Launched on 21 June 1942 and commissioned on 9 October of that same year, the submarine USS Haddo (SS-255) was built by Electric Boat Company of Connecticut. The Haddo departed New London soon after a New England shakedown cruise. Once in European waters, she joined Submarine Squadron 50 and then departed to patrol around Norway and Iceland. When her three patrols were not as fruitful as anticipated, the Haddo sailed back to New London, returning there on 29 July 1943.
The Haddo next sailed through the Panama Canal and arrived in Pearl Harbor on 25 November. She started her fourth war patrol, which took her to Philippine waters, on 14 December 1943. This patrol was terminated as a result of sparse contact with the enemy. The Haddo’s fifth war patrol began off Australia and she sailed off Borneo, Java, and Indochina. She conducted an unsuccessful attack resulting from faulty torpedoes and she later had an unconfirmed hit on an enemy tanker. On the same patrol, the Haddo destroyed a small enemy craft with gunfire and damaged a Japanese freighter.
On her sixth war patrol, the Haddo operated in the East Indies beginning in May 1944. She came under air attack on 30 May and sank two additional small craft on 11 June. Upon termination of this patrol, she began her next operation as part of a coordinated attack with six submarines operating in Philippine waters. On 21 August, the Haddo launched six torpedoes, which sank two cargo ships. She then made a quick dive, which saved her from the scores of depth charges raining down into the water. The Haddo continued her attacks with the other submarines, sinking an escort ship the following day. On 23 August, she was pursued by an enemy destroyer, which she promptly torpedoed, mortally wounding her. The Haddo next rearmed and refueled at New Guinea before sinking a sampan on 8 September and soon afterward sending an enemy survey ship to her grave.
During her eighth patrol, after having been awarded the Navy Unit Commendation, the Haddo sank an oiler on 9 November 1944. Following repairs at Mare Island, she sailed in the East China and Yellow Seas. Here she sank a coastal defense vessel, a cargo ship, two sailing junks, and a trawler. The Haddo headed to Guam and soon started her tenth and last war patrol on 10 August. The patrol lasted only days before she sailed for Tokyo Bay to witness the Japanese surrender.
The Haddo was decommissioned on 16 February 1946 and kept in reserve until the late 1950s. She was sold for scrap in the spring of 1959.
Lest We Forget: USS Haddo (SS-255)
By Eric Wertheim
—Eric Wertheim