USS Sterlet (SS-392) - First War Patrol

First War Patrol

On 4 July 1944, she put to sea to prey on Japanese shipping. The patrol lasted 53 days; and Sterlet spent 34 of them in her assigned patrol area, the Bonin Islands. By the time she put into Midway Island for refit on 26 August, the submarine was a battle-proven veteran, claiming to have sunk four enemy ships. She even brought in a prisoner—a survivor from a Japanese convoy destroyed by American aircraft carrier planes three weeks earlier.