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On 19 January 1943, after training out of New London, CT, USS SCAMP (SS-277) set course for Pearl Harbor, via the Panama Canal. She arrived in Hawaii on 13 February 1943 and commenced final training in the local operating area. SCAMP began her first war patrol on 1 March 1943. She stopped at Midway Island on 5 March, debarked her passenger, Rear Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, Jr. Commander, Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet, fueled, and then, headed for the coast of Honshu.
Her first two attacks on the enemy were doomed to failure by the faulty magnetic detonators in her torpedoes. After the inactivating of the magnetic features on her remaining torpedoes, SCAMP scored two hits, one on an unidentified target on the night of 20 March and the other damaged another target early the next morning. The submarine stopped at Midway again on 26 March and returned to Pearl Harbor on 7 April.
SCAMP put to sea again on 19 April, bound for the Southwest Pacific. She took on fuel at Johnston Island then slipped between the Marshalls and the Gilberts to reconnoiter Ocean Island and Nauru Island. This mission she completed on 27 and 28 April and then, shaped a course for the Bismarck Archipelago. She had to hold fire on each of her first three enemy contacts because they were hospital ships. However, on the afternoon of 28 May, she succeeded in pumping three torpedoes into a converted seaplane tender. She evaded the enemy escorts and came up to periscope depth to observe the results. The enemy ship was down by the stern and loading men into boats. A little after midnight, SCAMP finished off her stricken adversary with two more well-aimed torpedoes. She ended her second war patrol at Brisbane, Australia, on 4 June 1943.
From Brisbane, she departed on her third war patrol on 22 June 1943. She patrolled a scouting line off the Solomons and north to the Bismarck Sea. She passed the Shortland Islands on 14 July and, on the 27th, encountered an enemy convoy. During her approach, a destroyer passed over her and dropped two depth charges some distance from her. SCAMP continued her approach and loosed a spread of six torpedoes at a Japanese tanker. She scored a hit but had to dive in order to escape the escorts. When she surfaced, a little over an hour later, all enemy shipping was out of sight. Continuing her patrol into the Bismarck Islands, SCAMP patrolled to the southeast of Steffen Strait, between New Ireland and New Hanover. At 1754, still on the 27th, she sighted a Japanese submarine which fired a torpedo. SCAMP went ahead full and leveled off at 220 feet, letting the torpedo pass above her. Less than ten minutes later, she returned to periscope depth to engage her adversary. At 1812, she launched four torpedoes and the submarine erupted in a tremendous explosion. By 8 August, SCAMP was back in Brisbane.
After almost a month inport at Brisbane, the fleet submarine stood out on her fourth war patrol. She again patrolled off the Solomons and into the Bismarck Sea. On the 18th, she attacked a three-ship convoy and crippled one of them. Another changed course and avoided her torpedoes. SCAMP passed close under the stricken enemy, trying to evade her escorts and come under machine gun fire from her victim. She escaped the pursuit of the enemy destroyers but lost the undamaged quarry in a rain squall. SCAMP returned to finish off the 8,614-ton passenger-cargo ship which she succeeded in doing late that night.
On the morning of 21 September, SCAMP happened upon a heavily-guarded convoy and began to stalk it. After dark, she moved in for the kill and, after launching three torpedoes, heard two double explosions. Her second attack was foiled by a severe rain squall. However, SCAMP hounded the convoy all through the day on the 22nd and, at around 0300 on the 23rd, unleashed four torpedoes at the convoy. While still maneuvering to attack the convoy, she passed through the wreckage and came upon an empty boat containing the sunken ship's logs and other documents. These were taken on board and later turned over to intelligence. SCAMP made one more attempt upon the convoy, but was driven off by planes and kept down by aerial bombs. On 24 September, she was ordered to terminate her patrol and she reentered Brisbane on 1 October.
SCAMP cleared port again on 22 October and began her fifth patrol with a mission in support of the Treasury Island invasion, 28 to 30 October. From there, she moved to her patrol area, between Kavieng and Truk. On 4 November, she launched three torpedoes at a passenger-cargo ship. One exploded prematurely, but one reached its mark. By the time of the explosion indicating success, SCAMP was already in a dive evading a depth charge attacker. Six days later, she disabled a 6,481-ton target; then, after evading the escorts, pumped three more torpedoes into the listing target. At about 2100, the cripple was observed being towed away. It was later learned that the target sank before daybreak. On 12 November, she damaged a light cruiser so severely that the enemy warship remained in repair at Truk until the American strike of 16 and 17 February 1944. On 18 November, SCAMP suffered minor shrapnel damage from two bombs dropped by an enemy float plane. Eight days later, she sailed back into Brisbane.
On 16 December 1943, SCAMP departed Brisbane and headed back to the Bismarck Archipelago for her sixth war patrol. On the night of 6 January 1944, she missed a small tanker and was boxed in by the sound search of two Japanese destroyers. At 2323, she was able to surface and clear the area while the convoy escorts hunted for her about 8,000 yards astern. On the 14th, she slipped by two destroyers to launch six torpedoes at an enemy tanker. The 9,975-ton target sank as SCAMP made her escape. Foiled in an attempt to return to the area, she headed south to act as plane guard north of Lyra Reef for B-24 bombers. On 6 February, she put into Milne Bay, New Guinea, for refit.
SCAMP spent her seventh war patrol searching the shipping lanes between New Guinea, Palau, and Mindanao in the Philippines. She exited Milne Bay on 3 March 1944 and, after uneventful patrolling, put in at Langemak Bay, from 29 to 31 March, for repairs to her torpedo data computer. Following her resumption of patrol, she battle-surfaced on 4 April and set fire to a 200-ton trawler, but broke off the action when her deck gun failed.
Three days later, south of Davao Gulf, she encountered six cruisers escorted by destroyers and planes. She dived and the destroyers passed overhead without noticing her presence a scant 100 feet below the surface. She returned to the surface at 1405 but was forced down by a plane. A little later, she tried to surface again but was attacked by a diving float plane. As she crash dived to escape the enemy plane, an aerial bomb exploded. All hands were knocked off their feet by the explosion and all power was lost. SCAMP began to take an up angle and started to settle rapidly. At just below 300 feet, she began to hang on, then started up. The Diving Officer reported that the hydraulic controller had been jarred to "off" in the attack and that the hydraulic plant started closing all the main vents as fire started filling the Maneuvering and After Torpedo Rooms with a thick, toxic smoke.
Fortunately, the sub caught at 52 feet, the decision having been made to surface and slug it out with the deck gun if she could not be held below 50 feet. SCAMP started down again, "see-sawed" three times, and started down a third time before power was regained. Soon the submarine was making two-thirds speed on each shaft and had leveled off at 150 feet. She released oil and air bubbles to appear to have sunk and then headed for the Admiralty Islands. At 2103, she surfaced and, with a 17-degree list, made for Seeadler Harbor, Manus, where she arrived on 16 April 1944.
Leaving Pearl Harbor on 16 October 1944 SCAMP headed for Midway, topped off with fuel there, and departed that place for her eighth patrol during WWII on 21 October 1944. SCAMP was to patrol in the vicinity of the Bonin Islands. On 8 November, her area was changed to the vicinity of 29!N;141!E.
On 9 November, SCAMP was told to stay clear of the Bonins area south of 28!N during B-29 raids and she acknowledged, saying she was in 28!-44'N;141!-44'E, and had made two torpedo attacks. This was the last communication received from SCAMP. In order to provide rescue services for downed aviators during Saipan-based B-29 assaults on Tokyo, SCAMP was ordered to lifeguard duty on 14 November. She was told to proceed to a point just east of the peninsula which forms the eastern boundary of Tokyo Bay, on Honshu. Between that date and 26 November 1944, numerous messages were sent to SCAMP which required no acknowledgement, thus rendering it impossible to tell whether she received any or all of them.
On 29 November 1944, information was received of an enemy minefield in the vicinity of Inubo Saki, a point on the previously mentioned peninsula, and all submarines in that area were warned. Since all transmissions to SCAMP after 9 November 1944 remained unacknowledged, and she had not appeared by 21 December 1944, she was reported as presumed lost on war patrol in enemy waters.
Following the end of the war, these facts were brought to light from Japanese sources. On 11 November 1944, a Japanese patrol plane bombed what appeared to be oil trails left by a submarine, in 33!-38'N;141!E. A coast defense vessel was led to the scene by the plane and dropped some seventy depth charges in three runs on the target whereupon a large oil pool appeared. The position of the attack is one in which SCAMP might have been expected to be on 11 November, in proceeding toward her lifeguard station. On 13 November USS GREENLING (SS-213), herself on lifeguard stations, contacted a ship at 29!-41'N;140!-10'E. Due to the nature of radar interference, GREENLING thought that her contact was on SCAMP, although she was unable to sight anything.
On 16 November two attacks were made by the Japanese, one is 32!-10'N;139!-30'E, the other in 29!-21'N;141!-30'E. Amplifying data on these attacks reveal that on the latter attack, "Great explosive sounds came as a result of this attack." It would seem then, that SCAMP was attacked several times during her period of lifeguard duty. Whether she was badly damaged and withdrawing from the Japanese coast at the time of the last two attacks, is impossible to say. No attack cited here ties in with any anti-submarine attacks reported by submarines returning from patrol. It is possible that damage to SCAMP became progressively more serious as she absorbed each successive attack, and she may have been withdrawing from the Empire without transmission facilities when the end came.
SCAMP earned seven battle stars for World War II service.