Allied Warships

Spikefish (SS-404)

Submarine of the Balao class

USS Spikefish as completed.

Navy	The US Navy
Type	Submarine
Class	Balao
Pennant	404
Built by	Portsmouth Navy Yard (Kittery, Maine, U.S.A.)
Ordered	8 Jun 1942
Laid down	29 Jan 1944
Launched	26 Apr 1944
Commissioned	30 Jun 1944
End service	2 Apr 1963
History	Spikefish is reported to have made more than 10.000 dives during her career. Decommissioned 2 April 1963. Stricken 1 May 1963. Sunk as a target off Long Island, New York in August 1964.

Commands listed for USS Spikefish (404)

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/Cdr. Nicholas John Nicholas, USN	30 Jun 1944	24 Mar 1945
2	T/Lt.Cdr. Robert Raymond Managhan, USN	24 Mar 1945	24 Feb 1946

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Notable events involving Spikefish include:

6 Oct 1944
USS Spikefish (Cdr. N.J. Nicholas, USN) departed the Panama Canal Zone for Pearl Harbour.

23 Oct 1944
USS Spikefish (Cdr. N.J. Nicholas, USN) arrived at Pearl Harbor.

1 Nov 1944
USS Blenny (Cdr. W.H. Hazzard, USN) conducted exercises off Pearl Harbour together with USS Bright (Lt.Cdr. W.A. McMahan, USNR), USS Snyder (Lt.Cdr. E. Moore, USNR) and USS Spikefish (Cdr. N.J. Nicholas, USN).

3 Nov 1944
USS Blenny (Cdr. W.H. Hazzard, USN) conducted exercises off Pearl Harbour together with USS Tills (Lt.Cdr. J.L. Brooks, USNR), USS Hemminger (Lt.Cdr. J.R. Bodler, USNR), USS Viking, USS ATR-26 (Lt. J.H. Kelly, USN), USS Plaice (Cdr. C.B. Stevens, Jr., USN) and USS Spikefish (Cdr. N.J. Nicholas, USN).

6 Nov 1944
USS Blenny (Cdr. W.H. Hazzard, USN) conducted exercises off Pearl Harbour together with USS Tills (Lt.Cdr. J.L. Brooks, USNR) and USS Vammen (Lt.Cdr. L.M. King, Jr., USNR), USS Spikefish (Cdr. N.J. Nicholas, USN) and USS Sea Owl (Cdr. C.L. Bennett, USN).

7 Nov 1944
USS Blenny (Cdr. W.H. Hazzard, USN) conducted exercises off Pearl Harbour together with USS Tills (Lt.Cdr. J.L. Brooks, USNR), USS Harmon (Lt.Cdr. T.U. Weekes, USNR), USS ATR-26 (Lt. J.H. Kelly, USN) and USS Spikefish (Cdr. N.J. Nicholas, USN).

15 Nov 1944
USS Spikefish (Cmdr Nicholas John Nicholas) departed from Pearl Harbor for her 1st war patrol, and was ordered to patrol in the Sea of Okhotsk.

1 Jan 1945
USS Spikefish (Cdr. N.J. Nicholas) ended her 1st war patrol at Midway.

26 Jan 1945
USS Spikefish (Cdr. N.J. Nicholas) departed from Midway for her 2nd war patrol. She was ordered to patrol of the Ryukyu Islands.

19 Mar 1945
USS Spikefish (Cdr. N.J. Nicholas) ended her 2nd war patrol at Pearl Harbor.

9 Apr 1945
During 9/10 April 1945, USS Dragonet (T/Capt. J.H. Lewis, USN) and USS Spikefish (T/Lt.Cdr. R.R. Managhan, USN) conducted exercises off Pearl Harbour with USS Pruitt (Lt. D.B. Harby, USNR) and USS Staff (Lt. W.A. Upton, USNR). These included night exercises.

14 Apr 1945
USS Ray (T/Cdr. W.T. Kinsella, USN), USS Dragonet (T/Capt. J.H. Lewis, USN) and USS Spikefish (T/Lt.Cdr. R.R. Managhan, USN) conducted exercises off Pearl Harbour with USS Pruitt (Lt. D.B. Harby, USNR) and USS Harold C. Thomas (Lt. G. Cheshire, Jr., USNR).

19 Apr 1945
Around 1335VW/19, USS Dragonet (T/Capt. J.H. Lewis, USN) and USS Spikefish (T/Lt.Cdr. R.R. Managhan, USN) departed from Pearl Harbor for their 2nd war patrol and 3rd war patrols respectively. Before proceeding to their patrol areas were to call at Guam for voyage repairs and to top off with fuel and provisions. On their departure from Pearl Harbour they were escorted by USS PC-782 (Lt.(jg) R.L. Essick, USNR) until 1930W/19.

1 May 1945
Around 0545K/1, USS Dragonet (T/Capt. J.H. Lewis, USN) and USS Spikefish (T/Lt.Cdr. R.R. Managhan, USN) made rendezvous with their escort to Guam, USS Doneff (Lt.Cdr. T.A. Graham, USNR). They arrived at Guam around 0930K/1, where both submarines were taken in hand for voyage repairs by the submarine tender USS Holland (Capt. C.Q. Wright, Jr., USNR).

3 May 1945
USS Spikefish (Cmdr Robert R. Manahgan) departed from Guam for her 3rd war patrol, and was ordered to patrol east of Formosa.

3 May 1945
Around 1500K/3, USS Shad (T/Lt.Cdr. D.L. Mehlop, USN), USS Dragonet (T/Lt.Cdr. R.K. Worthington, USN), USS Dragonet (T/Capt. J.H. Lewis, USN) and USS Spikefish (T/Lt.Cdr. R.R. Managhan, USN) departed from Guam for their 10th, 9th, 2nd and 3rd war patrols respectively. They were escorted out until 1900K/3 by USS SC-1069 (Lt.(jg). C.M. Janicki, USNR).

The first three were ordered to patrol in the East China and Yellow Seas in a coordinated attack group together with USS Ray (T/Cdr. W.T. Kinsella, USN) which had already departed for patrol on 30 April 1945. T/Capt. J.H. Lewis, USN, of the USS Dragonet was the group commander. USS Spikefish was ordered to patrol to the east of Formosa and was not a member of the group. She parted company with the other submarines around 0420I/5.

13 Jun 1945
USS Spikefish (Cdr. R.R. Managhan) ended her 3rd war patrol at Guam.

5 Jul 1945
USS Dragonet (T/Lt.Cdr. G.G. Hinman, USN) and USS Spikefish (T/Lt.Cdr. R.R. Managhan, USN) conducted exercises off Guam with USS Greenlet (T/Lt. R.B. Willhoite, USN), USS Crouter (Lt. C.F. Braught, USNR), USS Seid (Lt. A.F. Craft, USNR) and USS YMS-357 (Lt. J.P. Potsch, USNR).

On completion of the day exercises USS Spikefish returned to Guam escorted by USS YMS-357.

The other ships remained at sea for night exercises and returned to Guam on 6 July.

8 Jul 1945
Around 1500K/8, USS Dragonet (T/Lt.Cdr. G.G. Hinman, USN) and USS Spikefish (T/Lt.Cdr. R.R. Managhan, USN) departed from Guam for their 3rd and 4th war patrols respectively. They were ordered to patrol in the Bungo Straits area and East China and Yellow Seas respectively. They were escorted until darkness (around 1920K/8) by USS SC-669 (Lt.(jg) S.C. Allen, USNR).

The submarines parted company at 0800K/12.

11 Aug 1945
USS Spikefish (Cdr. R.R. Managhan) sank a small Japanese vessel with gunfire in the East China Sea in position 28°37'N, 124°13'E.

14 Aug 1945
USS Spikefish (Cdr. R.R. Managhan) torpedoed and sank the Japanese submarine I-373 (1660 tons, offsite link) some 190 miles southeast of Shanghai, China in position 29°02'N, 123°53'E. This was the last Japanese submarine sunk in WWII. (1)

21 Aug 1945
USS Spikefish (Cdr. R.R. Managhan) ended her 4th war patrol at Saipan.