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USS S-44 (SS-155)

On the 26 September 1943, she departed Attu on her last war patrol. One day out, while en route to her operating area in the northern Kurils, she was spotted and attacked by a Japanese patrol plane. Suffering no damage, she continued west. On the night of 7 October, she made radar contact with a "small merchantman" and closed in for a surface attack. Several hundred yards from the target, her deck gun fired and was answered by a salvo. The "small merchantman" was a destroyer. The order to dive was given, but S-44 failed to submerge. She took several hits--in the control room, in the forward battery room, and elsewhere. S-44 was ordered abandoned. A pillow case was put up from the forward battery room hatch as a flag of surrender, but the shelling continued. Possibly eight men escaped from the submarine as she went down. Two, Chief Torpedoman's Mate Ernest A. Duva and Radioman Third Class William F. Whitemore, were picked up by the destroyer. Taken initially to Paramushiro, then to the Naval Interrogation Camp at Ofuna, the two submariners spent the last year of World War II working in the Ashio copper mines. They were repatriated by the Allies at the end of the war.

S1 Billy M. Beck

S1 Tobias R. Biller

LCDR(CO) Francis E. Brown

SCC Leo E. Butters

MoMM2 Charles F. Calvert

EM3 Patrick A. Carrier

PhMC Tom Cleverdon

S2 Thomas O. Cooper

MoMM1 Paul P. Cutright

MoMMC William Dillow

EM3 Wiliam H. Ellis

S1 William E. Erhart

MoMM1 Rhollo R. Fees

YN2 Earl D. Ferrell

F1 David E. Gander

F1 Frank George

F1 Fred GilesJr.

S2 Frederick E. GillenJr.

CK2 Curtis Glenn

MoMM2 Edward W. Godfrey

F3 Tommie L. Goodin

F3 Junior L. Green

EMC Anthony Harasimowicz

MoMM2 Holly J. Howard

MoMM1 Nicholas A. Hugyo

GM2 Philip J. Jaworski

MoMM2 Clidie N. Johnston

MoMM2 Lyle N. Klink

MoMMC Arthur L. Miller

SM2 Herman M. Mitchell

TM3 William I. Morris

GM1 Clarence E. Moss

ENS Benjamin M. Nash

SM2 Thomas S. ParrJr.

SC2 Billy M. Queen

LT(jg) F.K. Queen

LT(XO) Robert G. Quinn

EM3 Eugene M. Rauch

MoMM2 Russell G. Rodgers

S2 Lloyd J. Rodin

RM3 Harry Rosenberg

MoMM2 John V. Rubits

F1 James H. SloanJr.

TM3 Arthur E. Smith

EM1 Charles W. Smith

SMC George F. Smith

RM1 John R. Stephens

LT(jg) James T. StephensonJr.

TMC Harold A. Stromsoe

MoMM2 Dale R. Thompson

QM3 Frank A. TurnerJr.

TM1 Joe A. VelebnyJr.

S1 Robert L. Warburton

S1 George S. Wester

F1 John C. Wood