USS Herring

History
United States
Builder	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down	14 July 1941
Launched	5 January 1942
Sponsored by	Mrs. Ray Spear
Commissioned	4 May 1942
Fate	Sunk by Japanese shore defense batteries on Matua Island, 1 June 1944
General characteristics
Class and type	Gato-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement	1,525 long tons (1,549 t) surfaced 2,424 long tons (2,463 t) submerged
Length	311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)
Beam	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft	17 ft (5.2 m) maximum
Propulsion	4 × Fairbanks-Morse Model 38D8-1⁄8 9-cylinder opposed-piston diesel engines driving electrical generators 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries 4 × high-speed Elliott electric motors with reduction gears 2 × propellers 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced 2,740 shp (2.04 MW) submerged
Speed	21 kn (39 km/h) surfaced 9 kn (17 km/h) submerged
Range	11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 kn (19 km/h)
Endurance	48 hours at 2 kn (3.7 km/h) submerged 75 days on patrol
Test depth	300 ft (90 m)
Complement	6 officers, 54 enlisted
Armament	10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 forward, 4 aft 24 torpedoes 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

USS Herring (SS-233), a Gato-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the herring.

Construction and commissioning

Herring's keel was laid down 14 July 1941 by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. She was launched on 15 January 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Emilie Spear (née Piollet), wife of Rear Admiral Ray Spear, Chief of the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, and commissioned on 4 May 1942 with Lieutenant Commander Raymond W. Johnson in command.

Operational history

Mediterranean

After shakedown, the new submarine was one of five sent to the Mediterranean Sea to take station off the North African coast prior to Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. Reaching her position off Casablanca on 5 November 1942, Herring remained there, spotting but not attacking several targets. On the morning of 8 November as the invasion was launched, the patient sub had her chance, sinking the 5,700 ton cargo ship Ville du Havre. Herring returned to Rosneath, Scotland, on 25 November and departed for her second war patrol 16 December, but targets were scarce. The fourth war patrol, an antisubmarine sweep in Icelandic waters, and fifth patrol, which took her back to the United States on 26 July 1943, netted Herring no more kills.

Pacific

Herring departed New London, Connecticut, for the rich hunting grounds of the Pacific on 9 August 1943. After intensive training at Pearl Harbor, she sailed 15 November 1943 on her sixth war patrol to join the ranks of the American submarines systematically decimating Japanese shipping and destroying the Japanese economy. She scored two kills, the 3,948 ton Hakozaki Maru on 14 December, and the 6,072 ton Nagoya Maru to celebrate New Year's Day 1944. Herring's next patrol was a frustrating one as on 24 March 1944 she stalked a large aircraft carrier but was detected and driven deep before she could attack.

Lieutenant Commander Johnson commanded Herring for five of her first six patrols, with the sole exception being March 1943 when John Corbus was in command. On her seventh and eight patrols she was captained by Lieutenant Commander David Zabriskie, Jr.

Loss

Herring's eighth war patrol was to be both her most successful and her last. Topping off at Midway Island on 21 May 1944, Herring headed for the Kurile Islands patrol area. Ten days later she rendezvoused with Barb (SS-220). Herring was never heard from or seen again. However, Japanese records prove that she sank two ships, Japanese escort Ishigaki and Hokuyo Maru, on the night of 30–31 May. Ishigaki had been responsible for the sinking of USS S-44 (SS-155) on 7 October 1943. Herring's exact manner of loss can also be determined from these records. Two more merchant ships, Hiburi Maru and Iwaki Maru, were sunk while at anchor in Matsuwa Island on the morning of 1 June 1944. In a counter-attack, enemy shore batteries scored two direct hits on the submarine's conning tower and "bubbles covered an area about 5 meters wide, and heavy oil covered an area of approximately 15 miles." On her last patrol, Herring had sunk four Japanese ships for a total of 13,202 tons. In all she had sunk six marus totaling 19,959 tons, and a Vichy cargo ship.

Awards

• 

  

  
  European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two battle star
• 

  

  

  
  Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with three battle stars
• World War II Victory Medal

Legacy

There is a memorial plaque at the Naval Weapons Station in Seal Beach, California, and another one, along with the ship's bell, at Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama.

In June 2005, at the former Tagan cape, now Pologiy cape (48.039694°N 153.232642°E / 48.039694; 153.232642), near the site of the sinking, which is in 2,000 meters [6,600 ft] seaward, a memorial sign was established to the crew of USS Herring and to those of all the lost boats, which fought against the Imperial Japan during the Second World War. The event was held in the fourth Kamchatka-Kuril historical and geographical expedition, led by the Russian researcher Evgeny Vereshaga.

In 2016 the wreck of Herring was located near Matua Island by a joint expedition of the Russian Geographical Society and Russian Defense Ministry. Aleksandr Kirillin, secretary of the academic board of Russia's Military Historical Society, said that "Russian divers in cooperation with the Pacific Fleet sailors discovered the submarine at a depth of 104 meters [341 ft]."

References

 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

External links

• On Eternal Patrol: USS Herring
• Uboat.net: USS Herring
• Kill Record: USS Herring