USS COBIA (submarine)

About this property

USS Cobia (SS/AGSS-245) is a Gato-class submarine, formerly of the United States Navy, named for the cobia. Cobia was designated a National Historic Landmark for her service in World War II, which included service in the Pacific, where she earned four battle stars. She is now a museum ship at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Cobia was laid down on 17 March 1943 by the Electric Boat Company at Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 28 November 1943, sponsored by Mrs. C. W. Magruder, and commissioned on 29 March 1944, Lieutenant Commander Albert L. Becker in command. Cobia reached Pearl Harbor from New London 3 June 1944. On 26 June, she put to sea on her first war patrol, bound for the Bonin Islands. On 13 July, 17 July, and 18 July she sank Japanese freighters. The last, Nisshu Maru, was a troop transport carrying a Japanese tank regiment to Iwo Jima. Even though casualties were low in the 26th Tank Regiment, all of the regiment's 28 tanks went to the bottom of the sea. It would be December before 22 replacements were provided. On 20 July Cobia sank three small armed ships in a running gun battle. One of them rammed Cobia, causing minor damage, but the submarine continued her mission, sinking a converted yacht of 500 tons on 5 August. A survivor from the yacht was rescued as Cobia's first prisoner of war. After refitting at Majuro from 14 August to 6 September 1944, Cobia sailed into the Luzon Strait for her second war patrol, a mission frequently punctuated by attacks by Japanese aircraft. On 22 October, the sub rescued two survivors of a Japanese ship previously sunk by another American submarine. Cobia put into Fremantle for refit 5 November, and cleared that harbor on her third war patrol 30 November. Sailing into the South China Sea, she reconnoitered off Balabac Strait between 12 December and 8 January 1945, and on 14 January sank the minelayer Yurishima off the southeast coast of Malaya. Surfacing to photograph her sinking victim, Cobia was driven under by a Japanese bomber. Next day she rescued two Japanese from a raft on which they had been adrift 40 days. Once more she refitted at Fremantle (between 24 January and 18 February), then sailed to the Java Sea for her fourth war patrol. On 26 February she engaged two "sea trucks" . One of the targets resisted with machine gun fire which damaged Cobia's radar equipment and killed Ralph Clark Huston Jr., a 20 mm gun loader and the submarine's only casualty of the war. After sinking both sea trucks, Cobia interrupted her patrol for repairs at Fremantle from 4–8 March, then returned to the Java Sea, where on 8 April she rescued seven surviving crewmembers of a downed Army bomber. One of the crewmembers, Jean Vandruff, recounted the story of the rescue in his autobiography.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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