Skip to main content
Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Tags
Related Content
Topic
Document Type
  • Themed Collection
Wars & Conflicts
File Formats
  • Image (gif, jpg, tiff)
Location of Archival Materials
  • NHHC

USS Flying Fish (SS-229) 

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Flying Fish (SS-229) 

USS Flying Fish (SS-229) was launched 9 July 1941 by Portsmouth Navy Yard; sponsored by Mrs. Husband E. Kimmel, wife of the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet; and commissioned 10 December 1941, Lieutenant Commander Glynn R. Donaho in command. She was reclassified AGSS-229 on 29 November 1950.

USS Flying Fish (SS-229)  arrived at Pearl Harbor for final training 2 May 1942, and 15 days later was ordered out to patrol west of Midway, threatened by an expected Japanese attack. Continuing her first full war patrol, she searched major shipping lanes in empire waters and scored a hit on a Japanese destroyer off Taiwan during the night of 3 July. USS Flying Fish (SS-229)  returned to Midway to refit on 25 July and on 15 August she sailed on her second war patrol, bound for a station north of Truk.

During her third war patrol, south of the Marshall Islands, USS Flying Fish (SS-229)  three times launched bold attacks on Japanese task forces, only to suffer the frustration of poor torpedo performance, or to score hits causing damage which postwar evaluation could not confirm. Again returning to Pearl Harbor to replenish between 28 February 1943 and 24 March, USS Flying Fish (SS-229)  made her fifth war patrol on the coast of Honshu, battered by foul weather. On 12 April, she closed the northern coast to make a daring attack on a freighter, which she sank, again in the presence of scout planes and armed trawlers.

After a major overhaul at Pearl Harbor from 27 July 1943 to 4 October USS Flying Fish (SS-229)  sailed on her seventh war patrol, again with her original skipper, bound for the Palaus. Her first attack, on 18 October, scored at least one hit on an auxiliary aircraft carrier. Refitting at Majuro between 11 April 1944 and 4 May, USS Flying Fish (SS-229)  then sailed for her tenth war patrol, coordinated with the assault on the Marianas scheduled to open the next month. First she covered shipping lanes between Ulithi, Yap, and Palau, coming under severe attack on the night of 24-25 May when she was detected while attacking a four-ship convoy. Completing her patrol at Pearl Harbor 4 July, USS Flying Fish (SS-229)  returned to New London 21 September to become flagship of Commander, Submarine Force, Atlantic Fleet.

uring the next 8 years, from her base at New London, the veteran USS Flying Fish (SS-229)  conducted reserve training cruises in Long Island and Block Island Sound, exercised off the Virginia Capes, trained men of foreign navies, joined in major operations in the Caribbean, and cruised to Canadian ports. On 11 January 1951, she completed her duty as flagship, and began to serve the Underwater Sound Laboratory in sonar experiments. Placed in commission in reserve 31 December 1953, USS Flying Fish (SS-229)  was decommissioned at New London 28 May 1954 and was sold for scrapping 1 May 1959.

For a complete history of USS Flying Fish (SS-229) please see its DANFS page.