Американская подводная лодка «Флаинг Фиш» в бою.

Submarine of the United States

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submerged She arrived at Pearl Harbor on 2 May 1942.

On 17 May 1942, Flying Fish was ordered out to patrol west of Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, which was threatened by an expected Japanese attack. During the Battle of Midway of 3–7 June 1942, she and her sisters fanned out to scout and screen the atoll, at which she refitted from 9 to 11 June. Continuing her first full war patrol, she searched major shipping lanes in the seas around Japan and scored a hit on a Japanese destroyer off Formosa during the night of 3 July 1942. She returned to Midway to refit on 25 July 1942.

On 15 August 1942, Flying Fish departed on her second war patrol, bound for a patrol area north of Truk. On 28 August, only three days after arriving on station, Flying Fish sighted the masts of a Japanese battleship (now known to be Yamato), guarded by two destroyers and air cover. She launched four torpedoes at this prime target, and two hits were detected by sonar. Immediately the counterattack began, and as Flying Fish prepared to launch torpedoes at one of the destroyers, rapidly closing to starboard, her commanding officer was blinded by a geyser of water thrown up by a bomb. Flying Fish went deep for cover. A barrage of 36 depth charges followed. When Flying Fish daringly came up to periscope depth 2 hours later, she found the two destroyers still searching, aided by two harbor submarine chasers and five aircraft. A great cloud of black smoke hung over the scene, persisting through the remaining hours of daylight. As Flying Fish upped periscope again a little later, a float plane dropped bombs directly astern, and the alert destroyers closed in. A salvo of torpedoes at one of the destroyers missed, and Flying Fish went deep again to endure another depth charging. Surfacing after dark, she once more attracted the enemy through excessive smoke from one of her engines, and again she was forced down by depth charges. Early in the morning of 29 August, she at last cleared the area to surface and charge her batteries. Possibly the torpedo explosions were premature; Japanese records show no warships lost on 28 August 1942. Unshaken by this long day of attack, Flying Fish closed on Truk once more 2 September 1942, and attacked a 400 ton patrol vessel, only to see the torpedoes fail to explode upon hitting the target. The patrol ship ran down the torpedo tracks and began a depth charge attack, the second salvo of which damaged Flying Fish considerably. A second patrol ship came out to join the search; Flying Fish successfully evaded both opponents and cleared the area. Determinedly, she returned to the scene late the next night, and finding a single patrol vessel, sank her with two torpedoes just after midnight early on 4 September. Two hours later a second patrol craft came out, and as Flying Fish launched a stern shot, the Japanese ship opened fire, then swerved to avoid the torpedo. Flying Fish dived for safety, enduring seven depth charge runs by the patrol vessel. Two destroyers joined the patrol craft, and all three kept the submarine under attack for five hours. At last able to get clear, Flying Fish sailed for Pearl Harbor, where she arrived 15 September.

Flying Fish cleared Pearl Harbor 27 October, headed for her patrol area south of the Marshall Islands. Three times on this third patrol she 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. She arrived at Brisbane for refit on 16 December 1942. On 6 January 1943, Flying Fish started her fourth war patrol, a reconnaissance of the Marianas. Along with gaining much valuable intelligence, she damaged the Japanese troop transport Tokai Maru (8359 tons) in Apra harbor, Guam, on 26 January, hit the Japanese troop transport Nagizan Maru (4391 tons) in Tinian's Sunharon Roadstead 6 February, and sank the freighter Hyuga Maru (994 tons) in the presence of patrolling aircraft and surface escorts 16 February. She returned to Pearl Harbor 28 February.

On March 9, 1943, three crewmen of the Flying Fish Lyman Darol Williams, Leonard Mathis Sturms, and Harley Albert Kearney died after drinking wood alcohol at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki during their rest and recreation in Honolulu, Hawaii. The three seamen were the only casualties the crew of Flying Fish suffered during World War II.

Flying Fish stood out of Pearl Harbor 24 March for her fifth war patrol, this one to the coast of Honshū, where the submarine was battered by foul weather. On 12 April, she closed the northern coast to make a daring attack on the cargo vessel Sapporo Maru No.12 (2865 tons) which she sank, again in the presence of scout planes and armed trawlers. Moving north to Hokkaidō, Flying Fish damaged a large freighter on 13 April, and two days later torpedoed the inter island transport ship Seiryu Maru (1904 tons) which beached itself in a mass of flames. Continuing her bold inshore attacks, on 19 April Flying Fish sank the Japanese army cargo ship Amaho Maru (2774 tons), and in the Tsugaru Strait on 24 April, sent cargo ship Kasuga Maru (1374 tons) the bottom. On 1 May a small inter island freighter was sunk, but an alert enemy antisubmarine group shook Flying Fish considerably before she could clear the area. She returned to Midway from this highly successful patrol 11 May.

After five grueling patrols Lieutenant Commander Donaho turned command over to Captain Frank T. Watkins. On her sixth patrol (2 June – 27 July), Flying Fish patrolled in the Volcano Islands and off Taiwan. Her first attacks, two against the same convoy, resulted in unconfirmed damage, but off Taiwan on 2 July, she blasted the stern off of the merchant passenger/troop transport Canton Maru (2822 tons) watching it sink. While Pearl Harbor bound from her patrol area, she made a two day chase for a fast convoy, but was forced by her dwindling fuel supply to break off the hunt. On 11 July she destroyed the sailing vessel Japanese guard boat Takatori Maru No.8 (51 tons) with gunfire, leaving it aflame from stem to stern.

After a major overhaul at Pearl Harbor from 27 July to 4 October 1943, Flying Fish sailed on her seventh war patrol, again with her original skipper , bound for the Palaus. Her first attack, 18 October, scored at least one hit on Japanese aircraft carrier Chūyō. A two day tracking of a well escorted convoy from 26 – 28 October resulted in the sinking of troop transport ship Nanman Maru (6550 tons), on 27 October and the damaging of two merchantmen before Flying Fish ran out of torpedoes. She arrived at Midway 6 November.