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| Sex |
Male |
| Died |
The USS Shark |
| Buried |
At sea |
| Person ID |
I00433 |
Fuellhart Family Tree |
| Last Modified |
27 Jun 2008 |
| |
| Family 1 |
Amerinda Lanari, b. 24 Feb 1920, Jersey City, Hudson, New Jersey, USA |
| Group Sheet |
F00127 |
Fuellhart Family Tree |
| |
| Notes |
- SHARK II
USS SHARK II (SS-314)
dp. 1526 tons (surf.), 2391 tons (subm.); l. 311'8"; b. 27";
s. 20.25 k. (surf.), 8.75 k. (subm.); td. 400'; a. 6-21" tt. fwd., 4-21" tt.
aft.;
cpl. 6 officers - 60 enlisted men; cl. BALAO
Keel laid down by the Electric Boat Company, Groton, CT 28 January 1943;
Launched 17 October 1943; Sponsored by Mrs. Albert Thomas; Commissioned 14
February 1944; Lcdr. Edward N. Blakely in command.
Joining USS SEADRAGON I (SS-194) and USS BLACKFISH (SS-221) at Pearl Harbor, USS
SHARK II (SS-314), under the command of Cdr. E.N. Blakely, left that place on 23
September 1944, and proceeded to Saipan to begin her third war patrol during
WWII. The three vessels left the latter island on 3 October to conduct a
coordinated patrol in the vicinity of Luzon Strait. Cdr. Blakely had command of
this coordinated attack group, called Blakely's Behemoths.
On 22 October, SHARK reported having contacted four large enemy vessels in
20!-28'N;117!-50'E. She still had her full load of torpedoes aboard, so had not
made an attack. SHARK addressed no further messages to bases, but on 24 October,
SEADRAGON received a message from her stating that she had made radar contact
with a single freighter, and that she was going in to attack. This was the last
message received from SHARK.
However, on 13 November 1944, a dispatch originated by Commander Naval Unit,
Fourteenth Air Force, stated that a Japanese ship enroute from Manila to Japan
with 1800 American prisoners of war had been sunk on 24 October by an American
submarine in a torpedo attack. No other submarine reported the attack, and since
SHARK had given SEADRAGON a contact report only a few hours before the sinking,
and could not be raised by radio after it, it can only be assumed that SHARK
made the attack described, and perished during or after it. Five prisoners who
survived and subsequently reached China stated that conditions on the prison
ship were so intolerable that the prisoners prayed for deliverance from their
misery by a torpedo or bomb. Because many prisoners of war had been rescued from
the water by submarines after sinking vessels in which they were being
transported, U.S. submarines had been instructed to search for Allied survivors
in the vicinity of all sinkings of Empire-bound Japanese ships. SHARK may well
have been sunk trying to rescue American prisoners of war. All attempts to
contact SHARK by radio failed and on 27 November she was reported as presumed
lost.
A report from the Japanese received after the close of war on antisubmarine
attacks records the attack made by SHARK on 24 October 1944, in
20!41'N;118!-27'E. Depth charges were dropped 17 times, and the enemy reports
having seen "bubbles, and heavy oil, clothes, cork, etc." Several American
submarines report having been attacked on this date near the position given, but
in view of the fact that none reported the attack on the convoy cited above,
this attack is considered the most probably cause of SHARK's loss.
SHARK sank five ships, totaling 32,200 tons and damaged two, for 9,900 tons
prior to her last patrol. Her first patrol was in the area west of the
Marinanas. SHARK sank two freighters, a tranport and a large tanker, and damaged
a freighter. In her second patrol in the Bonins, SHARK sank a medium freighter.
Compiled by SUBNET from "UNITES STATES SUBMARINE LOSSES - WORLD WAR II,"
U.S. Navy Department, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History
Division, Washington, D.C.
and U.S. NAVAL SUBMARINE FORCE INFORMATION BOOK '95 -- J. Christley
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