Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # 80-G-72010:  USS Plunger crewmen display her battle flag in a photo dated 21 June 1943

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Plunger (SS-179), 1936-1957

USS Plunger 1330-ton Perch class submarine built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, was commissioned in November 1936. During the spring of 1937 she made a shakedown cruise through the Panama Canal to visit Ecuador and later in that year relocated to the U.S. West Coast, where she was based at San Diego, California. During the next four years she made cruises to Alaska, Panama and Hawaii, and had her base shifted to Pearl Harbor at the end of November 1941, about a week before the Japanese attack there opened the Pacific War.

In mid-December 1941 Plunger began her first war patrol, operating off the Japanese home islands. She sank one cargo ship there and another two during her second combat cruise, which started with supporting participation in the Battle of Midway in early June 1942 and then took her to the waters off China. The submarine's next two patrols, in October-December, were made in the Solomon Islands, where she helped interdict Japanese forces during the ongoing fight for Guadalanal. Patrol numbers five and six, into the central Pacific, cost the enemy three more ships, one in March and two in May 1943. During June-September Plunger made two penetrations of the Sea of Japan, sinking four merchantmen in an area that offered both good hunting and great risks for U.S. submarines.

Plunger operated in the Marshall Islands in November 1943, providing aircraft lifeguard services as Pacific Fleet carriers struck there in support of the Gilbert Islands invasion. She rescued one downed pilot, but suffered six men wounded when she was strafed by a Japanese plane. Returning to Japanese home waters for her tenth war patrol, Plunger sank two ships, then got another when she joined the much-newer submarine Snook (SS-279) in attacking a convoy bound from Japan to the Marianas. She operated in the Bonins in May and June 1944, providing cover for the invasion of the Marianas further to the south, and made a final patrol, her twelfth, into the central Pacific during the summer.

Following an overhaul, in February 1945 the now-aging Plunger was sent to New London, Connecticut, for training duty. She was decommissioned in mid-November, three months after the Japanese decided to surrender. However, she continued to provide important service for another decade as a non-operational Naval Reserve training submarine at Brooklyn, New York, and Jacksonville, Florida. USS Plunger was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in July 1956 and sold for scrapping in April 1957.

This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have related to USS Plunger (SS-179).

For additional views concerning this submarine, see:

  • USS Plunger (SS-179) -- Booklet of General Plans.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 68479

    Submarines in San Diego harbor, California, 1940


    Moored alongside USS Holland (AS-3), from which the photograph was taken, the submarines are (from left to right): Salmon (SS-182); Seal (SS-183); Pickerel (SS-177); Plunger (SS-179); Snapper (SS-185) and Permit (SS-178).
    Note the small motor boats, of the type carried by fleet submarines prior to World War II.
    One of the men standing on Salmon's deck is Yeoman Clayton Johnson, who in 1969 was a Commander serving at the Naval History Division.
    USS Enterprise (CV-6) is in the distance, tied up at Naval Air Station, North Island.

    Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute. James C. Fahey Collection.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 565 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 68482

    USS Plunger (SS-179)


    Backing clear of a nest of submarines, alongside their tender in San Diego harbor, California, in 1940. Other identifiable submarines present are:
    Salmon (SS-182);
    Seal (SS-183); and
    Stingray (SS-186).

    Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute. James C. Fahey Collection.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 104KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: 80-G-72010

    USS Plunger (SS-179)


    Members of the submarine's crew display her battleflag. The man seated in the center appears to be wearing a Japanese sailor's hat.
    The photograph is dated 21 June 1943, following Plunger's sixth war patrol.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 113KB; 740 x 500 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 80-G-68687

    Japanese Cargo Ship


    Sinking, as photographed through a periscope by USS Plunger (SS-179).
    This ship is probably the MS Kinai Maru, sunk by Plunger on 10 May 1943, during her sixth war patrol.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 100KB; 740 x 610 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 80-G-68685

    Japanese Cargo Ship


    Sinking, as photographed through a periscope by USS Plunger (SS-179).
    This ship is probably the MS Kinai Maru, sunk by Plunger on 10 May 1943, during her sixth war patrol.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 59KB; 740 x 605 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

    Note:
    This image is very fuzzy.

     


    In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold at least one other view of USS Plunger (SS-179). The following list features this image:

    The image listed below is NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
    DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."



  • Photo #: 80-G-456129
    USS Plunger (SS-179) getting underway, circa 1936-1940.
    Port broadside view, with smoke coming from the submarine's exhaust ports. Plunger is wearing the identification code "P-8". Land is visible in the background, and location may be off the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine.

    Reproductions of this image should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center.

    The image listed in this box is NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


  • For additional views concerning this submarine, see:

  • USS Plunger (SS-179) -- Booklet of General Plans.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 6 July 2003