USS Stingray (SS-186) - Eleventh Through Sixteenth War Patrols and Fate

Eleventh Through Sixteenth War Patrols and Fate

Stingray spent her eleventh war patrol on lifeguard station for air strikes on Guam. On 11 June the submarine rescued a downed Navy aviator and the following day pulled two more airmen from the water. On 13 June, Stingray received word that a Navy airman was down approximately 500 yards (460 m) offshore. With shells exploding on either side of the submarine, she made four submerged approaches until the pilot finally grabbed one of the submarine's periscopes and was towed safely clear of the island and taken on board. On 18 June, Stingray experienced a fire in her superstructure near the conning tower hatch. After extinguishing the fire several times only to have it flare up again, the trouble was finally located, and the submarine continued patrol. She returned to Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands on 10 July.

For her twelfth war patrol, Stingray was occupied in a special mission, landing fifteen Filipino officers and men and six tons of supplies on the northeastern coast of Luzon. On the way back to Port Darwin, Australia, on 18 August, she picked up four Japanese sailors from a cruiser sunk earlier in the day by the submarine Hardhead (SS-365). Stingray reached Port Darwin on 7 September.

Stingray was underway again three days later for her thirteenth war patrol, spent on a special mission to look over possible landing beaches at Marjoe Island. She returned to Port Darwin on 19 September.

Stingray carried out two special missions in the Philippine Islands during her fourteenth and fifteenth war patrols; and, on 11 January 1945, she put to sea on her sixteenth and final war patrol. Four special missions in the Celebes area were carried out during this patrol. Landing parties were put ashore on Nipanipa Peninsula, Celebes; Kagean Island; Pare Pare Bay, Celebes; and another at Nipanipa Peninsula. She returned to Fremantle, Western Australia, on 23 February and then headed back to the United States arriving at New London, Connecticut, on 29 April. She operated there until decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 17 October 1945. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 3 July 1946 and sold for scrap the following year.

Stingray (SS-186) received twelve battle stars for World War II service. She holds the record for most war patrols—16—of any American submarine.