Sixth War Patrol, End of War and Fate
Flounder prepared for her sixth war patrol at Subic Bay from 26 February 1945 to 16 March. Again with a wolfpack, she scouted targets south of Hainan, and on 29 March contacted a large convoy, which was attacked by aircraft before she and her sisters could launch their torpedoes. She closed her war patrol at Saipan on 22 April and headed home for a stateside overhaul. Returning to Pearl Harbor action-bound on the day hostilities ended, Flounder was ordered to the East Coast, and arrived at New York City on 18 September. After laying immobilized at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and New London, Connecticut, she was decommissioned and placed in reserve at New London on 12 February 1947.
The second and fourth of Flounder’s six war patrols were designated "Successful," and she is credited with having sunk 2,681 tons of Japanese shipping as well as U-537. Flounder received two battle stars for World War II service.
Read more about this topic: USS Flounder (SS-251)
Famous quotes containing the words sixth, war and/or fate:
“The sixth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Six geese a-laying,”
—Unknown. The Twelve Days of Christmas (l. 26–28)
“The dead have been awakened—shall I sleep?
The world’s at war with tyrants—shall I crouch?
The harvest’s ripe—and shall I pause to reap?
I slumber not; the thorn is in my couch;
Each day a trumpet soundeth in mine ear,
Its echo in my heart.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“The stern hand of fate has scourged us to an elevation where we can see the great everlasting things which matter for a nation—the great peaks we had forgotten, of Honour, Duty, Patriotism, and, clad in glittering white, the great pinnacle of Sacrifice pointing like a rugged finger to Heaven.”
—David Lloyd George (1863–1945)