Corvina On First & Eternal Patrol

TUES 16 NOV 1943
Pacific
Submarine Corvina (SS-226) is sunk by Japanese submarine I-176, south of Truk, 05°05'N, 151°10'E.

Mrs. Mary S. Rooney, Mrs. LaRene P. Christie, and Lt. Cmdr. Roderick S. Rooney,
Corvina’s prospective commanding officer, at the launching ceremonies, 9 May 1943.
(U.S. Navy Photograph 80-G-70669, National Archives and Records Administration,
Still Pictures Division, College Park, Md.)

Venturing into enemy waters for her first time, Corvina (Commander R.S. Rooney) departed from Pearl Harbor on 4 November 1943. After topping off with fuel at Johnston Island she proceeded to an area south of Truk, there to attack enemy naval forces during our surface operations in the Gilbert Islands. She was to patrol as close to Truk as enemy antisubmarine measures would permit. On 14 December, she was to pass to command of Commander Task Force Seventy-Two and proceed to an eastern Australian port for refit and duty in SubSoWestPac.

When the major surface force operations in the Gilberts were finished, Corvina was directed by dispatch on 30 November to pass to command of Commander Task Force Seventy-Two on 2 December 1943. The message was repeated three times on each of two successive nights, and an acknowledgment was directed, but none was received. Because of the difficulty being experienced as a result of Japanese interference, Corvina was considered to have passed to Commander Task Force Seventy-Two, despite her failure to acknowledge. She was directed to proceed to Tulagi and rendezvous with a surface escort, but she did not appear. Again transmissions directing answer were repeatedly sent, but were not fruitful. Since she had not appeared or been heard from since her departure from Johnston Island on 6 November, Corvina was reported as presumed lost on 23 December 1943.

Enemy records indicate that Corvina met her doom on 16 November 1943, by enemy action. An enemy submarine reported having sighted a surfaced submarine in Latitude 5°-50'N, Longitude 151°-10'E, and torpedoed her. Three torpedoes were fired and two were reported to have hit, causing "a great explosion sound."

The loss of Corvina was not announced until 14 March 1944; she was the only American submarine sunk by a Japanese boat in the entire war.

In popular culture, the loss of Corvina appears in the 1951 John Wayne film Operation Pacific. Wayne plays the skipper of the fictitious Gato-class sub USS Thunderfish. After Corvina experiences problems with her number four main engine, she rendezvous with Thunderfish to exchange engine parts. In return for the parts, Wayne’s character exchanges films with Corvina’s  commanding officer, offering George Washington Slept Here, while Corvina’s skipper offers “a submarine picture,” later revealed to be Destination Tokyo. Later, while the Thunderfish crew watches Destination Tokyo, Wayne’s character is shown trying to discover the origins of torpedo explosions reported by his sonar operator. While running on the surface the following day, Thunderfish comes across strewn wreckage, and Wayne discovers the case containing George Washington Slept Here, revealing Corvina had been sunk. Suddenly, Thunderfish’s radar picks up a single contact, and Wayne orders the sub to dive. While looking through the periscope, he spies “one I-type Jap submarine.” Thunderfish torpedoes and destroys the enemy sub, avenging the loss of their shipmates on board Corvina.

PBYs attack Japanese shipping off New Guinea, sinking cargo vessel Kyoritsu Maru, 03°51'S, 153°20'E.

USAAF B-24 aircraft bomb Japanese shipping at Jaluit and Imidj atolls.

Japanese minelayer Ukishima is lost to unknown cause, 11 miles off Hatsushima, Japan, 34°28'N, 137°20'E.