On the night of August 19, 1944, the South China Sea boiled with rain squalls, radar pings, and the tense silence of men waiting for torpedoes to strike. USS Bluefish, a Gato-class submarine, prowled into position alongside her sister, USS Rasher. Ahead of them churned Convoy Hi-71, one of Japan’s last great efforts to push fuel, troops, and supplies toward the Philippines.
What happened in the hours that followed would become one of the most devastating submarine strikes of the war. Bluefish fired spread after spread in the blackness, and when dawn rose, the great fleet oiler Hayasui was gone, another transport was crippled, and the convoy lay shattered. Rasher’s kills added to the destruction.
Together, the two submarines had ripped out a piece of Japan’s remaining lifeline. Tonight we tell the story of August 19, the defining night of USS Bluefish.