World War II
During shakedown exercises Razorback ran aground off Race Rock in Block Island Sound. A board of inquiry removed Bontier and the executive officer, Lieutenant John Haines, and replaced them respectively with Commander Roy S. Benson and Lieutenant Commander C. Donald Brown.
After shakedown off New England, Razorback sailed to Pearl Harbor. Her first war patrol, commencing 25 August, was conducted east of Luzon as a member of an offensive group in support of the mid-September Palau landings. After sighting only enemy antisubmarine planes, she headed northeastward, arriving at Midway Island on 19 October.
On 15 November Razorback sailed from Midway Island on her second war patrol under the command of Lieutenant Commander Brown in company with Trepang and Segundo. Operating with these submarines in the Luzon Straits, Razorback damaged 6933 ton freighter Kenjo Maru on 6 December and sank the old 820 ton destroyer Kuretake and damaged another freighter on 30 December. She arrived at Guam for refit on 5 January 1945.
On 1 February Razorback set out for the East China Sea for her third war patrol, this time accompanied by Segundo and Sea Cat. After sinking four wooden ships in three separate surface gun actions, she deposited three Japanese prisoners at Guam before terminating her patrol at Pearl Harbor on 26 March 1945.
On 7 May Razorback headed west again. Assigned to lifeguard duty in the NanpÅ Islands and Tokyo Bay areas, she rescued Lieutenant Colonel Charles E. Taylor, a P-51 fighter pilot from the 21st Fighter Group on 25 May. On 5 June she rescued four B-29 Superfortress crewmen shot down during an air raid over Kobe, Japan. Razorback retired to Midway Island to end that patrol and refit on 27 June.
On 22 July Razorback departed Midway Island for patrol in the Okhotsk Sea, where she sank six wooden cargo sea trucks and damaged two in a surface gun action. The remainder of the patrol was spent performing lifeguard services off Paramushiro for Alaska-based planes. On 31 August Razorback entered Tokyo Bay with 11 other submarines to take part in the formal Japanese surrender. She departed 3 September, arrived at Pearl Harbor on 11 September and San Diego, California, on 20 September.
Read more about this topic: USS Razorback (SS-394)
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