USS Pollack (SS-180)

USS Pollack (SS-180), a United States Porpoise-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the pollack, a food fish resembling the true cod, but with the lower jaw projecting and without the barbel.

The first Pollack was laid down 1 October 1935 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, in Kittery, Maine; launched 15 September 1936; sponsored by Miss Anne Carter Lauman; and commissioned 15 January 1937, Lt. Clarence E. Aldrich in command.

1937–1941
Pollack stood out of Portsmouth Navy Yard 7 June 1937 for a Caribbean shakedown cruise. She returned from this cruise to Portsmouth 4 September and was underway 29 November for the West Coast of the United States. She reached her new base at San Diego, California, 19 December and spent the next 11 months in a rigorous schedule of maneuvers along the western seaboard with Submarine Division 13, Scouting Force. Pollack shifted to Pearl Harbor 28 October 1939. Except for periods of overhaul at Mare Island Navy Yard, she remained in Hawaiian waters until the outbreak of World War II She was underway from San Francisco to Hawaii when the Japanese attacked on 7 December, and she entered Pearl Harbor two days later.

1942
Pollack (commanded by Stanley P. Moseley, Class of 1925), USS Gudgeon (SS-211) and USS Plunger (SS-179) departed Pearl Harbor 13 December and were off the coast of Honshū, Japan, a few hours before midnight 31 December, the first American warships to reach Japanese waters in World War II. Pollack damaged 2700-ton cargo ship Heijo Maru 5 January 1942 and two days later sent 2250-ton cargo ship Unkai Maru No. 1 to the bottom, the first officially confirmed victim of the Pacific Fleet Submarine Force. On 9 January she sank 5387-ton freighter Teian Maru by a night surface attack, and ended her first war patrol at Pearl Harbor 21 January.

Pollack got underway from Pearl Harbor 18 February to intercept enemy cargo ships carrying war material to Nagasaki by way of the Formosa Channel. On 11 March she torpedoed and sank 1454-ton cargo ship Fukushu Maru. She damaged a second cargo ship with gunfire before returning to Pearl Harbor 8 April.

Pollack departed Pearl Harbor 2 May and was in waters of the Japanese home islands 12 May when she battle-surfaced to riddle a 600-ton patrol vessel with 4 in and .50" (12.7 mm) fire. This target settled by the stern and burned furiously at every point above the waterline. Pollack returned from her third war patrol to Pearl Harbor 16 June.

Following four months of overhaul at Pearl Harbor, Pollack put to sea for her fourth war patrol 10 October. Before she reached her assigned area she was ordered back to Midway, arriving 23 October. She fueled to capacity and stood out of the Midway channel that same day to patrol the approaches to Truk in an attempt to intercept crippled enemy ships believed en route to that enemy stronghold from sea battles in the Solomon Islands. There were no contacts with enemy shipping during the entire patrol and Pollack returned to Pearl Harbor 29 November.

1943
Pollack's fifth war patrol was again spent in waters off the Japanese home islands. After departing Pearl Harbor 31 December, she sighted only one target before terminating her fifth war patrol at Pearl Harbor, 10 February 1943.

Pollack spent her sixth war patrol between the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. She put to sea from Pearl Harbor 6 March and intercepted a freighter in the sealane between Jaluit and Makin Atolls on the afternoon of 20 March, damaging her with one of three torpedoes. Pollack ended her sixth war patrol at Midway 18 April.

Underway for her seventh war patrol, Pollack departed Midway 10 May to reconnoiter Ailuk Atoll and Wotje Atoll, then patrolled to the south and west towards Schischmarev Strait. On 18 May she torpedoed and sank 3110-ton ex-gunboat Terushima Maru. Off Jaluit Atoll the next afternoon, she torpedoed and sank 5350-ton converted light cruiser Bangkok Maru. She returned to Pearl Harbor 25 June.

Sailing 20 July, Pollack spent her eighth war patrol off the east coast of Kyūshū, Japan. On 6 August she scored a torpedo hit on one ship in a convoy. Early on 27 August 1943, Pollack picked out one of five merchant ships off the coast of Kyūshū and pressed home an attack which sank 3520-ton passenger/cargo ship Taifuku Maru. On 3 September she sank 3,521-ton cargo ship Tagonoura Maru. She returned to Pearl Harbor 16 September.

1944
Pollack got underway from Pearl Harbor 28 February 1944 and battled heavy seas as she entered the assigned area of her ninth war patrol off Nanpō Islands 18 March. Two days later she made a night surface attack and watched two torpedo hits blow 1,327-ton freighter Hakuyo Maru to pieces. On 25 March she sank 300-ton Submarine Chaser No. 54, and damaged two freighters. On 3 April she sank passenger-cargo ship Tosei Maru. She returned to Midway 11 April.

Pollack's tenth war patrol was conducted off the Nanpō Islands. She cleared Midway 6 May and was sixteen days out to sea when she moved in on about ten merchantmen with several escorts. She scored torpedo hits which sank 1,270-ton Asanagi but was held down by a fierce counter-attack while the remaining ships of the convoy escaped. She returned to Pearl Harbor 7 June.

Pollack departed Pearl Harbor for her eleventh war patrol 15 July. She touched at Majuro, Marshall Islands, and then steamed on lifeguard station in support of the air strikes made on Woleai island 1 August. She was off Yap Island 4 August – 5 August for similar duty, then patrolled in the Yap-Palau area, taking time out to shell the phosphate plant on Fais Island 27 August and 30 August. She returned to Brisbane, Australia, 12 September.

Pollack underwent a refit period at Brisbane, then got underway 6 October for exercises with HMAS Geelong (J201) until the 10th. She then steamed by way of Mios Woendi, Schouten Islands, to Pearl Harbor where she arrived 18 November for training operations off Oahu with units of the Pacific Fleet destroyer force.

1945
She was underway from Oahu 25 January 1945, in company with USS Permit (SS-178) to the East Coast of the United States, reaching the Sub Base at New London, Connecticut, 24 February. The remainder of her career was spent as a training ship for men of the Submarine School at that base. She entered the Portsmouth Navy Yard 14 June for inactivation and was decommissioned there 21 September 1945. Her name was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register 29 October 1946 and she was sold for scrapping 2 February 1947 to Ship-Shape, Inc. of Philadelphia.

Pollack received ten battle stars for World War II service.