| After shakedown
training along the New England seaboard from Kittery, ME,
and New London, CT, USS GAR (SS-206) departed New
London 24 November and transited the Panama Canal 3 December
1941 enroute to San Diego, where she arrived 3 days after
the Pearl Harbor attack. She prepared for combat in the Mare
Island Naval Shipyard, then departed San Francisco 15
January 1942 for Pearl Harbor. Her maiden patrol (2
February-28 March) was conducted around Nagoya and the Kii
Channel entrance to the Inland Sea of Japan. She torpedoed
and sank a 1,520 ton cargo ship on 13 March. During her
second war patrol (19 April-8 June), she scored hits on a
freighter off Kwajalein atoll and a submarine decoy "Q-ship"
west of Truk atoll, then terminated her patrol at Fremantle,
Australia. Her third war patrol (3 July-21 August) took her
to the South China Sea and the Gulf of Siam, where her only
contact was a hospital ship. Her fourth war patrol (17
September-7 November) took her to the northernmost waters in
the Gulf of Siam, where on 19 October she laid 32 mines in
the entrances to Bangkok. This was one of the strategic
plants covering important Japanese shipping lanes previously
patrolled by American submarines.
GAR's fifth, sixth and
seventh war patrols were conducted largely in approaches to
Manila, Philippine Islands, via Borneo. During her fifth (28
November-19 January 1943) she drove a freighter on the beach
with six torpedo hits and scored hits on a seaplane tender.
Her sixth (9 February-2 April) brought numerous contacts
with targets which could not be closed to firing range
because of vigilant enemy aircraft and antisubmarine patrol
ships. During her seventh war patrol (23 April-27 May 1943),
she sank five small craft with gunfire; torpedoed and sank a
703-ton Japanese freighter south of the Negros Islands 9 May,
then 6 days later attacked a convoy west of Mindoro, sinking
a 3,197-ton passenger-cargo ship and another of 4,361-tons.
Her eighth war patrol (18 June 23
July) was spent patrolling the Flores Sea, where she
torpedoed a 500-ton motorship which ran itself aground, the
crew escaping into the jungle. En route from Fremantle to
Pearl Harbor on her ninth war patrol (8 August-13
September), GAR scouted off Timor and scored hits on
a freighter in Makassar Strait. Routed onward for overhaul
in the Mare Island Navy Yard, she returned to Pearl Harbor
30 November 1943 to resume combat patrols in the Pacific.
The 10th war patrol of GAR
(16 December 1943 - 9 February 1944) was conducted off Palau,
where on 20 January she sank a 5,325-ton cargo ship; damaged
two ships of another convoy on the 22nd; then attacked a
third convoy the following day to send another 3,670-tons to
the bottom. Her 11th war patrol (3 March - 21 April) found
her performing lifeguard duty for aviators making the first
carrier-based air strikes on Palau. She saved eight aviators,
one less than 2 miles off the beach and within range of
enemy gun emplacements. Her 12th war patrol (20 May - 5 July)
was spent in the Bonin Islands area, where she made gunfire
attacks on a convoy of Japanese sea trucks, leaving a small
freighter raging in flames and dead in the water. Her 13th
war patrol (14 August - 9 October) was largely taken up with
lifeguard duty off Yap supporting the combined fleet-shore
operations that captured the Palaus. She also performed
valuable reconnaissance work off Surigao Strait. She
bombarded installations on Yap 6 through 8 September and
ended her patrol at Brisbane, Australia.
On her 14th war patrol (3 - 30
November), GAR landed 16 men and 25 tons of supplies
at Santiago Cove, Luzon Philippine Islands, 23 November;
picked up intelligence documents, and terminated her patrol
in Mios Woendi lagoon. On her 15th and final war patrol (4 -
27 December), she landed 35 tons of supplies on the west
coast of Luzon, near Duriagaos Inlet 11 December, returning
to Pearl Harbor with urgent intelligence documents including
maps locating enemy gun emplacements, beach defenses, troop
concentrations, and fuel and ammunition dumps on Luzon.
After overhaul in the Pearl Harbor
Naval Shipyard, GAR put to sea 2 April 1945 to serve
the remainder of the war as a target trainer for
antisubmarine ships at Saipan and Guam, Marianas Islands.
She departed Apra Harbor, Guam, 7 August 1945, proceeding
via Hawaii, San Francisco, and the Panama Canal to
Portsmouth, NH, where she arrived 20 October. She
decommissioned there 11 December 1945 and remained in
reserve until September-October 1948 during which time she
was overhauled in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for service
as a reserve training submarine for the 4th Naval District
at Cleveland, OH, arriving, via the Mississippi River and
the Chicago Canal, 28 November 1948. She continued her
reserve training until her name was stricken from the Navy
List 29 May 1959. The submarine was sold for scrapping 18
November 1959 to Acme Scrap Iron and Metal Co.
GAR received 11 battle stars
for service in World War II. |
