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Cod (SS-224)
was launched 21 March 1943 by Electric Boat Co., Groton,
Conn.; sponsored by Mrs. G. M. Mahoney; and commissioned 21
June 1943, Lieutenant Commander J. C. Dempsey in command.
Cod arrived
in Brisbane, Australia, 2 October 1943 to prepare for her
first war patrol, on which she sailed 20 days later.
Penetrating the South China Sea, she contacted few targets,
and launched an attack only once, on 29 November, with
unobserved results. Returning to Fremantle, Australia, to
refit from 16 December to 11 January 1944, Cod put to
sea for her second war patrol in the South China Sea, off
Java, and off Halmahera. On 16 February, she surfaced to
sink a sampan by gunfire, and on 23 February, torpedoed a
Japanese merchantman. She sent another to the bottom on 27
February, and two days later attacked a third, only to be
forced deep by a concentrated depth charging delivered by an
alert escort ship.
Refitting at Fremantle again from
13 March to 6 April 1944, Cod sailed to the Sulu and
South China Seas off Luzon for her third war patrol. On 10
May, she daringly attacked a heavily escorted convoy of 32
ships and sank destroyer Karukaya and a cargo ship
before the escorts eoncentrated to drive her down with depth
charges. Returning to Fremantle to replenish 1 June, she
cleared 3 July on her fourth war patrol, during which she
ranged from the coast of Luzon to Java. She sank a
merchantman on 3 August, and a landing craft, LSV-129,
on 14 August, and, once more successful, returned to
Fremantle 25 August.
Cod put
to sea on her fifth war patrol 18 September 1944, bound for
Philippine waters. She made her first contact, a cargo ship,
on 5 October, and sent it to the bottom. Two days later, she
inflicted heavy damage on a tanker. Contacting a large
convoy on 25 Oetober, Cod launched several attacks
without success; with all her torpedoes expended she
continued to shadow the convoy for another day to report its
position. In November she took up a lifeguard station off
Luzon, ready to rescue carrier pilots carrying out the
series of air strikes on Japanese bases which paved the way
for the invasion of Leyte later that month.
After refitting at Guam between 29
May and 26 June 1945, Cod put out for the Gulf of
Siam and the coast of Indo-China on her seventh war patrol.
On 9 and 10 July she went to the rescue of a grounded Dutch
submarine, taking its crew on board and destroying the
submarine when it could not be gotten off the reef. Between
21 July and 1 August, Cod made 20 gunfire attacks on
the junks, motor sampans, and barges which were all that
remained to supply the Japanese at Singapore. After
inspecting each contact to rescue friendly natives, Cod sank
it by gunfire, sending a total of 23 to the bottom. On 1
August, an enemy plane strafed Cod , forcing her to
dive leaving one of her boarding parties behind. These men
were rescued 2 days later by another submarine.
Cod returned
to Fremantle 13 August 1945, and on the last day of the
month sailed for home. Arriving in New London 3 November
after a visit to Miami, Cod sailed to Philadelphia
for overhaul, returning to New London where she was
decommissioned and placed in reserve 22 June 1946.
All of Cod 's seven war
patrols were designated as "successful" war
patrols for which she received seven battle stars. She was
credited with having sunk a total of 26,985 tons of Japanese
shipping. |
