The submarine Tautog (SS-199) was built by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, and commissioned on 3 July 1940. She was at the submarine base at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on 7 December 1941. Rapidly going into action against the enemy aircraft, the Tautog achieved first blood when she helped shoot down a Japanese torpedo plane over Merry Point.
Some three weeks later, the Tautog was off on her first war patrol, gathering intelligence on Kwajalein. Her next patrol brought her back to the Marshall Islands, and on 26 April she engaged and sank the Japanese submarine RO-30. On 17 May, she sank the submarine I-28 with two torpedo hits. On 25 May, the Tautog sank the cargo ship Shoka Maru before heading back to begin another war patrol, during which she sank the Ohio Maru on 6 August 1942.
The Tautog suffered moderate damage during a depth charge attack on 11 November, causing her to head to Freemantle, Australia, for repairs. On Christmas day 1942, the Tautog sank a Japanese freighter, and on 9 January 1943 she attacked and damaged a Natori-class cruiser but was driven off by the enemy warship's defensive fire. On 22 January, she sank the enemy cargo vessel Hasshu Maru.
During her 10th war patrol, the Tautog suffered her only wartime casualty when a giant wave knocked a sailor overboard. In March 1943, the Tautog sank the destroyer Shirakumo and the cargo ship Nichiren Maru. Her hunting continued into her 11th patrol, when she sank the 6,000-ton cargo ship Ryogo Maru and several other transport vessels. She also survived a seven-hour depth charge attack. On 8 December 1945, the Tautog was decommissioned and assigned as a reserve training ship, providing immobile service at the Naval Reserve Training Center. She was struck from the Navy List in September 1959 and sold for scrap two months later.
USS Tautog (SS-199)
By Eric Wertheim
—Eric Wertheim