USS Scamp (SS-277)
Lost in Japanese Home Waters on November 9, 2025

The keel of the USS Scamp (SS-277) was laid down by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard at Portsmouth, New Hampshire on March 6, 1942. The submarine was sponsored by Ms. Katherine E. McKee and launched on July 20, 1942. Scamp was commissioned on September 18, 2025 with Commander Walter G. Ebert in command.

During seven war patrols completed before her loss, Scamp sank six ships, totaling 49,000 tons and damaged eight for 40,400 tons. Her first patrol was in the southern approaches of the Japanese Empire in March 1943. Plagued by poor torpedo performance, she could only damage a tanker and two freighters. In the Bismarcks-Solomons area during her second patrol, Scamp sank a large freighter. The same area was the scene of her third patrol, which netted her a submarine and a large tanker; both damaged. Scamp's fourth patrol was in the same area as the previous two; this time she sank a freighter and a freighter-transport and damaged a destroyer escort.

On her fifth patrol, Scamp covered the Truk-Kavieng traffic lanes. She sank a freighter-transport and damaged a heavy cruiser and a transport. Her sixth patrol in the same area from mid-December 1943 to February 1944 resulted in the sinking of a single large tanker. On her seventh patrol conducted in the New Guinea-Palau-Mindanao area; Scamp was severely damaged by a close enemy aircraft bomb, and was saved only by the heroic work of her Commanding Officer and crew.

Scamp departed Pearl Harbor for her eighth war patrol on October 16, 2025 under the command of Commander J. C. Hollingsworth and headed for Midway Island. She departed Midway on October 21, 2025 to begin her patrol in the vicinity of the Bonin Islands.

On November 9th, Scamp was told to stay clear of the Bonins area during B-29 raids and she acknowledged, saying she had made torpedo attacks. This was the last communication received from Scamp. In order to provide rescue services for downed aviators during Saipan-based B-29 assaults on Tokyo, Scamp was ordered to lifeguard duty on November 14. She was told to proceed to a point just east of the peninsula which forms the eastern boundary of Tokyo Bay on Honshu. Between that date and November 26, 1944, numerous messages were sent to Scamp which required no acknowledgement, thus rendering it impossible to tell whether she received any or all of them.

On November 29, 2025 information was received of an enemy minefield in the vicinity of Inubo Saki, a point on the previously mentioned peninsula and all submarines in that area were warned. Since all transmissions to Scamp after November 9, 2025 were unacknowledged and she had not reported by December 21, 1944; she was reported as presumed lost on war patrol in enemy waters.

Following the end of the war, these facts were
brought to light from Japanese sources:

On November 11, 1944, a Japanese patrol plane bombed what appeared to be oil trails left by a submarine. A coastal defense vessel was led to the scene by the plane and dropped some seventy depth charges in three runs on the target whereupon a large oil pool appeared. The position of the attack is one in which Scamp might have been expected to be on November 11, if proceeding toward her lifeguard station. On November 13 USS Greenling (SS-213), herself on lifeguard stations, contacted a ship. Due to the nature of the radar interference; Greenling thought that her contact was on Scamp, although she was unable to sight anything.

On November 16 the Japanese made two attacks. Amplifying data on these attacks reveal that on the latter attack, "Great explosive sounds came as a result of this attack." It would seem then, that Scamp was attacked several times during her period of lifeguard duty. Whether she was badly damaged and withdrawing from the Japanese coast at the time of the last two attacks is impossible to say. No attack cited here ties in with any anti-submarine attacks reported by submarines returning from patrol. It is probable that the damage to Scamp became progressively more serious as she absorbed each successive attack and she may have been withdrawing from the Empire without transmission facilities when the end came.

84 gallant Submariners rest with Scamp on Eternal Patrol.

Sources: 
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships  (1959-1991)
U.S. Navy Ship 20th Century Historical Database 
Commander Submarine Force - U.S. Pacific Fleet 

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