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The first POLLACK (SS-180) was laid
down 1 October 1935 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Portsmouth,
N.H.; launched 15 September 1936; sponsored by Miss Anne
Carter Lauman; and commissioned 15 January 1937, Lt.
Clarence E. Aldrich in command.
POLLACK, GUDGEON (SS-211) and
PLUNGER (SS-179) departed Pearl Harbor 13 December and were
off the coast of Honshu, Japan, a few hours before midnight
31 December, the first American submarines to reach Japanese
waters in World War II. POLLACK damaged 2,700-ton cargo ship
HEIJO MARU 5 January 1942 and, two days later, sent
2,250-ton cargo ship UNKAI MARU NO. 1 to the bottom, the
first officially confirmed victim of the Pacific Fleet
Submarine Force. On 9 January, she sank 5,387-ton freighter
TEIAN MARU by a night surface attack, and ended her first
war patrol at Pearl Harbor 21 January.
POLLACK got underway from Pearl
Harbor 18 February to intercept enemy cargo ships carrying
war material to Nagasaki by way of the Formosa Channel. On
11 March, she torpedoed and sank 1,454-ton cargo ship
FUKUSHU MARU. She damaged a second cargo ship with 3-inch
gunfire before returning to Pearl Harbor 8 April.
Underway for her seventh war patrol,
POLLACK departed Midway 10 May to reconnoiter Ailuk Atoll
and Wotje Island, then patrolled to the south and west
towards Schischmarev Strait. On 18 May, she torpedoed and
sank 3,110-ton ex-gunboat TERUSHIMA MARU. Off Jaluit Atoll
the next afternoon, she torpedoed and sank 5,350-ton
converted light cruiser BANGKOK MARU. She returned to Pearl
Harbor 25 June.
Sailing 20 July, POLLACK spent her
eighth war patrol off the east coast of Kyushu, Japan. On 6
August, she scored a torpedo hit on one ship in a convoy.
Early on 27 August 1943, POLLACK picked out one of five
merchant ships off the coast of Kyushu and pressed home an
attack which sank 3,520-ton passenger-cargo ship TAIFUKU
MARU. On 3 September, she sank 3,521-ton cargo ship
TAGONOURA MARU. She returned to Pearl Harbor 16 September.
POLLACK got underway from Pearl
Harbor 28 February 1944 and battled heavy seas as she
entered the assigned area of her ninth war patrol off Nanpo
Shoto 18 March. Two days later, she made a night surface
attack and watched two torpedo hits blow 1,327-ton freighter
HAKUYO MARU to pieces. On 25 March, she sank 300 ton
SUBMARINE CHASER NO. 54, and damaged two freighters. On 3
April, she sank passenger-cargo ship TOSEI MARU. She
returned to Midway 11 April.
POLLACK underwent a refit period at
Brisbane, then got underway 6 October for exercises with
minesweeper HMAS GEELONG until the 10th. She then steamed by
way of Mios Woendi, Schouten Islands, to Pearl Harbor where
she arrived 18 November for training operations off Oahu
with units of the Pacific Fleet destroyer force. She was
underway from that port 25 January 1945, en route with
sister ship PERMIT (SS-178) to the east coast of the United
States, reaching New London, Conn., 24 February. The
remainder of her career was spent as a training ship for men
of the Submarine School at that base. She entered the
Portsmouth Navy Yard 14 June for inactivation and was
decommissioned there 21 September 1945. Her name was struck
from the Naval Vessel Register 29 October 1946 and she was
sold for scrapping 2 February 1947 to Ship-Shape, Inc. of
Philadelphia.
POLLACK received ten battle stars
for World War II service. |
