Built by: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
Design: Government
Keel laid: 28 August 1939
Launched: 21 May 1940
Sponsor: Mrs. W. B. Woodson
Commissioned: 15 November 1940
First Skipper: LCDR Frank W. Fenno, Jr.

Here is the battle history of USS TROUT, thanks to JAMES SANTOS (4896-A/LIFE1996)

January 1942

The second US submarine to pioneer a special mission was TROUT under LCDR F. W. Fenno. Of the Pacific Fleet Force, she enters this SubsAsiatic chapter by way of orders dispatching her to Corregidor with 3,500 rounds of desperately needed anti aircraft ammunition. On her return trip, TROUT was to carry what was undoubtedly the most valuable ballast ever loaded into a submarine. This was an extraordinary mission!

Having glimpsed the Japanese air strike at Midway, she was home at the Pearl Harbor Submarine Base where technicians were reducing her superstructure’s silhouette when she received orders, which rushed her to the Philippines. To provide stowage space in the torpedo rooms for the ammunition cargo, the heavy torpedo skids had to be shifted topside and carried in the superstructure. The ammo was then stored below and TROUT was standing out to sea on the morning of 12 January.

Her first stop was Midway, where she topped off with fuel then she headed on a great circle course north of Wake and Marcus, following a route calculated to take her through Balintang Channel above Luzon. Running south through enemy patrolled waters west of Luzon, she was off Corregidor on 3 February. Japanese bombers were hammering the “Rock” so TROUT remained deep until nightfall when a patrol boat came out to guide her in.

Japanese planes were in the sky and tracer bullets were coming up from the PT boats in Manila Bay as the submarine groped her way into the lagoon and tied up at South Dock. Immediately the submariners pitched in to unload the precious ammunition – a tedious job, as the shells had to be passed one by one through the hatches, hand to hand. A party of Philippine Scouts joined the stevedoring and some war-torn trucks lumbered out onto the dock to pick up the dangerous cargo.

Grapefruit, cigarettes, canned food and news were also passed out to Corregidor’s hungry defenders. With the ammunition ashore, the crew’s next job was returning the skids to the torpedo rooms. There were six to be moved, each weighing more than 900 pounds and there were no cranes to lend a hand. Elbow grease and callus got the skids down the narrow torpedoroom loading hatch, and then there were six 3,000 pound torpedoes to be lugged aboard and stowed below. All this under the compulsion of making haste – slowly, while the gunfire over Bataan fluttered like summer lightning and any moment, a shower of bombs might fall from the night sky. By 0300, every man aboard TROUT was ready to hit the sack.

Such jobs soon became commonplace for submariners on special mission assignments. But TROUT’s mission did assume a particular distinction. En route to Corregidor, Fenno felt that his submarine could use some more ballast. “Our weight conditions had been figured out on paper,” he remarked afterwards. “We were supposed to have a leeway of about five thousand pounds. This, as we approached Corregidor, seemed hardly enough. Consequently, with our arrival report, we requested twenty-five tons of ballast, preferably sandbags so that we could move them around as necessary to effect a trim.”

Reporting in person to Admiral Rockwell at Corregidor Naval Headquarters, TROUT’s Skipper learned that sandbags were not to be had on the embattled “Rock”. How about cement bags? Adm. Rockwell shook his head. Every last stick and stone on Corregidor was shoring up fortifications. Neither cement nor sandbags could be spared…………….but wait…………..

In the bank vaults in Manila there had been a large cache of gold. This bullion, along with a fortune in silver, currency and securities had been spirited to Corregidor for safekeeping. If TROUT could use bars of gold for ballast……………

A submarine with gold on board – REALLY!

TROUT could – and did! Two tons of gold bars and 18 tons of silver pesos plus stacks of negotiable securities and bags of vital State Department documents and U.S. mail came aboard.

Throughout the night of 4 February in a dark scene lit by gunfire on Bataan, gleaming yellow bars and clinking sacks of silver were stowed in the submarine’s holds. Freighted with this treasure, USS TROUT submerged off Corregidor at dawn and the following evening, she went out through the minefields and stood seaward like a submersible National Bank.

Her orders called for a brief war patrol in the East China Sea area and Fenno headed northward on the hunt for enemy shipping. Twice enemy vessels were sighted and each time TROUT rose to the occasion. Gold or no gold, Fenno was ready for a fight. Five days out of Corregidor, with a Japanese freighter in view, he directed a submerged attack and fired three torpedoes at the target. Two explosions sent the ship down – 2,718 ton CHUWA MARU. That night, TROUT received orders to head back for Pearl. Homeward bound, off the Bonin Islands, she sighted a small Japanese patrol craft. Three torpedoes were fired; one hit and literally blew the 200 ton ship to bits.

The remainder of the voyage was uneventful. Upon reaching Pearl Harbor, her fabulous ballast was unloaded for trans-shipment to the USA. On a mission which lasted 57 days, she had been to the “Rainbow’s End”, picked up the pot of gold, escaped through enemy waters and sank two Japanese ships along the way. One sailor remarked that there might have been gold bricks aboard TROUT, there certainly was no “gold bricking”.

Thanks JIM for this report of her first patrol. Now to the files….

During the Battle of Midway, USS TROUT was one of the boats on picket patrol, some 150 miles out to sea from Midway. Later, on 9 June, TROUT pulled two Japanese sailors from the water. They had been aboard the ill-fated Japanese cruiser MIKUMA. TROUT was damaged on 3 November 1942, and this is what the official US Navy report states:

“Received bomb from Japanese aircraft while at 58 foot depth just as periscope was being lowered. Second bomb was received shortly thereafter while passing 80 foot depth on way down. Both Nos. 1 and 2 periscopes were put out of commission. The upper windows were shattered, upper prisms cracked, control wires jammed and periscope tubes flooded. No other damage was reported. Patrol was terminated due to periscope casualty”

On 11 January 1943, under command of LCDR LAWSON “RED” RAMAGE (948-+-1989) USS TROUT entered an enemy harbor and torpedoed a vessel at anchor. This used an unusual tactic. The target was a big tanker, moored off Miri on northwest Borneo. TROUT had been patrolling the area without much luck, so RAMAGE jumped at the chance. They took their time.

It was broad daylight when they sighted the tanker and RAMAGE brought the boat in slowly to within 4,000 yards, then he stopped to look the situation over. TROUT was too far inside the ten fathom (60 feet) to come in further submerged. TROUT could try for a lucky shot at 4,000 yards, but there were strong and variable currents through the harbor which could cause the shot to stray so RAMAGE decided to effect a night surface attack.

About 1930 hours, he called the crew to battle stations. Batteries were low, so he put two on propulsion and two on charge for an hour then went to silent running as they neared the anchorage. The boat slid in silently and at 1,000 yards, they fired three straight bow shots. One detonated prematurely or possibly hit a protective mine. The other two hit and the tanker exploded with sheets of fire going skyward. RAMAGE spun the boat around, headed for open sea but fired one stern shot. It failed to explode.

On 26 May, TROUT, now under LCDR A. H. Clark, landed agents with $10,000 in cash and two tons of equipment on Basilan Island, Philippines. Then on 12 June, she was in Pagodian Bay on the south coast of Mindanao, unloading 6,000 rounds of .30 cal ammunition, 2,000 rounds of .45 cal ammunition and a party of five under US Army Captain J. A. Hammer. For the return trip, they took aboard five officers.

Later, in the fall of 1943, TROUT was returning through the Surigao Strait when Clark spotted another submarine – but she didn’t look familiar to him so he fired at her. They sank the I.J.N. submarine I-182, the third Japanese submarine sunk by an American submarine in 1943. Later, in September, TROUT sank a couple more Japanese ships.

On 29 February 1944, TROUT intercepted a Japanese convoy and sank one ship, damaging another. USS TROUT did not report that sinking – and did not return to her homeport. She was lost.

The official US Navy report, compiled after the war, states: “Japanese records list the sinking of SAKITO MARU on 29 Feb. 1944 in position 22º 40’N x 131º 45’E in the Philippine Sea. TROUT is the only US submarine which could have made this attack. Since she did not report the sinking, it is probable that she was lost during or shortly after this action.”

Sinkings by USS TROUT Under F. W. Fenno
10.02.42	CHUWA MARU	freighter	2,719 GRT
02.05.42	UZAN MARU	freighter	5,014 GRT
04.05.42	KONGOSAN MARU	gunboat	2,119 GRT
Sinkings by USS TROUT Under L. P. RAMAGE
21.09.42	KOEI MARU	net tender	863 GRT
02.01.43	unknown	freighter	2,984 GRT
14.02.43	HIROTAMA MARU	gunboat	1,911 GRT
Sinkings by USS TROUT Under A. H. Clark
15.06.43	SANRAKU MARU	tanker	3,000 GRT
02.07.43	ISUZU MARU	freighter	2,866 GRT
09.09.43	I-182	submarine	1,630 GRT
23.09.43	RYOTOKU MARU	freighter	3.483 GRT
23.09.43	YAMASHIRO MARU	freighter	3,429 GRT
29.02.44	SAKITO MARU	freighter	7,126 GRT