USS Tigrone (SS-419) - Third Patrol

Third Patrol

Following refitting by submarine tender Proteus, Tigrone departed Guam on 31 July and, after the usual stop at Saipan for torpedoes, arrived on lifeguard station. As the submarine approached within 100 miles (160 km) of Honshū, the news arrived that the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan. Patrolling nearer and nearer Honshū as American planes made strikes on Tokyo and other cities of the Japanese homeland, Tigrone encountered increasing numbers of Japanese search planes.

On 11 August, the first reports of Japan's surrender were received, but, for two more days, Tigrone continued her patrols, approaching within 50 miles (80 km) of the shore of Sagami Wan as she pursued lifeguard duties. On 13 August, with Navy pilots helping to spot targets, she bombarded Mikomoto Island, scoring 11 hits on a radio station and lighthouse tower. The submarine claimed this action as the final bombardment of the war. On 14 August, Tigrone rescued another aviator who had been forced to parachute from his plane and, later in the day, spent an anxious half hour attempting to evade persistent sonar contacts which turned out to be birds.

On 15 August, she received orders to cease all attacks; and, the next day, the official statement of Japan's surrender was published. She patrolled off the east coast of Japan as far north as Sendai and Todo Saki. Then, on 30 August, she rendezvoused with "Benny's Peacemakers" and, on the last day of August, moored in Tokyo Bay. She departed Tokyo on 2 September and made her way via Hawaii and the Canal Zone to New London, arriving there early in October 1945.