USS Tambor (SS-198) - Seventh Patrol

Seventh Patrol

Tambor's seventh patrol (now under Russell Kefauver) took her north of the Malay Barrier from 7 May to 27 June 1943. On 26 May, she fired a spread of three torpedoes at a tanker that all missed. Three days later, three more missed a cargo ship. She tried again several hours later, saw two of the three torpedoes fired score hits, and heard three explosions. As the target was sinking, she fired another spread of three at an accompanying freighter. Some of the crew of Eiski Maru escaped in two lifeboats. On 2 June and on 6 June, she fired spreads of three torpedoes at cargo ships. The first appeared to break in half, and the second seemed to sink; but there is no record of the sinkings in Japanese official records.{The "Eika Maru" was sunk June 2} On 16 June, Tambor fired her last three torpedoes at a tanker off Cam Ranh Bay but all missed. Her score for the patrol postwar was one ship of 2,500 tons.