Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth War Patrols
Her tenth war patrol, out of Freemantle from 16 December 1943 to 9 February 1944, was conducted off Palau, where on 20 January she sank the 5325-ton cargo ship Koyu Maru; damaged two ships of another convoy on 22 January; then attacked a third convoy the following day to sink the 3670-ton Taian Maru. She returned to Pearl Harbor.
Her 11th war patrol, from 3 March to 21 April, found her performing lifeguard duty for aviators making the first carrier-based air strikes on Palau. She saved eight aviators, one less than two miles (3 km) off the beach and within range of enemy gun emplacements.
Her 12th patrol, from 20 May to 5 July, was spent in the Bonin Islands area, where she made gunfire attacks on a convoy of Japanese sea trucks, leaving a small freighter raging in flames and dead in the water.
Her 13th patrol (now commanded by Maurice Ferrara, the first officer of the Class of 1937 to be given a submarine command), lasted from 14 August to 9 October and was largely taken up with lifeguard duty off Yap supporting the combined fleet-shore operations that captured the Palau Islands. She also performed valuable reconnaissance work off Surigao Strait. She bombarded installations on Yap 6 September through 8 September and ended her patrol at Brisbane, Australia.
Read more about this topic: USS Gar (SS-206)
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