USS Tomich (DE-242) - Searching For Missing American Submarine

Searching For Missing American Submarine

Tomich sailed for Cuba on 9 October and further training in Caribbean waters, reaching Guantánamo Bay on the 12th. Five days later, the escort vessel rendezvoused with Army transport USAT George Washington and escorted her to Kingston, Jamaica. Tomich immediately returned to Cuba. Upon her arrival back at Guantánamo Bay later the same day, 17 October, she received orders to search for USS Dorado (SS-248) which had sailed from New London, Connecticut, on 6 October and had been expected to arrive at the Panama Canal Zone on the 14th. Tomich hunted for the missing submarine until the 22d but failed to locate any trace of it.

Six days later, the destroyer escort set course for Hampton Roads to screen USS Pike (SS-173) to Norfolk. Released from this duty on the 30th, she returned to Guantanamo Bay before heading north again and making port at Norfolk on 5 November.

Nine days later, Tomich joined the screen of Convoy UGS-24, bound for French Morocco. On 2 December, after her charges had all made port, she dropped anchor off Casablanca. Arriving in New York on Christmas morning, 1943. after escorting Convoy GUS-24, Tomich secured alongside pier "K" of the New York Navy Yard for availability which lasted into 1944.

On 5 January 1944, Tomich departed the yard and proceeded to Block Island Sound for gunnery and antisubmarine warfare training off Montauk Point, Long Island. Five days later, the ship steamed for Norfolk, Virginia, in company with other units of Escort Division (CortDiv) 7, to join other ships of Task Force 63 in escorting Convoy UGS-30 to Casablanca. After a brief independent run to Gibraltar, where she moored alongside famed British battleship HMS Warspite, Tomich departed the British base on 4 February and rendezvoused with Convoy GUS-29 the next day.