Allied Warships

Tilefish (SS-307)

Submarine of the Balao class

USS Tilefish after the war.

Navy	The US Navy
Type	Submarine
Class	Balao
Pennant	307
Built by	Mare Island Navy Yard (Vallejo, California, U.S.A.)
Ordered	15 Dec 1941
Laid down	10 Mar 1943
Launched	25 Oct 1943
Commissioned	28 Dec 1943
End service	May 1960
History	Decommissioned 12 October 1959. Recommissioned 30 January 1960. Decommissioned in May 1960. Stricken 1 December 1960 and sold to Venezuela being renamed Carite (S-11). Carite was decommissioned by the Venezuelan Navy on 28 January 1977. Carite was cannibalized for spare parts.

Commands listed for USS Tilefish (307)

Please note that we're still working on this section
and that we only list Commanding Officers for the duration of the Second World War.

	Commander	From	To
1	T/Lt.Cdr. Roger Myers Keithly, USN	28 Dec 1943	15 Jan 1945
2	T/Cdr. Walter Frederick Schlech, Jr., USN	15 Jan 1945	7 Sep 1945

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Notable events involving Tilefish include:

3 Apr 1944
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. Roger Myers Keithly) departed from Pearl Harbor for her 1st war patrol. Initially she was ordered to patrol south off Honshu in Japanese home waters. Later she shifted to the northern Mariana's.

29 May 1944
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. R.M. Keithly) ended her 1st war patrol at Majuro.

22 Jun 1944
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. R.M. Keithly) departed from Majuro for her 2nd war patrol. She was ordered to patrol in the Luzon Strait.

18 Jul 1944
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. R.M. Keithly) torpedoed and damaged the Japanese corvette Kaibokan 17 (745 tons, offsite link) south of Formosa in position 21°50'N, 119°55'E.

15 Aug 1944
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. R.M. Keithly) ended her 2nd war patrol at Pearl Harbor.

10 Sep 1944
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. R.M. Keithly) departed from Pearl Harbor for her 3rd war patrol. She was ordered to patrol in the Sea of Okhotsk and off the Kuril Islands.

23 Sep 1944
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. R.M. Keithly) sank a Japanese sampan with gunfire in the Sea of Okhotsk in position 51°26'N, 153°57'E.

16 Oct 1944
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. R.M. Keithly) torpedoed and sank the Japanese guard boat Kyowa Maru No.2 (108 GRT) 5 nautical miles north-west of Matsuwa Jima in position 48°07'N, 153°04'E.

24 Oct 1944
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. R.M. Keithly) ended her 3rd war patrol at Midway.

15 Nov 1944
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. R.M. Keithly) departed from Midway for her 4th war patrol. Initially she was ordered to patrol off the Kuril Islands. Later she was ordered to patrol off the south coast of Honshu in Japanese home waters

22 Dec 1944
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. R.M. Keithly) torpedoed and sank the Japanese torpedo boat Chidori (758 tons, offsite link) south-west of Omaezaki, Japan in position 34°30'N, 138°02'E.

2 Jan 1945
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. R.M. Keithly) ended her 4th war patrol at Pearl Harbor.

31 Jan 1945
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. Walter Frederick Schlech, Jr.) departed from Pearl Harbor for her 5th war patrol, and was ordered to patrol off the Ryukyu Islands.

13 Feb 1945
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. Walter Frederick Schlech, Jr.) arrived at Saipan

28 Feb 1945
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. W.F. Schlech, Jr.) sank a small Japanese vessel with gunfire off the Ryukyu Islands in position 29°04'N, 129°39'E.

5 Mar 1945
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. W.F. Schlech, Jr.) torpedoed and damaged the Japanese minesweeper W 15 (500 tons, offsite link) off Akuke Jima, Japan in position 29°36'N, 129°45'E.

W 15 is run aground but is later declared a total loss.

27 Mar 1945
USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. W.F. Schlech, Jr.) ended her 5th war patrol at Pearl Harbor. She is now sent to the US west coast for a major overhaul.

11 Jul 1945
With her overhaul completed USS Tilefish (Lt.Cdr. W.F. Schlech, Jr.) arrived back at Pearl Harbor. She was sent to Midway and later Saipan where she left for her 6th and final war patrol in late July or early August 1945.

24 Jul 1945
USS Blackfin (Lt.Cdr. W.L. Kitch, USN) conducted exercises off Midway together with USS Loeser (Lt.Cdr. J. Proctor, USNR), USS Sicard (Lt. A.G. Fenley, USNR), USS PC-778 (Lt. F.J. Whittlessey, USNR), USS ATR-26 (Lt. R. MacLetchie, USNR), USS ATR-63 (Lt. R.W. Coffey, USN), USS Muskalunge (Cdr. W.H. Lawrence, USN) and USS Tilefish (Cdr. W.F. Schlech, Jr., USN).