On August 27, 1944, the USS Guitarro found herself in the thick of Japan’s desperate effort to keep its supply lines open in the Philippines. By that stage of the war, large tankers and freighters were easy prey, so the Japanese turned to smaller intercoastal vessels, hoping their shallow drafts and coastal routes might spare them from American attack. That gamble ended when Commander Enrique D’Hamel Haskins brought Guitarro to the surface under a pale moon and engaged the Nanshin Maru No. 27.

The battle began with torpedoes that missed their mark, but Haskins and his crew refused to let the target slip away. They pressed the attack with deck guns, trading fire in a sharp night action that left the tanker burning and sinking. It was a small ship, but its loss was part of the larger Allied stranglehold that was cutting Japan off from its lifelines.

In the summer of 1958, the USS Queenfish was not chasing enemy shipping or slipping through Pacific patrol zones. Instead, she was tied up in San Diego Harbor, carrying out the routine but necessary duties that kept the submarine force sharp. For her crew, it meant a long stretch of daily operations that rarely made headlines but defined the rhythm of Navy life. Torpedoes were offloaded, equipment was checked, and berths were shifted from one buoy to another as the boat prepared for her next assignment.

On August 25, Queenfish made her move from the North Bay to a berth between buoys 15 and 16, edging closer to the naval base and her scheduled dry docking. These movements were as much a part of the submarine’s story as any war patrol. In many ways, the quiet days in port told more about the life of a submarine sailor than the moments of combat.

In late August of 1944, USS Ronquil, a brand-new Balao-class submarine, made her first serious mark in the Pacific war. After weeks of drills, training, and shakedowns, the crew finally got their chance at combat in the waters north of Formosa. What they found was a massive Japanese convoy, heavy with cargo ships and bristling with escorts. For a green boat on her first patrol, it was a dangerous assignment.

Over the course of two days, August 23 and 24, Ronquil went head-to-head with the enemy, launching multiple torpedo attacks under cover of night and slipping away from the depth charges that followed. When the smoke cleared, two Japanese attack cargo ships had gone to the bottom and others were left damaged. For the men aboard Ronquil, it was the proof they needed that their boat could fight and survive. This was only the beginning of her wartime story.