Memorial: USS S-44 (SS-155) WWII Memorial Monument
USS S-44 (SS-155) WWII Memorial Monument
Plaque for the USS S-44/SS-155 at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery
Description
USS S-44 (SS-155) was a third-group (S-42) S-class submarine of the United States Navy. Her keel was laid down on 19 February 1921 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched on 27 October 1923 sponsored by Mrs. H.E. Grieshaber, and commissioned on 16 February 1925 with Lieutenant A. H. Bateman in command. On 26 September, she departed Attu on her last war patrol. One day out, while en route to her operating area in the northern Kuril Islands, 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 the Shimushu-class escort Ishigaki. A crash dive was ordered, 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. The USS S-44 was lost on 7 October 1943. 56 men were lost with the S-44. Two men survived. Years in the planning, the vision of the Illinois Submarine Veterans of WWII became a reality on October 7, 2003 when it dedicated a memorial to the S-44, the State organization's adopted submarine lost in WWII.
Location
Address:
Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery 7034 S. Diagonal Road Elwood IL 60421
Website:
http://www.ussvi.net/mem/state-il.htm
Phone:
815-423-9958
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USS S-44/SS-155
A memorial for the 2403 Americans who died in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941
a Memorial
