>From the “Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships,” 

(1981) Vol. 7, p.330.





TULLIBEE





		Tullibee:  Any of several whitefishes of central 

and northern North America.





SS-284



Displacement:

	Surfaced:  1,525 t.

	Submerged:  2,424 t.

Length:  311’6”

Beam:  27’2”

Draft:  15’3”

Speed:

	Surfaced:  20.25 k.

	Submerged:  8.75 k.

Complement:  80

Armament:  1 4”; 10 21” torpedo tubes

Class:  GATO



	The first TULLIBEE (SS-284) was laid down on 1 April 

1942 at Mare Island, Calif., by the Mare Island Navy Yard; 

launched on 11 November 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Kenneth C. 

Hurd; and commissioned on 15 February 1943, Comdr. Charles 

F. Brindupke in command.



	TULLIBEE held shakedown training from 8 to 30 April and 

departed for Hawaii on 8 May.  She arrived at Pearl Harbor 

on 15 May and held further training exercises in Hawaiian 

waters.  Numerous air fitting leaks developed, and she was 

docked for repairs twice.  When this proved ineffective, the 

submarine entered the navy yard until 11 July.



	On 19 July, TULLIBEE got underway for the Western 

Caroline Islands and her first war patrol.  On the 28th, she 

sighted a passenger-cargo ship, accompanied by an escort and 

an aircraft that prevented an American attack.  On 5 August, 

the submarine began patrolling the Saipan-Truk traffic 

lanes.  Five days later, she sighted smoke on the horizon 

which proved to be three freighters with an escort.  

TULLIBEE closed the range to 2,700 yards; fired one torpedo 

at the ship on the right and three at the vessel on the 

left.  As the submarine fired the first torpedo, a ship 

rammed her and bent her number one periscope.  She went deep 

and was depth charged by the escort as the ships sped away.  

As they had been set to run at a depth of 15 feet--too deep 

for the draft of the largest target--none of the torpedoes 

exploded.



	On 14 August, TULLIBEE sighted a convoy of three 

freighters with an escort and began an end-around run to get 

into good attack position.  She fired a torpedo from a range 

of 3,000 yards and went deep.  It missed, and she returned 

to periscope depth to fire three torpedoes at the last ship.  

It apparently saw their wakes as it turned and combed them.  

The submarine again went deep.  When she surfaced, the 

targets had escaped.  On the 22d, TULLIBEE sighted a convoy 

of five ships escorted by two destroyers; closed to 2,000 

yards; and fired three torpedoes at the nearest freighter.  

Two minutes later, she fired three more at another ship.  As 

she went deep to avoid a destroyer heading her way, she 

heard one explosion.  She soon heard the bursts of two more 

torpedo explosions, followed by breaking up noises.  When 

she surfaced, she sighted over 1,000 empty 50-gallon oil 

drums, but no ships.  Postwar examination of Japanese 

records indicated that TULLIBEE had damaged one freighter 

and had sunk the passenger-cargo ship KAISHO MARU.  The 

patrol terminated when the submarine reached Midway Island 

on 6 September.



	On 28 September, TULLIBEE began her second war patrol.  

Her assigned area was in the East China Sea between the 

Ryukyus and the China coast.  On 4 October, she sighted a 

convoy of nine passenger-cargo ships with three destroyer 

escorts.  The submarine pulled well ahead of the convoy and 

tracked them until the next morning.  At 0058, she fired a 

spread of three torpedoes at a large freighter with one 

hitting the target a minute later.  Another spread of three 

from the bow tubes produced two hits on a heavily laden 

cargo ship.  Minor explosions and breaking up noises began 

immediately as CHICAGO MARU sank.  Twelve days later, 

TULLIBEE contacted a convoy of seven ships with three 

escorts which later separated into two groups; one hugging 

the China coast and the other heading for Pescadores 

Channel.  She attacked the largest ship in the last group 

with six torpedoes.  One hit the target.  The submarine 

began an end-around run and fired four torpedoes at another 

ship.  Two torpedoes soon broached, and TULLIBEE broke off 

the attack.  She went deep and rigged for silent running to 

evade the escorts.  On 5 November, the submarine was running 

submerged near Okinoyerabu Shima when she sighted a large, 

three story building on the island.  She surfaced and fired 

55 shells into the barracks before retiring at full speed.  

She began the voyage back to Hawaii the next day and reached 

Pearl Harbor, via Midway, on the 16th.  Her official score 

for this patrol was one passenger-cargo ship sunk, a tanker 

damaged, and a passenger-cargo ship damaged.



	TULLIBEE's third patrol was in a wolf pack with sister 

ships HALIBUT (SS-232) and HADDOCK (SS-231).  The trio 

sortied from Pearl Harbor on 14 December 1943 for the 

Marianas to intercept enemy shipping plying between Truk and 

Japan.  On 2 January 1944, TULLIBEE sighted a Japanese 

I-class submarine on the surface and fired four torpedoes at 

a range of 3,000 yards.  The enemy saw the wakes and combed 

the four of them as TULLIBEE was forced deep by an enemy 

floatplane which dropped six bombs.



	On 19 January, HADDOCK reported that she had damaged 

the Japanese escort carrier UNYO which limped to Saipan.  

TULLIBEE sighted the carrier there on the 25th, close ashore 

and well protected by escorts and aircraft.  The submarine 

remained on station for several days awaiting an opportunity 

to sink the carrier.  However, when she surfaced on the 

28th, she learned that the carrier had slipped away.  Three 

days later, the submarine made radar contact with two 

targets.  She fired three torpedoes at what appeared to be a 

freighter and swung left to fire one at the escort.  The 

first target, net tender HIRO MARU, took two hits; 

disintegrated, and disappeared in about one minute.  The 

torpedo fired at the escort missed, and the submarine went 

deep to evade.  TULLIBEE cleared the area the following day 

and returned to Pearl Harbor on 10 February.



	On 5 March, TULLIBEE stood out of Pearl Harbor to begin 

her fourth war patrol.  Nine days later, she called at 

Midway to top off her fuel and then proceeded to her patrol 

area in the Palaus.  She was scheduled to support carrier 

strikes against those islands on 30 and 31 March.  On 25 

March, TULLIBEE arrived on station and began patrolling.  

The next day, she made radar contact on a convoy consisting 

of a large passenger-cargo ship, two medium-sized 

freighters, a destroyer and two other escorts.  The 

submarine made several surface runs on the transport but 

kept losing her in rain squalls.  TULLIBEE finally closed to 

3,000 yards and fired two torpedoes from her bow tubes at 

the target.  About two minutes later, the submarine was 

rocked by a violent explosion.  Gunner's Mate C. W. 

Kukyendall--on the bridge at the time--was knocked 

unconscious and thrown into the water.  When Kukyendall--the 

sole survivor--regained consciousness, the submarine was 

gone.  Apparently, one of her own torpedoes ran a circular 

course and sank the submarine which had launched it.  

TULLIBEE was struck from the Navy list on 29 July 1944.



	TULLIBEE received three battle stars for World War II 

service.



	[TULLIBEE fired her last torpedoes on the night of 26 

March.  After being thrown into the water by the explosion, 

Kukyendall heard voices in the water for about ten minutes, 

then they stopped.  The next day, he was picked up by a 

Japanese escort.  While suffering at the hands of his 

captors, he survived the war as a POW to return and tell the 

story.



Harry Holmes, “The Last Patrol,” p.101]





Transcribed by Michael Hansen

mhansen2@home.com