Built by: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
Design: EB 200A
Keel laid: 17 July 1935
Launched: 8 July 1936
Sponsor: Miss E. E. Greenlee
Commissioned: 19 November 1936
First Skipper: Lt. George L. Russell

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, USS PLUNGER was at sea, en route from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor, and so was not caught in the bombing attack. She arrived shortly thereafter and was quickly supplied and made battle ready, then departed Pearl on 11 December under command of LCDR D. C. White. Her patrol area was the Kui Suido, the passage between Shikoku and Honshu. She was only out of Pearl a few hours when a leaking after battery hatch forced her return for repairs. Three days later, she departed for Japan and this time she was carrying an SD aircraft warning radar - the first such equipped American submarine into battle.

PLUNGER was one of the group of three boats to be the first to go on war patrol and into the waters of the Japanese Empire. She tested the SD radar against the Japanese air defenses and learned that the Japanese had not set up a thorough and effective air patrol of her islands. On 4 Jan. 1942, she became the first ever American submarine to suffer a depth charge attack. Of the two dozen depth charges, one was so close that it split an alcohol tank in the after torpedo room. This was enough to show American submarine officers that, at the beginning of the war, the Japanese underwater locating devices were quite efficient & the equal of that of the USN Two weeks later, PLUNGER found her first target and fired. It was PLUNGER proving the theory that a `single ping' from the sonar would give the attacking submarine great firing information yet not reveal the position of the submarine. She sank her target.

Again PLUNGER broke new ground when she proved the "Up the Kilt" shot (torpedo attack from directly astern) when they came up behind UNKAI MARU #S on 30 June 1942. The freighter took the torpedo directly astern and went down in five minutes.

This tactic became a favorite of Skipper Dave White and two nights later, PLUNGER found another convoy. They were making 12 knots to the submarine's 14.5 knots, so PLUNGER could not get into a favorable attack position abeam - "Up the Kilt" time again. A torpedo hit UNYO MARU #3 astern, jamming the rudder. One more torpedo, and the ship blew up and immediately sank.

PLUNGER set out after the retreating freighters and when she was just 500 yards astern, fired two torpedoes at one ship and one at another - all three missed. A lookout on PLUNGER spotted one of the escorts racing up from their port quarter. White kept after the freighters and fired another torpedo. It ran erratic, so White turned PLUNGER to meet the escort.

The escort was nowhere to be seen and apparently no longer in the battle area, so White turned back after the convoy. He got into his astern position and fired two more attacked, but with no success. While patrolling the Mandates 10 May 1943, PLUNGER (now under command of Benny Bass) found and sank two Japanese ships NW of Truk. They were TA TSUTKE MARU and KINAI MARU.

Invasion of the Sea of Japan would not be easy. There were only four entrances and of these, one was in Russian waters and could not be used, another was iced up most of the year, and the other two were heavily mined. In May 1943, ComSubPac hit upon a plan to open these entrances and invade the Emperor's Bathtub. PLUNGER was one of the three American boats selected to make this effort. The basics of this operation were told in KTB #152, as USS PERMIT was another of the three submarines involved. USS PLUNGER departed Pearl and met with the other two boats, PERMIT & LAPON, at Midway for their patrol across the Pacific. During this operation, PLUNGER sank NIITAKA MARU.

August of 1943 was a bittersweet time for PLUNGER. She did have successes, sinking SEITAI MARU and RYOKAI MARU. On the other side of the coin however, her torpedo performance was terrible and on top of that, the main bearings burned out in both the No. 2 and No. 4 diesel engines, causing her to make this dangerous patrol on only the starboard screw.

During Operation GALVANIC, the amphibious attack on Tarawa, PLUNGER stood lifeguard duty and rescued an American aviator from the water. As they approached Lt (jg) Schwartz, a Japanese ZERO strafed the submarine and six men on the bridge were hit with shrapnel from an exploding 20mm shell. The boat dived, the ZERO was gone, PLUNGER surfaced and picked up a happy flier. Back in the same waters where she began the war PLUNGER once again patrolled the Kui Suido and sank TOYO MARU #S and TOYO MARU #8. Shortly thereafter, KIMLSHIMA MARU was soon found, attacked and sunk. PLUNGER went home. It was to be her last combat patrol, as she was an older boat with but six tubes and therefore, relegated exclusively to lifeguard duties. She had done her job and done it well in the Pacific war, and she lived to tell about it.

WAR PATROLS of USS PLUNGER
WP	From	To	Duration	Sinkings
1	PH Empire	PH	52 days	EIZON MARU 4,702 ton cargo
2	PH China Sea	MI	40 days	UKAI MARU # 5 3,282 ton cargo UNYO MARU #3 2,997 ton cargo
3	PH transit	BA	27 days	None
4	BA Solomons	PH	53 days	None
5	PH Marshalls	PH	29 days	TAIHOSAN MARU 1,805 tons
6	PH Marshalls	PH	29 days	TAISUTAKE MARU 7,068 ton cargo KINAI MARU 8,630 ton cargo
7	PH SOJ	PH	32 days	MITAKA MARU 2,478 ton cargo
8	PH SOJ	PH	30 days	SEITAI MARU 3,404 ton cargo RYOKAI MARU 4,655 ton cargo
9	PH Marshalls	PH	42 days	None
10	PH Empire	PH	55 days	TOYO MARU # 5 2,193 ton cargo TOYO MARU # 8 2,191 tons KIMISHIMA MARU 5,193 ton cargo
11	PH Bonins	PH	56 days	None
12	PH Truk	PH	51 days	None

Commanding officers were D. C. White for the first four patrols; R. H. Bass for patrols 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10; E. J. Fahy for 11 and 12. After her 12th war patrol, ending in July of 1944, USS PLUNGER was given a refit and she reported to New London for use as a training submarine until the end of the war.

On 15 November 1945, USS PLUNGER was decommissioned and went to Brooklyn, NY as a reserve training submarine until 1952. She was then transferred to Jacksonville, FL to serve in the same capacity until 1954. She was stricken on 6 July 1956 and sold on 22 April 1957 to Bethlehem Steel to be scrapped.

For her illustrious battle career, USS PLUNGER was awarded 14 Battle Stars -- she was quite a busy boat.