In what battles were submarines involved?

This question is typically asking about the major naval battles of WW2 such as the Battles of Coral Sea, Midway, the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf. Submarines were involved in most of the major battles of the war, but usually indirectly or at the edges. It makes sense that submarines did not want to be in the middle of a major gun battle. That would be too much like being dog in the middle of a bison stampede. It would be too easy to be run over while no one noticed.

Submarines did provide important intelligence. The most important information would be the location, composition and heading (sailing direction) of enemy forces. They sometimes had the opportunity to attack those forces before or after the big battles and, at times, were very successful. In other cases, our submarines contributed by destroying supplies, destroying troop ships or providing lifeguard duty for our aviators. They did contribute even without being in the middle of the battle.

The history of submarines participating around the great naval battles of WW2 will be described further below.

However, submarines were in many smaller battles. Nearly every time a submarine attacked Japanese ships, they found themselves in a battle. The Japanese did not take kindly to having their ships attacked and they fought back. The intensity and duration of the battles varied. Sometimes the Japanese had trouble finding our submarines and they would just drop depth charges to try to deter another attack. Sometimes there was a limited number of escorts and it was more important to guard the remaining ships than to find and sink the submarine. At other times the attacks were ferocious and prolonged.