USS Tigrone (SS-419) - Second Patrol

Second Patrol

After refitting by submarine tender Apollo, Tigrone departed Apra Harbor on 19 May, took on torpedoes at Saipan the same day, and on 20 May got underway for her assigned area. On 25 May, she sighted Sofu Gan Island and Tori Shima before taking up her lifeguard station south of Honshū and west of the Nanpō Islands. That same day, she rescued a downed flier from the 19th Fighter Command, Iwo Jima.

Early on the morning of 27 May, Tigrone engaged a Japanese lugger which countered the submarine's five-inch (127 mm) and 40 millimeter fire with machine-gun fire. As Tigrone turned away from the raking fire of the lugger, heavy seas washed over her main deck, knocking three of the submarine's crewmen against the gun and injuring them. Despite intermittent heavy rain, Tigrone finished off the lugger with five-inch (127 mm) fire. The final and telling round caught the lugger dead center, set it afire, and stopped it dead in the water. High seas made boarding a hazardous proposition, so the battered enemy vessel was left to burn, and Tigrone returned to her lifeguard station.

Early on the afternoon of 28 May, the submarine rendezvoused with a Navy bomber which had signaled its distress. The plane ditched 500 yards (500 m) from Tigrone, and the submarine's crew quickly rescued five survivors from the water. In the next two days, Tigrone proved her skill as a lifeguard ship as she responded to frequent calls for aid and rescued 23 men from the Philippine Sea. On the afternoon of 24 May, Tigrone answered a call for assistance from a severely damaged PBY Catalina seaplane which had nosed into a wave on takeoff from a rescue operation. Quickly arriving on the scene, the submarine took on board 16 survivors, the crew and twice-rescued passengers of the disabled seaplane.

Soon the submarine was searching again, this time for survivors of other downed aircraft who had been reported by circling planes to be floating on rafts in Tigrone’s lifeguard area. Night fell before the submarine located the rafts, but, early on 30 May, she surfaced and, despite 30 ft (9 m) waves, resumed the search. Friendly aircraft aided her efforts, and Tigrone’s persistence was rewarded when she at last located seven Army aviators afloat on a raft. These tenacious survivors had been washed overboard several times during the night but had climbed back each time. The heavy seas made rescue difficult and time-consuming, but finally the exhausted aviators were brought safely on board the submarine. Tigrone jauntily sent out the message,

TIGRONE has saved the Air Force and is now returning to Iwo Jima with 28 rescued zoomies

and noted that she had set a new record for lifeguard proficiency.

On 1 June, Tigrone put in at Iwo Jima to disembark her passengers and on the next day, despite continuing radar problems, again got underway, returning to her patrol area on 3 June. Plagued by fog and radar malfunctions, Tigrone at last was forced to request to be assigned to lifeguard duty when a persistent loud scraping noise in the vicinity of her starboard shaft rendered normal submarine patrol and attack functions hazardous, if not impossible.

Operating south of Honshū, Tigrone joined the "Lifeguard League" and on 26 June recovered an aviator who had parachuted from his disabled fighter, rescuing him from the water only six minutes from the time his parachute blossomed. During the two days that followed, she took on rescued aviators from other submarines and set her course for Guam on 28 June. She ended her second war patrol on 3 July at Apra Harbor, having rescued a total of 30 aviators on this war patrol.