26 Apr 1942

Philippines
  • North of the Luzon, Philippines, submarine USS Spearfish fired four torpedoes at a heavily loaded Japanese tanker but missed. ww2dbase [Spearfish | South China Sea | DS]
26 Sep 1942

Philippines
  • Submarine USS Spearfish entered her assigned patrol area west of Manila Bay, Philippines. ww2dbase [Spearfish | South China Sea | DS]
9 Oct 1942

Philippines
  • 180 miles west of Dasol Bay, Luzon, Philippines, submarine USS Spearfish detected a Japanese convoy of three merchant ships and one escort. Spearfish fired three torpedoes at the 7,000-ton cargo ship Tottori Maru, but lookouts aboard the freighter saw the torpedo tracks and the ship turned causing the torpedoes to pass behind her. This miss turned out to be a good thing because the Tottori Maru had aboard 31 American officer prisoners-of-war and 1,930 enlisted prisoners from POW camps at Cabanatuan on Luzon and Malabalay on Mindanao. Some of these prisoners were survivors of the “Bataan Death March” and some were captured on Corregidor. ww2dbase [Spearfish | South China Sea | DS]

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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USAAF reconnaissance photograph of Nippon Aluminium Company facilities on the coast of Takao Harbor on the site of the former Reigaryo Airfield, southern Taiwan, Nov 1943

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