Second War Patrol
On 15 November, Skate departed Midway for her second war patrol, conducted off Truk in the Caroline Islands. On 25 November, she sighted the masts of five warships; but, after firing a spread of torpedoes at overlapping aircraft carriers, she was forced down by depth charging from the escort ships.
On 30 November, Skate attacked Japanese carriers Zuihō, Chuyō, and Unyō without success.
While north of Truk on 21 December, the submarine torpedoed and sank the cargo ship Terukawa Maru. During a rain squall on Christmas Day 1943, she made a daring attack which damaged the battleship Yamato, the pride of the Japanese Fleet. Skate returned to Midway for refit on 7 January 1944.
Read more about this topic: USS Skate (SS-305)
Famous quotes containing the word war:
“Superstition, bigotry and prejudice, ghosts though they are, cling tenaciously to life; they are shades armed with tooth and claw. They must be grappled with unceasingly, for it is a fateful part of human destiny that it is condemned to wage perpetual war against ghosts. A shade is not easily taken by the throat and destroyed.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)