World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseUSS Boarfish was commissioned into service in Sep 1944. She held shakedown training off the New England region of northeastern United States and additional training in the Caribbean Sea off the Panama Canal Zone. She arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii on 2 Dec 1944 for a final round of training before embarking on her first war patrol later that month. Her first sinking was achieved in the South China Sea on 31 Jan 1945, receiving the credit for the sinking of cargo ship Enki Maru and partial credit for the sinking of Taietsu Maru. Her first war patrol would ultimately be her most productive patrol during the war. She was alongside submarine tender USS Howard W. Gilmore for refitting at Subic Bay in the Philippine Islands when WW2 ended. In Feb 1946, her area of operations was shifted from the Pacific area to waters off the west coast of the United States, participating mainly in local training exercises in the area of San Diego, California, United States. In 1947, as the flagship of Rear Admiral Allan Rockwell McCann of Task Group 17.3, she ventured under the Polar Ice Cap in the Bering Strait for the purpose of testing sonar systems under ice. In the following year, she was transferred to the Turkish Navy at Izmir, Turkey. Recommissioned as Sakarya (S-332), she received Guppy I interior modifications at Golcuk Naval Yard in Turkey and remaining snorkel modifications at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Pennsylvania, United States in 1953. She would fly the Turkish Navy ensign until 1972. In 1974, she was returned to the United States for scrapping.

Submarine Boarfish (SS-327) Interactive Map

Photographs

Boarfish Operational Timeline