Qualla: USS Billfish (SS-286)

USS Billfish (SS-286): Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. On a November night in 1943, somewhere in the waters north of Australia, an Allied twin-engine bomber spotted a submarine on the surface and decided it was Japanese. The pilot responded to the submarine's recognition flare by strafing her with machine-gun fire. USS Billfish crash-dived to 100 feet, then deeper to 150 feet, her crew knowing that the bombs and bullets coming at them were American. It was one of several friendly fire incidents Billfish would endure during her eight war patrols -- a career that also included stalking Japanese submarines, torpedoing cargo ships off the Korean coast, and receiving the news of Japan's surrender while on lifeguard station off Kyushu. Billfish earned seven battle stars. She also earned something harder to quantify: the distinction of having survived everything the war could throw at her, including her own side.

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Image: Public domain

USS Billfish (SS-286): The Dive Officer's Twelve Hours

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Billfish was built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine, launched on 12 November 1942, and commissioned on 20 April 1943 with Lieutenant Commander Frederic C. Lucas Jr. in command. Her early patrols from Darwin, Australia, were a baptism by frustration and near-disaster....

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Image: Public domain

USS Billfish (SS-286): Hunting Convoys

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Billfish's patrols took her from the waters around the Mariana and Caroline Islands to the Luzon Strait, the Volcano Islands, and the Ryukyu chain. The pattern was the same everywhere: long stretches of boredom punctuated by minutes of explosive action. On her fifth patrol, opera...

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Image: Public domain

USS Billfish (SS-286): Blood in the Yellow Sea

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Billfish's seventh patrol, in the spring of 1945, brought her to the East China Sea and Tsushima Strait for lifeguard duty supporting B-29 raids on Honshu. The assignment also meant hunting whatever Japanese shipping remained. On 26 May, she sank the 991-ton cargo ship Kotobuki M...

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Image: Public domain

USS Billfish (SS-286): The Last Patrol

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Billfish departed Midway Atoll on 12 July 1945 for her eighth and final war patrol in Japan's home waters. Japanese shipping had become, in the words of her patrol report, a rare commodity. On 5 August, near the coast of Manchuria, she sank the 1,091-ton Kori Maru with three torp...

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Image: Public domain