World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseUSS Cabrilla was commissioned into service in May 1943. Arriving at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, United States on 30 Aug of the same year, she embarked on the first of her eight war patrols in the following month. Her first war patrol took her to the Philippine Islands to make contact with guerrilla fighters, her second war patrol saw her laying mines in the Gulf of Siam, and the third patrol was a reconnaissance mission in the Sunda Strait in the Dutch East Indies. During her fourth and fifth war patrols, she attacked Japanese shipping off Makassar and in the Celebes Sea and Sulu Sea. Her sixth war patrol was her most successful, during which she sank 24,557 tons of enemy shipping in the South China Sea. Her seventh war patrol was conducted in the Kurile Islands in northern Japan, while her final patrol, the eighth, saw her on lifeguard duty off Japan. After the end of WW2, she remained in service until Aug 1946 when she was placed out of commission at the Naval Submarine Base New London, Connecticut, United States as a part of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. In 1962, USS Cabrilla was redesignated AGSS-288 and was recommissioned into service. In 1968, she was once again taken out of service and was made into a museum ship. In Jan 1971, due to the poor condition of the submarine, she was given back to the United States Navy by the museum leadership in exchange for a different submarine, Cavalla. Cabrilla was then sold for scrapping in Apr 1972.

Submarine Cabrilla (SS-288) Interactive Map

Photographs

Cabrilla Operational Timeline