USS Pompano (SS-181)

Pompano was a Porpoise class submarine completed by the Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, CA in June of 1937.

Pompano left Midway for her seventh patrol on 20 August 1943. She was never heard from again. However, Japanese records showed sinkings that were in Pompano’s patrol area and they were credited to her. On 3 September, she sank a medium freighter and on 25 September a small auxiliary. On 6 September, Pompano was notified that the patrol area to the north of her own was open, and she may have moved into that area. She did not return to Midway around 5 October as expected. Since Japanese records did not indicate an attack on Pompano, it was assumed that she was most likely lost to a mine. However, recent research indicates that it may have been an air attack that sank her.

Pompano’s loss wasn’t announced until early 1944. That news may have caused concern for the families of USS Pampanito (SS-383) sailors due to the similarity of the names.

Pompano was built with H.O.R. (Hooven-Owens-Rentschler) 8-cylinder double acting engines which were a complete failure. They were wrecked during trials even before leaving Mare Island. Pompano was laid up for eight months while the engines were replaced. The new engines were 9-cylinder versions of the H.O.R. designs. The new versions were little better and they had to be replaced with Fairbanks-Morse opposed piston engines in 1942. All of the H.O.R. engines in our submarines would be replaced.

After Pompano was finally ready and completed sea trials, she operated out of Mare Island, training and patrolling. She was then assigned to Pearl Harbor arriving there shortly after the attack but soon enough to be awarded a battle star. She began her first war patrol on 18 December 1941.

Pompano was thought to have conducted the first submarine reconnaissance mission of the war on her initial patrol. The captain at the time, LCDR Lewis Parks, pioneered the use of camera photography through the periscope. Pompano was investigating Japanese defenses in the Marshall Islands. As if that weren’t dangerous enough, she was attacked by a Catalina flying boat and then by three SBD dive bombers from the carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6), each dropping a bomb on the boat. One was close enough to do some damage and the resulting fuel leak was a problem for the rest of the patrol. Pompano claimed three hits on a large freighter during the patrol, but that was not confirmed by Japanese records.

Pompano was credited with two sinkings on her second patrol. She was also on the receiving end of 22 depth charges for her efforts although there was no damage. She also sank a couple small vessels with her guns, but these were too small to be credited. On her third patrol she was depth charged again but escaped with minor damage. She also sank two freighters before returning for an overhaul at Mare Island.

On her fourth patrol, Pompano was able to damage three large ships but had no sinkings. Her fifth patrol was near Tokyo Bay, but the weather was so poor that sightings were nearly impossible. On 10 April 1943 she fired six torpedoes in a radar-guided attack at what she thought was a carrier and believed sonar heard two hits. However, Japanese records showed nothing of the attack. On her sixth patrol, Pompano fired two torpedoes at a grounded seaplane tender on 4 July. On the 20th she fired two torpedoes at a large transport and thought she had missed. However, Japanese records showed damage from this attack. Occasionally, the JANAC audits added credit to a boat’s score.

Pompano was lost on her seventh war patrol. JANAC credited her with five sinkings for 21,443 tons total for her WW2 service.