July Lost Boats
USS S-28 (SS-133)
Lost on July 4,1944 with the loss of 49 crew members. She was conducting training exercises off Hawaii with the US Coast Guard Cutter Reliance. After S-28 dove for a practice torpedo approach, Reliance lost contact. No distress signal or explosion was heard. Two days later, an oil slick was found near where S-28. The exact cause of her loss remains a mystery.
Class: SS S
Commissioned: 12/13/1923
Launched: 9/20/1922
Builder: Fore River Shipbuilding Co
Length: 219 Beam: 22
#Officers: 4 #Enlisted: 34
Fate: Brief contact with S-28 was made and lost. All attempts to establish communications failed. A Court of Inquiry was unable to determine the cause of the loss of S-28. 49 men lost.
USS Robalo (SS-273)
Lost on July 26,1944 with the loss of 81 crew members while on her 3rd war patrol. She struck a mine about 2 miles off the coast of Palawan. Four men survived and swam ashore, then were imprisoned by the Japanese. Unfortunately, they were put on a Japanese destroyer and lost when that destroyer was sunk.
Class: SS 212
Commissioned: 9/28/1943
Launched: 3/9/1943
Builder: Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co
Length: 311 Beam: 27
#Officers: 6 #Enlisted: 54
Fate: Sunk by Japanese mine in South China Sea 26 July 1944. 77 lost, 4 survived the sinking but were lost while in captivity.
USS Grunion (SS-216)
Lost on July 30,1942 with the loss of 70 crew members while on her first war patrol near Kiska Harbor. She radioed that she sank two sub-chasers and damaged a third, but was never heard from again. Grunion’s mangled remains were found in the Bering Sea in 2006 off the Aleutian Island of Kiska.
Class: SS 212
Commissioned: 4/11/1942
Launched: 12/22/1941
Builder: Electric Boat Co (General Dynamics)
Length: 312 Beam: 27
#Officers: 6 #Enlisted: 54
Fate: Ordered back to Dutch Harbor after reporting intense ASW activity off Kiska (Aleutians).Grunion was never heard from nor seen again. Reported overdue, assumed lost with all hands 5 Oct 1942. Probably lost Aug 1942. 70 men lost.