USS Pollack (SS-180) - 1942

1942

Pollack (commanded by Stanley P. Moseley, Class of 1925), Gudgeon (SS-211) and Plunger (SS-179) departed Pearl Harbor 13 December and were off the coast of Honshū, Japan, a few hours before midnight 31 December, the first American warships to reach Japanese waters in World War II. Pollack damaged 2700-ton cargo ship Heijo Maru 5 January 1942 and two days later sent 2250-ton cargo ship Unkai Maru No. 1 to the bottom, the first officially confirmed victim of the Pacific Fleet Submarine Force. On 9 January she sank 5387-ton freighter Teian Maru by a night surface attack, and ended her first war patrol at Pearl Harbor 21 January.

Pollack got underway from Pearl Harbor 18 February to intercept enemy cargo ships carrying war material to Nagasaki by way of the Formosa Channel. On 11 March she torpedoed and sank 1454-ton cargo ship Fukushu Maru. She damaged a second cargo ship with gunfire before returning to Pearl Harbor 8 April.

Pollack departed Pearl Harbor 2 May and was in waters of the Japanese home islands 12 May when she battle-surfaced to riddle a 600-ton patrol vessel with 4-inch (102 mm) and .50" (12.7 mm) fire. This target settled by the stern and burned furiously at every point above the waterline. Pollack returned from her third war patrol to Pearl Harbor 16 June.

Following four months of overhaul at Pearl Harbor, Pollack put to sea for her fourth war patrol 10 October. Before she reached her assigned area she was ordered back to Midway, arriving 23 October. She fueled to capacity and stood out of the Midway channel that same day to patrol the approaches to Truk in an attempt to intercept crippled enemy ships believed en route to that enemy stronghold from sea battles in the Solomon Islands. There were no contacts with enemy shipping during the entire patrol and Pollack returned to Pearl Harbor 29 November.