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

(1976) Vol. 6, pp.187-188.





S-28



SS-133

Displacement:

	Surfaced:  854 t.

	Submerged:  1,062 t.

Length:  219’3”

Beam:  20’8”

Draft:  15’11”

Speed:  

	Surfaced:  14.5 k.

	Submerged:  11 k.

Complement:  42

Armament:  1 4”; 4 21” torpedo tubes

Class:  S-1



	S-28 (SS-133) was laid down on 16 April 1919 by the 

Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Quincy, Mass.; launched on 20 

September 1922; sponsored by Mrs. William R. Monroe; and 

commissioned on 13 December 1923, Lt. Kemp C. Christian in 

command.



	Following shakedown exercises off the southern New 

England coast, S-28 moved south in March 1924 to join 

Submarine Division (SubDiv) 11, in the final exercises of 

that year's winter maneuvers in the Caribbean.  In April, 

she returned to New London with her division and commenced 

local exercises which occupied the remainder of the year.  

With the winter of 1925, she moved south again; transited 

the Panama Canal, and, after the conclusion of Fleet Problem 

V--conducted in the vicinity of Guadalupe Island--she 

arrived in the Hawaiian Islands for a month's stay.  In 

June, she moved east, to San Diego, where her division 

replaced another which had been transferred to the Asiatic 

Fleet.



	Into 1931, the submarine operated primarily off 

southern California deploying for fleet problems in the 

Panama Canal area in 1926 and 1929; for summer maneuvers in 

Hawaiian waters in 1927 and 1930, and for regularly 

scheduled overhaul periods at Mare Island Navy Yard 

throughout the period.



	She departed the west coast for Hawaii in mid-February 

1931 and, on the 23d, arrived at Pearl Harbor, whence she 

operated for the next eight and one-half years.  In 

mid-1939, she was transferred back to San Diego, where she 

was based until after the United States entered World War 

II.



	On 7 December 1941, S-28, then a unit of SubDiv 41, was 

undergoing overhaul at Mare Island.  On 22 January 1942, the 

work was completed, and she returned to San Diego, where she 

resumed her prewar training activities for the Underwater 

Sound Training School.  She continued that duty into the 

spring, then was ordered north, to the Aleutians, to augment 

the defenses of that Alaskan island chain which rimmed the 

north Pacific.



	On 20 May, S-28, with other submarines of her division, 

departed San Diego.  Five days later, they topped off at 

Port Angeles, then continued on toward the newly established 

submarine base at Dutch Harbor, Alaska.  On the 29th, 

however, as preparations were made to minimize a two-pronged 

Japanese thrust against Midway and the Aleutians, the 

S-boats were directed to proceed to their stations, 

bypassing Dutch Harbor.



	During a quickly extinguished fire in her port main 

motor on the morning of 1 June, S-28 suffered minor damage.  

That evening, she parted company with her sister ships and 

their escort, and, the next day, she entered her assigned 

area and commenced patrolling the approaches to Cold Bay on 

the tip of the Alaskan Peninsula.  On the 3d, the Japanese 

bombed Dutch Harbor to open the war in the Aleutians, and, 

within the week, they had occupied Kiska and Attu.  On the 

12th, S-28 arrived at Dutch Harbor; refueled; took on 

provisions; and headed west to resume her war patrol.



	On the 15th, she crossed the 180th meridian, and, on 

the 17th, after a two-day storm, she sighted Kiska and set a 

course to intercept enemy shipping between there and Attu.  

On the 18th, she fired on her first enemy target, a 

destroyer, and was in turn attacked.  Eight hours later, 

sounds of the destroyer's search faded out to the south.  

S-28 had survived her first encounter with Japanese 

antisubmarine warfare tactics.



	Poor weather soon returned and storms raged during 

eighty percent of her remaining time on station.  On the 

28th, she moored in Dutch Harbor and commenced refit.  On 15 

July, she got underway and again headed for the Kiska area.  

On the 18th, she reconnoitered Semisopochnoi, then moved on 

to Segula.  Finding no signs of Japanese activity, she 

continued westward.  On the 20th, she was ordered to take 

station on an 85-mile circle from Sirius Point prior to 

sunrise on the 22d, at which time the enemy's facilities on 

Kiska were to be bombarded.  The bombardment was delayed, 

and S-28 remained on that more distant station until the 

30th when she was ordered back into the Kiska area.  On 18 

August, having been unable to close any of the targets 

sighted during the latter part of her patrol, she returned 

to Dutch Harbor.



	On her third war patrol, 16 September to 10 October, 

S-28 returned to the Kiska area.  She operated to the north 

of the island until the 25th; then, with the discovery of 

the enemy's development of Gertrude Cove on Vega Bay, she 

shifted to the island's southern shore.  On the night of 6-7 

October, she turned toward Unalaska; and, on the morning of 

the 10th, as she prepared to fire on an unidentified vessel, 

a ground in her fire control circuits caused an accidental 

firing from the No. 1 tube.



	That afternoon, S-28 arrived back in Dutch Harbor, 

whence she headed for home.  She reached San Diego on 23 

October, and provided training services for the West Coast 

Sound School and for the Amphibious Forces Training Group 

from 26 October to 13 November.  Then, during an overhaul, 

she received a fathometer, a Kleinschmidt distilling unit, 

and SJ radar.  On 9 December, she again sailed north.  On 

the 16th she reported by radio to TG 8.5; and, on the 21st 

she returned to Dutch Harbor.



	Six days later, S-28 departed on her 4th war patrol.  

On 3 January 1943, she crossed the International Date Line 

and, on the 5th, she entered her assigned area in the 

northern Kurils.  Moving down the Paramushiro coast, she 

patrolled in Onekotan Strait; then headed north again and, 

on the 20th, passed Shumushu, whence she set a course for 

the Aleutians.



	During her 5th war patrol, from 6 to 28 February, the 

World War I design submarine remained in the western 

Aleutians, patrolling across the Attu-Buldir-Sirius Point 

route and along the coast of Attu, particularly off Holtz 

Bay, Chichagof Harbor, and Sarana Bay.  Poor weather and 

lack of speed, however, impeded her hunting.



	On her return to Dutch Harbor, S-28 was ordered south; 

and, on 4 March, she got underway for Esquimalt, B.C., 

where, from 15 March to 15 April, she conducted sound tests 

and antisubmarine warfare exercises with Canadian Navy and 

Air Force units.  She then continued on to the Puget Sound 

Navy Yard for overhaul and superstructure modification work.  

On 27 June, she started back to Alaska; and, on 13 July, she 

departed Dutch Harbor to return to the northern Kurils for 

her 6th war patrol.



	Again she patrolled off Paramushiro and in the straits 

to the north and south of that island.  Again she was 

hindered by the weather, obsolete design, and by mechanical 

failures.  On 14 August, she headed east; and, on the 16th, 

she moored in Massacre Bay, Attu, and commenced refit.



	The late arrival of needed spares from Dutch Harbor 

delayed her readiness for sea, but, on 8 September, S-28 

departed the western Aleutians to return to the northern 

Kurils.  On the 13th, she entered her patrol area.  On the 

15th, severe smoking and sparking from her port main motor 

necessitated fourteen hours of repair work.  On the 16th, 

she transited Mushiru Kaikyo; and, on the afternoon of the 

19th, she closed an unescorted freighter off the island of 

Araito.  Her torpedoes missed their mark.  The "freighter" 

turned and within minutes had delivered the first two depth 

charges of a ten-minute attack.  The Japanese ship searched 

the area for an hour, then departed.



	S-28 reloaded and continued her patrol. At 1916, she 

contacted a second unescorted enemy vessel.  At 1943, she 

fired a spread of four torpedoes.  At 1944, two of the four 

exploded.  The target took on a 30 degree list and began to 

go down by the bow.  At 1946, the 1,368-ton converted 

gunboat KATSURA MARU NO 2 sank, bow first, her stern 

vertical in the air.  Five loud underwater explosions 

followed her disappearance.  S-28 went deep and rigged for a 

depth charging which did not materialize.



	Into October, S-28 hunted just north of Araito and off 

the coast of Kamchatka.  On 5 October, she moved through 

Onekotan Strait and continued her patrol on the Pacific side 

of the Kurils.  On the 10th, however, a serious personnel 

injury occurred, and an appendicitis case developed.  The 

submarine turned toward Attu one day ahead of schedule.



	On 13 October, she moored at Attu.  The next day, she 

departed for Dutch Harbor, whence, in November, she headed 

south to Hawaii.  She arrived at Pearl Harbor at mid-month 

and, after overhaul, commenced training duty.  For the next 

seven months, she remained in Hawaiian waters, providing 

training services.  Then, on 3 July 1944, she began training 

operations off Oahu with the Coast Guard cutter RELIANCE 

(WSC-150).  The antisubmarine warfare exercises continued 

into the evening of the 4th.  At 1730, the day's concluding 

exercise began.  Contact between the two became sporadic 

and, at 1820, the last, brief contact with S-28 was made and 

lost.  All attempts to establish communications failed.  

Assistance arrived from Pearl Harbor, but a thorough search 

of the area failed to locate the submarine.  Two days later, 

a diesel oil slick appeared in the area where she had been 

operating, but the extreme depth exceeded the range of 

available equipment.  A Court of Inquiry was unable to 

determine the cause of the loss of S-28.



	S-28 was awarded one battle star for her services in 

World War II.





Transcribed by Michael Hansen

mhansen2@home.com