and the Bonin Islands, she sank a Japanese freighter and a small patrol vessel.

On her next combat cruise, off Japan, Trout made several attacks and was credited with five sinkings, but the still unrecognized unreliability of her torpedoes' magnetic exploders limited her actual score to just two. In June she was one of many submarines sent to take part in the Battle of Midway, but her contribution was limited to recovering a few Japanese survivors days after the action. Trout went to the waters off Truk for her fifth war patrol, in August-October 1942. During this she sank a small net tender, damaged the aircraft carrier Taiyo, and was herself damaged by aircraft bombs. Operating from Australia during her sixth through tenth patrols, she made an unsuccessful attack on a battleship on 13 November 1942, sank seven ships during January-September 1943 (among them a submarine), laid mines, landed and recovered agents in the Philippines, captured a number of Japanese prisoners, and endured a series of problems with her torpedoes that undoubtedly saved several enemy vessels.

Trout was overhauled at the Mare Island Navy Yard before returning to Pearl Harbor in January 1944. She left for her eleventh war patrol early in February. At the end of the month she encountered a troopship convoy bound for the Marianas, sank one transport and damaged another. USS Trout was not heard from again, and was apparently sunk at that time by Japanese destroyers. More than eighty crewmen were lost with her.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Trout (SS-202).


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 99586

USS Trout
(SS-202)

Photographed during World War II.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command.

Online Image: 21KB; 740 x 485 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 50389

USS Trout
(SS-202)

Approaches USS Detroit (CL-8) at Pearl Harbor in early March 1942, to unload a cargo of gold that she had evacuated from the Philippines. The gold had been loaded aboard Trout at Corregidor on 4 February 1942.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command.

Online Image: 147KB; 740 x 640 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 50388

USS Trout
(SS-202)

Coming alongside USS Detroit (CL-8) at Pearl Harbor in early March 1942, to unload a cargo of gold that she had evacuated from the Philippines. The gold had been loaded aboard Trout at Corregidor on 4 February 1942.
Note details of the submarine's fairwater, and .30 caliber Lewis machine gun mounted aft of the periscope housing.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command.

Online Image: 114KB; 740 x 635 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-45971

USS Trout
(SS-202)

At Pearl Harbor in early March 1942, unloading gold bars which she had evacuated from Corregidor.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 133KB; 590 x 715 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-45970

USS Trout
(SS-202)

Gold bars which Trout carried from Corregidor to Pearl Harbor. Photographed as the gold was being unloaded from the submarine at Pearl Harbor in early March 1942.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 94KB; 605 x 675 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-32217

USS Trout (SS-202)


Returns to Pearl Harbor on 14 June 1942, after the Battle of Midway.
She is carrying two Japanese prisoners of war, Chief Radioman Hatsuichi Yoshida and Fireman 3rd Class Kenichi Ishikawa, survivors of the sunken cruiser Mikuma who had been rescued on 9 June.
Among those waiting on the pier are Rear Admiral Robert H. English and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.
The district ferry Nihoa (YFB-19) is in the left background, just to the right of Trout's jack.
Two .30 caliber Lewis machineguns are mounted on Trout's sail, flanking the periscope shears.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 635 pixels

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

 


USS Trout (SS-202) is seen very distantly in the following photographs of Pearl Harbor:

Photo #: NH 83998

Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii


Vertical aerial view of the drydock area, 28 July 1942.
Floating drydock YFD-2 is at left, with USS Alywin (DD-355) inside. Small drydock in center holds USS Growler (SS-215) and USS Nautilus (SS-168). USS Litchfield (DD-336) and an ARD floating drydock are in Drydock # 2, in right center. Drydock # 1, at right, contains USS West Virginia (BB-48). Submarines partially visible alongside 1010 Dock, in the extreme upper right, are Trout (SS-202) and Pollack (SS-180).
Note anti-torpedo nets and booms protecting this area.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of The Honorable James V. Forrestal.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command.

Online Image: 145KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 84002

Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii


View looking northward, with the Navy Yard industrial area in the foreground and the Marine Barracks in the lower right, 28 July 1942. Ford Island is at left, with USS Oklahoma and USS Arizona under salvage nearby. USS San Diego is in the upper center.
USS West Virginia is in Drydock Number One, in the lower left, and USS California is alongside the wharf at the extreme right. Cruisers alongside the pier in right center are Northampton (left) and Pensacola. Submarines alongside 1010 Dock, just beyond Drydock # 1, are Trout, Pollack, Dolphin and Cachalot.
Note camouflage on many of the Navy Yard's buildings.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of The Honorable James V. Forrestal.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command.

Online Image: 146KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 


NOTES:

  • To the best of our knowledge, the pictures referenced here are all in the Public Domain, and can therefore be freely downloaded and used for any purpose.

  • Some images linked from this page may bear obsolete credit lines citing the organization name: "Naval Historical Center". Effective 1 December 2008 the name should be cited as: "Naval History and Heritage Command".


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


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    Page made 29 September 2004
    New image added 27 April 2009