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On 2 July 1941, following preliminary operations along the east coast, USS TROUT (SS-202) and sister ship USS TRITON (SS-201) departed New York, bound for the Pacific. After transiting the Panama Canal and stopping at San Diego, the submarines arrived at Pearl Harbor on 4 August 1941.
TROUT conducted training operations with SubDiv62 until 29 November when she stood out of Pearl Harbor to conduct a simulated war patrol off northern Midway. During the patrol, the submarine ran submerged from 0500 to 1800 each day. On the morning of 7 December, she received word of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That night, the submarine observed two ships shell Midway. She was about 10 miles distant and proceeded toward the enemy ships at full speed, but they retired before she arrived. Frustrated in being unable to fire a shot, she continued her patrol until 20 December 1941 when she returned to Pearl Harbor.
The veteran patroller of WWII USS TROUT (SS-202) left Pearl Harbor 8 February 1944 enroute to her eleventh patrol, topped off with fuel at Midway and left 16 February, never to be heard from again.
TROUT, scheduled to leave her area not later than sunset 27 March 1944, was expected at Midway about 7 April; overdue she was reported presumed lost 17 April.
From the Japanese since the war the following facts have been gleaned: On 29 February 1944 Sakito Maru was sunk and another ship badly damaged. Since TROUT was the only U.S. submarine which could have attacked at this time in this area but did not report the action, it is assumed she was lost during or shortly after this attack.
In her first ten patrols, TROUT sank 23 enemy ships, giving her 87,800 tons sunk, and damaged 6 ships, for 75,000 tons. TROUT's first patrol resulted in no enemy damage, but her second was most unusual: She delivered ammunition from Pearl Harbor to Corregidor in January 1942. To compensate for the weight of ammunition delivered, she brought back as ballast 20 tons of gold, silver and securities to Pearl Harbor; whence it was taken to Washington for safekeeping. TROUT also sank a medium freighter and a patrol craft. From mid-March to mid-May 1942 TROUT conducted her third patrol in the Empire, sank a large tanker, three freighters and a gunboat, and damaged a large freighter. Her fourth patrol she was part of the forces defending Midway but made no successful attacks. The area south of Truk was the scene of TROUT's fifth patrol; here she sank a transport and damaged an aircraft carrier.
During her sixth patrol, in the Southern Solomons, TROUT had but one attack opportunity. She made no hits on a battleship sighted on 13 November 1942. In the South China Sea on her seventh patrol, she sank a freighter, a tanker and two sampans, and damaged two large tankers. In the same general area on her eighth patrol TROUT sank two sampans and damaged an auxiliary. In May and June 1943 TROUT patrolled the lesser Philippines and sank two tankers, a freigher and two small schooners, also damaging a freigher. TROUT's tenth patrol was a passage from Fremantle to Pearl, with a patrol of the Davao area enroute. She sank a freigher, a transport, a sampan and for a time was credited with a submarine, the I-182, thought to have been destroyed in Surigao Strait on 9 September. TROUT was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for her second, third and fifth patrols.
TROUT received 11 battle stars for World War II service and the
Presidential Unit Citation for her second, third, and fifth patrols.