February 29th - On This Date - USN Submarine Service

 1944 - 

 USS TROUT (SS-202) left Pearl Harbor, HI on February 8, 1944 en route to her eleventh patrol, topped off with fuel at Midway and left 16 February, never to be heard from again. She was to patrol the China coast.

TROUT was scheduled to leave her area not later than sunset March 27, 1944 and was expected at Midway about April 7th; overdue, she was reported presumed lost April 17.

From the Japanese since the war, the following facts have been gleaned: On February 29, 1944 SAKITO MARU was sunk and another ship badly damaged. The destroyer Asashimo, presumably an escort in the convoy of Sakito Maru, detected a submarine and dropped 19 depth charges. Oil and debris came to the surface and the destroyer dropped a final depth charge on that spot. Since TROUT was the only U.S. submarine which could have attacked at this time in this position but did not report the action, it is assumed she was lost during or shortly after this attack.

Eighty-one men were lost with TROUT that day.

She was the twenty-eighth U.S. submarine loss of World War II.

TROUT received 11 battle stars for World War II service and the Presidential Unit Citation for her second, third, and fifth patrols.

1944 - 

 PCU CAVALLA (SS-244) commissioned USS CAVALLA (SS-244) at the Electric Boat Company, Groton, CT; Lieutenant Commander H. J. Kossler commanding.

1992 - 

 PCU JEFFERSON CITY (SSN-759) commissioned USS JEFFERSON CITY (SSN-759) at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Newport News, VA.

COB