USS Scamp (SS-277) - First and Second War Patrols

First and Second War Patrols

On 19 January 1943, after training out of New London, Connecticut, Scamp set course for Pearl Harbor, via the Panama Canal. She arrived in Hawaii on 13 February 1943 and commenced final training in the local operating area. Scamp began her first war patrol on 1 March 1943. She stopped at Midway Island on 5 March, debarked her passenger, Rear Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, Jr. Commander, Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet, fueled, and then, headed for the coast of Honshū.

Her first two attacks on the enemy were doomed to failure by the faulty magnetic detonators in her torpedoes. After the inactivating of the magnetic features on her remaining torpedoes, Scamp scored two hits, one on an unidentified target on the night of 20 March and the other damaged Manju Maru early the next morning. The submarine stopped at Midway Island again on 26 March and returned to Pearl Harbor on 7 April.

Scamp put to sea again on 19 April, bound for the Southwest Pacific. She took on fuel at Johnston Island then slipped between the Marshall Islands and the Gilbert Islands to reconnoiter Ocean Island and Nauru Island. This mission she completed on 27 April and 28 April and then shaped a course for the Bismarck Archipelago. She had to hold fire on each of her first three enemy contacts because they were hospital ships. However, on the afternoon of 28 May, she succeeded in pumping three torpedoes into the converted seaplane tender Kamikawa Maru (The Kamikawa Maru had been damaged during an attack by the USS Wahoo on 4 May 1943). She evaded the enemy escorts and came up to periscope depth to observe the results. The enemy ship was down by the stern and loading men into boats. A little after midnight, Scamp finished off her stricken adversary with two more well aimed torpedoes. She ended her second war patrol at Brisbane, Australia, on 4 June 1943.