Submarine Trivia: Week 2

[MWALLEN]

Due January 18th, thought I'd post early since Lance answered the previous questions.

Question:

Name one of two U.S. submarines that performed the first lifeguard missions.  Give name and hull number. (2)

Extra points:

In what month and year (the 2 missions were performed in the same month/year) were these first submarine lifeguard mission performed? (2)

Bonus Question:

When was the first successful lifeguard mission performed (i.e. aviators rescued) and name the U.S. Submarine (name/number). (2)

(Extra points)²: How many aviators did this submarine pick up? (2)

Good Luck.

Mark

[JTheotonio]

Maybe I need to add some qualifiers because things are never a start/stop in this world.  I'm not going to answer this question yet.  But there were operations going on before what you may think was the first Lifeguard service.

In December 1942, Pike, Triton, and Finback aided in an air strike off Midway.  April 1943 Tarpon provided navigational aid to an air strike off Naru and Tarawa.

May 16 Whale also provided navigational aid to an air strike off Wake.

While all of these boats had the primary duty of providing navigational aid to these air strikes, they had a secondary duty of rescuing any downed pilots.  None did, but the idea of lifeguard duty comes from these actions.

Rear Admiral Charles A. Pownall was the commander of the carrier Task Force in these actions.  He would later ask someone  if it was possible to have submarine stationed off islands that would be attacked by air.  Admiral Lockwood would comply..

Now from this maybe you can come up with the first successful lifeguard mission.  I love this question. 

[Mark Sarsfield]

I recently read this in Pig Boats, but I gave the book back to the owner last week.   I do remember that Lockwood was more than happy to comply with this idea for many reasons.

The Gilbert Islands in 1943 saw the first real lifeguard operation, but I can't tell you the name of the boat or the hull number.

In total, 503 airmen were rescued during the war by subs.

[Mark Sarsfield]

Okay, as best as I can tell, it was USS Steelhead (SS-280) that performed the first lifeguard duty off of Tarawa (Gilbert's) in mid-Sept. 1943.  She didn't pick up any aviators, though.

[MWALLEN]

Correct, the other was the USS Snook (SS 279) of the Marcus Islands, both in Sept. 1943.

Mark S. gets 4 points...however there are still more points to be had.

Thanks,

Mark A.

[MWALLEN]

Here are the answers:

The first lifeguard missions were performed in September 1943 by USS Snook (SS 279) and USS Steelhead (SS 280) during carrier raids of the Marcus and Gilbert Islands, respectively

The first successful lifeguard mission was performed by USS Skate (SS 305) on October 7, 1943 rescuing six downed airmen off Wake Island. 

Mark S. gets 4 points.