USS Tautog (SS-199) - Thirteenth Patrol

Thirteenth Patrol

Tautog was back in Pearl Harbor in early December and, on 17 December 1944, began her 13th and last war patrol. She called at Midway and Saipan before taking her patrol station (in company with Silversides) in the East China Sea. On 17 January 1945, Tautog sighted a ship heading toward her. She attained a position and fired a spread of three torpedoes. One hit blew off the enemy's bow. She fired another torpedo from a range of 700 yards (640 m); and the loaded troopship, Transport Number 15, disintegrated. The bright moonlight of 20 January disclosed an enemy ship at a range of 10,000 yards (9,100 m). Tautog maneuvered to silhouette the target against the moon and attacked with two torpedoes and then watched the ship sink. The submarine approached the wreckage and rescued one survivor who identified the ship as the motor torpedo boat tender Shuri Maru (1,800 tons), en route from Tsingtao to Sasebo. The next day, Tautog damaged a tanker but could not evaluate the damage as she had to evade enemy escorts that were approaching. On her way back to Midway Island, the submarine sank a wooden trawler with her deck guns. Her score for the patrol was three ships for 8,500 tons (postwar, two for 3,300).

Tautog completed her patrol at Midway on 1 February 1945 and was assigned to training duty. On 2 March, the submarine shifted her operations to Pearl Harbor to assist aircraft in anti-submarine warfare for one month before heading for the United States. She reached San Diego on 9 April and operated in conjunction with the University of California's Department of War Research in experimenting with new equipment which it had developed to improve submarine safety. On 7 September, she headed for San Francisco to join the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Her orders were subsequently modified, and she got underway on 31 October for the East Coast. Tautog arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 18 November and was decommissioned on 8 December 1945.